8.1.7 Using gawk's String-Translation Functions

gawk provides facilities for internationalizing awk programs. These include the functions described in the following list. The descriptions here are purposely brief. See Internationalization, for the full story. Optional parameters are enclosed in square brackets ([ ]):

dcgettext(string [, domain [, category]])

This function returns the translation of string in text domain domain for locale category category. The default value for domain is the current value of TEXTDOMAIN. The default value for category is "LC_MESSAGES".

dcngettext(string1, string2, number [, domain [, category]])

This function returns the plural form used for number of the translation of string1 and string2 in text domain domain for locale category category. string1 is the English singular variant of a message, and string2 the English plural variant of the same message. The default value for domain is the current value of TEXTDOMAIN. The default value for category is "LC_MESSAGES".

bindtextdomain(directory [, domain])

This function allows you to specify the directory in which gawk will look for message translation files, in case they will not or cannot be placed in the “standard” locations (e.g., during testing). It returns the directory in which domain is “bound.”

The default domain is the value of TEXTDOMAIN. If directory is the null string (""), then bindtextdomain returns the current binding for the given domain.