This is gettext.info, produced by makeinfo version 7.1 from
gettext.texi.

   Copyright (C) 1995-1998, 2001-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

   This manual is free documentation.  It is dually licensed under the
GNU FDL and the GNU GPL. This means that you can redistribute this
manual under either of these two licenses, at your choice.

   This manual is covered by the GNU FDL. Permission is granted to copy,
distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free
Documentation License (FDL), either version 1.2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version published by the Free Software Foundation
(FSF); with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Text, and with no
Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license is included in *note GNU FDL::.

   This manual is covered by the GNU GPL. You can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL),
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version
published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). A copy of the license
is included in *note GNU GPL::.
INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU Gettext Utilities
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* gettext: (gettext).                          GNU gettext utilities.
* autopoint: (gettext)autopoint Invocation.    Copy gettext infrastructure.
* envsubst: (gettext)envsubst Invocation.      Expand environment variables.
* gettextize: (gettext)gettextize Invocation.  Prepare a package for gettext.
* msgattrib: (gettext)msgattrib Invocation.    Select part of a PO file.
* msgcat: (gettext)msgcat Invocation.          Combine several PO files.
* msgcmp: (gettext)msgcmp Invocation.          Compare a PO file and template.
* msgcomm: (gettext)msgcomm Invocation.        Match two PO files.
* msgconv: (gettext)msgconv Invocation.        Convert PO file to encoding.
* msgen: (gettext)msgen Invocation.            Create an English PO file.
* msgexec: (gettext)msgexec Invocation.        Process a PO file.
* msgfilter: (gettext)msgfilter Invocation.    Pipe a PO file through a filter.
* msgfmt: (gettext)msgfmt Invocation.          Make MO files out of PO files.
* msggrep: (gettext)msggrep Invocation.        Select part of a PO file.
* msginit: (gettext)msginit Invocation.        Start translating a PO file.
* msgmerge: (gettext)msgmerge Invocation.      Update a PO file from template.
* msgunfmt: (gettext)msgunfmt Invocation.      Uncompile MO file into PO file.
* msguniq: (gettext)msguniq Invocation.        Unify duplicates for PO file.
* ngettext: (gettext)ngettext Invocation.      Translate a message with plural.
* po-fetch: (gettext)po-fetch Invocation.      Fetches a set of PO files.
* printf_gettext: (gettext)printf_gettext Invocation. Translate a format string.
* printf_ngettext: (gettext)printf_ngettext Invocation. Translate a format string with plural.
* xgettext: (gettext)xgettext Invocation.      Extract strings into a PO file.
* ISO639: (gettext)Language Codes.             ISO 639 language codes.
* ISO3166: (gettext)Country Codes.             ISO 3166 country codes.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file provides documentation for GNU ‘gettext’ utilities.  It
also serves as a reference for the free Translation Project.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Up: (dir)

GNU ‘gettext’ utilities
***********************

   This manual documents the GNU gettext tools and the GNU libintl
library, version 1.0.

* Menu:

* Introduction::                Introduction
* Users::                       The User's View
* PO Files::                    The Format of PO Files
* Sources::                     Preparing Program Sources
* Template::                    Making the PO Template File
* Creating::                    Creating a New PO File
* Updating::                    Updating Existing PO Files
* Pretranslating::              Pretranslating PO Files
* Editing::                     Editing PO Files
* Manipulating::                Manipulating PO Files
* Binaries::                    Producing Binary MO Files
* Programmers::                 The Programmer's View
* Translators::                 The Translator's View
* Maintainers::                 The Maintainer's View
* Installers::                  The Installer's and Distributor's View
* Programming Languages::       Other Programming Languages
* Data Formats::                Other Data Formats
* Conclusion::                  Concluding Remarks

* Language Codes::              ISO 639 language codes
* Country Codes::               ISO 3166 country codes
* Licenses::                    Licenses

* Program Index::               Index of Programs
* Option Index::                Index of Command-Line Options
* Variable Index::              Index of Environment Variables
* PO Mode Index::               Index of Emacs PO Mode Commands
* Autoconf Macro Index::        Index of Autoconf Macros
* Index::                       General Index

 -- The Detailed Node Listing --

Introduction

* Why::                         The Purpose of GNU ‘gettext’
* Concepts::                    I18n, L10n, and Such
* Aspects::                     Aspects in Native Language Support
* Files::                       Files Conveying Translations
* Overview::                    Overview of GNU ‘gettext’

The User's View

* System Installation::         Questions During Operating System Installation
* Setting the GUI Locale::      How to Specify the Locale Used by GUI Programs
* Setting the POSIX Locale::    How to Specify the Locale According to POSIX
* Working in a Windows console::  Obtaining good output in a Windows console
* Installing Localizations::    How to Install Additional Translations

Setting the Locale through Environment Variables

* Locale Names::                How a Locale Specification Looks Like
* Locale Environment Variables::  Which Environment Variable Specifies What
* The LANGUAGE variable::       How to Specify a Priority List of Languages

The Format of PO Files

* PO File Entries::             What an entry looks like
* Workflow flags::              Workflow flags
* Sticky flags::                Sticky flags
* Entries with Context::        Entries with Context
* Entries with Plural Forms::   Entries with Plural Forms
* More Details::                Further details on the PO file format
* PO File Format Evolution::    The PO File Format is evolving

Preparing Program Sources

* Importing::                   Importing the ‘gettext’ declaration
* Triggering::                  Triggering ‘gettext’ Operations
* Preparing Strings::           Preparing Translatable Strings
* Mark Keywords::               How Marks Appear in Sources
* Marking::                     Marking Translatable Strings
* Translator advice::           Adding advice for translators
* c-format Flag::               Telling something about the following string
* Special cases::               Special Cases of Translatable Strings
* Bug Report Address::          Letting Users Report Translation Bugs
* Names::                       Marking Proper Names for Translation
* Libraries::                   Preparing Library Sources

Making the PO Template File

* xgettext Invocation::         Invoking the ‘xgettext’ Program
* Combining POTs::              Combining PO Template Files

Creating a New PO File

* msginit Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msginit’ Program
* Header Entry::                Filling in the Header Entry

Updating Existing PO Files

* msgmerge Invocation::         Invoking the ‘msgmerge’ Program

Pretranslating PO Files

* Installing an LLM::           Installing a Large Language Model
* msgpre Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgpre’ Program
* spit Invocation::             Invoking the ‘spit’ Program

Editing PO Files

* Web based localization::      Web-based PO editing
* Lokalize::                    KDE's PO File Editor
* Gtranslator::                 GNOME's PO File Editor
* Poedit::                      A simple PO File Editor
* OmegaT::                      A powerful Translation Editor
* Virtaal::                     The Virtaal Translation Editor
* PO Mode::                     Emacs's PO File Editor
* Vim::                         Editing PO Files in vim
* Compendium::                  Using Translation Compendia

Emacs's PO File Editor

* Installation::                Completing GNU ‘gettext’ Installation
* Main PO Commands::            Main Commands
* Entry Positioning::           Entry Positioning
* Normalizing::                 Normalizing Strings in Entries
* Translated Entries::          Translated Entries
* Fuzzy Entries::               Fuzzy Entries
* Untranslated Entries::        Untranslated Entries
* Obsolete Entries::            Obsolete Entries
* Modifying Translations::      Modifying Translations
* Modifying Comments::          Modifying Comments
* Subedit::                     Mode for Editing Translations
* C Sources Context::           C Sources Context
* Auxiliary::                   Consulting Auxiliary PO Files

Using Translation Compendia

* Creating Compendia::          Merging translations for later use
* Using Compendia::             Using older translations if they fit

Manipulating PO Files

* msgcat Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgcat’ Program
* msgconv Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msgconv’ Program
* msggrep Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msggrep’ Program
* msgfilter Invocation::        Invoking the ‘msgfilter’ Program
* msguniq Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msguniq’ Program
* msgcomm Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msgcomm’ Program
* msgcmp Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgcmp’ Program
* msgattrib Invocation::        Invoking the ‘msgattrib’ Program
* msgen Invocation::            Invoking the ‘msgen’ Program
* msgexec Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msgexec’ Program
* Colorizing::                  Highlighting parts of PO files
* Other tools::                 Other tools for manipulating PO files
* libgettextpo::                Writing your own programs that process PO files

Highlighting parts of PO files

* The --color option::          Triggering colorized output
* The TERM variable::           The environment variable ‘TERM’
* The --style option::          The ‘--style’ option
* Style rules::                 Style rules for PO files
* Customizing less::            Customizing ‘less’ for viewing PO files

Producing Binary MO Files

* msgfmt Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgfmt’ Program
* msgunfmt Invocation::         Invoking the ‘msgunfmt’ Program
* MO Files::                    The Format of GNU MO Files

The Programmer's View

* catgets::                     About ‘catgets’
* gettext::                     About ‘gettext’
* Comparison::                  Comparing the two interfaces
* Using libintl.a::             Using libintl.a in own programs
* gettext grok::                Being a ‘gettext’ grok
* Temp Programmers::            Temporary Notes for the Programmers Chapter

About ‘catgets’

* Interface to catgets::        The interface
* Problems with catgets::       Problems with the ‘catgets’ interface?!

About ‘gettext’

* Interface to gettext::        The interface
* Ambiguities::                 Solving ambiguities
* Locating Catalogs::           Locating message catalog files
* Charset conversion::          How to request conversion to Unicode
* Contexts::                    Solving ambiguities in GUI programs
* Plural forms::                Additional functions for handling plurals
* Optimized gettext::           Optimization of the *gettext functions

Temporary Notes for the Programmers Chapter

* Temp Implementations::        Temporary - Two Possible Implementations
* Temp catgets::                Temporary - About ‘catgets’
* Temp WSI::                    Temporary - Why a single implementation
* Temp Notes::                  Temporary - Notes

The Translator's View

* Organization::                Organization
* Responsibilities::            Responsibilities in the Translation Project
* Dialects::                    Language dialects
* Translating plural forms::    How to fill in ‘msgstr[0]’, ‘msgstr[1]’
* Prioritizing messages::       How to find which messages to translate first

The Maintainer's View

* Flat and Non-Flat::           Flat or Non-Flat Directory Structures
* Prerequisites::               Prerequisite Works
* gettextize Invocation::       Invoking the ‘gettextize’ Program
* Adjusting Files::             Files You Must Create or Alter
* autoconf macros::             Autoconf macros for use in ‘configure.ac’
* Interfacing with the Translators::
* Version Control Issues::
* Release Management::          Creating a Distribution Tarball

Files You Must Create or Alter

* po/POTFILES.in::              ‘POTFILES.in’ in ‘po/’
* po/fetch-po::                 ‘fetch-po’ in ‘po/’
* po/LINGUAS::                  ‘LINGUAS’ in ‘po/’
* po/Makevars::                 ‘Makevars’ in ‘po/’
* po/Rules-*::                  Extending ‘Makefile’ in ‘po/’
* configure.ac::                ‘configure.ac’ at top level
* config.guess::                ‘config.guess’, ‘config.sub’ at top level
* mkinstalldirs::               ‘mkinstalldirs’ at top level
* aclocal::                     ‘aclocal.m4’ at top level
* config.h.in::                 ‘config.h.in’ at top level
* Makefile::                    ‘Makefile.in’ at top level
* src/Makefile::                ‘Makefile.in’ in ‘src/’
* lib/gettext.h::               ‘gettext.h’ in ‘lib/’

Autoconf macros for use in ‘configure.ac’

* AM_GNU_GETTEXT::              AM_GNU_GETTEXT in ‘gettext.m4’
* AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION::      AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION in ‘gettext.m4’
* AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED::         AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED in ‘gettext.m4’
* AM_PO_SUBDIRS::               AM_PO_SUBDIRS in ‘po.m4’
* AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION::          AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION in ‘po.m4’
* AM_ICONV::                    AM_ICONV in ‘iconv.m4’

Integrating with Version Control Systems

* Distributed Development::     Avoiding version mismatch in distributed development
* Files under Version Control::  Files to put under version control
* PO Template File under Version Control?::  Put the POT File under Version Control?
* Translations under Version Control?::  Put PO Files under Version Control?
* autopoint Invocation::        Invoking the ‘autopoint’ Program
* po-fetch Invocation::         Invoking the ‘po-fetch’ Program

Other Programming Languages

* Language Implementors::       The Language Implementor's View
* Programmers for other Languages::  The Programmer's View
* Translators for other Languages::  The Translator's View
* Maintainers for other Languages::  The Maintainer's View
* List of Programming Languages::  Individual Programming Languages

The Translator's View

* c-format::                    C Format Strings
* objc-format::                 Objective C Format Strings
* c++-format::                  C++ Format Strings
* python-format::               Python Format Strings
* java-format::                 Java Format Strings
* csharp-format::               C# Format Strings
* javascript-format::           JavaScript Format Strings
* scheme-format::               Scheme Format Strings
* lisp-format::                 Lisp Format Strings
* elisp-format::                Emacs Lisp Format Strings
* librep-format::               librep Format Strings
* rust-format::                 Rust Format Strings
* go-format::                   Go Format Strings
* ruby-format::                 Ruby Format Strings
* sh-format::                   Shell Format Strings
* awk-format::                  awk Format Strings
* lua-format::                  Lua Format Strings
* object-pascal-format::        Object Pascal Format Strings
* modula2-format::              Modula-2 Format Strings
* d-format::                    D Format Strings
* ocaml-format::                OCaml Format Strings
* smalltalk-format::            Smalltalk Format Strings
* qt-format::                   Qt Format Strings
* qt-plural-format::            Qt Plural Format Strings
* kde-format::                  KDE Format Strings
* kde-kuit-format::             KUIT Format Strings
* boost-format::                Boost Format Strings
* tcl-format::                  Tcl Format Strings
* perl-format::                 Perl Format Strings
* php-format::                  PHP Format Strings
* gcc-internal-format::         GCC internal Format Strings
* gfc-internal-format::         GFC internal Format Strings
* ycp-format::                  YCP Format Strings

Individual Programming Languages

* C::                           C, C++, Objective C
* Python::                      Python
* Java::                        Java
* C#::                          C#
* JavaScript::                  JavaScript
* TypeScript::                  TypeScript
* Scheme::                      GNU guile - Scheme
* Common Lisp::                 GNU clisp - Common Lisp
* clisp C::                     GNU clisp C sources
* Emacs Lisp::                  Emacs Lisp
* librep::                      librep
* Rust::                        Rust
* Go::                          Go
* Ruby::                        Ruby
* sh::                          sh - Shell Script
* bash::                        bash - Bourne-Again Shell Script
* gawk::                        GNU awk
* Lua::                         Lua
* Pascal::                      Pascal - Free Pascal Compiler
* Modula-2::                    Modula-2
* OCaml::                       OCaml
* Smalltalk::                   GNU Smalltalk
* Vala::                        Vala
* wxWidgets::                   wxWidgets library
* Tcl::                         Tcl - Tk's scripting language
* Perl::                        Perl
* PHP::                         PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
* Pike::                        Pike
* GCC-source::                  GNU Compiler Collection sources
* YCP::                         YCP - YaST2 scripting language

sh - Shell Script

* sh - Three approaches::       Three approaches for Shell Scripts
* The gettext.sh approach::     The ‘gettext.sh’ approach
* The printf approach::         The ‘printf’ approach
* The printf_gettext approach:: The ‘printf_gettext’ approach
* Preparing for gettext.sh::    Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘gettext.sh’ approach
* Preparing for printf::        Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘printf’ approach
* Preparing for printf_gettext:: Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘printf_gettext’ approach
* gettext Invocation::          Invoking the ‘gettext’ program
* ngettext Invocation::         Invoking the ‘ngettext’ program
* printf_gettext Invocation::   Invoking the ‘printf_gettext’ program
* printf_ngettext Invocation::  Invoking the ‘printf_ngettext’ program
* envsubst Invocation::         Invoking the ‘envsubst’ program
* eval_gettext Invocation::     Invoking the ‘eval_gettext’ function
* eval_ngettext Invocation::    Invoking the ‘eval_ngettext’ function
* eval_pgettext Invocation::    Invoking the ‘eval_pgettext’ function
* eval_npgettext Invocation::   Invoking the ‘eval_npgettext’ function

Perl

* General Problems::            General Problems Parsing Perl Code
* Default Keywords::            Which Keywords Will xgettext Look For?
* Special Keywords::            How to Extract Hash Keys
* Quote-like Expressions::      What are Strings And Quote-like Expressions?
* Interpolation I::             Unsupported String Interpolation
* Interpolation II::            Valid String Interpolation
* Parentheses::                 When To Use Parentheses
* Long Lines::                  How To Grok with Long Lines
* Perl Pitfalls::               Bugs, Pitfalls, and Things That Do Not Work

Other Data Formats

* Internationalizable Data::    Internationalizable Data Formats
* Localized Data::              Localized Data Formats

Internationalizable Data Formats

* POT::                         POT - Portable Object Template
* RST::                         Resource String Table
* Glade::                       Glade - GNOME user interface description
* GSettings::                   GSettings - GNOME user configuration schema
* AppData::                     AppData - freedesktop.org application description
* Preparing ITS Rules::         Preparing Rules for XML Internationalization

Preparing Rules for XML Internationalization

* ITS Rules::                   Specifying ITS Rules
* Locating Rules::              Specifying where to find the ITS Rules

Localized Data Formats

* Editable Message Catalogs::   Editable Message Catalogs
* Compiled Message Catalogs::   Compiled Message Catalogs
* Desktop Entry::               Desktop Entry files
* XML::                         XML files

Editable Message Catalogs

* PO::                          PO - Portable Object
* Java .properties::            Java .properties
* GNUstep .strings::            NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings

Compiled Message Catalogs

* MO::                          MO - Machine Object
* Java ResourceBundle::         Java ResourceBundle
* C# Satellite Assembly::       C# Satellite Assembly
* C# Resource::                 C# Resource
* Tcl message catalog::         Tcl message catalog
* Qt message catalog::          Qt message catalog

Concluding Remarks

* History::                     History of GNU ‘gettext’
* The original ABOUT-NLS::      Historical introduction
* References::                  Related Readings

Language Codes

* Usual Language Codes::        Two-letter ISO 639 language codes
* Rare Language Codes::         Three-letter ISO 639 language codes

Licenses

* GNU GPL::                     GNU General Public License
* GNU LGPL::                    GNU Lesser General Public License
* GNU FDL::                     GNU Free Documentation License



File: gettext.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Users,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Introduction
**************

   This chapter explains the goals sought in the creation of GNU
‘gettext’ and the free Translation Project.  Then, it explains a few
broad concepts around Native Language Support, and positions message
translation with regard to other aspects of national and cultural
variance, as they apply to programs.  It also surveys those files used
to convey the translations.  It explains how the various tools interact
in the initial generation of these files, and later, how the maintenance
cycle should usually operate.

   In this manual, we use _he_ when speaking of the programmer or
maintainer, _she_ when speaking of the translator, and _they_ when
speaking of the installers or end users of the translated program.  This
is only a convenience for clarifying the documentation.  It is
_absolutely_ not meant to imply that some roles are more appropriate to
males or females.  Besides, as you might guess, GNU ‘gettext’ is meant
to be useful for people using computers, whatever their sex, race,
religion or nationality!

   Please submit suggestions and corrections
   • either in the bug tracker at
     <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext>
   • or by email to ‘bug-gettext@gnu.org’.

Please include the manual's edition number and update date in your
messages.

* Menu:

* Why::                         The Purpose of GNU ‘gettext’
* Concepts::                    I18n, L10n, and Such
* Aspects::                     Aspects in Native Language Support
* Files::                       Files Conveying Translations
* Overview::                    Overview of GNU ‘gettext’


File: gettext.info,  Node: Why,  Next: Concepts,  Up: Introduction

1.1 The Purpose of GNU ‘gettext’
================================

   Usually, programs are written and documented in English, and use
English at execution time to interact with users.  This is true not only
of GNU software, but also of a great deal of proprietary and free
software.  Using a common language is quite handy for communication
between developers, maintainers and users from all countries.  On the
other hand, most people are less comfortable with English than with
their own native language, and would prefer to use their mother tongue
for day to day's work, as far as possible.  Many would simply _love_ to
see their computer screen showing a lot less of English, and far more of
their own language.

   However, to many people, this dream might appear so far fetched that
they may believe it is not even worth spending time thinking about it.
They have no confidence at all that the dream might ever become true.
Yet some have not lost hope, and have organized themselves.  The
Translation Project is a formalization of this hope into a workable
structure, which has a good chance to get all of us nearer the
achievement of a truly multi-lingual set of programs.

   GNU ‘gettext’ is an important step for the Translation Project, as it
is an asset on which we may build many other steps.  This package offers
to programmers, translators and even users, a well integrated set of
tools and documentation.  Specifically, the GNU ‘gettext’ utilities are
a set of tools that provides a framework within which other free
packages may produce multi-lingual messages.  These tools include

   • A set of conventions about how programs should be written to
     support message catalogs.

   • A directory and file naming organization for the message catalogs
     themselves.

   • A runtime library supporting the retrieval of translated messages.

   • A few stand-alone programs to massage in various ways the sets of
     translatable strings, or already translated strings.

   • A library supporting the parsing and creation of files containing
     translated messages.

   • A special mode for Emacs(1) which helps preparing these sets and
     bringing them up to date.

   GNU ‘gettext’ is designed to minimize the impact of
internationalization on program sources, keeping this impact as small
and hardly noticeable as possible.  Internationalization has better
chances of succeeding if it is very light weighted, or at least, appear
to be so, when looking at program sources.

   The Translation Project also uses the GNU ‘gettext’ distribution as a
vehicle for documenting its structure and methods.  This goes beyond the
strict technicalities of documenting the GNU ‘gettext’ proper.  By so
doing, translators will find in a single place, as far as possible, all
they need to know for properly doing their translating work.  Also, this
supplemental documentation might also help programmers, and even curious
users, in understanding how GNU ‘gettext’ is related to the remainder of
the Translation Project, and consequently, have a glimpse at the _big
picture_.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) In this manual, all mentions of Emacs refers to either GNU Emacs
or to XEmacs, which people sometimes call FSF Emacs and Lucid Emacs,
respectively.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Concepts,  Next: Aspects,  Prev: Why,  Up: Introduction

1.2 I18n, L10n, and Such
========================

   Two long words appear all the time when we discuss support of native
language in programs, and these words have a precise meaning, worth
being explained here, once and for all in this document.  The words are
_internationalization_ and _localization_.  Many people, tired of
writing these long words over and over again, took the habit of writing
“i18n” and “l10n” instead, quoting the first and last letter of each
word, and replacing the run of intermediate letters by a number merely
telling how many such letters there are.  But in this manual, in the
sake of clarity, we will patiently write the names in full, each time...

   By “internationalization”, one refers to the operation by which a
program, or a set of programs turned into a package, is made aware of
and able to support multiple languages.  This is a generalization
process, by which the programs are untied from calling only English
strings or other English specific habits, and connected to generic ways
of doing the same, instead.  Program developers may use various
techniques to internationalize their programs.  Some of these have been
standardized.  GNU ‘gettext’ offers one of these standards.  *Note
Programmers::.

   By “localization”, one means the operation by which, in a set of
programs already internationalized, one gives the program all needed
information so that it can adapt itself to handle its input and output
in a fashion which is correct for some native language and cultural
habits.  This is a particularisation process, by which generic methods
already implemented in an internationalized program are used in specific
ways.  The programming environment puts several functions to the
programmers disposal which allow this runtime configuration.  The formal
description of specific set of cultural habits for some country,
together with all associated translations targeted to the same native
language, is called the “locale” for this language or country.  Users
achieve localization of programs by setting proper values to special
environment variables, prior to executing those programs, identifying
which locale should be used.

   In fact, locale message support is only one component of the cultural
data that makes up a particular locale.  There are a whole host of
routines and functions provided to aid programmers in developing
internationalized software and which allow them to access the data
stored in a particular locale.  When someone presently refers to a
particular locale, they are obviously referring to the data stored
within that particular locale.  Similarly, if a programmer is referring
to "accessing the locale routines", they are referring to the complete
suite of routines that access all of the locale's information.

   One uses the expression “Native Language Support”, or merely NLS, for
speaking of the overall activity or feature encompassing both
internationalization and localization, allowing for multi-lingual
interactions in a program.  In a nutshell, one could say that
internationalization is the operation by which further localizations are
made possible.

   Also, very roughly said, when it comes to multi-lingual messages,
internationalization is usually taken care of by programmers, and
localization is usually taken care of by translators.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Aspects,  Next: Files,  Prev: Concepts,  Up: Introduction

1.3 Aspects in Native Language Support
======================================

   For a totally multi-lingual distribution, there are many things to
translate beyond output messages.

