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:

       
	      is followed by the name of the codeset.

       
	      is followed by the max number of bytes for a  multibyte-charac-
	      ter.   Multibyte	characters  are	 currently not supported. The
	      default value is 1.

       
	      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.

       
	      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
	      backslash ( \ ).

       
	      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 col-
       umn 1.

       The following lines may have one of the two following forms to  define
       the character-encodings:

         
	      This form defines exactly one character and its encoding.


       ...  
	      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  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:

       d
	      with a decimal number

       x
	      with a hexadecimal 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)

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