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21.2.3 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 `gettext()`, `dgettext()`, `dcgettext()`, `textdomain()`, `bindtextdomain()`, and `bind_textdomain_codeset()`. These are similar to the same functions in the `gettext` 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 `gettext` instead. A known exception to this rule are applications that link use additional C libraries which internally invoke `gettext()` or `dcgettext()`. For these applications, it may be necessary to bind the text domain, so that the libraries can properly locate their message catalogs.