   • As of today, GNU ‘gettext’ offers a complete toolset for
     translating messages output by C programs.  Perl scripts and shell
     scripts will also need to be translated.  Even if there are today
     some hooks by which this can be done, these hooks are not
     integrated as well as they should be.

   • Some programs, like ‘autoconf’ or ‘bison’, are able to produce
     other programs (or scripts).  Even if the generating programs
     themselves are internationalized, the generated programs they
     produce may need internationalization on their own, and this
     indirect internationalization could be automated right from the
     generating program.  In fact, quite usually, generating and
     generated programs could be internationalized independently, as the
     effort needed is fairly orthogonal.

   • A few programs include textual tables which might need translation
     themselves, independently of the strings contained in the program
     itself.  For example, RFC 1345 gives an English description for
     each character which the ‘recode’ program is able to reconstruct at
     execution.  Since these descriptions are extracted from the RFC by
     mechanical means, translating them properly would require a prior
     translation of the RFC itself.

   • Almost all programs accept options, which are often worded out so
     to be descriptive for the English readers; one might want to
     consider offering translated versions for program options as well.

   • Many programs read, interpret, compile, or are somewhat driven by
     input files which are texts containing keywords, identifiers, or
     replies which are inherently translatable.  For example, one may
     want ‘gcc’ to allow diacriticized characters in identifiers or use
     translated keywords; ‘rm -i’ might accept something else than ‘y’
     or ‘n’ for replies, etc.  Even if the program will eventually make
     most of its output in the foreign languages, one has to decide
     whether the input syntax, option values, etc., are to be localized
     or not.

   • The manual accompanying a package, as well as all documentation
     files in the distribution, could surely be translated, too.
     Translating a manual, with the intent of later keeping up with
     updates, is a major undertaking in itself, generally.

   As we already stressed, translation is only one aspect of locales.
Other internationalization aspects are system services and are handled
in GNU ‘libc’.  There are many attributes that are needed to define a
country's cultural conventions.  These attributes include beside the
country's native language, the formatting of the date and time, the
representation of numbers, the symbols for currency, etc.  These local
“rules” are termed the country's locale.  The locale represents the
knowledge needed to support the country's native attributes.

   There are a few major areas which may vary between countries and
hence, define what a locale must describe.  The following list helps
putting multi-lingual messages into the proper context of other tasks
related to locales.  See the GNU ‘libc’ manual for details.

_Characters and Codesets_

     The codeset most commonly used through out the USA and most English
     speaking parts of the world is the ASCII codeset.  However, there
     are many characters needed by various locales that are not found
     within this codeset.  The 8-bit ISO 8859-1 code set has most of the
     special characters needed to handle the major European languages.
     However, in many cases, choosing ISO 8859-1 is nevertheless not
     adequate: it doesn't even handle the major European currency.
     Hence each locale will need to specify which codeset they need to
     use and will need to have the appropriate character handling
     routines to cope with the codeset.

_Currency_

     The symbols used vary from country to country as does the position
     used by the symbol.  Software needs to be able to transparently
     display currency figures in the native mode for each locale.

_Dates_

     The format of date varies between locales.  For example, Christmas
     day in 1994 is written as 12/25/94 in the USA and as 25/12/94 in
     Australia.  Other countries might use ISO 8601 dates, etc.

     Time of the day may be noted as HH:MM, HH.MM, or otherwise.  Some
     locales require time to be specified in 24-hour mode rather than as
     AM or PM. Further, the nature and yearly extent of the Daylight
     Saving correction vary widely between countries.

_Numbers_

     Numbers can be represented differently in different locales.  For
     example, the following numbers are all written correctly for their
     respective locales:

          12,345.67       English
          12.345,67       German
           12345,67       French
          1,2345.67       Asia

     Some programs could go further and use different unit systems, like
     English units or Metric units, or even take into account variants
     about how numbers are spelled in full.

_Messages_

     The most obvious area is the language support within a locale.
     This is where GNU ‘gettext’ provides the means for developers and
     users to easily change the language that the software uses to
     communicate to the user.

   These areas of cultural conventions are called _locale categories_.
It is an unfortunate term; _locale aspects_ or _locale feature
categories_ would be a better term, because each "locale category"
describes an area or task that requires localization.  The concrete data
that describes the cultural conventions for such an area and for a
particular culture is also called a _locale category_.  In this sense, a
locale is composed of several locale categories: the locale category
describing the codeset, the locale category describing the formatting of
numbers, the locale category containing the translated messages, and so
on.

   Components of locale outside of message handling are standardized in
the ISO C standard and the POSIX:2001 standard (also known as the SUSV3
specification).  GNU ‘libc’ fully implements this, and most other modern
systems provide a more or less reasonable support for at least some of
the missing components.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Files,  Next: Overview,  Prev: Aspects,  Up: Introduction

1.4 Files Conveying Translations
================================

   The letters PO in ‘.po’ files means Portable Object, to distinguish
it from ‘.mo’ files, where MO stands for Machine Object.  This paradigm,
as well as the PO file format, is inspired by the NLS standard developed
by Uniforum, and first implemented by Sun in their Solaris system.

   PO files are meant to be read and edited by humans, and associate
each original, translatable string of a given package with its
translation in a particular target language.  A single PO file is
dedicated to a single target language.  If a package supports many
languages, there is one such PO file per language supported, and each
package has its own set of PO files.  These PO files are best created by
the ‘xgettext’ program, and later updated or refreshed through the
‘msgmerge’ program.  Program ‘xgettext’ extracts all marked messages
from a set of C files and initializes a PO file with empty translations.
Program ‘msgmerge’ takes care of adjusting PO files between releases of
the corresponding sources, commenting obsolete entries, initializing new
ones, and updating all source line references.  Files ending with ‘.pot’
are kind of base translation files found in distributions, in PO file
format.

   MO files are meant to be read by programs, and are binary in nature.
A few systems already offer tools for creating and handling MO files as
part of the Native Language Support coming with the system, but the
format of these MO files is often different from system to system, and
non-portable.  The tools already provided with these systems don't
support all the features of GNU ‘gettext’.  Therefore GNU ‘gettext’ uses
its own format for MO files.  Files ending with ‘.gmo’ are really MO
files, when it is known that these files use the GNU format.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Overview,  Prev: Files,  Up: Introduction

1.5 Overview of GNU ‘gettext’
=============================

   The following diagram summarizes the relation between the files
handled by GNU ‘gettext’ and the tools acting on these files.  It is
followed by somewhat detailed explanations, which you should read while
keeping an eye on the diagram.  Having a clear understanding of these
interrelations will surely help programmers, translators and
maintainers.

     Original C Sources ---> Preparation ---> Marked C Sources ---.
                                                                  |
                   .---------<--- GNU gettext Library             |
     .--- make <---+                                              |
     |             `---------<--------------------+---------------'
     |                                            |
     |   .-----<--- PACKAGE.pot <--- xgettext <---'   .---<--- PO Compendium
     |   |                                            |              ^
     |   |                                            `---.          |
     |   `---.                                            +---> PO editor ---.
     |       +----> msgmerge ------> LANG.po ---->--------'                  |
     |   .---'                                                               |
     |   |                                                                   |
     |   `-------------<---------------.                                     |
     |                                 +--- New LANG.po <--------------------'
     |   .--- LANG.gmo <--- msgfmt <---'
     |   |
     |   `---> install ---> /.../LANG/PACKAGE.mo ---.
     |                                              +---> "Hello world!"
     `-------> install ---> /.../bin/PROGRAM -------'

   As a programmer, the first step to bringing GNU ‘gettext’ into your
package is identifying, right in the C sources, those strings which are
meant to be translatable, and those which are untranslatable.  This
tedious job can be done a little more comfortably using emacs PO mode,
but you can use any means familiar to you for modifying your C sources.
Beside this some other simple, standard changes are needed to properly
initialize the translation library.  *Note Sources::, for more
information about all this.

   For newly written software the strings of course can and should be
marked while writing it.  The ‘gettext’ approach makes this very easy.
Simply put the following lines at the beginning of each file or in a
central header file:

     #define _(String) (String)
     #define N_(String) String
     #define textdomain(Domain)
     #define bindtextdomain(Package, Directory)

Doing this allows you to prepare the sources for internationalization.
Later when you feel ready for the step to use the ‘gettext’ library
simply replace these definitions by the following:

     #include <libintl.h>
     #define _(String) gettext (String)
     #define gettext_noop(String) String
     #define N_(String) gettext_noop (String)

and link against ‘libintl.a’ or ‘libintl.so’.  Note that on GNU systems,
you don't need to link with ‘libintl’ because the ‘gettext’ library
functions are already contained in GNU libc.  That is all you have to
change.

   Once the C sources have been modified, the ‘xgettext’ program is used
to find and extract all translatable strings, and create a PO template
file out of all these.  This ‘PACKAGE.pot’ file contains all original
program strings.  It has sets of pointers to exactly where in C sources
each string is used.  All translations are set to empty.  The letter ‘t’
in ‘.pot’ marks this as a Template PO file, not yet oriented towards any
particular language.  *Note xgettext Invocation::, for more details
about how one calls the ‘xgettext’ program.  If you are _really_ lazy,
you might be interested at working a lot more right away, and preparing
the whole distribution setup (*note Maintainers::).  By doing so, you
spare yourself typing the ‘xgettext’ command, as ‘make’ should now
generate the proper things automatically for you!

   The first time through, there is no ‘LANG.po’ yet, so the ‘msgmerge’
step may be skipped and replaced by a mere copy of ‘PACKAGE.pot’ to
‘LANG.po’, where LANG represents the target language.  See *note
Creating:: for details.

   Then comes the initial translation of messages.  Translation in
itself is a whole matter, still exclusively meant for humans, and whose
complexity far overwhelms the level of this manual.  Nevertheless, a few
hints are given in some other chapter of this manual (*note
Translators::).  You will also find there indications about how to
contact translating teams, or becoming part of them, for sharing your
translating concerns with others who target the same native language.

   While adding the translated messages into the ‘LANG.po’ PO file, if
you are not using one of the dedicated PO file editors (*note
Editing::), you are on your own for ensuring that your efforts fully
respect the PO file format, and quoting conventions (*note PO Files::).
This is surely not an impossible task, as this is the way many people
have handled PO files around 1995.  On the other hand, by using a PO
file editor, most details of PO file format are taken care of for you,
but you have to acquire some familiarity with PO file editor itself.

   If some common translations have already been saved into a compendium
PO file, translators may use PO mode for initializing untranslated
entries from the compendium, and also save selected translations into
the compendium, updating it (*note Compendium::).  Compendium files are
meant to be exchanged between members of a given translation team.

   Programs, or packages of programs, are dynamic in nature: users write
bug reports and suggestion for improvements, maintainers react by
modifying programs in various ways.  The fact that a package has already
been internationalized should not make maintainers shy of adding new
strings, or modifying strings already translated.  They just do their
job the best they can.  For the Translation Project to work smoothly, it
is important that maintainers do not carry translation concerns on their
already loaded shoulders, and that translators be kept as free as
possible of programming concerns.

   The only concern maintainers should have is carefully marking new
strings as translatable, when they should be, and do not otherwise worry
about them being translated, as this will come in proper time.
Consequently, when programs and their strings are adjusted in various
ways by maintainers, and for matters usually unrelated to translation,
‘xgettext’ would construct ‘PACKAGE.pot’ files which are evolving over
time, so the translations carried by ‘LANG.po’ are slowly fading out of
date.

   It is important for translators (and even maintainers) to understand
that package translation is a continuous process in the lifetime of a
package, and not something which is done once and for all at the start.
After an initial burst of translation activity for a given package,
interventions are needed once in a while, because here and there,
translated entries become obsolete, and new untranslated entries appear,
needing translation.

   The ‘msgmerge’ program has the purpose of refreshing an already
existing ‘LANG.po’ file, by comparing it with a newer ‘PACKAGE.pot’
template file, extracted by ‘xgettext’ out of recent C sources.  The
refreshing operation adjusts all references to C source locations for
strings, since these strings move as programs are modified.  Also,
‘msgmerge’ comments out as obsolete, in ‘LANG.po’, those already
translated entries which are no longer used in the program sources
(*note Obsolete Entries::).  It finally discovers new strings and
inserts them in the resulting PO file as untranslated entries (*note
Untranslated Entries::).  *Note msgmerge Invocation::, for more
information about what ‘msgmerge’ really does.

   Whatever route or means taken, the goal is to obtain an updated
‘LANG.po’ file offering translations for all strings.

   The temporal mobility, or fluidity of PO files, is an integral part
of the translation game, and should be well understood, and accepted.
People resisting it will have a hard time participating in the
Translation Project, or will give a hard time to other participants!  In
particular, maintainers should relax and include all available official
PO files in their distributions, even if these have not recently been
updated, without exerting pressure on the translator teams to get the
job done.  The pressure should rather come from the community of users
speaking a particular language, and maintainers should consider
themselves fairly relieved of any concern about the adequacy of
translation files.  On the other hand, translators should reasonably try
updating the PO files they are responsible for, while the package is
undergoing pretest, prior to an official distribution.

   Once the PO file is complete and dependable, the ‘msgfmt’ program is
used for turning the PO file into a machine-oriented format, which may
yield efficient retrieval of translations by the programs of the
package, whenever needed at runtime (*note MO Files::).  *Note msgfmt
Invocation::, for more information about all modes of execution for the
‘msgfmt’ program.

   Finally, the modified and marked C sources are compiled and linked
with the GNU ‘gettext’ library, usually through the operation of ‘make’,
given a suitable ‘Makefile’ exists for the project, and the resulting
executable is installed somewhere users will find it.  The MO files
themselves should also be properly installed.  Given the appropriate
environment variables are set (*note Setting the POSIX Locale::), the
program should localize itself automatically, whenever it executes.

   Shipping the MO files as separate files, as opposed to embedding them
in the executable, has three advantages:
   • For the users: It allows users to prepare and install new
     translations, without needing to rebuild the package (which may
     require developer skills).
   • For the distributors: It allows distributions to ship translations
     that were produced after the release of the package.
   • For the vendors of complex packages: When lengthy quality assurance
     steps are required before making a release, this quality assurance
     can start before the translators have produced the translations,
     shortening the critical path of the release schedule by a week or
     two.
Embedding the translations in the executable, whether by the ISO C
‘#embed’ directive or through other means, would deprive users without
developer skills of the ability to fix translation mistakes and add new
translations.

   The remainder of this manual has the purpose of explaining in depth
the various steps outlined above.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Users,  Next: PO Files,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

2 The User's View
*****************

   Nowadays, when users log into a computer, they usually find that all
their programs show messages in their native language - at least for
users of languages with an active free software community, like French
or German; to a lesser extent for languages with a smaller participation
in free software and the GNU project, like Hindi and Filipino.

   How does this work?  How can the user influence the language that is
used by the programs?  This chapter will answer it.

* Menu:

* System Installation::         Questions During Operating System Installation
* Setting the GUI Locale::      How to Specify the Locale Used by GUI Programs
* Setting the POSIX Locale::    How to Specify the Locale According to POSIX
* Working in a Windows console::  Obtaining good output in a Windows console
* Installing Localizations::    How to Install Additional Translations


File: gettext.info,  Node: System Installation,  Next: Setting the GUI Locale,  Up: Users

2.1 Operating System Installation
=================================

   The default language is often already specified during operating
system installation.  When the operating system is installed, the
installer typically asks for the language used for the installation
process and, separately, for the language to use in the installed
system.  Some OS installers only ask for the language once.

   This determines the system-wide default language for all users.  But
the installers often give the possibility to install extra localizations
for additional languages.  For example, the localizations of KDE (the K
Desktop Environment) and LibreOffice are often bundled separately, as
one installable package per language.

   At this point it is good to consider the intended use of the machine:
If it is a machine designated for personal use, additional localizations
are probably not necessary.  If, however, the machine is in use in an
organization or company that has international relationships, one can
consider the needs of guest users.  If you have a guest from abroad, for
a week, what could be his preferred locales?  It may be worth installing
these additional localizations ahead of time, since they cost only a bit
of disk space at this point.

   The system-wide default language is the locale configuration that is
used when a new user account is created.  But the user can have his own
locale configuration that is different from the one of the other users
of the same machine.  He can specify it, typically after the first
login, as described in the next section.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Setting the GUI Locale,  Next: Setting the POSIX Locale,  Prev: System Installation,  Up: Users

2.2 Setting the Locale Used by GUI Programs
===========================================

   The immediately available programs in a user's desktop come from a
group of programs called a "desktop environment"; it usually includes
the window manager, a web browser, a text editor, and more.  The most
common free desktop environments are KDE, GNOME, and Xfce.

   The locale used by GUI programs of the desktop environment can be
specified in a configuration screen called "control center", "language
settings" or "country settings".

   Individual GUI programs that are not part of the desktop environment
can have their locale specified either in a settings panel, or through
environment variables.

   For some programs, it is possible to specify the locale through
environment variables, possibly even to a different locale than the
desktop's locale.  This means, instead of starting a program through a
menu or from the file system, you can start it from the command-line,
after having set some environment variables.  The environment variables
can be those specified in the next section (*note Setting the POSIX
Locale::); for some versions of KDE, however, the locale is specified
through a variable ‘KDE_LANG’, rather than ‘LANG’ or ‘LC_ALL’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Setting the POSIX Locale,  Next: Working in a Windows console,  Prev: Setting the GUI Locale,  Up: Users

2.3 Setting the Locale through Environment Variables
====================================================

   As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, in
the simplest case, you only have to set the ‘LANG’ environment variable
to the appropriate ‘LL_CC’ combination.  For example, let's suppose that
you speak German and live in Germany.  At the shell prompt, merely
execute ‘setenv LANG de_DE’ (in ‘csh’), ‘export LANG; LANG=de_DE’ (in
‘sh’) or ‘export LANG=de_DE’ (in ‘bash’).  This can be done from your
‘.login’ or ‘.profile’ file, once and for all.

* Menu:

* Locale Names::                How a Locale Specification Looks Like
* Locale Environment Variables::  Which Environment Variable Specifies What
* The LANGUAGE variable::       How to Specify a Priority List of Languages


File: gettext.info,  Node: Locale Names,  Next: Locale Environment Variables,  Up: Setting the POSIX Locale

2.3.1 Locale Names
------------------

   A locale name usually has the form ‘LL_CC’.  Here

   • ‘LL’ is an ISO 639 two-letter language code.  For some languages, a
     two-letter code does not exist, and a three-letter code is used
     instead.
   • ‘CC’ is an ISO 3166 two-letter code of a country or territory.

For example, for German in Germany, LL is ‘de’, and CC is ‘DE’.  You
find a list of the language codes in appendix *note Language Codes:: and
a list of the country codes in appendix *note Country Codes::.

   You might think that the country code specification is redundant.
But in fact, some languages have dialects in different countries.  For
example, ‘de_AT’ is used for Austria, and ‘pt_BR’ for Brazil.  The
country code serves to distinguish the dialects.

   Many locale names have an extended syntax ‘LL_CC.ENCODING’ that also
specifies the character encoding.  These are in use because between 2000
and 2005, most users have switched to locales in UTF-8 encoding.  For
example, the German locale on glibc systems is nowadays ‘de_DE.UTF-8’.
The older name ‘de_DE’ still refers to the German locale as of 2000 that
stores characters in ISO-8859-1 encoding - a text encoding that cannot
even accommodate the Euro currency sign.

   Some locale names use ‘LL_CC@VARIANT’ instead of ‘LL_CC’.  The
‘@VARIANT’ can denote any kind of characteristics that is not already
implied by the language LL and the country CC.  It can denote a
particular monetary unit.  For example, on glibc systems, ‘de_DE@euro’
denotes the locale that uses the Euro currency, in contrast to the older
locale ‘de_DE’ which implies the use of the currency before 2002.  It
can also denote a dialect of the language, or the script used to write
text (for example, ‘sr_RS@latin’ uses the Latin script, whereas ‘sr_RS’
uses the Cyrillic script to write Serbian), or the orthography rules, or
similar.

   On other systems, some variations of this scheme are used, such as
‘LL’.  You can get the list of locales supported by your system for your
language by running the command ‘locale -a | grep '^LL'’.

   There are also two special locales:
   • The locale called ‘C’.
     When it is used, it disables all localization: in this locale, all
     programs standardized by POSIX use English messages and an
     unspecified character encoding (often US-ASCII, but sometimes also
     ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8, depending on the operating system).
   • The locale called ‘C.UTF-8’.
     This locale exists on all modern GNU and Unix systems, but not on
     all operating systems.  When it is used, it disables all
     localization as well.  It uses UTF-8 as character encoding.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Locale Environment Variables,  Next: The LANGUAGE variable,  Prev: Locale Names,  Up: Setting the POSIX Locale

2.3.2 Locale Environment Variables
----------------------------------

   A locale is composed of several _locale categories_, see *note
Aspects::.  When a program looks up locale dependent values, it does
this according to the following environment variables, in priority
order:

  1. ‘LANGUAGE’
  2. ‘LC_ALL’
  3. ‘LC_xxx’, according to selected locale category: ‘LC_CTYPE’,
     ‘LC_NUMERIC’, ‘LC_TIME’, ‘LC_COLLATE’, ‘LC_MONETARY’,
     ‘LC_MESSAGES’, ...
  4. ‘LANG’

   Variables whose value is set but is empty are ignored in this lookup.

   ‘LANG’ is the normal environment variable for specifying a locale.
As a user, you normally set this variable (unless some of the other
variables have already been set by the system, in ‘/etc/profile’ or
similar initialization files).

   ‘LC_CTYPE’, ‘LC_NUMERIC’, ‘LC_TIME’, ‘LC_COLLATE’, ‘LC_MONETARY’,
‘LC_MESSAGES’, and so on, are the environment variables meant to
override ‘LANG’ and affecting a single locale category only.  For
example, assume you are a Swedish user in Spain, and you want your
programs to handle numbers and dates according to Spanish conventions,
and only the messages should be in Swedish.  Then you could create a
locale named ‘sv_ES’ or ‘sv_ES.UTF-8’ by use of the ‘localedef’ program.
But it is simpler, and achieves the same effect, to set the ‘LANG’
variable to ‘es_ES.UTF-8’ and the ‘LC_MESSAGES’ variable to
‘sv_SE.UTF-8’; these two locales come already preinstalled with the
operating system.

   ‘LC_ALL’ is an environment variable that overrides all of these.  It
is typically used in scripts that run particular programs.  For example,
‘configure’ scripts generated by GNU autoconf use ‘LC_ALL’ to make sure
that the configuration tests don't operate in locale dependent ways.

   Some systems, unfortunately, set ‘LC_ALL’ in ‘/etc/profile’ or in
similar initialization files.  As a user, you therefore have to unset
this variable if you want to set ‘LANG’ and optionally some of the other
‘LC_xxx’ variables.

   The ‘LANGUAGE’ variable is described in the next subsection.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The LANGUAGE variable,  Prev: Locale Environment Variables,  Up: Setting the POSIX Locale

2.3.3 Specifying a Priority List of Languages
---------------------------------------------

   Not all programs have translations for all languages.  By default, an
English message is shown in place of a nonexistent translation.  If you
understand other languages, you can set up a priority list of languages.
This is done through a different environment variable, called
‘LANGUAGE’.  GNU ‘gettext’ gives preference to ‘LANGUAGE’ over ‘LC_ALL’
and ‘LANG’ for the purpose of message handling, but you still need to
have ‘LANG’ (or ‘LC_ALL’) set to the primary language; this is required
by other parts of the system libraries.  For example, some Swedish users
who would rather read translations in German than English for when
Swedish is not available, set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘sv:de’ while leaving ‘LANG’
to ‘sv_SE’.

   Special advice for Norwegian users: The language code for Norwegian
bokmål changed from ‘no’ to ‘nb’ back in 2003.  Most of the message
catalogs for this language are installed under ‘nb’.  But in order to
also use the older ones installed under ‘no’, it is recommended for
Norwegian users to set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘nb:no’.

   In the ‘LANGUAGE’ environment variable, but not in the other
environment variables, ‘LL_CC’ combinations can be abbreviated as ‘LL’
to denote the language's main dialect.  For example, ‘de’ is equivalent
to ‘de_DE’ (German as spoken in Germany), and ‘pt’ to ‘pt_PT’
(Portuguese as spoken in Portugal) in this context.

   Special advice for Chinese users: Users who want to see translations
with Simplified Chinese characters should set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘zh_CN’,
whereas users who want to see translations with Traditional Chinese
characters should set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘zh_TW’.  Chinese users in Singapore
will want to set it to ‘zh_SG:zh_CN’, Chinese users in Hong Kong will
want to set it to ‘zh_HK:zh_TW’, and Chinese users in Macao will want to
set it to ‘zh_MO:zh_TW’.  Here ‘zh_CN’ or ‘zh_TW’, respectively, acts as
fallback, since only few packages have translations for ‘zh_SG’,
‘zh_HK’, or ‘zh_MO’.

