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CHARMAP(5) Linux Programmer's Manual CHARMAP(5)

NAME

     charmap - character set description file

DESCRIPTION

     A  character set description (charmap) defines all available characters
     and their encodings in a character set.  localedef(1) can use  charmaps
     to create locale variants for different character sets.

 Syntax
     The charmap file starts with a header that may consist of the following
     keywords:

     <code_set_name>
            is followed by the name of the character map.

     <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 (#).

     <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
            backslash (\).

     <mb_cur_max>
            is followed by the maximum number of bytes for a character.  The
            default value is 1.

     <mb_cur_min>
            is followed by the minimum number  of  bytes  for  a  character.
            This value must be less than or equal than <mb_cur_max>.  If not
            specified, it defaults to <mb_cur_max>.

     The character set definition section starts with the keyword CHARMAP in
     the first column.

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

     <character> byte-sequence comment
            This form defines exactly one character and its  byte  sequence,
            comment being optional.

     <character>..<character> byte-sequence comment
            This  form defines a character range and its byte sequence, com-
            ment being optional.

     The character set definition section ends with the string END  CHARMAP.

     The  character  set  definition section may optionally be followed by a
     section to define widths of characters.

     The WIDTH_DEFAULT keyword can be used to define the default  width  for
     all  characters  not explicitly listed.  The default character width is
     1.

     The width section for individual characters  starts  with  the  keyword
     WIDTH in the first column.

     The  following  lines may have one of the two following forms to define
     the widths of the characters:

     <character> width
            This form defines the width of exactly one character.

     <character>...<character> width
            This form defines the width for all the characters in the range.

     The width definition section ends with the string END WIDTH.

FILES

     /usr/share/i18n/charmaps
            Usual default character map path.

CONFORMING TO

     POSIX.2.

EXAMPLE

     The Euro sign is defined as follows in the UTF-8 charmap:

     <U20AC>     /xe2/x82/xac EURO SIGN