---
name: "genccode"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "icu"
version: "78.3-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/genccode"
---

# genccode(8)

generate C or platform specific assembly code from an ICU data file.

## NAME

**genccode** - generate C or platform specific assembly code from an ICU data file.

## SYNOPSIS

**genccode** \[ **-h, -?, --help** \] \[ **-a, --assembly** *name* \] \[ **-d, --destdir** *destination* \] \[ **-n, --name** *name* \] \[ **-e, --entrypoint** *name* \] \[ **-f, --filename** *name* \] \[ *filename* ... \]

## DESCRIPTION

**genccode** reads each of the supplied *filename* and writes out a C file containing a compilable definition of the data in the data file. The C file name is made by taking the base name of the data *filename*, replacing dots by underscores, and adding a *.c* file extension.

If the **-a** option is used, platform specific assembly code is generated instead of C code. Most C compilers will accept both C and assembly files. Instead of writing a filename with a *.c* file extension, a filename with a *.s* will be written instead.

If **genccode** is called with no *filename* it terminates gracefully.

## OPTIONS

- **-h, -?, --help**

  Print help about usage and exit.

- **-a, --assembly** *name*

  Output assembly code instead of C code. Use **-h** to see the list of available types of assembly to generate and to specify for this option.

- **-d, --destdir** *destination*

  Set the destination directory to *destination*. The default destination directory is the current directory.

- **-n, --name** *name*

  Set the data name to *name* instead of the default. This name is also used as the base name of the output. The default name is made of the *icudt* prefix, followed by a two-digit version number corresponding to the current version of the ICU release, and a single letter indicating the endianness of the data (the letter *b* indicated big endian data, and the letter *l* indicates little endian ones).

- **-f, --filename** *name*

  Normally, an ICU data file such as mydata.icu will be turned into mydata\_icu.c and mydata\_icu.o. However, if this parameter was set to "somedata", the output files will be somedata.o and  somedata.c, respectively.

- **-e, --entrypoint** *name*

  Set the data entry point (used for linking against the data in a shared library form) to *name*. The default entry point name is made of the data (set by the **-n, --name** option) followed by an underscore and the type of the data (set by the **-t, --type** option).

## VERSION

78\.3

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2000-2004 IBM, Inc. and others.