   Note: The variable ‘LANGUAGE’ is ignored if the locale is set to ‘C’.
In other words, you have to first enable localization, by setting ‘LANG’
(or ‘LC_ALL’) to a value other than ‘C’, before you can use a language
priority list through the ‘LANGUAGE’ variable.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Working in a Windows console,  Next: Installing Localizations,  Prev: Setting the POSIX Locale,  Up: Users

2.4 Obtaining good output in a Windows console
==============================================

   On Windows, consoles such as the one started by the ‘cmd.exe’ program
do input and output in an encoding, called "OEM code page", that is
different from the encoding that text-mode programs usually use, called
"ANSI code page".  (Note: This problem does not exist for Cygwin
consoles; these consoles do input and output in the UTF-8 encoding.)  As
a workaround, you may request that the programs produce output in this
"OEM" encoding.  To do so, set the environment variable ‘OUTPUT_CHARSET’
to the "OEM" encoding, through a command such as
     set OUTPUT_CHARSET=CP850
   Note: This has an effect only on strings looked up in message
catalogs; other categories of text are usually not affected by this
setting.  Note also that this environment variable also affects output
sent to a file or to a pipe; output to a file is most often expected to
be in the "ANSI" or in the UTF-8 encoding.

   Here are examples of the "ANSI" and "OEM" code pages:

Territories                            ANSI encoding      OEM encoding
                                      
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Western Europe                         CP1252             CP850
Slavic countries (Latin 2)             CP1250             CP852
Baltic countries                       CP1257             CP775
Russia                                 CP1251             CP866


File: gettext.info,  Node: Installing Localizations,  Prev: Working in a Windows console,  Up: Users

2.5 Installing Translations for Particular Programs
===================================================

   Languages are not equally well supported in all packages using GNU
‘gettext’, and more translations are added over time.  Usually, you use
the translations that are shipped with the operating system or with
particular packages that you install afterwards.  But you can also
install newer localizations directly.  For doing this, you will need an
understanding where each localization file is stored on the file system.

   For programs that participate in the Translation Project, you can
start looking for translations here:
<https://translationproject.org/team/index.html>.

   For programs that are part of the KDE project, the starting point is:
<https://l10n.kde.org/>.

   For programs that are part of the GNOME project, the starting point
is: <https://wiki.gnome.org/TranslationProject>.

   For other programs, you may check whether the program's source code
package contains some ‘LL.po’ files; often they are kept together in a
directory called ‘po/’.  Each ‘LL.po’ file contains the message
translations for the language whose abbreviation of LL.


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO Files,  Next: Sources,  Prev: Users,  Up: Top

3 The Format of PO Files
************************

   The GNU ‘gettext’ toolset helps programmers and translators at
producing, updating and using translation files, mainly those PO files
which are textual, editable files.  This chapter explains the format of
PO files.

* Menu:

* PO File Entries::             What an entry looks like
* Workflow flags::              Workflow flags
* Sticky flags::                Sticky flags
* Entries with Context::        Entries with Context
* Entries with Plural Forms::   Entries with Plural Forms
* More Details::                Further details on the PO file format
* PO File Format Evolution::    The PO File Format is evolving


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO File Entries,  Next: Workflow flags,  Up: PO Files

3.1 What an entry looks like
============================

   A PO file is made up of many entries, each entry holding the relation
between an original untranslated string and its corresponding
translation.  All entries in a given PO file usually pertain to a single
project, and all translations are expressed in a single target language.
One PO file “entry” has the following schematic structure:

     WHITE-SPACE
     #  TRANSLATOR-COMMENTS
     #. EXTRACTED-COMMENTS
     #: REFERENCE...
     #, FLAG...
     #| msgid PREVIOUS-UNTRANSLATED-STRING
     msgid UNTRANSLATED-STRING
     msgstr TRANSLATED-STRING

   The general structure of a PO file should be well understood by the
translator.  When using PO mode, very little has to be known about the
format details, as PO mode takes care of them for her.

   A simple entry can look like this:

     #: lib/error.c:116
     msgid "Unknown system error"
     msgstr "Error desconegut del sistema"

   Entries begin with some optional white space.  Usually, when
generated through GNU ‘gettext’ tools, there is exactly one blank line
between entries.  Then comments follow, on lines all starting with the
character ‘#’.  There are two kinds of comments: those which have some
white space immediately following the ‘#’ - the TRANSLATOR COMMENTS -,
which comments are created and maintained exclusively by the translator,
and those which have some non-white character just after the ‘#’ - the
AUTOMATIC COMMENTS -, which comments are created and maintained
automatically by GNU ‘gettext’ tools.  Comment lines starting with ‘#.’
contain comments given by the programmer, directed at the translator;
these comments are called EXTRACTED COMMENTS because the ‘xgettext’
program extracts them from the program's source code.  Comment lines
starting with ‘#:’ contain references to the program's source code.
Comment lines starting with ‘#,’ contain flags; more about these below.
Comment lines starting with ‘#|’ contain the previous untranslated
string for which the translator gave a translation.

   All comments, of either kind, are optional.

   References to the program's source code, in lines that start with
‘#:’, are of the form ‘FILE_NAME:LINE_NUMBER’ or just FILE_NAME.  If the
FILE_NAME contains spaces.  it is enclosed within Unicode characters
U+2068 and U+2069.

   After white space and comments, entries show two strings, namely
first the untranslated string as it appears in the original program
sources, and then, the translation of this string.  The original string
is introduced by the keyword ‘msgid’, and the translation, by ‘msgstr’.
The two strings, untranslated and translated, are quoted in various ways
in the PO file, using ‘"’ delimiters and ‘\’ escapes, but the translator
does not really have to pay attention to the precise quoting format, as
PO mode fully takes care of quoting for her.

   The ‘msgid’ strings, as well as automatic comments, are produced and
managed by other GNU ‘gettext’ tools, and PO mode does not provide means
for the translator to alter these.  The most she can do is merely
deleting them, and only by deleting the whole entry.  On the other hand,
the ‘msgstr’ string, as well as translator comments, are really meant
for the translator, and PO mode gives her the full control she needs.

   The PREVIOUS-UNTRANSLATED-STRING is optionally inserted by the
‘msgmerge’ program, at the same time when it marks a message fuzzy.  It
helps the translator to see which changes were done by the developers on
the UNTRANSLATED-STRING.

   The comment lines beginning with ‘#,’ are special because they are
not completely ignored by the programs as comments generally are.  The
comma separated list of FLAGs is used by the ‘msgfmt’ program to give
the user some better diagnostic messages.  Currently there are two forms
of flags defined: workflow flags and sticky flags.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Workflow flags,  Next: Sticky flags,  Prev: PO File Entries,  Up: PO Files

3.2 Workflow flags
==================

   Workflow flags are flags that can be added or removed by the
translator, by the PO file editor that the translator uses, or by tools
that are part of the workflow.  These flags represent the state of the
entry in the workflow.

   Currently, only one workflow flag is defined:

‘fuzzy’
     This flag can be generated by the ‘msgmerge’ program or it can be
     inserted by the translator herself.  It shows that the ‘msgstr’
     string might not be a correct translation (anymore).  Only the
     translator can judge if the translation requires further
     modification, or is acceptable as is.  Once satisfied with the
     translation, she then removes this ‘fuzzy’ attribute.  The
     ‘msgmerge’ program inserts this when it combined the ‘msgid’ and
     ‘msgstr’ entries after fuzzy search only.  *Note Fuzzy Entries::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Sticky flags,  Next: Entries with Context,  Prev: Workflow flags,  Up: PO Files

3.3 Sticky flags
================

   Sticky flags are flags that are set on an entry when the PO template
file is created, and that remain attached to it throughout the workflow.

   There are two kinds of sticky flags:
   • The ‘*-format’ flags, that are inferred from the ‘msgid’ and from
     the source code that surrounds the ‘msgid’.
   • Other flags, assigned by the programmer.

   The following ‘*-format’ flags exist.  More can be added in future
GNU gettext releases.

‘c-format’
‘no-c-format’
     These flags should not be added by a human.  Instead only the
     ‘xgettext’ program adds them.  In an automated PO file processing
     system as proposed here, the user's changes would be thrown away
     again as soon as the ‘xgettext’ program generates a new template
     file.

     The ‘c-format’ flag indicates that the untranslated string and the
     translation are supposed to be C format strings.  The ‘no-c-format’
     flag indicates that they are not C format strings, even though the
     untranslated string happens to look like a C format string (with
     ‘%’ directives).

     When the ‘c-format’ flag is given for a string the ‘msgfmt’ program
     does some more tests to check the validity of the translation.
     *Note msgfmt Invocation::, *note c-format Flag:: and *note
     c-format::.

‘objc-format’
‘no-objc-format’
     Likewise for Objective C, see *note objc-format::.

‘c++-format’
‘no-c++-format’
     Likewise for C++, see *note c++-format::.

‘python-format’
‘no-python-format’
     Likewise for Python, see *note python-format::.

‘python-brace-format’
‘no-python-brace-format’
     Likewise for Python brace, see *note python-format::.

‘java-format’
‘no-java-format’
     Likewise for Java ‘MessageFormat’ format strings, see *note
     java-format::.

‘java-printf-format’
‘no-java-printf-format’
     Likewise for Java ‘printf’ format strings, see *note java-format::.

‘csharp-format’
‘no-csharp-format’
     Likewise for C#, see *note csharp-format::.

‘javascript-format’
‘no-javascript-format’
     Likewise for JavaScript, see *note javascript-format::.

‘scheme-format’
‘no-scheme-format’
     Likewise for Scheme, see *note scheme-format::.

‘lisp-format’
‘no-lisp-format’
     Likewise for Lisp, see *note lisp-format::.

‘elisp-format’
‘no-elisp-format’
     Likewise for Emacs Lisp, see *note elisp-format::.

‘librep-format’
‘no-librep-format’
     Likewise for librep, see *note librep-format::.

‘rust-format’
‘no-rust-format’
     Likewise for Rust, see *note rust-format::.

‘go-format’
‘no-go-format’
     Likewise for Go, see *note go-format::.

‘ruby-format’
‘no-ruby-format’
     Likewise for Ruby, see *note ruby-format::.

‘sh-format’
‘no-sh-format’
     Likewise for Shell format strings, see *note sh-format::.

‘sh-printf-format’
‘no-sh-printf-format’
     Likewise for Shell ‘printf’ format strings, see *note sh-format::.

‘awk-format’
‘no-awk-format’
     Likewise for awk, see *note awk-format::.

‘lua-format’
‘no-lua-format’
     Likewise for Lua, see *note lua-format::.

‘object-pascal-format’
‘no-object-pascal-format’
     Likewise for Object Pascal, see *note object-pascal-format::.

‘modula2-format’
‘no-modula2-format’
     Likewise for Modula-2, see *note modula2-format::.

‘d-format’
‘no-d-format’
     Likewise for D, see *note d-format::.

‘ocaml-format’
‘no-ocaml-format’
     Likewise for OCaml, see *note ocaml-format::.

‘smalltalk-format’
‘no-smalltalk-format’
     Likewise for Smalltalk, see *note smalltalk-format::.

‘qt-format’
‘no-qt-format’
     Likewise for Qt, see *note qt-format::.

‘qt-plural-format’
‘no-qt-plural-format’
     Likewise for Qt plural forms, see *note qt-plural-format::.

‘kde-format’
‘no-kde-format’
     Likewise for KDE, see *note kde-format::.

‘boost-format’
‘no-boost-format’
     Likewise for Boost, see *note boost-format::.

‘tcl-format’
‘no-tcl-format’
     Likewise for Tcl, see *note tcl-format::.

‘perl-format’
‘no-perl-format’
     Likewise for Perl, see *note perl-format::.

‘perl-brace-format’
‘no-perl-brace-format’
     Likewise for Perl brace, see *note perl-format::.

‘php-format’
‘no-php-format’
     Likewise for PHP, see *note php-format::.

‘gcc-internal-format’
‘no-gcc-internal-format’
     Likewise for the GCC sources, see *note gcc-internal-format::.

‘gfc-internal-format’
‘no-gfc-internal-format’
     Likewise for the GNU Fortran Compiler sources up to GCC 14.x, see
     *note gfc-internal-format::.  These flags are deprecated.

‘ycp-format’
‘no-ycp-format’
     Likewise for YCP, see *note ycp-format::.

   Other flags, assigned by the programmer, are:

‘no-wrap’
     This flag influences the presentation of the entry in the PO file.
     By default, when a PO file is output by a GNU gettext program and
     the option ‘--no-wrap’ is not specified, message lines that exceed
     the output page width are split into several lines.  This flag
     inhibits this line breaking for the entry.  This is useful for
     entries whose lines are close to 80 columns wide.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Entries with Context,  Next: Entries with Plural Forms,  Prev: Sticky flags,  Up: PO Files

3.4 Entries with Context
========================

   It is also possible to have entries with a context specifier.  They
look like this:

     WHITE-SPACE
     #  TRANSLATOR-COMMENTS
     #. EXTRACTED-COMMENTS
     #: REFERENCE...
     #, FLAG...
     #| msgctxt PREVIOUS-CONTEXT
     #| msgid PREVIOUS-UNTRANSLATED-STRING
     msgctxt CONTEXT
     msgid UNTRANSLATED-STRING
     msgstr TRANSLATED-STRING

   The context serves to disambiguate messages with the same
UNTRANSLATED-STRING.  It is possible to have several entries with the
same UNTRANSLATED-STRING in a PO file, provided that they each have a
different CONTEXT.  Note that an empty CONTEXT string and an absent
‘msgctxt’ line do not mean the same thing.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Entries with Plural Forms,  Next: More Details,  Prev: Entries with Context,  Up: PO Files

3.5 Entries with Plural Forms
=============================

   A different kind of entries is used for translations which involve
plural forms.

     WHITE-SPACE
     #  TRANSLATOR-COMMENTS
     #. EXTRACTED-COMMENTS
     #: REFERENCE...
     #, FLAG...
     #| msgid PREVIOUS-UNTRANSLATED-STRING-SINGULAR
     #| msgid_plural PREVIOUS-UNTRANSLATED-STRING-PLURAL
     msgid UNTRANSLATED-STRING-SINGULAR
     msgid_plural UNTRANSLATED-STRING-PLURAL
     msgstr[0] TRANSLATED-STRING-CASE-0
     ...
     msgstr[N] TRANSLATED-STRING-CASE-N

   Such an entry can look like this:

     #: src/msgcmp.c:338 src/po-lex.c:699
     #, c-format
     msgid "found %d fatal error"
     msgid_plural "found %d fatal errors"
     msgstr[0] "s'ha trobat %d error fatal"
     msgstr[1] "s'han trobat %d errors fatals"

   Here also, a ‘msgctxt’ context can be specified before ‘msgid’, like
above.

   Here, additional kinds of sticky flags can be used:

‘range:’
     This flag is followed by a range of non-negative numbers, using the
     syntax ‘range: MINIMUM-VALUE..MAXIMUM-VALUE’.  It designates the
     possible values that the numeric parameter of the message can take.
     In some languages, translators may produce slightly better
     translations if they know that the value can only take on values
     between 0 and 10, for example.


File: gettext.info,  Node: More Details,  Next: PO File Format Evolution,  Prev: Entries with Plural Forms,  Up: PO Files

3.6 Further details on the PO file format
=========================================

   It happens that some lines, usually whitespace or comments, follow
the very last entry of a PO file.  Such lines are not part of any entry,
and will be dropped when the PO file is processed by the tools, or may
disturb some PO file editors.

   The remainder of this section may be safely skipped by those using a
PO file editor, yet it may be interesting for everybody to have a better
idea of the precise format of a PO file.  On the other hand, those
wishing to modify PO files by hand should carefully continue reading on.

   An empty UNTRANSLATED-STRING is reserved to contain the header entry
with the meta information (*note Header Entry::).  This header entry
should be the first entry of the file.  The empty UNTRANSLATED-STRING is
reserved for this purpose and must not be used anywhere else.

   Each of UNTRANSLATED-STRING and TRANSLATED-STRING respects the C
syntax for a character string, including the surrounding quotes and
embedded backslashed escape sequences, except that universal character
escape sequences (‘\u’ and ‘\U’) are not allowed.  When the time comes
to write multi-line strings, one should not use escaped newlines.
Instead, a closing quote should follow the last character on the line to
be continued, and an opening quote should resume the string at the
beginning of the following PO file line.  For example:

     msgid ""
     "Here is an example of how one might continue a very long string\n"
     "for the common case the string represents multi-line output.\n"

In this example, the empty string is used on the first line, to allow
better alignment of the ‘H’ from the word ‘Here’ over the ‘f’ from the
word ‘for’.  In this example, the ‘msgid’ keyword is followed by three
strings, which are meant to be concatenated.  Concatenating the empty
string does not change the resulting overall string, but it is a way for
us to comply with the necessity of ‘msgid’ to be followed by a string on
the same line, while keeping the multi-line presentation left-justified,
as we find this to be a cleaner disposition.  The empty string could
have been omitted, but only if the string starting with ‘Here’ was
promoted on the first line, right after ‘msgid’.(1)  It was not really
necessary either to switch between the two last quoted strings
immediately after the newline ‘\n’, the switch could have occurred after
_any_ other character, we just did it this way because it is neater.

   One should carefully distinguish between end of lines marked as ‘\n’
_inside_ quotes, which are part of the represented string, and end of
lines in the PO file itself, outside string quotes, which have no
incidence on the represented string.

   Outside strings, white lines and comments may be used freely.
Comments start at the beginning of a line with ‘#’ and extend until the
end of the PO file line.  Comments written by translators should have
the initial ‘#’ immediately followed by some white space.  If the ‘#’ is
not immediately followed by white space, this comment is most likely
generated and managed by specialized GNU tools, and might disappear or
be replaced unexpectedly when the PO file is given to ‘msgmerge’.

   For a PO file to be valid, no two entries without ‘msgctxt’ may have
the same UNTRANSLATED-STRING or UNTRANSLATED-STRING-SINGULAR.
Similarly, no two entries may have the same ‘msgctxt’ and the same
UNTRANSLATED-STRING or UNTRANSLATED-STRING-SINGULAR.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) This limitation is not imposed by GNU ‘gettext’, but is for
compatibility with the ‘msgfmt’ implementation on Solaris.


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO File Format Evolution,  Prev: More Details,  Up: PO Files

3.7 Evolution of the PO File Format
===================================

   It is planned that after 2027-01-01, entries in PO files support
additional workflow flags and also custom sticky flags.

   Additional workflow flags are useful to support workflows with other
steps than translation proper, such as pretranslation (based on
translation memory or done through AI) or review or approval by a
different person than the translator.

   Custom sticky flags are useful for projects which have extra
capabilities in their tooling, such as project specific checks on the
translations.

   In order to support both reliably, the PO file format is being
extended in two steps.

   Effective *now (June 2025)*, the character sequence ‘#=’ at the
beginning of a line introduces a line of flags, like the characters ‘#,’
already do.

   All applications that _read_ (consume) PO files are encouraged to
support ‘#=’ as an alternative to ‘#,’.

   All applications that _modify_ (read, modify, then write) PO files
should
   • when not changing the flags:
        • either keep the ‘#,’ line unchanged and the ‘#=’ line
          unchanged,
        • or emit all flags in a ‘#,’ line and no ‘#=’ line at all.
   • when adding flags: add these flags in the ‘#,’ line (*not* in the
     ‘#=’ line),
   • when removing flags that were specified in the ‘#=’ line:
        • either remove the flag from the ‘#=’ line, emitting a ‘#=’
          line with fewer flags,
        • or emit all flags in a ‘#,’ line and no ‘#=’ line at all.

   *On 2027-01-01*, the PO file format will be revised again: it will be
decided that either
     ‘#,’ should be followed by workflow flags,
     and ‘#=’ should be followed by sticky flags,
or the other way around:
     ‘#=’ should be followed by workflow flags,
     and ‘#,’ should be followed by sticky flags.

   From that moment on, applications that _write_ (produce) PO files are
   • allowed to emit ‘#=’ lines,
   • allowed to emit custom sticky flags.

   And applications that _read and write_ PO files are
   • required to keep unknown sticky flags in place, i.e. not drop them.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Sources,  Next: Template,  Prev: PO Files,  Up: Top

4 Preparing Program Sources
***************************

   For the programmer, changes to the C source code fall into three
categories.  First, you have to make the localization functions known to
all modules needing message translation.  Second, you should properly
trigger the operation of GNU ‘gettext’ when the program initializes,
usually from the ‘main’ function.  Last, you should identify, adjust and
mark all constant strings in your program needing translation.

* Menu:

* Importing::                   Importing the ‘gettext’ declaration
* Triggering::                  Triggering ‘gettext’ Operations
* Preparing Strings::           Preparing Translatable Strings
* Mark Keywords::               How Marks Appear in Sources
* Marking::                     Marking Translatable Strings
* Translator advice::           Adding advice for translators
* c-format Flag::               Telling something about the following string
* Special cases::               Special Cases of Translatable Strings
* Bug Report Address::          Letting Users Report Translation Bugs
* Names::                       Marking Proper Names for Translation
* Libraries::                   Preparing Library Sources


File: gettext.info,  Node: Importing,  Next: Triggering,  Up: Sources

4.1 Importing the ‘gettext’ declaration
=======================================

   Presuming that your set of programs, or package, has been adjusted so
all needed GNU ‘gettext’ files are available, and your ‘Makefile’ files
are adjusted (*note Maintainers::), each C module having translated C
strings should contain the line:

     #include <libintl.h>

   Similarly, each C module containing ‘printf()’/‘fprintf()’/...  calls
with a format string that could be a translated C string (even if the C
string comes from a different C module) should contain the line:

     #include <libintl.h>


File: gettext.info,  Node: Triggering,  Next: Preparing Strings,  Prev: Importing,  Up: Sources

4.2 Triggering ‘gettext’ Operations
===================================

   The initialization of locale data should be done with more or less
the same code in every program, as demonstrated below:

     int
     main (int argc, char *argv[])
     {
       ...
       setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
       bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
       textdomain (PACKAGE);
       ...
     }

   PACKAGE and LOCALEDIR should be provided either by ‘config.h’ or by
the Makefile.  For now consult the ‘gettext’ or ‘hello’ sources for more
information.

   The use of ‘LC_ALL’ might not be appropriate for you.  ‘LC_ALL’
includes all locale categories and especially ‘LC_CTYPE’.  This latter
category is responsible for determining character classes with the
‘isalnum’ etc.  functions from ‘ctype.h’ which could especially for
programs, which process some kind of input language, be wrong.  For
example this would mean that a source code using the ç (c-cedilla
character) is runnable in France but not in the U.S.

   Some systems also have problems with parsing numbers using the
‘scanf’ functions if an other but the ‘LC_ALL’ locale category is used.
The standards say that additional formats but the one known in the ‘"C"’
locale might be recognized.  But some systems seem to reject numbers in
the ‘"C"’ locale format.  In some situation, it might also be a problem
with the notation itself which makes it impossible to recognize whether
the number is in the ‘"C"’ locale or the local format.  This can happen
if thousands separator characters are used.  Some locales define this
character according to the national conventions to ‘'.'’ which is the
same character used in the ‘"C"’ locale to denote the decimal point.

   So it is sometimes necessary to replace the ‘LC_ALL’ line in the code
above by a sequence of ‘setlocale’ lines

     {
       ...
       setlocale (LC_CTYPE, "");
       setlocale (LC_MESSAGES, "");
       ...
     }

On all POSIX conformant systems the locale categories ‘LC_CTYPE’,
‘LC_MESSAGES’, ‘LC_COLLATE’, ‘LC_MONETARY’, ‘LC_NUMERIC’, and ‘LC_TIME’
are available.  On some systems which are only ISO C compliant,
‘LC_MESSAGES’ is missing, but a substitute for it is defined in GNU
gettext's ‘<libintl.h>’ and in GNU gnulib's ‘<locale.h>’.

   Note that changing the ‘LC_CTYPE’ also affects the functions declared
in the ‘<ctype.h>’ standard header and some functions declared in the
‘<string.h>’ and ‘<stdlib.h>’ standard headers.  If this is not
desirable in your application (for example in a compiler's parser), you
can use a set of substitute functions which hardwire the C locale, such
as found in the modules ‘c-ctype’, ‘c-strcase’, ‘c-strcasestr’,
‘c-snprintf’, ‘c-strtod’, ‘c-strtold’, ‘c-dtoastr’, ‘c-ldtoastr’ in the
GNU gnulib source distribution.

