# charmap

## 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,
                  _comment_ 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.
    


## STANDARDS



           POSIX.2.
    


## EXAMPLES



           The Euro sign is defined as follows in the _UTF-8_ charmap:
    
           <U20AC>     /xe2/x82/xac EURO SIGN
    


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