resgen - resource generation and conversion utility

resgen [ options ] input ... output

Resgen converts strings between a number of resource formats that are used within the Portable.NET platform. It is typically used to convert text resources (.txt), XML resources (.resx), or GNU gettext resources (.po) into binary resources (.resources) that can be attached to an IL executable or dynamic link library.

Resgen can convert multiple input files into a single output file. A number of options are available to specify the format of the input files and the output file. Alternatively, resgen can guess the format of a file from its extension:

.txt, .text

Text resources.

.resources

Binary resources.

.resx, .xml

XML resources.

.po

GNU gettext resources.

.exe, .dll, .obj, .o

Binary resources within an IL image (input only).

The input filename `-' may be used to specify standard input. If an input format is not specified, standard input is assumed to contain text resources.

The output filename `-' may be used to specify standard output. If an output format is not specified, the format of standard output is assumed to be text.

-t, --text-input

The input files are all assumed to be in text resource format.

-r, --res-input

The input files are all assumed to be in binary resource format.

-i, --il-input

The input files are all assumed to be IL image files (i.e. executables, dynamic link libraries, or object files).

-x, --xml-input

The input files are all assumed to be in XML resource format.

-p, --po-input

The input files are all assumed to be in GNU gettext .po resource format.

-T, --text-output

The output format is set to text resources.

-R, --res-output

The output format is set to binary resources.

-X, --xml-output

The output format is set to XML resources.

-P, --po-output

The output format is set to GNU gettext .po resources.

-l, --latin1

Interpret text and .po files as Latin-1 rather than UTF-8.

-s, --sort-names

When writing text resources as output, sort the resources by name. This typically makes it easier for humans to read the output.

This option is ignored if the output format is not text.

--help

Print a usage message for the resgen program.

-v, --version

Print the version of the resgen program.

--

Marks the end of the command-line options, and the beginning of the input filenames. You may need to use this if your filename begins with '-'. e.g. "ilresgen -- -input.txt output.resources". This is not needed if the input is stdin: "ilresgen - output.resources" is perfectly valid.

Text resource files contain one line for each resource. Each line has the form `name=value', where `name' is the tag name associated with the resource, and `value' is the resource's string value. For example:

Arg_InvalidBase=Base must be 2, 8, 10, or 16
Overflow_Byte=Valid Byte values are between 0 and 255, inclusive

Resource string values are assumed to be in the UTF-8 text encoding unless the -l command-line option is supplied. No other character sets are currently supported. Values can contain one of the following escape sequences, which indicate special characters:

\n

Newline character, '\u000A'.

\r

Carriage return character, '\u000D'.

\t

TAB character, '\u0009'.

\f

Form feed character, '\u000C'.

\v

Vertical TAB character, '\u000B'.

\0

NUL character, '\u0000'.

\NNN

8-bit octal Unicode character.

\xHH

8-bit hexadecimal Unicode character.

\uHHHH

16-bit hexadecimal Unicode character.

\UHHHHHHHH

32-bit hexadecimal Unicode character.

The following command-line converts three text resource input files into a binary resource output file:

resgen file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt output.resources

resgen --text-input --res-output file1 file2 file3 output

resgen -s program.exe -

Written by Southern Storm Software, Pty Ltd.

http://www.southern-storm.com.au/

cscc(1)

Exit status is 1 if an error occurred while processing the input. Otherwise the exit status is 0.