   It is also possible to switch the locale forth and back between the
environment dependent locale and the C locale, but this approach is
normally avoided because a ‘setlocale’ call is expensive, because it is
tedious to determine the places where a locale switch is needed in a
large program's source, and because switching a locale is not
multithread-safe.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Preparing Strings,  Next: Mark Keywords,  Prev: Triggering,  Up: Sources

4.3 Preparing Translatable Strings
==================================

   Before strings can be marked for translations, they sometimes need to
be adjusted.  Usually preparing a string for translation is done right
before marking it, during the marking phase which is described in the
next sections.  What you have to keep in mind while doing that is the
following.

   • Decent English style.

   • Entire sentences.

   • Split at paragraphs.

   • Use format strings instead of string concatenation.

   • Use placeholders in format strings instead of embedded URLs.

   • Use placeholders in format strings instead of programmer-defined
     format string directives.

   • Avoid unusual markup and unusual control characters.

Let's look at some examples of these guidelines.

* Menu:

* Decent English style::
* Entire sentences::
* Split at paragraphs::
* No string concatenation::
* No embedded URLs::
* No custom format directives::
* No unusual markup::


File: gettext.info,  Node: Decent English style,  Next: Entire sentences,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.1 Decent English style
--------------------------

   Translatable strings should be in good English style.  If slang
language with abbreviations and shortcuts is used, often translators
will not understand the message and will produce very inappropriate
translations.

     "%s: is parameter\n"

This is nearly untranslatable: Is the displayed item _a_ parameter or
_the_ parameter?

     "No match"

The ambiguity in this message makes it unintelligible: Is the program
attempting to set something on fire?  Does it mean "The given object
does not match the template"?  Does it mean "The template does not fit
for any of the objects"?

   In both cases, adding more words to the message will help both the
translator and the English speaking user.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Entire sentences,  Next: Split at paragraphs,  Prev: Decent English style,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.2 Entire sentences
----------------------

   Translatable strings should be entire sentences.  It is often not
possible to translate single verbs or adjectives in a substitutable way.

     printf ("File %s is %s protected", filename, rw ? "write" : "read");

Most translators will not look at the source and will thus only see the
string ‘"File %s is %s protected"’, which is unintelligible.  Change
this to

     printf (rw ? "File %s is write protected" : "File %s is read protected",
             filename);

This way the translator will not only understand the message, she will
also be able to find the appropriate grammatical construction.  A French
translator for example translates "write protected" like "protected
against writing".

   Entire sentences are also important because in many languages, the
declination of some word in a sentence depends on the gender or the
number (singular/plural) of another part of the sentence.  There are
usually more interdependencies between words than in English.  The
consequence is that asking a translator to translate two half-sentences
and then combining these two half-sentences through dumb string
concatenation will not work, for many languages, even though it would
work for English.  That's why translators need to handle entire
sentences.

   Often sentences don't fit into a single line.  If a sentence is
output using two subsequent ‘printf’ statements, like this

     printf ("Locale charset \"%s\" is different from\n", lcharset);
     printf ("input file charset \"%s\".\n", fcharset);

the translator would have to translate two half sentences, but nothing
in the POT file would tell her that the two half sentences belong
together.  It is necessary to merge the two ‘printf’ statements so that
the translator can handle the entire sentence at once and decide at
which place to insert a line break in the translation (if at all):

     printf ("Locale charset \"%s\" is different from\n\
     input file charset \"%s\".\n", lcharset, fcharset);

   You may now ask: how about two or more adjacent sentences?  Like in
this case:

     puts ("Apollo 13 scenario: Stack overflow handling failed.");
     puts ("On the next stack overflow we will crash!!!");

Should these two statements merged into a single one?  I would recommend
to merge them if the two sentences are related to each other, because
then it makes it easier for the translator to understand and translate
both.  On the other hand, if one of the two messages is a stereotypic
one, occurring in other places as well, you will do a favour to the
translator by not merging the two.  (Identical messages occurring in
several places are combined by ‘xgettext’, so the translator has to
handle them once only.)


File: gettext.info,  Node: Split at paragraphs,  Next: No string concatenation,  Prev: Entire sentences,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.3 Split at paragraphs
-------------------------

   Translatable strings should be limited to one paragraph; don't let a
single message be longer than ten lines.  The reason is that when the
translatable string changes, the translator is faced with the task of
updating the entire translated string.  Maybe only a single word will
have changed in the English string, but the translator doesn't see that
(with the current translation tools), therefore she has to proofread the
entire message.

   Many GNU programs have a ‘--help’ output that extends over several
screen pages.  It is a courtesy towards the translators to split such a
message into several ones of five to ten lines each.  While doing that,
you can also attempt to split the documented options into groups, such
as the input options, the output options, and the informative output
options.  This will help every user to find the option he is looking
for.


File: gettext.info,  Node: No string concatenation,  Next: No embedded URLs,  Prev: Split at paragraphs,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.4 No string concatenation
-----------------------------

   Hardcoded string concatenation is sometimes used to construct English
strings:

     strcpy (s, "Replace ");
     strcat (s, object1);
     strcat (s, " with ");
     strcat (s, object2);
     strcat (s, "?");

In order to present to the translator only entire sentences, and also
because in some languages the translator might want to swap the order of
‘object1’ and ‘object2’, it is necessary to change this to use a format
string:

     sprintf (s, "Replace %s with %s?", object1, object2);

String concatenation operator
-----------------------------

   In many programming languages, a particular operator denotes string
concatenation at runtime (or possibly at compile time, if the compiler
supports that).

   • In C++, string concatenation of ‘std::string’ objects is denoted by
     the ‘+’ operator.
   • In Python, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In Java, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In C#, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In JavaScript and TypeScript, string concatenation is denoted by
     the ‘+’ operator.
   • In Go, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In Ruby, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In Shell, string concatenation is denoted by mere juxtaposition of
     strings.
   • In awk, string concatenation is denoted by mere juxtaposition of
     strings.
   • In Lua, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘..’ operator.
   • In Modula-2, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In D, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘~’ operator.
   • In OCaml, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘^’ operator.
   • In Smalltalk, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘,’ operator.
   • In Vala, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘+’ operator.
   • In Perl, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘.’ operator.
   • In PHP, string concatenation is denoted by the ‘.’ operator.

   So, for example, in Java, you would change

     System.out.println("Replace "+object1+" with "+object2+"?");

into a statement involving a format string:

     System.out.println(
         MessageFormat.format("Replace {0} with {1}?",
                              new Object[] { object1, object2 }));

Similarly, in C#, you would change

     Console.WriteLine("Replace "+object1+" with "+object2+"?");

into a statement involving a format string:

     Console.WriteLine(
         String.Format("Replace {0} with {1}?", object1, object2));

Strings with embedded expressions
---------------------------------

   In some programming languages, it is possible to have strings with
embedded expressions.  The expressions can refer to variables of the
program.  The value of such an expression is converted to a string and
inserted in place of the expression; but no formatting function is
called.

   • In Python, _f-strings_ can contain expressions.  Such as ‘f"Hello,
     {name}!"’.
   • In C#, since C# 6.0, _interpolated strings_ can contain
     expressions.  Such as ‘$"Hello, {name}!"’.
   • In JavaScript, since ES6, and in TypeScript, _template literals_
     can contain expressions.  Such as ‘`Hello, ${name}!`’.
   • In Ruby, _interpolated strings_ can contain expressions.  Such as
     ‘"Hello, #{name}!"’.
   • In Shell language, double-quoted strings can contain references to
     variables, along with default values and string operations.  Such
     as ‘"Hello, $name!"’ or ‘"Hello, ${name}!"’.
   • In D, _interpolation expression sequences_ can contain expressions.
     Such as ‘i"Hello, $(name)!"’.
   • In Tcl, strings are subject to _variable substitution_.  Such as
     ‘"Hello, $name!"’.
   • In Perl, _interpolated strings_ can contain expressions.  Such as
     ‘"Hello, $name!"’.
   • In PHP, string literals are subject to _variable parsing_.  Such as
     ‘"Hello, $name!"’.

   These cases are effectively string concatenation as well, just with a
different syntax.

   So, for example, in Python, you would change

     print (f'Replace {object1.name} with {object2.name}?')

into a statement involving a format string:

     print ('Replace %(name1)s with %(name2)s?'
            % { 'name1': object1.name, 'name2': object2.name })

or equivalently
     print ('Replace {name1} with {name2}?'
            .format(name1 = object1.name, name2 = object2.name))

   And in JavaScript, you would change

     print (`Replace ${object1.name} with ${object2.name}?`)

into a statement involving a format string:

     print ('Replace %s with %s?'.format(object1.name, object2.name))

Specifically in JavaScript, an alternative is to use a _tagged_ template
literal:

     print (TAG`Replace ${object1.name} with ${object2.name}?`)

and pass an option ‘--tag=TAG:FORMAT’ to ‘xgettext’.

Format strings with embedded named references
---------------------------------------------

   Format strings with embedded named references are different: They are
suitable for internationalization, because it is possible to insert a
call to the ‘gettext’ function (that will return a translated format
string) _before_ the argument values are inserted in place of the
placeholders.

   The format string types that allow embedded named references are:

   • *note Shell format strings: sh-format.
   • In Python, those *note Python format strings: python-format. that
     take a dictionary as argument, and the *note Python brace format
     strings: python-format.
   • In Ruby, those *note Ruby format strings: ruby-format. that take a
     hash table as argument.
   • In Perl, the *note Perl brace format strings: perl-format.

The ‘<inttypes.h>’ macros
-------------------------

   A similar case is compile time concatenation of strings.  The ISO C
99 include file ‘<inttypes.h>’ contains a macro ‘PRId64’ that can be
used as a formatting directive for outputting an ‘int64_t’ integer
through ‘printf’.  It expands to a constant string, usually "d" or "ld"
or "lld" or something like this, depending on the platform.  Assume you
have code like

     printf ("The amount is %0" PRId64 "\n", number);

The ‘gettext’ tools and library have special support for these
‘<inttypes.h>’ macros.  You can therefore simply write

     printf (gettext ("The amount is %0" PRId64 "\n"), number);

The PO file will contain the string "The amount is %0<PRId64>\n".  The
translators will provide a translation containing "%0<PRId64>" as well,
and at runtime the ‘gettext’ function's result will contain the
appropriate constant string, "d" or "ld" or "lld".

   This works only for the predefined ‘<inttypes.h>’ macros.  If you
have defined your own similar macros, let's say ‘MYPRId64’, that are not
known to ‘xgettext’, the solution for this problem is to change the code
like this:

     char buf1[100];
     sprintf (buf1, "%0" MYPRId64, number);
     printf (gettext ("The amount is %s\n"), buf1);

   This means, you put the platform dependent code in one statement, and
the internationalization code in a different statement.  Note that a
buffer length of 100 is safe, because all available hardware integer
types are limited to 128 bits, and to print a 128 bit integer one needs
at most 54 characters, regardless whether in decimal, octal or
hexadecimal.


File: gettext.info,  Node: No embedded URLs,  Next: No custom format directives,  Prev: No string concatenation,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.5 No embedded URLs
----------------------

   It is good to not embed URLs in translatable strings, for several
reasons:
   • It avoids possible mistakes during copy and paste.
   • Translators cannot translate the URLs or, by mistake, use the URLs
     from other packages that are present in their compendium.
   • When the URLs change, translators don't need to revisit the
     translation of the string.

   The same holds for email addresses.

   So, you would change

     fputs (_("GNU GPL version 3 <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>\n"),
            stream);

to

     fprintf (stream, _("GNU GPL version 3 <%s>\n"),
              "https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html");


File: gettext.info,  Node: No custom format directives,  Next: No unusual markup,  Prev: No embedded URLs,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.6 No programmer-defined format string directives
----------------------------------------------------

   The GNU C Library's ‘<printf.h>’ facility and the C++ standard
library's ‘<format>’ header file make it possible for the programmer to
define their own format string directives.  However, such format
directives cannot be used in translatable strings, for two reasons:
   • There is no reference documentation for format strings with such
     directives, that the translators could consult.  They would
     therefore have to guess where the directive starts and where it
     ends.
   • An ‘msgfmt -c’ invocation cannot check whether the translator has
     produced a compatible translation of the format string.  As a
     consequence, when a format string contains a programmer-defined
     directive, the program may crash at runtime when it uses the
     translated format string.

   To avoid this situation, you need to move the formatting with the
custom directive into a format string that does not get translated.

   For example, assuming code that makes use of a ‘%r’ directive:

     fprintf (stream, _("The contents is: %r"), data);

you would rewrite it to:

     char *tmp;
     if (asprintf (&tmp, "%r", data) < 0)
       error (...);
     fprintf (stream, _("The contents is: %s"), tmp);
     free (tmp);

   Similarly, in C++, assuming you have defined a custom ‘formatter’ for
the type of ‘data’, the code

     cout << format (_("The contents is: {:#$#}"), data);

should be rewritten to:

     string tmp = format ("{:#$#}", data);
     cout << format (_("The contents is: {}"), tmp);


File: gettext.info,  Node: No unusual markup,  Prev: No custom format directives,  Up: Preparing Strings

4.3.7 No unusual markup
-----------------------

   Unusual markup or control characters should not be used in
translatable strings.  Translators will likely not understand the
particular meaning of the markup or control characters.

   For example, if you have a convention that ‘|’ delimits the left-hand
and right-hand part of some GUI elements, translators will often not
understand it without specific comments.  It might be better to have the
translator translate the left-hand and right-hand part separately.

   Another example is the ‘argp’ convention to use a single ‘\v’
(vertical tab) control character to delimit two sections inside a
string.  This is flawed.  Some translators may convert it to a simple
newline, some to blank lines.  With some PO file editors it may not be
easy to even enter a vertical tab control character.  So, you cannot be
sure that the translation will contain a ‘\v’ character, at the
corresponding position.  The solution is, again, to let the translator
translate two separate strings and combine at run-time the two
translated strings with the ‘\v’ required by the convention.

   HTML markup, however, is common enough that it's probably ok to use
in translatable strings.  But please bear in mind that the GNU gettext
tools don't verify that the translations are well-formed HTML.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Mark Keywords,  Next: Marking,  Prev: Preparing Strings,  Up: Sources

4.4 How Marks Appear in Sources
===============================

   All strings requiring translation should be marked in the C sources.
Marking is done in such a way that each translatable string appears to
be the sole argument of some function or preprocessor macro.  There are
only a few such possible functions or macros meant for translation, and
their names are said to be marking keywords.  The marking is attached to
strings themselves, rather than to what we do with them.  This approach
has more uses.  A blatant example is an error message produced by
formatting.  The format string needs translation, as well as some
strings inserted through some ‘%s’ specification in the format, while
the result from ‘sprintf’ may have so many different instances that it
is impractical to list them all in some ‘error_string_out()’ routine,
say.

   This marking operation has two goals.  The first goal of marking is
for triggering the retrieval of the translation, at run time.  The
keyword is possibly resolved into a routine able to dynamically return
the proper translation, as far as possible or wanted, for the argument
string.  Most localizable strings are found in executable positions,
that is, attached to variables or given as parameters to functions.  But
this is not universal usage, and some translatable strings appear in
structured initializations.  *Note Special cases::.

   The second goal of the marking operation is to help ‘xgettext’ at
properly extracting all translatable strings when it scans a set of
program sources and produces PO file templates.

   The canonical keyword for marking translatable strings is ‘gettext’,
it gave its name to the whole GNU ‘gettext’ package.  For packages
making only light use of the ‘gettext’ keyword, macro or function, it is
easily used _as is_.  However, for packages using the ‘gettext’
interface more heavily, it is usually more convenient to give the main
keyword a shorter, less obtrusive name.  Indeed, the keyword might
appear on a lot of strings all over the package, and programmers usually
do not want nor need their program sources to remind them forcefully,
all the time, that they are internationalized.  Further, a long keyword
has the disadvantage of using more horizontal space, forcing more
indentation work on sources for those trying to keep them within 79 or
80 columns.

   Many packages use ‘_’ (a simple underline) as a keyword, and write
‘_("Translatable string")’ instead of ‘gettext ("Translatable string")’.
Further, the coding rule, from GNU standards, wanting that there is a
space between the keyword and the opening parenthesis is relaxed, in
practice, for this particular usage.  So, the textual overhead per
translatable string is reduced to only three characters: the underline
and the two parentheses.  However, even if GNU ‘gettext’ uses this
convention internally, it does not offer it officially.  The real,
genuine keyword is truly ‘gettext’ indeed.  It is fairly easy for those
wanting to use ‘_’ instead of ‘gettext’ to declare:

     #include <libintl.h>
     #define _(String) gettext (String)

instead of merely using ‘#include <libintl.h>’.

   The marking keywords ‘gettext’ and ‘_’ take the translatable string
as sole argument.  It is also possible to define marking functions that
take it at another argument position.  It is even possible to make the
marked argument position depend on the total number of arguments of the
function call; this is useful in C++.  All this is achieved using
‘xgettext’'s ‘--keyword’ option.  How to pass such an option to
‘xgettext’, assuming that ‘gettextize’ is used, is described in *note
po/Makevars:: and *note AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION::.

   Note also that long strings can be split across lines, into multiple
adjacent string tokens.  Automatic string concatenation is performed at
compile time according to ISO C and ISO C++; ‘xgettext’ also supports
this syntax.

   In C++, marking a C++ format string requires a small code change,
because the first argument to ‘std::format’ must be a constant
expression.  For example,
     std::format ("{} {}!", "Hello", "world")
needs to be changed to
     std::vformat (gettext ("{} {}!"), std::make_format_args("Hello", "world"))

   Later on, the maintenance is relatively easy.  If, as a programmer,
you add or modify a string, you will have to ask yourself if the new or
altered string requires translation, and include it within ‘_()’ if you
think it should be translated.  For example, ‘"%s"’ is an example of
string _not_ requiring translation.  But ‘"%s: %d"’ _does_ require
translation, because in French, unlike in English, it's customary to put
a space before a colon.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Marking,  Next: Translator advice,  Prev: Mark Keywords,  Up: Sources

4.5 Marking Translatable Strings
================================

   In PO mode, one set of features is meant more for the programmer than
for the translator, and allows him to interactively mark which strings,
in a set of program sources, are translatable, and which are not.  Even
if it is a fairly easy job for a programmer to find and mark such
strings by other means, using any editor of his choice, PO mode makes
this work more comfortable.  Further, this gives translators who feel a
little like programmers, or programmers who feel a little like
translators, a tool letting them work at marking translatable strings in
the program sources, while simultaneously producing a set of translation
in some language, for the package being internationalized.

   The set of program sources, targeted by the PO mode commands describe
here, should have an Emacs tags table constructed for your project,
prior to using these PO file commands.  This is easy to do.  In any
shell window, change the directory to the root of your project, then
execute a command resembling:

     etags src/*.[hc] lib/*.[hc]

presuming here you want to process all ‘.h’ and ‘.c’ files from the
‘src/’ and ‘lib/’ directories.  This command will explore all said files
and create a ‘TAGS’ file in your root directory, somewhat summarizing
the contents using a special file format Emacs can understand.

   For packages following the GNU coding standards, there is a make goal
‘tags’ or ‘TAGS’ which constructs the tag files in all directories and
for all files containing source code.

   Once your ‘TAGS’ file is ready, the following commands assist the
programmer at marking translatable strings in his set of sources.  But
these commands are necessarily driven from within a PO file window, and
it is likely that you do not even have such a PO file yet.  This is not
a problem at all, as you may safely open a new, empty PO file, mainly
for using these commands.  This empty PO file will slowly fill in while
you mark strings as translatable in your program sources.

‘,’
     Search through program sources for a string which looks like a
     candidate for translation (‘po-tags-search’).

‘M-,’
     Mark the last string found with ‘_()’ (‘po-mark-translatable’).

‘M-.’
     Mark the last string found with a keyword taken from a set of
     possible keywords.  This command with a prefix allows some
     management of these keywords (‘po-select-mark-and-mark’).

   The ‘,’ (‘po-tags-search’) command searches for the next occurrence
of a string which looks like a possible candidate for translation, and
displays the program source in another Emacs window, positioned in such
a way that the string is near the top of this other window.  If the
string is too big to fit whole in this window, it is positioned so only
its end is shown.  In any case, the cursor is left in the PO file
window.  If the shown string would be better presented differently in
different native languages, you may mark it using ‘M-,’ or ‘M-.’.
Otherwise, you might rather ignore it and skip to the next string by
merely repeating the ‘,’ command.

   A string is a good candidate for translation if it contains a
sequence of three or more letters.  A string containing at most two
letters in a row will be considered as a candidate if it has more
letters than non-letters.  The command disregards strings containing no
letters, or isolated letters only.  It also disregards strings within
comments, or strings already marked with some keyword PO mode knows (see
below).

   If you have never told Emacs about some ‘TAGS’ file to use, the
command will request that you specify one from the minibuffer, the first
time you use the command.  You may later change your ‘TAGS’ file by
using the regular Emacs command ‘M-x visit-tags-table’, which will ask
you to name the precise ‘TAGS’ file you want to use.  *Note Tag Tables:
(emacs)Tags.

   Each time you use the ‘,’ command, the search resumes from where it
was left by the previous search, and goes through all program sources,
obeying the ‘TAGS’ file, until all sources have been processed.
However, by giving a prefix argument to the command (‘C-u ,’), you may
request that the search be restarted all over again from the first
program source; but in this case, strings that you recently marked as
translatable will be automatically skipped.

   Using this ‘,’ command does not prevent using of other regular Emacs
tags commands.  For example, regular ‘tags-search’ or
‘tags-query-replace’ commands may be used without disrupting the
independent ‘,’ search sequence.  However, as implemented, the _initial_
‘,’ command (or the ‘,’ command is used with a prefix) might also
reinitialize the regular Emacs tags searching to the first tags file,
this reinitialization might be considered spurious.

   The ‘M-,’ (‘po-mark-translatable’) command will mark the recently
found string with the ‘_’ keyword.  The ‘M-.’
(‘po-select-mark-and-mark’) command will request that you type one
keyword from the minibuffer and use that keyword for marking the string.
Both commands will automatically create a new PO file untranslated entry
for the string being marked, and make it the current entry (making it
easy for you to immediately proceed to its translation, if you feel like
doing it right away).  It is possible that the modifications made to the
program source by ‘M-,’ or ‘M-.’ render some source line longer than 80
columns, forcing you to break and re-indent this line differently.  You
may use the ‘O’ command from PO mode, or any other window changing
command from Emacs, to break out into the program source window, and do
any needed adjustments.  You will have to use some regular Emacs command
to return the cursor to the PO file window, if you want command ‘,’ for
the next string, say.

   The ‘M-.’ command has a few built-in speedups, so you do not have to
explicitly type all keywords all the time.  The first such speedup is
that you are presented with a _preferred_ keyword, which you may accept
by merely typing ‘<RET>’ at the prompt.  The second speedup is that you
may type any non-ambiguous prefix of the keyword you really mean, and
the command will complete it automatically for you.  This also means
that PO mode has to _know_ all your possible keywords, and that it will
not accept mistyped keywords.

   If you reply ‘?’ to the keyword request, the command gives a list of
all known keywords, from which you may choose.  When the command is
prefixed by an argument (‘C-u M-.’), it inhibits updating any program
source or PO file buffer, and does some simple keyword management
instead.  In this case, the command asks for a keyword, written in full,
which becomes a new allowed keyword for later ‘M-.’ commands.  Moreover,
this new keyword automatically becomes the _preferred_ keyword for later
commands.  By typing an already known keyword in response to ‘C-u M-.’,
one merely changes the _preferred_ keyword and does nothing more.

   All keywords known for ‘M-.’ are recognized by the ‘,’ command when
scanning for strings, and strings already marked by any of those known
keywords are automatically skipped.  If many PO files are opened
simultaneously, each one has its own independent set of known keywords.
There is no provision in PO mode, currently, for deleting a known
keyword, you have to quit the file (maybe using ‘q’) and reopen it
afresh.  When a PO file is newly brought up in an Emacs window, only
‘gettext’ and ‘_’ are known as keywords, and ‘gettext’ is preferred for
the ‘M-.’ command.  In fact, this is not useful to prefer ‘_’, as this
one is already built in the ‘M-,’ command.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translator advice,  Next: c-format Flag,  Prev: Marking,  Up: Sources

4.6 Adding advice for translators
=================================

   Sometimes you might want to add advice for the translators to a
particular message.  For example:
   • The translatable string might be decent English but nevertheless
     ambiguous.
   • The translatable string refers to something in English culture
     (such as a film's name) that is different in other cultures.
   • The translator should make an adjustment that is specific to her
     locale.

   The way to do this is to add comments, before the ‘gettext’
invocation or inside the ‘gettext’ invocation but before the string,
that start with the substring ‘TRANSLATORS:’.  These comments will be
extracted into the POT file, so that translators can see them.  For
example, when you write

     /* TRANSLATORS: This is an English idiom,
        meaning not to reveal a secret. */
     puts (gettext ("Don't spill the beans!"));

the POT file will contain:

     #. TRANSLATORS: This is an English idiom,
     #. meaning not to reveal a secret.
     #: source.c:213
     msgid "Don't spill the beans!"
     msgstr ""

and the translators will be shown the advice in a particular place in
their translation tool.

