charmap(5) Standards, Environments, and Macros charmap(5)
NAME
charmap - character set description file
DESCRIPTION
A character set description file or charmap defines characteristics for a coded character set. Other information about the coded character
set may also be in the file. Coded character set character values are defined using symbolic character names followed by character encoding
values.
The character set description file provides:
o The capability to describe character set attributes (such as collation order or character classes) independent of character set
encoding, and using only the characters in the portable character set. This makes it possible to create generic localedef(1)
source files for all codesets that share the portable character set.
o Standardized symbolic names for all characters in the portable character set, making it possible to refer to any such character
regardless of encoding.
Symbolic Names
Each symbolic name is included in the file and is mapped to a unique encoding value (except for those symbolic names that are shown with
identical glyphs). If the control characters commonly associated with the symbolic names in the following table are supported by the imple-
mentation, the symbolic names and their corresponding encoding values are included in the file. Some of the encodings associated with the
symbolic names in this table may be the same as characters in the portable character set table.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|<ACK> <DC2> <ENQ> <FS> <IS4> <SOH> |
|<BEL> <DC3> <EOT> <GS> <LF> <STX> |
|<BS> <DC4> <ESC> <HT> <NAK> <SUB> |
|<CAN> <DEL> <ETB> <IS1> <RS> <SYN> |
|<CR> <DLE> <ETX> <IS2> <SI> <US> |
|<DC1> <EM> <FF> <IS3> <SO> <VT> |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Declarations
The following declarations can precede the character definitions. Each must consist of the symbol shown in the following list, starting in
column 1, including the surrounding brackets, followed by one or more blank characters, followed by the value to be assigned to the symbol.
<code_set_name> The name of the coded character set for which the character set description file is defined.
<mb_cur_max> The maximum number of bytes in a multi-byte character. This defaults to 1.
<mb_cur_min> An unsigned positive integer value that defines the minimum number of bytes in a character for the encoded character
set.
<escape_char> The escape character used to indicate that the characters following will be interpreted in a special way, as defined
later in this section. This defaults to backslash (''), which is the character glyph used in all the following text and
examples, unless otherwise noted.
<comment_char> The character that when placed in column 1 of a charmap line, is used to indicate that the line is to be ignored. The
default character is the number sign (#).
Format
The character set mapping definitions will be all the lines immediately following an identifier line containing the string CHARMAP starting
in column 1, and preceding a trailer line containing the string END CHARMAP starting in column 1. Empty lines and lines containing a <com-
ment_char> in the first column will be ignored. Each non-comment line of the character set mapping definition, that is, between the CHARMAP
and END CHARMAP lines of the file), must be in either of two forms:
"%s %s %s
",<symbolic-name>,<encoding>,<comments>
or
"%s...%s %s %s
",<symbolic-name>,<symbolic-name>, <encoding>,
<comments>
In the first format, the line in the character set mapping definition defines a single symbolic name and a corresponding encoding. A char-
acter following an escape character is interpreted as itself; for example, the sequence "<\>>" represents the symbolic name ">" enclosed
between angle brackets.
In the second format, the line in the character set mapping definition defines a range of one or more symbolic names. In this form, the
symbolic names must consist of zero or more non-numeric characters, followed by an integer formed by one or more decimal digits. The char-
acters preceding the integer must be identical in the two symbolic names, and the integer formed by the digits in the second symbolic name
must be equal to or greater than the integer formed by the digits in the first name. This is interpreted as a series of symbolic names
formed from the common part and each of the integers between the first and the second integer, inclusive. As an example, <j0101>...<j0104>
is interpreted as the symbolic names <j0101>, <j0102>, <j0103>, and <j0104>, in that order.
A character set mapping definition line must exist for all symbolic names and must define the coded character value that corresponds to the
character glyph indicated in the table, or the coded character value that corresponds with the control character symbolic name. If the con-
trol characters commonly associated with the symbolic names are supported by the implementation, the symbolic name and the corresponding
encoding value must be included in the file. Additional unique symbolic names may be included. A coded character value can be represented
by more than one symbolic name.
The encoding part is expressed as one (for single-byte character values) or more concatenated decimal, octal or hexadecimal constants in
the following formats:
"%cd%d",<escape_char>,<decimal byte value>
"%cx%x",<escape_char>,<hexadecimal byte value>
"%c%o",<escape_char>,<octal byte value>
Decimal Constants
Decimal constants must be represented by two or three decimal digits, preceded by the escape character and the lower-case letter d; for
example, d05, d97, or d143. Hexadecimal constants must be represented by two hexadecimal digits, preceded by the escape character and
the lower-case letter x; for example, x05, x61, or x8f. Octal constants must be represented by two or three octal digits, preceded by
the escape character; for example, 5, 141, or 217. In a portable charmap file, each constant must represent an 8-bit byte. Implementa-
tions supporting other byte sizes may allow constants to represent values larger than those that can be represented in 8-bit bytes, and to
allow additional digits in constants. When constants are concatenated for multi-byte character values, they must be of the same type, and
interpreted in byte order from first to last with the least significant byte of the multi-byte character specified by the last constant.
Ranges of Symbolic Names
In lines defining ranges of symbolic names, the encoded value is the value for the first symbolic name in the range (the symbolic name pre-
ceding the ellipsis). Subsequent symbolic names defined by the range will have encoding values in increasing order. Bytes are treated as
unsigned octets and carry is propagated between the bytes as necessary to represent the range. However, because this causes a null byte in
the second or subsequent bytes of a character, such a declaration should not be specified. For example, the line
<j0101>...<j0104> d129d254
is interpreted as:
<j0101> d129d254
<j0102> d129d255
<j0103> d130d00
<j0104> d130d01
The expanded declaration of the symbol <j0103> in the above example is an invalid specification, because it contains a null byte in the
second byte of a character.
The comment is optional.
Width Specification
The following declarations can follow the character set mapping definitions (after the "END CHARMAP" statement). Each consists of the key-
word shown in the following list, starting in column 1, followed by the value(s) to be associated to the keyword, as defined below.
WIDTH A non-negative integer value defining the column width for the printable character in the coded character set mapping def-
initions. Coded character set character values are defined using symbolic character names followed by column width values.
Defining a character with more than one WIDTH produces undefined results. The END WIDTH keyword is used to terminate the
WIDTH definitions. Specifying the width of a non-printable character in a WIDTH declaration produces undefined results.
WIDTH_DEFAULT A non-negative integer value defining the default column width for any printable character not listed by one of the WIDTH
keywords. If no WIDTH_DEFAULT keyword is included in the charmap, the default character width is 1.
Example:
After the "END CHARMAP" statement, a syntax for a width definition would be:
WIDTH
<A> 1
<B> 1
<C>...<Z> 1
...
<fool>...<foon> 2
...
END WIDTH
In this example, the numerical code point values represented by the symbols <A> and <B> are assigned a width of 1. The code point values <
C> to <Z> inclusive, that is, <C>, <D>, <E>, and so on, are also assigned a width of 1. Using <A>. . .<Z> would have required fewer lines,
but the alternative was shown to demonstrate flexibility. The keyword WIDTH_DEFAULT could have been added as appropriate.
SEE ALSO
locale(1), localedef(1), nl_langinfo(3C), extensions(5), locale(5)
SunOS 5.11 1 Dec 2003 charmap(5)