BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)					     BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)



NAME
       bindtextdomain - set directory containing message catalogs

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       char * bindtextdomain (const char * domainname, const char * dirname);

DESCRIPTION
       The  bindtextdomain  function  sets the base directory of the hierarchy
       containing message catalogs for a given message domain.

       A message domain is a set  of  translatable  msgid  messages.  Usually,
       every software package has its own message domain. The need for calling
       bindtextdomain arises because packages are not  always  installed  with
       the  same  prefix  as  the  	header	and  the  libc/libintl
       libraries.

       Message catalogs will be expected at the pathnames dirname/locale/cate
       gory/domainname.mo,  where  locale  is  a locale name and category is a
       locale facet such as LC_MESSAGES.

       domainname must be a non-empty string.

       If dirname is not NULL, the base directory for message catalogs belong
       ing  to	domain domainname is set to dirname. The function makes copies
       of the argument strings as needed. If the program wishes  to  call  the
       chdir  function,  it is important that dirname be an absolute pathname;
       otherwise it cannot be guaranteed that the  message  catalogs  will  be
       found.

       If dirname is NULL, the function returns the previously set base direc
       tory for domain domainname.

RETURN VALUE
       If successful, the bindtextdomain function  returns  the  current  base
       directory  for  domain  domainname,  after  possibly  changing  it. The
       resulting string is valid until the next bindtextdomain	call  for  the
       same  domainname and must not be modified or freed. If a memory alloca
       tion failure occurs, it sets errno to ENOMEM and returns NULL.

ERRORS
       The following error can occur, among others:

       ENOMEM Not enough memory available.

BUGS
       The return type ought to be const char *, but is char * to avoid  warn
       ings in C code predating ANSI C.

SEE ALSO
       gettext(3),   dgettext(3),   dcgettext(3),  ngettext(3),  dngettext(3),
       dcngettext(3), textdomain(3), realpath(3)



GNU gettext 0.16.1		   May 2001		     BINDTEXTDOMAIN(3)