   Only comments that immediately precede the ‘gettext’ invocation or
the translatable string are considered.  Intervening blank lines are OK,
but if there is other code between the comment and the translatable
string, the comment no longer applies.

   Note: The string ‘TRANSLATORS:’ is a convention, enabled by the
‘Makefile.in.in’ file that is part of a package's build system.  It is
not enabled by default in ‘xgettext’.  If you are using ‘xgettext’
without the ‘Makefile.in.in’ infrastructure, you will need to pass the
option ‘--add-comments=TRANSLATORS:’ yourself.


File: gettext.info,  Node: c-format Flag,  Next: Special cases,  Prev: Translator advice,  Up: Sources

4.7 Special Comments preceding Keywords
=======================================

   In C programs strings are often used within calls of functions from
the ‘printf’ family.  The special thing about these format strings is
that they can contain format specifiers introduced with ‘%’.  Assume we
have the code

     printf (gettext ("String `%s' has %d characters\n"), s, strlen (s));

A possible German translation for the above string might be:

     "%d Zeichen lang ist die Zeichenkette `%s'"

   A C programmer, even if he cannot speak German, will recognize that
there is something wrong here.  The order of the two format specifiers
is changed but of course the arguments in the ‘printf’ don't have.  This
will most probably lead to problems because now the length of the string
is regarded as the address.

   To prevent errors at runtime caused by translations, the ‘msgfmt’
tool can check statically whether the arguments in the original and the
translation string match in type and number.  If this is not the case
and the ‘-c’ option has been passed to ‘msgfmt’, ‘msgfmt’ will give an
error and refuse to produce a MO file.  Thus consistent use of ‘msgfmt
-c’ will catch the error, so that it cannot cause problems at runtime.

If the word order in the above German translation would be correct one
would have to write

     "%2$d Zeichen lang ist die Zeichenkette `%1$s'"

The routines in ‘msgfmt’ know about this special notation.

   Because not all strings in a program will be format strings, it is
not useful for ‘msgfmt’ to test all the strings in the ‘.po’ file.  This
might cause problems because the string might contain what looks like a
format specifier, but the string is not used in ‘printf’.

   Therefore ‘xgettext’ adds a special tag to those messages it thinks
might be a format string.  There is no absolute rule for this, only a
heuristic.  In the ‘.po’ file the entry is marked using the ‘c-format’
flag in the ‘#,’ comment line (*note PO Files::).

   The careful reader now might say that this again can cause problems.
The heuristic might guess it wrong.  This is true and therefore
‘xgettext’ knows about a special kind of comment which lets the
programmer take over the decision.  If in the same line as or the
immediately preceding line to the ‘gettext’ keyword the ‘xgettext’
program finds a comment containing the words ‘xgettext:c-format’, it
will mark the string in any case with the ‘c-format’ flag.  This kind of
comment should be used when ‘xgettext’ does not recognize the string as
a format string but it really is one and it should be tested.  Please
note that when the comment is in the same line as the ‘gettext’ keyword,
it must be before the string to be translated.  Also note that a comment
such as ‘xgettext:c-format’ applies only to the first string in the same
or the next line, not to multiple strings.

   This situation happens quite often.  The ‘printf’ function is often
called with strings which do not contain a format specifier.  Of course
one would normally use ‘fputs’ but it does happen.  In this case
‘xgettext’ does not recognize this as a format string but what happens
if the translation introduces a valid format specifier?  The ‘printf’
function will try to access one of the parameters but none exists
because the original code does not pass any parameters.

   ‘xgettext’ of course could make a wrong decision the other way round,
i.e. a string marked as a format string actually is not a format string.
In this case the ‘msgfmt’ might give too many warnings and would prevent
translating the ‘.po’ file.  The method to prevent this wrong decision
is similar to the one used above, only the comment to use must contain
the string ‘xgettext:no-c-format’.

   If a string is marked with ‘c-format’ and this is not correct the
user can find out who is responsible for the decision.  See *note
xgettext Invocation:: to see how the ‘--debug’ option can be used for
solving this problem.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Special cases,  Next: Bug Report Address,  Prev: c-format Flag,  Up: Sources

4.8 Special Cases of Translatable Strings
=========================================

   The attentive reader might now point out that it is not always
possible to mark translatable string with ‘gettext’ or something like
this.  Consider the following case:

     {
       static const char *messages[] = {
         "some very meaningful message",
         "and another one"
       };
       const char *string;
       ...
       string
         = index > 1 ? "a default message" : messages[index];

       fputs (string);
       ...
     }

   While it is no problem to mark the string ‘"a default message"’ it is
not possible to mark the string initializers for ‘messages’.  What is to
be done?  We have to fulfill two tasks.  First we have to mark the
strings so that the ‘xgettext’ program (*note xgettext Invocation::) can
find them, and second we have to translate the string at runtime before
printing them.

   The first task can be fulfilled by creating a new keyword, which
names a no-op.  For the second we have to mark all access points to a
string from the array.  So one solution can look like this:

     #define gettext_noop(String) String

     {
       static const char *messages[] = {
         gettext_noop ("some very meaningful message"),
         gettext_noop ("and another one")
       };
       const char *string;
       ...
       string
         = index > 1 ? gettext ("a default message") : gettext (messages[index]);

       fputs (string);
       ...
     }

   Please convince yourself that the string which is written by ‘fputs’
is translated in any case.  How to get ‘xgettext’ know the additional
keyword ‘gettext_noop’ is explained in *note xgettext Invocation::.

   The above is of course not the only solution.  You could also come
along with the following one:

     #define gettext_noop(String) String

     {
       static const char *messages[] = {
         gettext_noop ("some very meaningful message"),
         gettext_noop ("and another one")
       };
       const char *string;
       ...
       string
         = index > 1 ? gettext_noop ("a default message") : messages[index];

       fputs (gettext (string));
       ...
     }

   But this has a drawback.  The programmer has to take care that he
uses ‘gettext_noop’ for the string ‘"a default message"’.  A use of
‘gettext’ could have in rare cases unpredictable results.

   One advantage is that you need not make control flow analysis to make
sure the output is really translated in any case.  But this analysis is
generally not very difficult.  If it should be in any situation you can
use this second method in this situation.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Bug Report Address,  Next: Names,  Prev: Special cases,  Up: Sources

4.9 Letting Users Report Translation Bugs
=========================================

   Code sometimes has bugs, but translations sometimes have bugs too.
The users need to be able to report them.  Reporting translation bugs to
the programmer or maintainer of a package is not very useful, since the
maintainer must never change a translation, except on behalf of the
translator.  Hence the translation bugs must be reported to the
translators.

   Here is a way to organize this so that the maintainer does not need
to forward translation bug reports, nor even keep a list of the
addresses of the translators or their translation teams.

   Every program has a place where is shows the bug report address.  For
GNU programs, it is the code which handles the "-help" option, typically
in a function called "usage".  In this place, instruct the translator to
add her own bug reporting address.  For example, if that code has a
statement

     printf (_("Report bugs to <%s>.\n"), PACKAGE_BUGREPORT);

   you can add some translator instructions like this:

     /* TRANSLATORS: The placeholder indicates the bug-reporting address
        for this package.  Please add _another line_ saying
        "Report translation bugs to <...>\n" with the address for translation
        bugs (typically your translation team's web or email address).  */
     printf (_("Report bugs to <%s>.\n"), PACKAGE_BUGREPORT);

   These will be extracted by ‘xgettext’, leading to a .pot file that
contains this:

     #. TRANSLATORS: The placeholder indicates the bug-reporting address
     #. for this package.  Please add _another line_ saying
     #. "Report translation bugs to <...>\n" with the address for translation
     #. bugs (typically your translation team's web or email address).
     #: src/hello.c:178
     #, c-format
     msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n"
     msgstr ""


File: gettext.info,  Node: Names,  Next: Libraries,  Prev: Bug Report Address,  Up: Sources

4.10 Marking Proper Names for Translation
=========================================

   Should names of persons, cities, locations etc.  be marked for
translation or not?  People who only know languages that can be written
with Latin letters (English, Spanish, French, German, etc.)  are tempted
to say "no", because names usually do not change when transported
between these languages.  However, in general when translating from one
script to another, names are translated too, usually phonetically or by
transliteration.  For example, Russian or Greek names are converted to
the Latin alphabet when being translated to English, and English or
French names are converted to the Katakana script when being translated
to Japanese.  This is necessary because the speakers of the target
language in general cannot read the script the name is originally
written in.

   As a programmer, you should therefore make sure that names are marked
for translation, with a special comment telling the translators that it
is a proper name and how to pronounce it.  In its simple form, it looks
like this:

     printf (_("Written by %s.\n"),
             /* TRANSLATORS: This is a proper name.  See the gettext
                manual, section Names.  Note this is actually a non-ASCII
                name: The first name is (with Unicode escapes)
                "Fran\u00e7ois" or (with HTML entities) "Fran&ccedil;ois".
                Pronunciation is like "fraa-swa pee-nar".  */
             _("Francois Pinard"));

The GNU gnulib library offers a module ‘propername’
(<https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/MODULES.html#module=propername>)
which takes care to automatically append the original name, in
parentheses, to the translated name.  For names that cannot be written
in ASCII, it also frees the translator from the task of entering the
appropriate non-ASCII characters if no script change is needed.  In this
more comfortable form, it looks like this:

     printf (_("Written by %s and %s.\n"),
             proper_name ("Ulrich Drepper"),
             /* TRANSLATORS: This is a proper name.  See the gettext
                manual, section Names.  Note this is actually a non-ASCII
                name: The first name is (with Unicode escapes)
                "Fran\u00e7ois" or (with HTML entities) "Fran&ccedil;ois".
                Pronunciation is like "fraa-swa pee-nar".  */
             proper_name_utf8 ("Francois Pinard", "Fran\303\247ois Pinard"));

You can also write the original name directly in Unicode (rather than
with Unicode escapes or HTML entities) and denote the pronunciation
using the International Phonetic Alphabet (see
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet>).

   As a translator, you should use some care when translating names,
because it is frustrating if people see their names mutilated or
distorted.

   If your language uses the Latin script, all you need to do is to
reproduce the name as perfectly as you can within the usual character
set of your language.  In this particular case, this means to provide a
translation containing the c-cedilla character.  If your language uses a
different script and the people speaking it don't usually read Latin
words, it means transliteration.  If the programmer used the simple
case, you should still give, in parentheses, the original writing of the
name - for the sake of the people that do read the Latin script.  If the
programmer used the ‘propername’ module mentioned above, you don't need
to give the original writing of the name in parentheses, because the
program will already do so.  Here is an example, using Greek as the
target script:

     #. This is a proper name.  See the gettext
     #. manual, section Names.  Note this is actually a non-ASCII
     #. name: The first name is (with Unicode escapes)
     #. "Fran\u00e7ois" or (with HTML entities) "Fran&ccedil;ois".
     #. Pronunciation is like "fraa-swa pee-nar".
     msgid "Francois Pinard"
     msgstr "\phi\rho\alpha\sigma\omicron\alpha \pi\iota\nu\alpha\rho"
            " (Francois Pinard)"

   Because translation of names is such a sensitive domain, it is a good
idea to test your translation before submitting it.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Libraries,  Prev: Names,  Up: Sources

4.11 Preparing Library Sources
==============================

   When you are preparing a library, not a program, for the use of
‘gettext’, only a few details are different.  Here we assume that the
library has a translation domain and a POT file of its own.  (If it uses
the translation domain and POT file of the main program, then the
previous sections apply without changes.)

  1. The library code doesn't call ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "")’.  It's the
     responsibility of the main program to set the locale.  The
     library's documentation should mention this fact, so that
     developers of programs using the library are aware of it.

  2. The library code doesn't call ‘textdomain (PACKAGE)’, because it
     would interfere with the text domain set by the main program.

  3. The initialization code for a program was

            setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
            bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
            textdomain (PACKAGE);

     For a library it is reduced to

            bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);

     If your library's API doesn't already have an initialization
     function, you need to create one, containing at least the
     ‘bindtextdomain’ invocation.  However, you usually don't need to
     export and document this initialization function: It is sufficient
     that all entry points of the library call the initialization
     function if it hasn't been called before.  The typical idiom used
     to achieve this is a static boolean variable that indicates whether
     the initialization function has been called.  If the library is
     meant to be used in multithreaded applications, this variable needs
     to be marked ‘volatile’, so that its value get propagated between
     threads.  Like this:

          static volatile bool libfoo_initialized;

          static void
          libfoo_initialize (void)
          {
            bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
            libfoo_initialized = true;
          }

          /* This function is part of the exported API.  */
          struct foo *
          create_foo (...)
          {
            /* Must ensure the initialization is performed.  */
            if (!libfoo_initialized)
              libfoo_initialize ();
            ...
          }

          /* This function is part of the exported API.  The argument must be
             non-NULL and have been created through create_foo().  */
          int
          foo_refcount (struct foo *argument)
          {
            /* No need to invoke the initialization function here, because
               create_foo() must already have been called before.  */
            ...
          }

     The more general solution for initialization functions, POSIX
     ‘pthread_once’, is not needed in this case.

  4. The usual declaration of the ‘_’ macro in each source file was

          #include <libintl.h>
          #define _(String) gettext (String)

     for a program.  For a library, which has its own translation
     domain, it reads like this:

          #include <libintl.h>
          #define _(String) dgettext (PACKAGE, String)

     In other words, ‘dgettext’ is used instead of ‘gettext’.
     Similarly, the ‘dngettext’ function should be used in place of the
     ‘ngettext’ function.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Template,  Next: Creating,  Prev: Sources,  Up: Top

5 Making the PO Template File
*****************************

   After preparing the sources, the programmer creates a PO template
file.  This section explains how to use ‘xgettext’ for this purpose.

   ‘xgettext’ creates a file named ‘DOMAINNAME.po’.  You should then
rename it to ‘DOMAINNAME.pot’.  (Why doesn't ‘xgettext’ create it under
the name ‘DOMAINNAME.pot’ right away?  The answer is: for historical
reasons.  When ‘xgettext’ was specified, the distinction between a PO
file and PO file template was fuzzy, and the suffix ‘.pot’ wasn't in use
at that time.)

* Menu:

* xgettext Invocation::         Invoking the ‘xgettext’ Program
* Combining POTs::              Combining PO Template Files


File: gettext.info,  Node: xgettext Invocation,  Next: Combining POTs,  Up: Template

5.1 Invoking the ‘xgettext’ Program
===================================

     xgettext [OPTION] [INPUTFILE] ...

   The ‘xgettext’ program extracts translatable strings from given input
files.

5.1.1 Input file location
-------------------------

‘INPUTFILE ...’
     Input files.

‘-f FILE’
‘--files-from=FILE’
     Read the names of the input files from FILE instead of getting them
     from the command line.

     Often FILE is a temporary file, generated during the build process.
     In this case, you should also pass the ‘--generated=FILE’ option.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If INPUTFILE is ‘-’, standard input is read.

5.1.2 Output file location
--------------------------

‘-d NAME’
‘--default-domain=NAME’
     Use ‘NAME.po’ for output (instead of ‘messages.po’).

‘-o FILE’
‘--output=FILE’
     Write output to specified file (instead of ‘NAME.po’ or
     ‘messages.po’).

‘-p DIR’
‘--output-dir=DIR’
     Output files will be placed in directory DIR.

   If the output FILE is ‘-’ or ‘/dev/stdout’, the output is written to
standard output.

5.1.3 Choice of input file language
-----------------------------------

‘-L NAME’
‘--language=NAME’
     Specifies the language of the input files.  The supported languages
     are ‘C’, ‘C++’, ‘ObjectiveC’, ‘PO’, ‘Python’, ‘Java’,
     ‘JavaProperties’, ‘C#’, ‘JavaScript’, ‘TypeScript’, ‘TSX’,
     ‘Scheme’, ‘Guile’, ‘Lisp’, ‘EmacsLisp’, ‘librep’, ‘Rust’, ‘Go’,
     ‘Ruby’, ‘Shell’, ‘awk’, ‘Lua’, ‘Modula-2’, ‘D’, ‘OCaml’,
     ‘Smalltalk’, ‘Vala’, ‘Tcl’, ‘Perl’, ‘PHP’, ‘GCC-source’, ‘YCP’,
     ‘NXStringTable’, ‘RST’, ‘RSJ’, ‘Glade’, ‘GSettings’, ‘Desktop’.

‘-C’
‘--c++’
     This is a shorthand for ‘--language=C++’.

   By default the language is guessed depending on the input file name
extension.

5.1.4 Input file interpretation
-------------------------------

‘--from-code=NAME’
     Specifies the encoding of the input files.  This option is needed
     only if some untranslated message strings or their corresponding
     comments contain non-ASCII characters.  Note that Tcl and Glade
     input files are always assumed to be in UTF-8, regardless of this
     option.

   By default the input files are assumed to be in ASCII.

5.1.5 Operation mode
--------------------

‘-j’
‘--join-existing’
     Join messages with existing file.

‘-x FILE’
‘--exclude-file=FILE’
     Entries from FILE are not extracted.  FILE should be a PO or POT
     file.

‘-c[TAG]’
‘--add-comments[=TAG]’
     Place comment blocks starting with TAG and preceding keyword lines
     in the output file.  Without a TAG, the option means to put _all_
     comment blocks preceding keyword lines in the output file.

     Note that comment blocks are only extracted if there is no program
     code between the comment and the string that gets extracted.  For
     example, in the following C source code:

          /* This is the first comment.  */
          gettext ("foo");

          /* This is the second comment: not extracted  */
          gettext (
            "bar");

          gettext (
            /* This is the third comment.  */
            "baz");

          /* This is the fourth comment.  */

          gettext ("I love blank lines in my programs");

     the second comment line will not be extracted, because there is a
     line with some tokens between the comment line and the line that
     contains the string.  But the fourth comment is extracted, because
     between it and the line with the string there is merely a blank
     line.

‘--check[=CHECK]’
     Perform a syntax check on msgid and msgid_plural.  The supported
     checks that are disabled by default and that can be enabled are:

     ‘ellipsis-unicode’
          Prefer Unicode ellipsis character over ASCII ‘...’

     ‘space-ellipsis’
          Prohibit whitespace before an ellipsis character

     ‘quote-unicode’
          Prefer Unicode quotation marks over ASCII ‘"'`’

     ‘bullet-unicode’
          Prefer Unicode bullet character over ASCII ‘*’ or ‘-’

     The option has an effect on all input files.  To enable or disable
     checks for a certain string, you can mark it with an ‘xgettext:’
     special comment in the source file.  For example, if you specify
     the ‘--check=space-ellipsis’ option, but want to suppress the check
     on a particular string, add the following comment:

          /* xgettext: no-space-ellipsis-check */
          gettext ("We really want a space before ellipsis here ...");

     The ‘xgettext:’ comment can be followed by flags separated with a
     comma.  The possible flags are of the form ‘[no-]NAME-check’, where
     NAME is the name of a valid syntax check.  If a flag is prefixed by
     ‘no-’, the meaning is negated.

     Some tests apply the checks to each sentence within the msgid,
     rather than the whole string.  ‘xgettext’ detects the end of
     sentence by performing a pattern match, which usually looks for a
     period followed by a certain number of spaces.  The number is
     specified with the ‘--sentence-end’ option.

‘--no-check[=CHECK]’
     Don't perform a syntax check on msgid and msgid_plural that is
     enabled by default.  The supported checks that are enabled by
     default are:

     ‘url’
          Prohibit a URL inside a string.

     ‘email’
          Prohibit an email address inside a string.

     The option has an effect on all input files.  To disable a check
     for a certain string, you can mark it with an ‘xgettext:’ special
     comment in the source file.  For example, if you want to suppress
     the check on a particular string, add the following comment:

          /* xgettext: no-email-check */
          gettext ("Specify your@email-address.com here.");

‘--sentence-end[=TYPE]’
     The supported values are:

     ‘single-space’
          Expect at least one whitespace after a period

     ‘double-space’
          Expect at least two whitespaces after a period

5.1.6 Language specific options
-------------------------------

‘-a’
‘--extract-all’
     Extract all strings.

     This option has an effect with most languages, namely C, C++,
     ObjectiveC, Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, Scheme, Guile, Lisp,
     EmacsLisp, librep, Rust, Go, Shell, awk, Lua, Modula-2, D, OCaml,
     Vala, Tcl, Perl, PHP, GCC-source, Glade, GSettings.

‘-k[KEYWORDSPEC]’
‘--keyword[=KEYWORDSPEC]’
     Specify KEYWORDSPEC as an additional keyword to be looked for.
     Without a KEYWORDSPEC, the option means to not use default
     keywords.

     If KEYWORDSPEC is a C identifier ID, ‘xgettext’ looks for strings
     in the first argument of each call to the function or macro ID.  If
     KEYWORDSPEC is of the form ‘ID:ARGNUM’, ‘xgettext’ looks for
     strings in the ARGNUMth argument of the call.  If KEYWORDSPEC is of
     the form ‘ID:ARGNUM1,ARGNUM2’, ‘xgettext’ looks for strings in the
     ARGNUM1st argument and in the ARGNUM2nd argument of the call, and
     treats them as singular/plural variants for a message with plural
     handling.  Also, if KEYWORDSPEC is of the form
     ‘ID:CONTEXTARGNUMc,ARGNUM’ or ‘ID:ARGNUM,CONTEXTARGNUMc’,
     ‘xgettext’ treats strings in the CONTEXTARGNUMth argument as a
     context specifier.  And, as a special-purpose support for GNOME, if
     KEYWORDSPEC is of the form ‘ID:ARGNUMg’, ‘xgettext’ recognizes the
     ARGNUMth argument as a string with context, using the GNOME ‘glib’
     syntax ‘"msgctxt|msgid"’.
     Furthermore, if KEYWORDSPEC is of the form ‘ID:...,TOTALNUMARGSt’,
     ‘xgettext’ recognizes this argument specification only if the
     number of actual arguments is equal to TOTALNUMARGS.  This is
     useful for disambiguating overloaded function calls in C++.
     Finally, if KEYWORDSPEC is of the form ‘ID:ARGNUM...,"XCOMMENT"’,
     ‘xgettext’, when extracting a message from the specified argument
     strings, adds an extracted comment XCOMMENT to the message.  Note
     that when used through a normal shell command line, the
     double-quotes around the XCOMMENT need to be escaped.

     This option has an effect with most languages, namely C, C++,
     ObjectiveC, Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, TSX, Scheme,
     Guile, Lisp, EmacsLisp, librep, Rust, Go, Shell, awk, Lua,
     Modula-2, D, OCaml, Vala, Tcl, Perl, PHP, GCC-source, Glade,
     GSettings, Desktop.

     The default keyword specifications, which are always looked for if
     not explicitly disabled, are language dependent.  They are:

        • For C, C++, and GCC-source: ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext:2’,
          ‘dcgettext:2’, ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘dngettext:2,3’,
          ‘dcngettext:2,3’, ‘gettext_noop’, and ‘pgettext:1c,2’,
          ‘dpgettext:2c,3’, ‘dcpgettext:2c,3’, ‘npgettext:1c,2,3’,
          ‘dnpgettext:2c,3,4’, ‘dcnpgettext:2c,3,4’.

        • For Objective C: Like for C, and also ‘NSLocalizedString’,
          ‘_’, ‘NSLocalizedStaticString’, ‘__’.

        • For Shell scripts: ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext:1,2’,
          ‘printf_gettext’, ‘printf_ngettext:1,2’, ‘eval_gettext’,
          ‘eval_ngettext:1,2’, ‘eval_pgettext:1c,2’,
          ‘eval_npgettext:1c,2,3’.

        • For Python: ‘gettext’, ‘ugettext’, ‘dgettext:2’,
          ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘ungettext:1,2’, ‘dngettext:2,3’, ‘_’.

        • For Lisp: ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘gettext-noop’.

        • For EmacsLisp: ‘_’.

        • For librep: ‘_’.

        • For Scheme and Guile: ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext:1,2’,
          ‘gettext-noop’.

        • For Java: ‘GettextResource.gettext:2’,
          ‘GettextResource.ngettext:2,3’,
          ‘GettextResource.pgettext:2c,3’,
          ‘GettextResource.npgettext:2c,3,4’, ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext:1,2’,
          ‘pgettext:1c,2’, ‘npgettext:1c,2,3’, ‘getString’.

        • For C#: ‘GetString’, ‘GetPluralString:1,2’,
          ‘GetParticularString:1c,2’,
          ‘GetParticularPluralString:1c,2,3’.

        • For awk: ‘dcgettext’, ‘dcngettext:1,2’.

