charmap

charmap(5)                     Linux User Manual                    charmap(5)



NAME
       charmap - character symbols to define character encodings

DESCRIPTION
       A  character set description (charmap) defines a characterset 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:

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

       <mb_cur_max>
              is followed by the max number of bytes for  a  multibyte-charac-
              ter.   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  escape-
              character  for  the  rest  of  the  file to mark characters that
              should be interpreted in a special way. It defaults to the back-
              slash ( \ ).

       <comment_char>
              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:

       <symbolic-name> <encoding> <comments>
              This form 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
       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  <escape_char>  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:

       <escape_char>d<number>
              with a decimal number

       <escape_char>x<number>
              with a hexadecimal number

       <escape_char><number>
              with an octal  number.



FILES
       /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/*

AUTHOR
       Jochen Hein (jochen.hein@delphi.central.de)

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.2

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




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