what is the function of these

bhismnarayan · 02-23-2011, 08:47 PM

hello
whichever source code I go through I find these three lines of code written what do they actually mean and what is their function?
setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
bindtextdomain(PACKAGE_NAME, LOCALEDIR);
textdomain(PACKAGE_NAME);

druuna · 02-24-2011, 01:31 AM

Hi,

Could you explain a bit more?

- Is this LFS related,
- Which files are you looking at,
- What are you trying to do.

bhismnarayan · 02-24-2011, 01:16 PM

hello,
I am looking at the source code of all the packages that are attached with operating system.I have got the job of simulating linux command.files such as passwd.c ,shadow.c ,etc all those which are there in the src folder

druuna · 02-24-2011, 01:22 PM

Hi,

I think I have a rough idea why this is so, but I'm definitely not sure.....

As this is not LFS related I will ask a moderator to move this to an appropriate sub-forum (Programming sound correct), this way it will get the proper attention.

michaelk · 02-24-2011, 01:46 PM

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Programming and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

gnashley · 02-24-2011, 02:46 PM

Those are the lines needed to initialize the use of gettext in the code -that's why you see them (nearly) everywhere.

Dark_Helmet · 02-24-2011, 11:15 PM

Also, if you see a function call in source code that you do not understand, you can check if there is a man page for it. For example:

Code:

man setlocale
man bindtextdomain
man textdomain

All three functions had manual pages on my system describing what the function does and what the arguments are supposed to be.

However, there are some times where a function does not have a man page. It could be that you need to install another package to get the documentation, or maybe the function just doesn't have any documentation available.