NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

       charmap - character symbols to define character encodings

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

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

SYNTAX    [Toc]    [Back]

       The  charmap file starts with a header, that may consist of the following
 keywords:

       <codeset>
	      is followed by the name of the codeset.

       <mb_cur_max>
	      is followed by the max number of bytes for  a  multibyte-character.
   Multibyte	characters  are  currently  not supported. The
	      default value is 1.

       <mb_cur_min>
	      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.

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

       <comment_char>
	      is  followed  by	a  character that will be used as the commentcharacter
 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:

       <symbolic-name> <encoding> <comments>
	      This for defines exactly one character and its encoding.


       <symbolic-name>...<symbolic-name> <encoding> <comments>
	      This  form  defines  a couple of characters. This is only useful
	      for mutlibyte-characters, which are currently not implemented.


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

SYMBOLIC NAMES    [Toc]    [Back]

       A symbolic name for a character contains only characters of the	porta-
       ble character set.  The name itself is enclosed between angle brackets.
       Characters following the <escape_char> are interpreted as  itself;  for
       example,  the  sequence	'<\\\>>'  represents  the  symbolic  name '\>'
       enclosed in angle brackets.

CHARACTER ENCODING    [Toc]    [Back]

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

       <escape_char>d<number>
	      with a decimal number

       <escape_char>x<number>
	      with a hexadecimal number

       <escape_char><number>
	      with an octal  number.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

       /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/*

AUTHOR    [Toc]    [Back]

       Jochen Hein ([email protected])

CONFORMING TO    [Toc]    [Back]

       POSIX.2

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

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




National Language Support	  1994-11-28			    charmap(5)