        • For Tcl: ‘::msgcat::mc’.

        • For Perl: ‘gettext’, ‘%gettext’, ‘$gettext’, ‘dgettext:2’,
          ‘dcgettext:2’, ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘dngettext:2,3’,
          ‘dcngettext:2,3’, ‘gettext_noop’.

        • For PHP: ‘_’, ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext:2’, ‘dcgettext:2’,
          ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘dngettext:2,3’, ‘dcngettext:2,3’.

        • For Glade 1: ‘label’, ‘title’, ‘text’, ‘format’, ‘copyright’,
          ‘comments’, ‘preview_text’, ‘tooltip’.

        • For Lua: ‘_’, ‘gettext.gettext’, ‘gettext.dgettext:2’,
          ‘gettext.dcgettext:2’, ‘gettext.ngettext:1,2’,
          ‘gettext.dngettext:2,3’, ‘gettext.dcngettext:2,3’.

        • For D: ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext:2’, ‘dcgettext:2’, ‘ngettext:1,2’,
          ‘dngettext:2,3’, ‘dcngettext:2,3’.

        • For JavaScript, TypeScript, TSX: ‘_’, ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext:2’,
          ‘dcgettext:2’, ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘dngettext:2,3’,
          ‘pgettext:1c,2’, ‘dpgettext:2c,3’.

        • For Vala: ‘_’, ‘Q_’, ‘N_’, ‘NC_’, ‘dgettext:2’, ‘dcgettext:2’,
          ‘ngettext:1,2’, ‘dngettext:2,3’, ‘dpgettext:2c,3’,
          ‘dpgettext2:2c,3’.

        • For Desktop: ‘Name’, ‘GenericName’, ‘Comment’, ‘Keywords’.

     To disable the default keyword specifications, the option ‘-k’ or
     ‘--keyword’ or ‘--keyword=’, without a KEYWORDSPEC, can be used.

‘--flag=WORD:ARG:FLAG’
     Specifies additional flags for strings occurring as part of the
     ARGth argument of the function WORD.  The possible flags are the
     possible format string indicators, such as ‘c-format’, and their
     negations, such as ‘no-c-format’, possibly prefixed with ‘pass-’.
     The meaning of ‘--flag=FUNCTION:ARG:LANG-format’ is that in
     language LANG, the specified FUNCTION expects as ARGth argument a
     format string.  (For those of you familiar with GCC function
     attributes, ‘--flag=FUNCTION:ARG:c-format’ is roughly equivalent to
     the declaration ‘__attribute__ ((__format__ (__printf__, ARG,
     ...)))’ attached to FUNCTION in a C source file.)  For example, if
     you use the ‘error’ function from GNU libc, you can specify its
     behaviour through ‘--flag=error:3:c-format’.  The effect of this
     specification is that ‘xgettext’ will mark as format strings all
     ‘gettext’ invocations that occur as ARGth argument of FUNCTION.
     This is useful when such strings contain no format string
     directives: together with the checks done by ‘msgfmt -c’ it will
     ensure that translators cannot accidentally use format string
     directives that would lead to a crash at runtime.
     The meaning of ‘--flag=FUNCTION:ARG:pass-LANG-format’ is that in
     language LANG, if the FUNCTION call occurs in a position that must
     yield a format string, then its ARGth argument must yield a format
     string of the same type as well.  (If you know GCC function
     attributes, the ‘--flag=FUNCTION:ARG:pass-c-format’ option is
     roughly equivalent to the declaration ‘__attribute__
     ((__format_arg__ (ARG)))’ attached to FUNCTION in a C source file.)
     For example, if you use the ‘_’ shortcut for the ‘gettext’
     function, you should use ‘--flag=_:1:pass-c-format’.  The effect of
     this specification is that ‘xgettext’ will propagate a format
     string requirement for a ‘_("string")’ call to its first argument,
     the literal ‘"string"’, and thus mark it as a format string.  This
     is useful when such strings contain no format string directives:
     together with the checks done by ‘msgfmt -c’ it will ensure that
     translators cannot accidentally use format string directives that
     would lead to a crash at runtime.
     This option has an effect with most languages, namely C, C++,
     ObjectiveC, Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, TSX, Scheme,
     Guile, Lisp, EmacsLisp, librep, Rust, Go, Shell, awk, Lua,
     Modula-2, D, OCaml, Vala, Tcl, Perl, PHP, GCC-source, YCP.

‘--tag=WORD:FORMAT’
     Defines the behaviour of tagged template literals with tag WORD.
     This option has an effect only with language JavaScript.
     FORMAT is a symbolic description of the first step of the
     JavaScript function named WORD, namely how this function constructs
     a format string based on the parts of the template literal.
     Currently only one value is supported: ‘javascript-gnome-format’,
     which describes the construction of a format string with numbered
     placeholders ‘{0}’, ‘{1}’, ‘{2}’, etc.  For example,
     ‘javascript-gnome-format’ transforms the template literal ‘WORD`My
     name is ${id.name} and I am ${id.age} years old.`’ into the format
     string ‘"My name is {0} and I am {1} years old."’.

‘-T’
‘--trigraphs’
     Understand ANSI C trigraphs for input (deprecated, since trigraphs
     have been removed from ISO C 23).
     This option has an effect only with the languages C, C++,
     ObjectiveC.

‘--qt’
     Recognize Qt format strings.
     This option has an effect only with the language C++.

‘--kde’
     Recognize KDE 4 format strings.
     This option has an effect only with the language C++.

‘--boost’
     Recognize Boost format strings.
     This option has an effect only with the language C++.

‘--debug’
     Use the flags ‘c-format’ and ‘possible-c-format’ to show who was
     responsible for marking a message as a format string.  The latter
     form is used if the ‘xgettext’ program decided, the former form is
     used if the programmer prescribed it.

     By default only the ‘c-format’ form is used.  The translator should
     not have to care about these details.

   This implementation of ‘xgettext’ is able to process a few awkward
cases, like strings in preprocessor macros, ANSI concatenation of
adjacent strings, and escaped end of lines for continued strings.

5.1.7 Options for XML input files
---------------------------------

   When some of the input files are XML files and they are not of one of
the types covered by the system-wide installed *.its files, a *.its file
is needed for each such file type, so that ‘xgettext’ can handle them.
There are two ways to specify such a file:

   • ‘--its=FILE’
          Use the ITS rules defined in FILE.

   • The environment variable ‘GETTEXTDATADIRS’.  Together with the
     *.its file, you need a corresponding *.loc file (*note Preparing
     ITS Rules::).  Furthermore you need to store these files in a
     directory ‘PARENT_DIR/its/’ and set the environment variable
     ‘GETTEXTDATADIRS’ to include ‘PARENT_DIR’.  More generally, the
     value of ‘GETTEXTDATADIRS’ should be a colon-separated list of
     directory names.

   Note that when the option ‘--its’ is specified, the system-wide
installed *.its files are ignored and the environment variable
‘GETTEXTDATADIRS’ has no effect either.

5.1.8 Output details
--------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if no message is defined.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.  Note that using this option
     makes it harder for technically skilled translators to understand
     each message's context.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘--itstool’
     Write out comments recognized by itstool (<http://itstool.org>).
     Note that this is only effective with XML files.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output (deprecated).  Note that using this option
     makes it much harder for the translator to understand each
     message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

‘--omit-header’
     Don't write header with ‘msgid ""’ entry.  Note: Using this option
     may lead to an error in subsequent operations if the output
     contains non-ASCII characters.

     This is useful for testing purposes because it eliminates a source
     of variance for generated ‘.gmo’ files.  With ‘--omit-header’, two
     invocations of ‘xgettext’ on the same files with the same options
     at different times are guaranteed to produce the same results.

     Note that using this option will lead to an error if the resulting
     file would not entirely be in ASCII.

‘--no-git’
     Don't use the ‘git’ program to produce a reproducible
     ‘POT-Creation-Date’ field in the output.

     Use this option, for speed, if your project has a very long ‘Git’
     history (hundreds of thousands of commits) or you are specifying
     thousands of input files.

     By default, ‘xgettext’ determines the ‘POT-Creation-Date’ as the
     maximum version-controlled modification time among all the given
     input files.  With this option, you can specify that it should
     instead use the maximum modification time (time stamp on disk)
     among all the given input files.

     By "version control", here we mean the ‘Git’ version control
     system.

‘--copyright-holder=STRING’
     Set the copyright holder in the output.  STRING should be the
     copyright holder of the surrounding package.  (Note that the
     ‘msgid’ strings, extracted from the package's sources, belong to
     the copyright holder of the package.)  Translators are expected to
     transfer or disclaim the copyright for their translations, so that
     package maintainers can distribute them without legal risk.  If
     STRING is empty, the output files are marked as being in the public
     domain; in this case, the translators are expected to disclaim
     their copyright, again so that package maintainers can distribute
     them without legal risk.

     The default value for STRING is the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
     simply because ‘xgettext’ was first used in the GNU project.

‘--foreign-user’
     Omit FSF copyright in output.  This option is equivalent to
     ‘--copyright-holder=''’.  It can be useful for packages outside the
     GNU project that want their translations to be in the public
     domain.

‘--package-name=PACKAGE’
     Set the package name in the header of the output.

‘--package-version=VERSION’
     Set the package version in the header of the output.  This option
     has an effect only if the ‘--package-name’ option is also used.

‘--msgid-bugs-address=EMAIL@ADDRESS’
     Set the reporting address for msgid bugs.  This is the email
     address or URL to which the translators shall report bugs in the
     untranslated strings:

        - Strings which are not entire sentences; see the maintainer
          guidelines in *note Preparing Strings::.
        - Strings which use unclear terms or require additional context
          to be understood.
        - Strings which make invalid assumptions about notation of date,
          time or money.
        - Pluralisation problems.
        - Incorrect English spelling.
        - Incorrect formatting.

     It can be your email address, or a mailing list address where
     translators can write to without being subscribed, or the URL of a
     web page through which the translators can contact you.

     The default value is empty, which means that translators will be
     clueless!  Don't forget to specify this option.

‘--generated=FILE’

     Declares that the given FILE is generated and therefore should not
     have an influence on the ‘POT-Creation-Date’ field in the output.

     When you specify this option, you should also specify one or more
     ‘--reference’ options, to indicate the files from which the given
     FILE was generated.

‘--reference=FILE’

     Declares that the output depends on the contents of the given FILE.
     This has an influence on the ‘POT-Creation-Date’ field in the
     output.

     By default, ‘xgettext’ determines the ‘POT-Creation-Date’ as the
     maximum version-controlled modification time among all the given
     input files.  With this option, you can specify that the output
     depends also on some other files.  For example, use this option
     when some of the input files is not under version control but
     instead is generated from one or more files that are under version
     control.

     By "version control", here we mean the ‘Git’ version control
     system.

‘-m[STRING]’
‘--msgstr-prefix[=STRING]’
     Use STRING (or "" if not specified) as prefix for msgstr values.

‘-M[STRING]’
‘--msgstr-suffix[=STRING]’
     Use STRING (or "" if not specified) as suffix for msgstr values.

5.1.9 Informative output
------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

‘-v’
‘--verbose’
     Increase verbosity level.

5.1.10 Example
--------------

   A sample invocation of ‘xgettext’, in a project that has a single
source file ‘src/hello.c’ that uses ‘_’ as shorthand for the ‘gettext’
function, could be:

     xgettext -o hello.pot \
              --add-comments=TRANSLATORS: \
              --keyword=_ --flag=_:1:pass-c-format \
              --directory=.. \
              src/hello.c


File: gettext.info,  Node: Combining POTs,  Prev: xgettext Invocation,  Up: Template

5.2 Combining PO Template Files
===============================

   When a package contains sources in different programming languages
and different, incompatible ‘xgettext’ command line options are required
for these different parts of the package, the solution is to create
intermediate PO template files for each of the parts and then combine
(merge) them together.

   For example, assume you have two source files ‘a.c’ and ‘b.py’, and
want to extract their translatable strings in separate steps.

   Each of the following command sequences does this.  The output is the
same.

   • This command sequence creates intermediate POT files and then
     combines them.
          xgettext -o part-c.pot a.c
          xgettext -o part-py.pot b.py
          xgettext -o all.pot part-c.pot part-py.pot
   • This command sequence does several ‘xgettext’ invocations, with a
     single POT file that accumulates the translatable strings.
          xgettext -o all.pot a.c
          xgettext -o all.pot --join-existing b.py
   • Likewise here, but a ‘--default-domain’ option is used to denote
     the output file rather than a ‘-o’ option.
          xgettext --default-domain=all a.c
          xgettext --default-domain=all --join-existing b.py
          mv all.po all.pot

   One might be tempted to think that ‘msgcat’ can do the same thing,
through a command sequence such as:
     xgettext -o part-c.pot a.c
     xgettext -o part-py.pot b.py
     msgcat -o all.pot part-c.pot part-py.pot
But no, this does not work reliably, because sometimes ‘part-c.pot’ and
‘part-py.pot’ will contain different ‘POT-Creation-Date’ values, and
‘msgcat’ then produces an ‘all.pot’ file that has conflict markers in
the header entry.  This is because ‘msgcat’ generally is meant to
produce PO files that are to be reviewed and edited by a translator;
this is not desired here.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Creating,  Next: Updating,  Prev: Template,  Up: Top

6 Creating or preparing for translating a PO file
*************************************************

   When starting a new translation, the translator creates a file called
‘LANG.po’, as a copy of the ‘PACKAGE.pot’ template file with
modifications in the initial comments (at the beginning of the file) and
in the header entry (the first entry, near the beginning of the file).

   Before continuing an existing translation, after a new release of the
package PACKAGE was made, the translator updates the file called
‘LANG.po’, with respect to the new ‘PACKAGE.pot’ template file, and adds
her name in the ‘Last-Translator’ field of the header entry.

   The easiest way to do so, in either case, is by use of the ‘msginit’
program.  For example:

     $ cd PACKAGE-VERSION
     $ cd po
     $ msginit

   The alternative way, without ‘msginit’, is as follows:
   • When starting a new translation, the translator does the copy and
     modifications by hand.  She copies ‘PACKAGE.pot’ to ‘LANG.po’.
     Then she modifies the initial comments and the header entry of this
     file.

   • When continuing an existing translation, the translator invokes
     ‘msgmerge --previous -o LANG.new.po LANG.po PACKAGE.pot’ and ‘mv
     LANG.new.po LANG.po’.

* Menu:

* msginit Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msginit’ Program
* Header Entry::                Filling in the Header Entry


File: gettext.info,  Node: msginit Invocation,  Next: Header Entry,  Up: Creating

6.1 Invoking the ‘msginit’ Program
==================================

     msginit [OPTION]

   The ‘msginit’ program creates a new PO file, initializing the meta
information with values from the user's environment.

   Here are more details.  The following header fields of a PO file are
automatically filled, when possible.

‘Project-Id-Version’
     The value is guessed from the ‘configure’ script or any other files
     in the current directory.

‘PO-Revision-Date’
     The value is taken from the ‘PO-Creation-Data’ in the input POT
     file, or the current date is used.

‘Last-Translator’
     The value is taken from user's password file entry and the mailer
     configuration files.

‘Language-Team, Language’
     These values are set according to the current locale and the
     predefined list of translation teams.

‘MIME-Version, Content-Type, Content-Transfer-Encoding’
     These values are set according to the content of the POT file and
     the current locale.  If the POT file contains charset=UTF-8, it
     means that the POT file contains non-ASCII characters, and we keep
     the UTF-8 encoding.  Otherwise, when the POT file is plain ASCII,
     we use the locale's encoding.

‘Plural-Forms’
     The value is first looked up from the embedded table.

     As an experimental feature, you can instruct ‘msginit’ to use the
     information from Unicode CLDR, by setting the ‘GETTEXTCLDRDIR’
     environment variable.  The program will look for a file named
     ‘common/supplemental/plurals.xml’ under that directory.  You can
     get the CLDR data from <http://cldr.unicode.org/>.

6.1.1 Input file location
-------------------------

‘-i INPUTFILE’
‘--input=INPUTFILE’
     Input POT file.

   If no INPUTFILE is given, the current directory is searched for the
POT file.  If it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

6.1.2 Output file location
--------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified PO file.

   If no output file is given, it depends on the ‘--locale’ option or
the user's locale setting.

   If the output file already exists, it is merged with the input file,
as if through ‘msgmerge’.

   If it is ‘-’, the results are written to standard output.

6.1.3 Input file syntax
-----------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

6.1.4 Output details
--------------------

‘-l LL_CC[.ENCODING]’
‘--locale=LL_CC[.ENCODING]’
     Set target locale.  LL should be a language code, and CC should be
     a country code.  The optional part .ENCODING specifies the encoding
     of the locale; most often this part is ‘.UTF-8’.  The command
     ‘locale -a’ can be used to output a list of all installed locales.
     The default is the user's locale setting.

‘--no-translator’
     Declares that the PO file will not have a human translator and is
     instead automatically generated.

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

6.1.5 Informative output
------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Header Entry,  Prev: msginit Invocation,  Up: Creating

6.2 Filling in the Header Entry
===============================

   The initial comments "SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE", "YEAR" and "FIRST
AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR" ought to be replaced by sensible
information.  This can be done in any text editor; if Emacs is used and
it switched to PO mode automatically (because it has recognized the
file's suffix), you can disable it by typing ‘M-x fundamental-mode’.

   Modifying the header entry can already be done using PO mode: in
Emacs, type ‘M-x po-mode RET’ and then ‘RET’ again to start editing the
entry.  You should fill in the following fields.

Project-Id-Version
     This is the name and version of the package.  Fill it in if it has
     not already been filled in by ‘xgettext’.

Report-Msgid-Bugs-To
     This has already been filled in by ‘xgettext’.  It contains an
     email address or URL where you can report bugs in the untranslated
     strings:

        - Strings which are not entire sentences, see the maintainer
          guidelines in *note Preparing Strings::.
        - Strings which use unclear terms or require additional context
          to be understood.
        - Strings which make invalid assumptions about notation of date,
          time or money.
        - Pluralisation problems.
        - Incorrect English spelling.
        - Incorrect formatting.

POT-Creation-Date
     This has already been filled in by ‘xgettext’.

PO-Revision-Date
     You don't need to fill this in.  It will be filled by the PO file
     editor when you save the file.

Last-Translator
     Fill in your name and email address (without double quotes).

Language-Team
     Fill in the English name of the language, and the email address or
     homepage URL of the language team you are part of.

     Before starting a translation, it is a good idea to get in touch
     with your translation team, not only to make sure you don't do
     duplicated work, but also to coordinate difficult linguistic
     issues.

     In the Free Translation Project, each translation team has its own
     mailing list.  The up-to-date list of teams can be found at the
     Free Translation Project's homepage,
     <https://translationproject.org/>, in the "Teams" area.

Language
     Fill in the language code of the language.  This can be in one of
     three forms:

        - ‘LL’, an ISO 639 two-letter language code (lowercase).  For
          some languages, a two-letter code does not exist, and a
          three-letter code is used instead.  See *note Language Codes::
          for the list of codes.

        - ‘LL_CC’, where ‘LL’ is an ISO 639 two-letter or three-letter
          language code (lowercase) and ‘CC’ is an ISO 3166 two-letter
          country code (uppercase).  The country code specification is
          not redundant: Some languages have dialects in different
          countries.  For example, ‘de_AT’ is used for Austria, and
          ‘pt_BR’ for Brazil.  The country code serves to distinguish
          the dialects.  See *note Language Codes:: and *note Country
          Codes:: for the lists of codes.

        - ‘LL_CC@VARIANT’, where ‘LL’ is an ISO 639 two-letter or
          three-letter language code (lowercase), ‘CC’ is an ISO 3166
          two-letter country code (uppercase), and ‘VARIANT’ is a
          variant designator.  The variant designator (lowercase) can be
          a script designator, such as ‘latin’ or ‘cyrillic’.

     The naming convention ‘LL_CC’ is also the way locales are named on
     systems based on GNU libc.  But there are three important
     differences:

        • In this PO file field, but not in locale names, ‘LL_CC’
          combinations denoting a language's main dialect are
          abbreviated as ‘LL’.  For example, ‘de’ is equivalent to
          ‘de_DE’ (German as spoken in Germany), and ‘pt’ to ‘pt_PT’
          (Portuguese as spoken in Portugal) in this context.

        • In this PO file field, suffixes like ‘.ENCODING’ are not used.

        • In this PO file field, variant designators that are not
          relevant to message translation, such as ‘@euro’, are not
          used.

     So, if your locale name is ‘de_DE.UTF-8’, the language
     specification in PO files is just ‘de’.

Content-Type
     Replace ‘CHARSET’ with the character encoding used for your
     language, in your locale, or UTF-8.  This field is needed for
     correct operation of the ‘msgmerge’ and ‘msgfmt’ programs, as well
     as for users whose locale's character encoding differs from yours
     (see *note Charset conversion::).

     You get the character encoding of your locale by running the shell
     command ‘locale charmap’.  If the result is ‘C’ or
     ‘ANSI_X3.4-1968’, which is equivalent to ‘ASCII’ (= ‘US-ASCII’), it
     means that your locale is not correctly configured.  In this case,
     ask your translation team which charset to use.  ‘ASCII’ is not
     usable for any language except Latin.

     Because the PO files must be portable to operating systems with
     less advanced internationalization facilities, the character
     encodings that can be used are limited to those supported by both
     GNU ‘libc’ and GNU ‘libiconv’.  These are: ‘ASCII’, ‘ISO-8859-1’,
     ‘ISO-8859-2’, ‘ISO-8859-3’, ‘ISO-8859-4’, ‘ISO-8859-5’,
     ‘ISO-8859-6’, ‘ISO-8859-7’, ‘ISO-8859-8’, ‘ISO-8859-9’,
     ‘ISO-8859-13’, ‘ISO-8859-14’, ‘ISO-8859-15’, ‘KOI8-R’, ‘KOI8-U’,
     ‘KOI8-T’, ‘CP850’, ‘CP866’, ‘CP874’, ‘CP932’, ‘CP949’, ‘CP950’,
     ‘CP1250’, ‘CP1251’, ‘CP1252’, ‘CP1253’, ‘CP1254’, ‘CP1255’,
     ‘CP1256’, ‘CP1257’, ‘GB2312’, ‘EUC-JP’, ‘EUC-KR’, ‘EUC-TW’, ‘BIG5’,
     ‘BIG5-HKSCS’, ‘GBK’, ‘GB18030’, ‘SHIFT_JIS’, ‘JOHAB’, ‘TIS-620’,
     ‘VISCII’, ‘GEORGIAN-PS’, ‘UTF-8’.

     In the GNU system, the following encodings are frequently used for
     the corresponding languages.

        • ‘ISO-8859-1’ for Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Breton, Catalan,
          Cornish, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish,
          French, Galician, German, Greenlandic, Icelandic, Indonesian,
          Irish, Italian, Malay, Manx, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese,
          Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Uzbek, Walloon,
        • ‘ISO-8859-2’ for Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish,
          Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian,
        • ‘ISO-8859-3’ for Maltese,
        • ‘ISO-8859-5’ for Macedonian, Serbian,
        • ‘ISO-8859-6’ for Arabic,
        • ‘ISO-8859-7’ for Greek,
        • ‘ISO-8859-8’ for Hebrew,
        • ‘ISO-8859-9’ for Turkish,
        • ‘ISO-8859-13’ for Latvian, Lithuanian, Maori,
        • ‘ISO-8859-14’ for Welsh,
        • ‘ISO-8859-15’ for Basque, Catalan, Dutch, English, Finnish,
          French, Galician, German, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish,
          Swedish, Walloon,
        • ‘KOI8-R’ for Russian,
        • ‘KOI8-U’ for Ukrainian,
        • ‘KOI8-T’ for Tajik,
        • ‘CP1251’ for Bulgarian, Belarusian,
        • ‘GB2312’, ‘GBK’, ‘GB18030’ for simplified writing of Chinese,
        • ‘BIG5’, ‘BIG5-HKSCS’ for traditional writing of Chinese,
        • ‘EUC-JP’ for Japanese,
        • ‘EUC-KR’ for Korean,
        • ‘TIS-620’ for Thai,
        • ‘GEORGIAN-PS’ for Georgian,
        • ‘UTF-8’ for any language, including those listed above.

     When single quote characters or double quote characters are used in
     translations for your language, and your locale's encoding is one
     of the ISO-8859-* charsets, it is best if you create your PO files
     in UTF-8 encoding, instead of your locale's encoding.  This is
     because in UTF-8 the real quote characters can be represented
     (single quote characters: U+2018, U+2019, double quote characters:
     U+201C, U+201D), whereas none of ISO-8859-* charsets has them all.
     Users in UTF-8 locales will see the real quote characters, whereas
     users in ISO-8859-* locales will see the vertical apostrophe and
     the vertical double quote instead (because that's what the
     character set conversion will transliterate them to).

