'.\" Copyright (C) 1995 Free Software Foundation
'.\" This file is part of GNU C Library.
'.\"
'.\" Author: Ulrich Drepper
'.\"
.TH MSGFMT 5 "GNU C Library" "FSF"
.SH NAME
msgfmt \- format of protable object files and message object files
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.IR msgfmt
program from a set of portable object files another set of files, which are
machine dependend coded.  The special version for GNU msgfmt is
carefully designed to be readable in whatever byte order.
.SH Input file format
(Description of input file format.)
.SH Output file format
The message object files consist of three parts:
.nf
      1.  Header with magic number etc.
      2.  Table with offsets to data part.
      3.  Data part with all the strings.
.fi
.PP
.BR Header.
The header consists of two 32-bit integer.  The first is a magic number whose
value is
.B 0x950412DE.
When the object file is used and the magic number has the reverse byte order
one can still use it.  Only all following multi-byte integers must be
changed in byte order.
.PP
The second integer gives the number entries with
.B unique
hash values.  The hash value has to be computed by the same function as in
.I msgfmt
itself.  
.BR Offsettable.