'\" t
.\" Copyright 1993 Mitchum DSouza <m.dsouza@mrc-applied-psychology.cambridge.ac.uk>
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.\" Updated, aeb, 980809
.TH catgets 3 2023-10-31 "Linux man-pages 6.7"
.SH NAME
catgets \- get message from a message catalog
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ", " \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <nl_types.h>
.P
.BI "char *catgets(nl_catd " catalog ", int " set_number \
", int " message_number ,
.BI "              const char *" message );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR catgets ()
reads the message
.IR message_number ,
in set
.IR set_number ,
from the message catalog identified by
.IR catalog ,
where
.I catalog
is a catalog descriptor returned from an earlier call to
.BR catopen (3).
The fourth argument,
.IR message ,
points to a default message string which will be returned by
.BR catgets ()
if the identified message catalog is not currently available.
The
message-text is contained in an internal buffer area and should be copied by
the application if it is to be saved or modified.
The return string is
always terminated with a null byte (\[aq]\e0\[aq]).
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success,
.BR catgets ()
returns a pointer to an internal buffer area
containing the null-terminated message string.
On failure,
.BR catgets ()
returns the value
.IR message .
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbx lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.na
.nh
.BR catgets ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2008.
.SH HISTORY
POSIX.1-2001.
.P
The
.BR catgets ()
function is available only in libc.so.4.4.4c and above.
.P
The Jan 1987 X/Open Portability Guide specifies a more subtle
error return:
.I message
is returned if the message catalog specified by
.I catalog
is not available, while an empty string is returned
when the message catalog is available but does not contain
the specified message.
These two possible error returns seem to be discarded in SUSv2
in favor of always returning
.IR message .
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR catopen (3),
.BR setlocale (3)