     To enter such quote characters under X11, you can change your
     keyboard mapping using the ‘xmodmap’ program.  The X11 names of the
     quote characters are "leftsinglequotemark", "rightsinglequotemark",
     "leftdoublequotemark", "rightdoublequotemark",
     "singlelowquotemark", "doublelowquotemark".

     The character encoding name can be written in either upper or lower
     case.  Usually upper case is preferred.

Content-Transfer-Encoding
     Set this to ‘8bit’.

Plural-Forms
     This field is optional.  It is only needed if the PO file has
     plural forms.  You can find them by searching for the
     ‘msgid_plural’ keyword.  The format of the plural forms field is
     described in *note Plural forms:: and *note Translating plural
     forms::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Updating,  Next: Pretranslating,  Prev: Creating,  Up: Top

7 Updating Existing PO Files
****************************

* Menu:

* msgmerge Invocation::         Invoking the ‘msgmerge’ Program


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgmerge Invocation,  Up: Updating

7.1 Invoking the ‘msgmerge’ Program
===================================

     msgmerge [OPTION] DEF.po REF.pot

   The ‘msgmerge’ program merges two Uniforum style .po files together.
The DEF.po file is an existing PO file with translations which will be
taken over to the newly created file as long as they still match;
comments will be preserved, but extracted comments and file positions
will be discarded.  The REF.pot file is the last created PO file with
up-to-date source references but old translations, or a PO Template file
(generally created by ‘xgettext’); any translations or comments in the
file will be discarded, however dot comments and file positions will be
preserved.  Where an exact match cannot be found, fuzzy matching is used
to produce better results.

7.1.1 Input file location
-------------------------

‘DEF.po’
     Translations referring to old sources.

‘REF.pot’
     References to the new sources.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

‘-C FILE’
‘--compendium=FILE’
     Specify an additional library of message translations.  *Note
     Compendium::.  This option may be specified more than once.

7.1.2 Operation mode
--------------------

‘-U’
‘--update’
     Update DEF.po.  Do nothing if DEF.po is already up to date.

7.1.3 Output file location
--------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

7.1.4 Output file location in update mode
-----------------------------------------

   The result is written back to DEF.po.

‘--backup=CONTROL’
     Make a backup of DEF.po

‘--suffix=SUFFIX’
     Override the usual backup suffix.

   The version control method may be selected via the ‘--backup’ option
or through the ‘VERSION_CONTROL’ environment variable.  Here are the
values:

‘none’
‘off’
     Never make backups (even if ‘--backup’ is given).

‘numbered’
‘t’
     Make numbered backups.

‘existing’
‘nil’
     Make numbered backups if numbered backups for this file already
     exist, otherwise make simple backups.

‘simple’
‘never’
     Always make simple backups.

   The backup suffix is ‘~’, unless set with ‘--suffix’ or the
‘SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX’ environment variable.

7.1.5 Operation modifiers
-------------------------

‘-m’
‘--multi-domain’
     Apply REF.pot to each of the domains in DEF.po.

‘--for-msgfmt’
     Produce a PO file meant for ‘msgfmt’ only, not for a translator.
     This option omits untranslated messages, fuzzy messages (except the
     header entry), and obsolete messages from the output.  Also, it
     omits translator comments and ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines from the
     output.  In particular, this option implies ‘--no-fuzzy-matching’.

‘-N’
‘--no-fuzzy-matching’
     Do not use fuzzy matching when an exact match is not found.  This
     may speed up the operation considerably.

‘--previous’
     Keep the previous msgids of translated messages, marked with ‘#|’,
     when adding the fuzzy marker to such messages.

7.1.6 Input file syntax
-----------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input files are Java ResourceBundles in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input files are NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource
     files in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

7.1.7 Output details
--------------------

‘--lang=CATALOGNAME’
     Specify the ‘Language’ field to be used in the header entry.  See
     *note Header Entry:: for the meaning of this field.  Note: The
     ‘Language-Team’ and ‘Plural-Forms’ fields are left unchanged.  If
     this option is not specified, the ‘Language’ field is inferred, as
     best as possible, from the ‘Language-Team’ field.

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output (deprecated).  Note that using this option
     makes it much harder for the translator to understand each
     message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

7.1.8 Informative output
------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

‘-v’
‘--verbose’
     Increase verbosity level.

‘-q’
‘--quiet’
‘--silent’
     Suppress progress indicators.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Pretranslating,  Next: Editing,  Prev: Updating,  Up: Top

8 Pretranslating PO Files
*************************

   As a translator, you may save yourself some work by starting from a
reasonably good translation produced by a machine, and modify that
translation, to make it perfect.

   Thus, before you start working on a translation, you might have the
PO file _pretranslated_.

   This process, also called _machine translation_, is nowadays best
performed through a Large Language Model (LLM). (See
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_translation#Neural_MT>,
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_machine_translation#Generative_LLMs>.)

* Menu:

* Installing an LLM::
* msgpre Invocation::
* spit Invocation::


File: gettext.info,  Node: Installing an LLM,  Next: msgpre Invocation,  Up: Pretranslating

8.1 Installing a Large Language Model
=====================================

   We don't recommend to use machine translation through a web service
in the cloud, controlled by someone else than yourself.  Such a machine
translation service would be have major drawbacks (it could go away any
time, it could be used to spy on you or manipulate you, or the costs
could go up beyond your control); see
<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.en.html>.
Additionally, such a service typically has some cost (between $10 and
$25 per megabyte, as of 2025).

   Instead, we recommend a Large Language Model execution engine that
runs on hardware under your control.  This can be a desktop computer, or
for instance a single-board computer in your local network.

   At this point (in 2025), a Large Language Model execution engine that
is Free Software is ‘ollama’, that can be downloaded from
<https://ollama.com/>.

   Next, you will need to pick a Large Language Model.  There are two
properties to watch out for:
   • The license under which the LLM is released.  While some LLMs are
     under a Free Software license (most often the Apache 2.0 license)
     and are thus "open weights" models (see
     <https://opensource.org/ai/open-weights>), others have licenses
     with usage restrictions.
   • The size of the LLM. Generally, it should be smaller than the
     available RAM size of your machine on which you will run the LLM
     execution engine.

   Together with an LLM of reasonable quality, such as the model
‘ministral-3:14b’, the system requirements are as follows:
   • RAM: 16 GB.
   • Disk space: 10 GB (1 GB for ‘ollama’, 9 GB for the model).
   • GPU or TPU: A GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) or TPU (Tensor
     Processing Unit) is not needed.  As of 2025, a high-end GPU from
     certain vendors can be used by ‘ollama’ to provide an optional
     speedup.

   Additional configuration:
   • If you are running ‘ollama’ on your computer directly, no further
     configuration is needed.
   • If you are running ‘ollama’ on a separate machine, and want to make
     it accessible from all machines in the LAN: Edit the file
     ‘/etc/systemd/system/ollama.services’, adding a line:
     ‘Environment="OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0"’.  See
     <https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues/703>.
   • If you are running ‘ollama’ in a virtual machine, make the port
     11434 accessible through port forwarding.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgpre Invocation,  Next: spit Invocation,  Prev: Installing an LLM,  Up: Pretranslating

8.2 Invoking the ‘msgpre’ Program
=================================

     msgpre [OPTION...]

   The ‘msgpre’ program pretranslates a translation catalog.

   *Warning:* The pretranslations might not be what you expect.  They
might be of the wrong form, be of poor quality, or reflect some biases.

8.2.1 Input file location
-------------------------

‘-i INPUTFILE’
‘--input=INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

8.2.2 Output file location
--------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

8.2.3 Message selection
-----------------------

‘--keep-fuzzy’
     Keep fuzzy messages unmodified.  Pretranslate only untranslated
     messages.

8.2.4 Large Language Model (LLM) options
----------------------------------------

‘--species=TYPE’
     Specifies the type of Large Language Model execution engine.  The
     default and only valid value is ‘ollama’.

‘--url=URL’
     Specifies the URL of the server that runs Large Language Model
     execution engine.  For ‘ollama’, the default is
     ‘http://localhost:11434’.

‘-m MODEL’
‘--model=MODEL’
     Specifies the model to use.  This option is mandatory; no default
     exists.  The specified model must already be installed in the Large
     Language Model execution engine.

‘--prompt=TEXT’
     Specifies the prompt to use before each ‘msgid’ from the PO file.
     It allows you to specify extra instructions for the LLM. The prompt
     should include an instruction like "Translate into TARGET
     LANGUAGE.".  Some hints for good prompts are described in the
     article "How to write AI prompts for translation"
     <https://poeditor.com/blog/ai-prompts-for-translation/>.

‘--postprocess=COMMAND’
     Specifies a command to post-process the output from the LLM. This
     should be a Bourne shell command that reads from standard input and
     writes to standard output.

     For instance, the ‘ministral-3:14b’ model often emphasizes part of
     the output with ‘**’ characters.  To eliminate these markers, you
     could use the command ‘sed -e 's/[*][*]//g'’.

8.2.5 Input file syntax
-----------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

8.2.6 Output details
--------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

8.2.7 Informative output
------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

‘-q’
‘--quiet’
‘--silent’
     Suppress progress indicators.

8.2.8 Examples
--------------

   To pretranslate the file ‘foo.po’:

     msgpre --model=ministral-3:14b < foo.po > foo-pretranslated.po

Note that this command can take a long time, depending on the model and
the available hardware.


File: gettext.info,  Node: spit Invocation,  Prev: msgpre Invocation,  Up: Pretranslating

8.3 Invoking the ‘spit’ Program
===============================

     spit [OPTION...]

   The ‘spit’ program passes its input to a Large Language Model (LLM)
instance and prints the response.  With the ‘--to’ option, it translates
its input to the specified language through a Large Language Model (LLM)
and prints the translation.

   *Warning:* The output might not be what you expect.  It might be of
the wrong form, be of poor quality, or reflect some biases.

8.3.1 Large Language Model (LLM) options
----------------------------------------

‘--species=TYPE’
     Specifies the type of Large Language Model execution engine.  The
     default and only valid value is ‘ollama’.

‘--url=URL’
     Specifies the URL of the server that runs Large Language Model
     execution engine.  For ‘ollama’, the default is
     ‘http://localhost:11434’.

‘-m MODEL’
‘--model=MODEL’
     Specifies the model to use.  This option is mandatory; no default
     exists.  The specified model must already be installed in the Large
     Language Model execution engine.

‘--to=LANGUAGE’
     Specifies the target language.  LANGUAGE may be specified as an ISO
     639 language code (such as ‘fr’ for French), as a combination of an
     ISO 639 language code and an ISO 3166 country code (such as ‘fr_CA’
     for French in Canada, or ‘zh_TW’ for traditional Chinese), or as
     the English name of a language (such as ‘French’).

     The effect of this option is to add a prompt similar to "Translate
     to LANGUAGE:".

‘--prompt=TEXT’
     Specifies the prompt to use before the input that comes from
     standard input.  It allows you to specify extra instructions for
     the LLM.

     This option overrides the ‘--to’ option.

‘--postprocess=COMMAND’
     Specifies a command to post-process the output.  This should be a
     Bourne shell command that reads from standard input and writes to
     standard output.

     For instance, the ‘ministral-3:14b’ model often emphasizes part of
     the output with ‘**’ characters.  To eliminate these markers, you
     could use the command ‘sed -e 's/[*][*]//g'’.

8.3.2 Informative output
------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

8.3.3 Examples
--------------

   Machine translation of a single sentence:

     $ echo 'Translate into German: "Welcome to the GNU project!"' \
         | spit --model=ministral-3:14b \
                --postprocess="sed -e 's/[*][*]//g'"
     "Willkommen zum GNU-Projekt!"

The perfect translation would be ‘"Willkommen beim GNU-Projekt!"’.  You
can see: some manual adjustment after the machine translation is needed.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Editing,  Next: Manipulating,  Prev: Pretranslating,  Up: Top

9 Editing PO Files
******************

   As a translator, you will typically edit a PO file in an editor that
has built-in knowledge about the PO file format.  You most probably
won't want to edit a PO file in a text editor for plain-text files,
because that would be cumbersome regarding cursor navigation and would
also easily lead to syntax mistakes.

* Menu:

* Web based localization::      Web-based PO editing
* Lokalize::                    KDE's PO File Editor
* Gtranslator::                 GNOME's PO File Editor
* Poedit::                      A simple PO File Editor
* OmegaT::                      A powerful Translation Editor
* Virtaal::                     The Virtaal Translation Editor
* PO Mode::                     Emacs's PO File Editor
* Vim::                         Editing PO Files in vim
* Compendium::                  Using Translation Compendia


File: gettext.info,  Node: Web based localization,  Next: Lokalize,  Up: Editing

9.1 Web-based PO editing
========================

   There are two ways to edit a PO file: either through a web-based PO
editor, in a browser, or through a PO editor that you can install on
your computer.  Which one you choose, depends on your habits.

   Typically, the software project for which you want to provide
translations has set up a workflow that you, as a translator, have to
follow.

   • There are projects which use the Weblate (https://weblate.org/)
     localization suite.  In this case, you have the choice between a
     web-based PO editor
     (https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/user/translating.html) and a
     workflow (https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/user/files.html) where
     you download the previous translation, update it with your
     preferred PO editor, and then upload it back.

   • There are projects which offer you only a web-based PO editor, as
     only choice.  Since web-based tools restrict your freedom as a user
     - you cannot make modifications on your own to that tool -, you
     should complain to that project and claim the choice of using a
     locally installed PO editor, because that is the only way that can
     guarantee your freedom of choice and freedom to modify the
     software.

   • There are projects which do not support web-based localizations.
     In this case, pick a PO file editor as listed in the next few
     sections.  Examples for such projects are the Free Translation
     Project (https://translationproject.org/), as well as projects
     where you directly interact with the version control system of the
     project.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Lokalize,  Next: Gtranslator,  Prev: Web based localization,  Up: Editing

9.2 KDE's PO File Editor
========================

   Lokalize (<https://apps.kde.org/lokalize/>) is the PO file editor
made by the KDE project.  It is present in many
(https://repology.org/project/lokalize/versions) GNU/Linux
distributions.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Gtranslator,  Next: Poedit,  Prev: Lokalize,  Up: Editing

9.3 GNOME's PO File Editor
==========================

   Gtranslator (<https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gtranslator>) is the PO
file editor made by the GNOME project.  It is present in many
(https://repology.org/project/gtranslator/versions) GNU/Linux
distributions.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Poedit,  Next: OmegaT,  Prev: Gtranslator,  Up: Editing

9.4 Poedit
==========

   Poedit (<https://github.com/vslavik/poedit>) is another decent PO
file editor.  It works on all major desktop OSes and is present in many
(https://repology.org/project/poedit/versions) GNU/Linux distributions.


File: gettext.info,  Node: OmegaT,  Next: Virtaal,  Prev: Poedit,  Up: Editing

9.5 OmegaT
==========

   OmegaT (Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmegaT>, home page:
<https://omegat.org/>, code: <https://github.com/omegat-org/omegat>) is
a translation editor that focuses on speeding up the translator's work
through advanced features like translation memory, spell-checking,
glossaries, dictionaries.  It supports not only PO files, but also
direct translation of various file formats (such as plain text, web
pages, OpenDocument files, DocBook XML, etc.)  without using
intermediate files.  It is present in many
(https://repology.org/omegat/poedit/versions) GNU/Linux distributions.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Virtaal,  Next: PO Mode,  Prev: OmegaT,  Up: Editing

9.6 The Virtaal Translation Editor
==================================

   Virtaal (Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtaal>, home
page: <https://virtaal.translatehouse.org/>, code:
<https://github.com/translate/virtaal>) is a translation editor that
supports not only PO files but also XLIFF files.  It is present in some
(https://repology.org/project/virtaal/versions) GNU/Linux distributions,
such as Debian up to Debian 11.


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO Mode,  Next: Vim,  Prev: Virtaal,  Up: Editing

9.7 Emacs's PO File Editor
==========================

   For those of you being the lucky users of Emacs, PO mode has been
specifically created for providing a cozy environment for editing or
modifying PO files.  While editing a PO file, PO mode allows for the
easy browsing of auxiliary and compendium PO files, as well as for
following references into the set of C program sources from which PO
files have been derived.  It has a few special features, among which are
the interactive marking of program strings as translatable, and the
validation of PO files with easy repositioning to PO file lines showing
errors.

   For the beginning, besides main PO mode commands (*note Main PO
Commands::), you should know how to move between entries (*note Entry
Positioning::), and how to handle untranslated entries (*note
Untranslated Entries::).

* Menu:

* Installation::                Completing GNU ‘gettext’ Installation
* Main PO Commands::            Main Commands
* Entry Positioning::           Entry Positioning
* Normalizing::                 Normalizing Strings in Entries
* Translated Entries::          Translated Entries
* Fuzzy Entries::               Fuzzy Entries
* Untranslated Entries::        Untranslated Entries
* Obsolete Entries::            Obsolete Entries
* Modifying Translations::      Modifying Translations
* Modifying Comments::          Modifying Comments
* Subedit::                     Mode for Editing Translations
* C Sources Context::           C Sources Context
* Auxiliary::                   Consulting Auxiliary PO Files


File: gettext.info,  Node: Installation,  Next: Main PO Commands,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.1 Completing GNU ‘gettext’ Installation
-------------------------------------------

   Once you have received, unpacked, configured and compiled the GNU
‘gettext’ distribution, the ‘make install’ command puts in place the
programs ‘xgettext’, ‘msgfmt’, ‘gettext’, and ‘msgmerge’, as well as
their available message catalogs.  To top off a comfortable
installation, you might also want to make the PO mode available to your
Emacs users.

   During the installation of the PO mode, you might want to modify your
file ‘.emacs’, once and for all, so it contains a few lines looking
like:

     (setq auto-mode-alist
           (cons '("\\.po\\'\\|\\.po\\." . po-mode) auto-mode-alist))
     (autoload 'po-mode "po-mode" "Major mode for translators to edit PO files" t)

   Later, whenever you edit some ‘.po’ file, or any file having the
string ‘.po.’ within its name, Emacs loads ‘po-mode.elc’ (or
‘po-mode.el’) as needed, and automatically activates PO mode commands
for the associated buffer.  The string _PO_ appears in the mode line for
any buffer for which PO mode is active.  Many PO files may be active at
once in a single Emacs session.

   If you are using Emacs version 20 or newer, and have already
installed the appropriate international fonts on your system, you may
also tell Emacs how to determine automatically the coding system of
every PO file.  This will often (but not always) cause the necessary
fonts to be loaded and used for displaying the translations on your
Emacs screen.  For this to happen, add the lines:

     (modify-coding-system-alist 'file "\\.po\\'\\|\\.po\\."
                                 'po-find-file-coding-system)
     (autoload 'po-find-file-coding-system "po-mode")

to your ‘.emacs’ file.  If, with this, you still see boxes instead of
international characters, try a different font set (via Shift Mouse
button 1).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Main PO Commands,  Next: Entry Positioning,  Prev: Installation,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.2 Main PO mode Commands
---------------------------

   After setting up Emacs with something similar to the lines in *note
Installation::, PO mode is activated for a window when Emacs finds a PO
file in that window.  This puts the window read-only and establishes a
po-mode-map, which is a genuine Emacs mode, in a way that is not derived
from text mode in any way.  Functions found on ‘po-mode-hook’, if any,
will be executed.

   When PO mode is active in a window, the letters ‘PO’ appear in the
mode line for that window.  The mode line also displays how many entries
of each kind are held in the PO file.  For example, the string
‘132t+3f+10u+2o’ would tell the translator that the PO mode contains 132
translated entries (*note Translated Entries::, 3 fuzzy entries (*note
Fuzzy Entries::), 10 untranslated entries (*note Untranslated Entries::)
and 2 obsolete entries (*note Obsolete Entries::).  Zero-coefficients
items are not shown.  So, in this example, if the fuzzy entries were
unfuzzied, the untranslated entries were translated and the obsolete
entries were deleted, the mode line would merely display ‘145t’ for the
counters.

   The main PO commands are those which do not fit into the other
categories of subsequent sections.  These allow for quitting PO mode or
for managing windows in special ways.

‘_’
     Undo last modification to the PO file (‘po-undo’).

‘Q’
     Quit processing and save the PO file (‘po-quit’).

‘q’
     Quit processing, possibly after confirmation
     (‘po-confirm-and-quit’).

‘0’
     Temporary leave the PO file window (‘po-other-window’).

‘?’
‘h’
     Show help about PO mode (‘po-help’).

‘=’
     Give some PO file statistics (‘po-statistics’).

‘V’
     Batch validate the format of the whole PO file (‘po-validate’).

   The command ‘_’ (‘po-undo’) interfaces to the Emacs _undo_ facility.
*Note Undoing Changes: (emacs)Undo.  Each time ‘_’ is typed,
modifications which the translator did to the PO file are undone a
little more.  For the purpose of undoing, each PO mode command is
atomic.  This is especially true for the ‘<RET>’ command: the whole
edition made by using a single use of this command is undone at once,
even if the edition itself implied several actions.  However, while in
the editing window, one can undo the edition work quite parsimoniously.

   The commands ‘Q’ (‘po-quit’) and ‘q’ (‘po-confirm-and-quit’) are used
when the translator is done with the PO file.  The former is a bit less
verbose than the latter.  If the file has been modified, it is saved to
disk first.  In both cases, and prior to all this, the commands check if
any untranslated messages remain in the PO file and, if so, the
translator is asked if she really wants to leave off working with this
PO file.  This is the preferred way of getting rid of an Emacs PO file
buffer.  Merely killing it through the usual command ‘C-x k’
(‘kill-buffer’) is not the tidiest way to proceed.

   The command ‘0’ (‘po-other-window’) is another, softer way, to leave
PO mode, temporarily.  It just moves the cursor to some other Emacs
window, and pops one if necessary.  For example, if the translator just
got PO mode to show some source context in some other, she might
discover some apparent bug in the program source that needs correction.
This command allows the translator to change sex, become a programmer,
and have the cursor right into the window containing the program she (or
rather _he_) wants to modify.  By later getting the cursor back in the
PO file window, or by asking Emacs to edit this file once again, PO mode
is then recovered.

   The command ‘h’ (‘po-help’) displays a summary of all available PO
mode commands.  The translator should then type any character to resume
normal PO mode operations.  The command ‘?’ has the same effect as ‘h’.

   The command ‘=’ (‘po-statistics’) computes the total number of
entries in the PO file, the ordinal of the current entry (counted from
1), the number of untranslated entries, the number of obsolete entries,
and displays all these numbers.

   The command ‘V’ (‘po-validate’) launches ‘msgfmt’ in checking and
verbose mode over the current PO file.  This command first offers to
save the current PO file on disk.  The ‘msgfmt’ tool, from GNU
‘gettext’, has the purpose of creating a MO file out of a PO file, and
PO mode uses the features of this program for checking the overall
format of a PO file, as well as all individual entries.

   The program ‘msgfmt’ runs asynchronously with Emacs, so the
translator regains control immediately while her PO file is being
studied.  Error output is collected in the Emacs ‘*compilation*’ buffer,
displayed in another window.  The regular Emacs command ‘C-x`’
(‘next-error’), as well as other usual compile commands, allow the
translator to reposition quickly to the offending parts of the PO file.
Once the cursor is on the line in error, the translator may decide on
any PO mode action which would help correcting the error.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Entry Positioning,  Next: Normalizing,  Prev: Main PO Commands,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.3 Entry Positioning
-----------------------

   The cursor in a PO file window is almost always part of an entry.
The only exceptions are the special case when the cursor is after the
last entry in the file, or when the PO file is empty.  The entry where
the cursor is found to be is said to be the current entry.  Many PO mode
commands operate on the current entry, so moving the cursor does more
than allowing the translator to browse the PO file, this also selects on
which entry commands operate.

   Some PO mode commands alter the position of the cursor in a
specialized way.  A few of those special purpose positioning are
described here, the others are described in following sections (for a
complete list try ‘C-h m’):

‘.’
     Redisplay the current entry (‘po-current-entry’).

‘n’
     Select the entry after the current one (‘po-next-entry’).

‘p’
     Select the entry before the current one (‘po-previous-entry’).

‘<’
     Select the first entry in the PO file (‘po-first-entry’).

‘>’
     Select the last entry in the PO file (‘po-last-entry’).

‘m’
     Record the location of the current entry for later use
     (‘po-push-location’).

‘r’
     Return to a previously saved entry location (‘po-pop-location’).

‘x’
     Exchange the current entry location with the previously saved one
     (‘po-exchange-location’).

