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<title>6.27.3 Access to message catalogs
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<H2><A NAME=
"SECTION0082730000000000000000"></A><A NAME=
"locale-gettext"></A>
6.27.3 Access to message catalogs
The locale module exposes the C library's gettext interface on systems
that provide this interface. It consists of the functions
<tt class=
"function">gettext()
</tt>,
<tt class=
"function">dgettext()
</tt>,
<tt class=
"function">dcgettext()
</tt>,
<tt class=
"function">textdomain()
</tt>,
<tt class=
"function">bindtextdomain()
</tt>, and
<tt class=
"function">bind_textdomain_codeset()
</tt>. These are similar to the same
functions in the
<tt class=
"module"><a href=
"module-gettext.html">gettext
</a></tt> module, but use the C library's
binary format for message catalogs, and the C library's search
algorithms for locating message catalogs.
Python applications should normally find no need to invoke these
functions, and should use
<tt class=
"module"><a href=
"module-gettext.html">gettext
</a></tt> instead. A known
exception to this rule are applications that link use additional C
libraries which internally invoke
<tt class=
"cfunction">gettext()
</tt> or
<tt class=
"function">dcgettext()
</tt>. For these applications, it may be necessary to
bind the text domain, so that the libraries can properly locate their
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<span class=
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2.4.2, documentation updated on
28 September
2005.
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