COLLDEF(1)                BSD General Commands Manual               COLLDEF(1)

NAME
     colldef -- convert collation sequence source definition

SYNOPSIS
     colldef [-I map_dir] [-o out_file] [filename]

DESCRIPTION
     The colldef utility converts a collation sequence source definition into
     a format usable by the strxfrm() and strcoll() functions.  It is used to
     define the many ways in which strings can be ordered and collated.  The
     strxfrm() function transforms its first argument and places the result in
     its second argument.  The transformed string is such that it can be cor-
     rectly ordered with other transformed strings by using strcmp(),
     strncmp(), or memcmp().  The strcoll() function transforms its arguments
     and does a comparison.

     The colldef utility reads the collation sequence source definition from
     the standard input and stores the converted definition in filename.  The
     output file produced contains the database with collating sequence infor-
     mation in a form usable by system commands and routines.

     The following options are available:

     -I map_dir
             Set directory name where charmap files can be found, current
             directory by default.

     -o out_file
             Set output file name, LC_COLLATE by default.

     The collation sequence definition specifies a set of collating elements
     and the rules defining how strings containing these should be ordered.
     This is most useful for different language definitions.

     The specification file can consist of three statements: charmap,
     substitute and order.

     Of these, only the order statement is required.  When charmap or
     substitute is supplied, these statements must be ordered as above.  Any
     statements after the order statement are ignored.

     Lines in the specification file beginning with a `#' are treated as com-
     ments and are ignored.  Blank lines are also ignored.

           charmap charmapfile

     Charmap defines where a mapping of the character and collating element
     symbols to the actual character encoding can be found.

     The format of charmapfile is shown below.  Symbol names are separated
     from their values by TAB or SPACE characters.  Symbol-value can be speci-
     fied in a hexadecimal (\x??) or octal (\???)  representation, and can be
     only one character in length.

           symbol-name1 symbol-value1
           symbol-name2 symbol-value2
           ...

     Symbol names cannot be specified in substitute fields.

     The charmap statement is optional.

           substitute "symbol" with "repl_string"

     The substitute statement substitutes the character symbol with the string
     repl_string.  Symbol names cannot be specified in repl_string field.  The
     substitute statement is optional.

           order order_list

     Order_list is a list of symbols, separated by semi colons, that defines
     the collating sequence.  The special symbol ... specifies, in a short-
     hand form, symbols that are sequential in machine code order.

     An order list element can be represented in any one of the following
     ways:

     o   The symbol itself (for example, a for the lower-case letter a).

     o   The symbol in octal representation (for example, \141 for the letter
         a).

     o   The symbol in hexadecimal representation (for example, \x61 for the
         letter a).

     o   The symbol name as defined in the charmap file (for example,
         <letterA> for letterA \023 record in charmapfile).  If character map
         name have > character, it must be escaped as />, single / must be
         escaped as //.

     o   Symbols \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \v are permitted in its usual C-language
         meaning.

     o   The symbol chain (for example: abc, <letterA><letterB>c, \xf1b\xf2)

     o   The symbol range (for example, a;...;z).

     o   Comma-separated symbols, ranges and chains enclosed in parenthesis
         (for example ( sym1, sym2, ... )) are assigned the same primary
         ordering but different secondary ordering.

     o   Comma-separated symbols, ranges and chains enclosed in curly brackets
         (for example { sym1, sym2, ... }) are assigned the same primary
         ordering only.

     The backslash character \ is used for continuation.  In this case, no
     characters are permitted after the backslash character.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The colldef utility exits with the following values:

     0       No errors were found and the output was successfully created.

     !=0     Errors were found.

FILES
     /usr/share/locale/<language>/LC_COLLATE
             The standard shared location for collation orders under the
             locale <language>.

SEE ALSO
     mklocale(1), setlocale(3), strcoll(3), strxfrm(3)

BSD                            January 27, 1995                            BSD