CHARMAP(5)		       Linux User Manual		    CHARMAP(5)



NAME
       charmap - character symbols to define character encodings

DESCRIPTION
       A character set description (charmap) defines a character set of avail
       able characters and their  encodings.   All  supported  character  sets
       should have the portable character set as a proper subset.

   Syntax
       The  charmap file starts with a header, that may consist of the follow
       ing keywords:

       
	      is followed by the name of the codeset.

       
	      is followed by the max number of bytes for  a  multibyte-charac
	      ter.   Multibyte	characters  are  currently not supported.  The
	      default value is 1.

       
	      is followed by the min number of bytes for  a  character.   This
	      value  must be less or equal than mb_cur_max.  If not specified,
	      it defaults to mb_cur_max.

       
	      is followed by a character that should be used  as  the  escape-
	      character  for  the  rest  of  the  file to mark characters that
	      should be interpreted in a special  way.	 It  defaults  to  the
	      backslash ( \ ).

       
	      is  followed  by	a  character that will be used as the comment-
	      character for the rest of the file.  It defaults to  the	number
	      sign ( # ).

       The charmap-definition itself starts with the keyword CHARMAP in column
       1.

       The following lines may have one of the two following forms  to	define
       the character-encodings:

         
	      This form defines exactly one character and its encoding.

       ...  
	      This  form  defines a couple of characters.  This is only useful
	      for multibyte-characters, which are currently not implemented.

       The last line in a charmap-definition file must contain END CHARMAP.

   Symbolic Names
       A symbolic name	for  a	character  contains  only  characters  of  the
       portable  character  set.   The	name  itself is enclosed between angle
       brackets.  Characters following an    are  interpreted  as
       itself;	for  example, the sequence <\\\>> represents the symbolic name
       \> enclosed in angle brackets.

   Character Encoding
       The encoding may be in each of the following three forms:

       d
	      with a decimal number

       x
	      with a hexadecimal number

       
	      with an octal number.

FILES
       /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/*

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.2.

SEE ALSO
       locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), setlocale(3), locale(5)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



				  1994-11-28			    CHARMAP(5)