   Any Emacs command able to reposition the cursor may be used to select
the current entry in PO mode, including commands which move by
characters, lines, paragraphs, screens or pages, and search commands.
However, there is a kind of standard way to display the current entry in
PO mode, which usual Emacs commands moving the cursor do not especially
try to enforce.  The command ‘.’ (‘po-current-entry’) has the sole
purpose of redisplaying the current entry properly, after the current
entry has been changed by means external to PO mode, or the Emacs screen
otherwise altered.

   It is yet to be decided if PO mode helps the translator, or otherwise
irritates her, by forcing a rigid window disposition while she is doing
her work.  We originally had quite precise ideas about how windows
should behave, but on the other hand, anyone used to Emacs is often
happy to keep full control.  Maybe a fixed window disposition might be
offered as a PO mode option that the translator might activate or
deactivate at will, so it could be offered on an experimental basis.  If
nobody feels a real need for using it, or a compulsion for writing it,
we should drop this whole idea.  The incentive for doing it should come
from translators rather than programmers, as opinions from an
experienced translator are surely more worth to me than opinions from
programmers _thinking_ about how _others_ should do translation.

   The commands ‘n’ (‘po-next-entry’) and ‘p’ (‘po-previous-entry’) move
the cursor the entry following, or preceding, the current one.  If ‘n’
is given while the cursor is on the last entry of the PO file, or if ‘p’
is given while the cursor is on the first entry, no move is done.

   The commands ‘<’ (‘po-first-entry’) and ‘>’ (‘po-last-entry’) move
the cursor to the first entry, or last entry, of the PO file.  When the
cursor is located past the last entry in a PO file, most PO mode
commands will return an error saying ‘After last entry’.  Moreover, the
commands ‘<’ and ‘>’ have the special property of being able to work
even when the cursor is not into some PO file entry, and one may use
them for nicely correcting this situation.  But even these commands will
fail on a truly empty PO file.  There are development plans for the PO
mode for it to interactively fill an empty PO file from sources.  *Note
Marking::.

   The translator may decide, before working at the translation of a
particular entry, that she needs to browse the remainder of the PO file,
maybe for finding the terminology or phraseology used in related
entries.  She can of course use the standard Emacs idioms for saving the
current cursor location in some register, and use that register for
getting back, or else, use the location ring.

   PO mode offers another approach, by which cursor locations may be
saved onto a special stack.  The command ‘m’ (‘po-push-location’) merely
adds the location of current entry to the stack, pushing the already
saved locations under the new one.  The command ‘r’ (‘po-pop-location’)
consumes the top stack element and repositions the cursor to the entry
associated with that top element.  This position is then lost, for the
next ‘r’ will move the cursor to the previously saved location, and so
on until no locations remain on the stack.

   If the translator wants the position to be kept on the location
stack, maybe for taking a look at the entry associated with the top
element, then go elsewhere with the intent of getting back later, she
ought to use ‘m’ immediately after ‘r’.

   The command ‘x’ (‘po-exchange-location’) simultaneously repositions
the cursor to the entry associated with the top element of the stack of
saved locations, and replaces that top element with the location of the
current entry before the move.  Consequently, repeating the ‘x’ command
toggles alternatively between two entries.  For achieving this, the
translator will position the cursor on the first entry, use ‘m’, then
position to the second entry, and merely use ‘x’ for making the switch.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Normalizing,  Next: Translated Entries,  Prev: Entry Positioning,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.4 Normalizing Strings in Entries
------------------------------------

   There are many different ways for encoding a particular string into a
PO file entry, because there are so many different ways to split and
quote multi-line strings, and even, to represent special characters by
backslashed escaped sequences.  Some features of PO mode rely on the
ability for PO mode to scan an already existing PO file for a particular
string encoded into the ‘msgid’ field of some entry.  Even if PO mode
has internally all the built-in machinery for implementing this
recognition easily, doing it fast is technically difficult.  To
facilitate a solution to this efficiency problem, we decided on a
canonical representation for strings.

   A conventional representation of strings in a PO file is currently
under discussion, and PO mode experiments with a canonical
representation.  Having both ‘xgettext’ and PO mode converging towards a
uniform way of representing equivalent strings would be useful, as the
internal normalization needed by PO mode could be automatically
satisfied when using ‘xgettext’ from GNU ‘gettext’.  An explicit PO mode
normalization should then be only necessary for PO files imported from
elsewhere, or for when the convention itself evolves.

   So, for achieving normalization of at least the strings of a given PO
file needing a canonical representation, the following PO mode command
is available:

‘M-x po-normalize’
     Tidy the whole PO file by making entries more uniform.

   The special command ‘M-x po-normalize’, which has no associated keys,
revises all entries, ensuring that strings of both original and
translated entries use uniform internal quoting in the PO file.  It also
removes any crumb after the last entry.  This command may be useful for
PO files freshly imported from elsewhere, or if we ever improve on the
canonical quoting format we use.  This canonical format is not only
meant for getting cleaner PO files, but also for greatly speeding up
‘msgid’ string lookup for some other PO mode commands.

   ‘M-x po-normalize’ presently makes three passes over the entries.
The first implements heuristics for converting PO files for GNU
‘gettext’ 0.6 and earlier, in which ‘msgid’ and ‘msgstr’ fields were
using K&R style C string syntax for multi-line strings.  These
heuristics may fail for comments not related to obsolete entries and
ending with a backslash; they also depend on subsequent passes for
finalizing the proper commenting of continued lines for obsolete
entries.  This first pass might disappear once all oldish PO files would
have been adjusted.  The second and third pass normalize all ‘msgid’ and
‘msgstr’ strings respectively.  They also clean out those trailing
backslashes used by XView's ‘msgfmt’ for continued lines.

   Having such an explicit normalizing command allows for importing PO
files from other sources, but also eases the evolution of the current
convention, evolution driven mostly by aesthetic concerns, as of now.
It is easy to make suggested adjustments at a later time, as the
normalizing command and eventually, other GNU ‘gettext’ tools should
greatly automate conformance.  A description of the canonical string
format is given below, for the particular benefit of those not having
Emacs handy, and who would nevertheless want to handcraft their PO files
in nice ways.

   Right now, in PO mode, strings are single line or multi-line.  A
string goes multi-line if and only if it has _embedded_ newlines, that
is, if it matches ‘[^\n]\n+[^\n]’.  So, we would have:

     msgstr "\n\nHello, world!\n\n\n"

   but, replacing the space by a newline, this becomes:

     msgstr ""
     "\n"
     "\n"
     "Hello,\n"
     "world!\n"
     "\n"
     "\n"

   We are deliberately using a caricatural example, here, to make the
point clearer.  Usually, multi-lines are not that bad looking.  It is
probable that we will implement the following suggestion.  We might lump
together all initial newlines into the empty string, and also all
newlines introducing empty lines (that is, for N > 1, the N-1'th last
newlines would go together on a separate string), so making the previous
example appear:

     msgstr "\n\n"
     "Hello,\n"
     "world!\n"
     "\n\n"

   There are a few yet undecided little points about string
normalization, to be documented in this manual, once these questions
settle.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translated Entries,  Next: Fuzzy Entries,  Prev: Normalizing,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.5 Translated Entries
------------------------

   Each PO file entry for which the ‘msgstr’ field has been filled with
a translation, and which is not marked as fuzzy (*note Fuzzy Entries::),
is said to be a “translated” entry.  Only translated entries will later
be compiled by GNU ‘msgfmt’ and become usable in programs.  Other entry
types will be excluded; translation will not occur for them.

   Some commands are more specifically related to translated entry
processing.

‘t’
     Find the next translated entry (‘po-next-translated-entry’).

‘T’
     Find the previous translated entry
     (‘po-previous-translated-entry’).

   The commands ‘t’ (‘po-next-translated-entry’) and ‘T’
(‘po-previous-translated-entry’) move forwards or backwards, chasing for
an translated entry.  If none is found, the search is extended and wraps
around in the PO file buffer.

   Translated entries usually result from the translator having edited
in a translation for them, *note Modifying Translations::.  However, if
the variable ‘po-auto-fuzzy-on-edit’ is not ‘nil’, the entry having
received a new translation first becomes a fuzzy entry, which ought to
be later unfuzzied before becoming an official, genuine translated
entry.  *Note Fuzzy Entries::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Fuzzy Entries,  Next: Untranslated Entries,  Prev: Translated Entries,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.6 Fuzzy Entries
-------------------

   Each PO file entry may have a set of “attributes”, which are
qualities given a name and explicitly associated with the translation,
using a special system comment.  One of these attributes has the name
‘fuzzy’, and entries having this attribute are said to have a fuzzy
translation.  They are called fuzzy entries, for short.

   Fuzzy entries, even if they account for translated entries for most
other purposes, usually call for revision by the translator.  Those may
be produced by applying the program ‘msgmerge’ to update an older
translated PO files according to a new PO template file, when this tool
hypothesises that some new ‘msgid’ has been modified only slightly out
of an older one, and chooses to pair what it thinks to be the old
translation for the new modified entry.  The slight alteration in the
original string (the ‘msgid’ string) should often be reflected in the
translated string, and this requires the intervention of the translator.
For this reason, ‘msgmerge’ might mark some entries as being fuzzy.

   Also, the translator may decide herself to mark an entry as fuzzy for
her own convenience, when she wants to remember that the entry has to be
later revisited.  So, some commands are more specifically related to
fuzzy entry processing.

‘f’
     Find the next fuzzy entry (‘po-next-fuzzy-entry’).

‘F’
     Find the previous fuzzy entry (‘po-previous-fuzzy-entry’).

‘<TAB>’
     Remove the fuzzy attribute of the current entry (‘po-unfuzzy’).

   The commands ‘f’ (‘po-next-fuzzy-entry’) and ‘F’
(‘po-previous-fuzzy-entry’) move forwards or backwards, chasing for a
fuzzy entry.  If none is found, the search is extended and wraps around
in the PO file buffer.

   The command ‘<TAB>’ (‘po-unfuzzy’) removes the fuzzy attribute
associated with an entry, usually leaving it translated.  Further, if
the variable ‘po-auto-select-on-unfuzzy’ has not the ‘nil’ value, the
‘<TAB>’ command will automatically chase for another interesting entry
to work on.  The initial value of ‘po-auto-select-on-unfuzzy’ is ‘nil’.

   The initial value of ‘po-auto-fuzzy-on-edit’ is ‘nil’.  However, if
the variable ‘po-auto-fuzzy-on-edit’ is set to ‘t’, any entry edited
through the ‘<RET>’ command is marked fuzzy, as a way to ensure some
kind of double check, later.  In this case, the usual paradigm is that
an entry becomes fuzzy (if not already) whenever the translator modifies
it.  If she is satisfied with the translation, she then uses ‘<TAB>’ to
pick another entry to work on, clearing the fuzzy attribute on the same
blow.  If she is not satisfied yet, she merely uses ‘<SPC>’ to chase
another entry, leaving the entry fuzzy.

   The translator may also use the ‘<DEL>’ command (‘po-fade-out-entry’)
over any translated entry to mark it as being fuzzy, when she wants to
easily leave a trace she wants to later return working at this entry.

   Also, when time comes to quit working on a PO file buffer with the
‘q’ command, the translator is asked for confirmation, if fuzzy string
still exists.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Untranslated Entries,  Next: Obsolete Entries,  Prev: Fuzzy Entries,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.7 Untranslated Entries
--------------------------

   When ‘xgettext’ originally creates a PO file, unless told otherwise,
it initializes the ‘msgid’ field with the untranslated string, and
leaves the ‘msgstr’ string to be empty.  Such entries, having an empty
translation, are said to be “untranslated” entries.  Later, when the
programmer slightly modifies some string right in the program, this
change is later reflected in the PO file by the appearance of a new
untranslated entry for the modified string.

   The usual commands moving from entry to entry consider untranslated
entries on the same level as active entries.  Untranslated entries are
easily recognizable by the fact they end with ‘msgstr ""’.

   The work of the translator might be (quite naively) seen as the
process of seeking for an untranslated entry, editing a translation for
it, and repeating these actions until no untranslated entries remain.
Some commands are more specifically related to untranslated entry
processing.

‘u’
     Find the next untranslated entry (‘po-next-untranslated-entry’).

‘U’
     Find the previous untranslated entry
     (‘po-previous-untransted-entry’).

‘k’
     Turn the current entry into an untranslated one (‘po-kill-msgstr’).

   The commands ‘u’ (‘po-next-untranslated-entry’) and ‘U’
(‘po-previous-untransted-entry’) move forwards or backwards, chasing for
an untranslated entry.  If none is found, the search is extended and
wraps around in the PO file buffer.

   An entry can be turned back into an untranslated entry by merely
emptying its translation, using the command ‘k’ (‘po-kill-msgstr’).
*Note Modifying Translations::.

   Also, when time comes to quit working on a PO file buffer with the
‘q’ command, the translator is asked for confirmation, if some
untranslated string still exists.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Obsolete Entries,  Next: Modifying Translations,  Prev: Untranslated Entries,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.8 Obsolete Entries
----------------------

   By “obsolete” PO file entries, we mean those entries which are
commented out, usually by ‘msgmerge’ when it found that the translation
is not needed anymore by the package being localized.

   The usual commands moving from entry to entry consider obsolete
entries on the same level as active entries.  Obsolete entries are
easily recognizable by the fact that all their lines start with ‘#’,
even those lines containing ‘msgid’ or ‘msgstr’.

   Commands exist for emptying the translation or reinitializing it to
the original untranslated string.  Commands interfacing with the kill
ring may force some previously saved text into the translation.  The
user may interactively edit the translation.  All these commands may
apply to obsolete entries, carefully leaving the entry obsolete after
the fact.

   Moreover, some commands are more specifically related to obsolete
entry processing.

‘o’
     Find the next obsolete entry (‘po-next-obsolete-entry’).

‘O’
     Find the previous obsolete entry (‘po-previous-obsolete-entry’).

‘<DEL>’
     Make an active entry obsolete, or zap out an obsolete entry
     (‘po-fade-out-entry’).

   The commands ‘o’ (‘po-next-obsolete-entry’) and ‘O’
(‘po-previous-obsolete-entry’) move forwards or backwards, chasing for
an obsolete entry.  If none is found, the search is extended and wraps
around in the PO file buffer.

   PO mode does not provide ways for un-commenting an obsolete entry and
making it active, because this would reintroduce an original
untranslated string which does not correspond to any marked string in
the program sources.  This goes with the philosophy of never introducing
useless ‘msgid’ values.

   However, it is possible to comment out an active entry, so making it
obsolete.  GNU ‘gettext’ utilities will later react to the disappearance
of a translation by using the untranslated string.  The command ‘<DEL>’
(‘po-fade-out-entry’) pushes the current entry a little further towards
annihilation.  If the entry is active (it is a translated entry), then
it is first made fuzzy.  If it is already fuzzy, then the entry is
merely commented out, with confirmation.  If the entry is already
obsolete, then it is completely deleted from the PO file.  It is easy to
recycle the translation so deleted into some other PO file entry,
usually one which is untranslated.  *Note Modifying Translations::.

   Here is a quite interesting problem to solve for later development of
PO mode, for those nights you are not sleepy.  The idea would be that PO
mode might become bright enough, one of these days, to make good guesses
at retrieving the most probable candidate, among all obsolete entries,
for initializing the translation of a newly appeared string.  I think it
might be a quite hard problem to do this algorithmically, as we have to
develop good and efficient measures of string similarity.  Right now, PO
mode completely lets the decision to the translator, when the time comes
to find the adequate obsolete translation, it merely tries to provide
handy tools for helping her to do so.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Modifying Translations,  Next: Modifying Comments,  Prev: Obsolete Entries,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.9 Modifying Translations
----------------------------

   PO mode prevents direct modification of the PO file, by the usual
means Emacs gives for altering a buffer's contents.  By doing so, it
pretends helping the translator to avoid little clerical errors about
the overall file format, or the proper quoting of strings, as those
errors would be easily made.  Other kinds of errors are still possible,
but some may be caught and diagnosed by the batch validation process,
which the translator may always trigger by the ‘V’ command.  For all
other errors, the translator has to rely on her own judgment, and also
on the linguistic reports submitted to her by the users of the
translated package, having the same mother tongue.

   When the time comes to create a translation, correct an error
diagnosed mechanically or reported by a user, the translators have to
resort to using the following commands for modifying the translations.

‘<RET>’
     Interactively edit the translation (‘po-edit-msgstr’).

‘<LFD>’
‘C-j’
     Reinitialize the translation with the original, untranslated string
     (‘po-msgid-to-msgstr’).

‘k’
     Save the translation on the kill ring, and delete it
     (‘po-kill-msgstr’).

‘w’
     Save the translation on the kill ring, without deleting it
     (‘po-kill-ring-save-msgstr’).

‘y’
     Replace the translation, taking the new from the kill ring
     (‘po-yank-msgstr’).

   The command ‘<RET>’ (‘po-edit-msgstr’) opens a new Emacs window meant
to edit in a new translation, or to modify an already existing
translation.  The new window contains a copy of the translation taken
from the current PO file entry, all ready for edition, expunged of all
quoting marks, fully modifiable and with the complete extent of Emacs
modifying commands.  When the translator is done with her modifications,
she may use ‘C-c C-c’ to close the subedit window with the automatically
requoted results, or ‘C-c C-k’ to abort her modifications.  *Note
Subedit::, for more information.

   The command ‘<LFD>’ (‘po-msgid-to-msgstr’) initializes, or
reinitializes the translation with the original string.  This command is
normally used when the translator wants to redo a fresh translation of
the original string, disregarding any previous work.

   It is possible to arrange so, whenever editing an untranslated entry,
the ‘<LFD>’ command be automatically executed.  If you set
‘po-auto-edit-with-msgid’ to ‘t’, the translation gets initialised with
the original string, in case none exists already.  The default value for
‘po-auto-edit-with-msgid’ is ‘nil’.

   In fact, whether it is best to start a translation with an empty
string, or rather with a copy of the original string, is a matter of
taste or habit.  Sometimes, the source language and the target language
are so different that is simply best to start writing on an empty page.
At other times, the source and target languages are so close that it
would be a waste to retype a number of words already being written in
the original string.  A translator may also like having the original
string right under her eyes, as she will progressively overwrite the
original text with the translation, even if this requires some extra
editing work to get rid of the original.

   The command ‘k’ (‘po-kill-msgstr’) merely empties the translation
string, so turning the entry into an untranslated one.  But while doing
so, its previous contents is put apart in a special place, known as the
kill ring.  The command ‘w’ (‘po-kill-ring-save-msgstr’) has also the
effect of taking a copy of the translation onto the kill ring, but it
otherwise leaves the entry alone, and does _not_ remove the translation
from the entry.  Both commands use exactly the Emacs kill ring, which is
shared between buffers, and which is well known already to Emacs lovers.

   The translator may use ‘k’ or ‘w’ many times in the course of her
work, as the kill ring may hold several saved translations.  From the
kill ring, strings may later be reinserted in various Emacs buffers.  In
particular, the kill ring may be used for moving translation strings
between different entries of a single PO file buffer, or if the
translator is handling many such buffers at once, even between PO files.

   To facilitate exchanges with buffers which are not in PO mode, the
translation string put on the kill ring by the ‘k’ command is fully
unquoted before being saved: external quotes are removed, multi-line
strings are concatenated, and backslash escaped sequences are turned
into their corresponding characters.  In the special case of obsolete
entries, the translation is also uncommented prior to saving.

   The command ‘y’ (‘po-yank-msgstr’) completely replaces the
translation of the current entry by a string taken from the kill ring.
Following Emacs terminology, we then say that the replacement string is
“yanked” into the PO file buffer.  *Note (emacs)Yanking::.  The first
time ‘y’ is used, the translation receives the value of the most recent
addition to the kill ring.  If ‘y’ is typed once again, immediately,
without intervening keystrokes, the translation just inserted is taken
away and replaced by the second most recent addition to the kill ring.
By repeating ‘y’ many times in a row, the translator may travel along
the kill ring for saved strings, until she finds the string she really
wanted.

   When a string is yanked into a PO file entry, it is fully and
automatically requoted for complying with the format PO files should
have.  Further, if the entry is obsolete, PO mode then appropriately
push the inserted string inside comments.  Once again, translators
should not burden themselves with quoting considerations besides, of
course, the necessity of the translated string itself respective to the
program using it.

   Note that ‘k’ or ‘w’ are not the only commands pushing strings on the
kill ring, as almost any PO mode command replacing translation strings
(or the translator comments) automatically saves the old string on the
kill ring.  The main exceptions to this general rule are the yanking
commands themselves.

   To better illustrate the operation of killing and yanking, let's use
an actual example, taken from a common situation.  When the programmer
slightly modifies some string right in the program, his change is later
reflected in the PO file by the appearance of a new untranslated entry
for the modified string, and the fact that the entry translating the
original or unmodified string becomes obsolete.  In many cases, the
translator might spare herself some work by retrieving the unmodified
translation from the obsolete entry, then initializing the untranslated
entry ‘msgstr’ field with this retrieved translation.  Once this done,
the obsolete entry is not wanted anymore, and may be safely deleted.

   When the translator finds an untranslated entry and suspects that a
slight variant of the translation exists, she immediately uses ‘m’ to
mark the current entry location, then starts chasing obsolete entries
with ‘o’, hoping to find some translation corresponding to the
unmodified string.  Once found, she uses the ‘<DEL>’ command for
deleting the obsolete entry, knowing that ‘<DEL>’ also _kills_ the
translation, that is, pushes the translation on the kill ring.  Then,
‘r’ returns to the initial untranslated entry, and ‘y’ then _yanks_ the
saved translation right into the ‘msgstr’ field.  The translator is then
free to use ‘<RET>’ for fine tuning the translation contents, and maybe
to later use ‘u’, then ‘m’ again, for going on with the next
untranslated string.

   When some sequence of keys has to be typed over and over again, the
translator may find it useful to become better acquainted with the Emacs
capability of learning these sequences and playing them back under
request.  *Note (emacs)Keyboard Macros::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Modifying Comments,  Next: Subedit,  Prev: Modifying Translations,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.10 Modifying Comments
-------------------------

   Any translation work done seriously will raise many linguistic
difficulties, for which decisions have to be made, and the choices
further documented.  These documents may be saved within the PO file in
form of translator comments, which the translator is free to create,
delete, or modify at will.  These comments may be useful to herself when
she returns to this PO file after a while.

   Comments not having whitespace after the initial ‘#’, for example,
those beginning with ‘#.’ or ‘#:’, are _not_ translator comments, they
are exclusively created by other ‘gettext’ tools.  So, the commands
below will never alter such system added comments, they are not meant
for the translator to modify.  *Note PO Files::.

   The following commands are somewhat similar to those modifying
translations, so the general indications given for those apply here.
*Note Modifying Translations::.

‘#’
     Interactively edit the translator comments (‘po-edit-comment’).

‘K’
     Save the translator comments on the kill ring, and delete it
     (‘po-kill-comment’).

‘W’
     Save the translator comments on the kill ring, without deleting it
     (‘po-kill-ring-save-comment’).

‘Y’
     Replace the translator comments, taking the new from the kill ring
     (‘po-yank-comment’).

   These commands parallel PO mode commands for modifying the
translation strings, and behave much the same way as they do, except
that they handle this part of PO file comments meant for translator
usage, rather than the translation strings.  So, if the descriptions
given below are slightly succinct, it is because the full details have
already been given.  *Note Modifying Translations::.

   The command ‘#’ (‘po-edit-comment’) opens a new Emacs window
containing a copy of the translator comments on the current PO file
entry.  If there are no such comments, PO mode understands that the
translator wants to add a comment to the entry, and she is presented
with an empty screen.  Comment marks (‘#’) and the space following them
are automatically removed before edition, and reinstated after.  For
translator comments pertaining to obsolete entries, the uncommenting and
recommenting operations are done twice.  Once in the editing window, the
keys ‘C-c C-c’ allow the translator to tell she is finished with editing
the comment.  *Note Subedit::, for further details.

   Functions found on ‘po-subedit-mode-hook’, if any, are executed after
the string has been inserted in the edit buffer.

   The command ‘K’ (‘po-kill-comment’) gets rid of all translator
comments, while saving those comments on the kill ring.  The command ‘W’
(‘po-kill-ring-save-comment’) takes a copy of the translator comments on
the kill ring, but leaves them undisturbed in the current entry.  The
command ‘Y’ (‘po-yank-comment’) completely replaces the translator
comments by a string taken at the front of the kill ring.  When this
command is immediately repeated, the comments just inserted are
withdrawn, and replaced by other strings taken along the kill ring.

   On the kill ring, all strings have the same nature.  There is no
distinction between _translation_ strings and _translator comments_
strings.  So, for example, let's presume the translator has just
finished editing a translation, and wants to create a new translator
comment to document why the previous translation was not good, just to
remember what was the problem.  Foreseeing that she will do that in her
documentation, the translator may want to quote the previous translation
in her translator comments.  To do so, she may initialize the translator
comments with the previous translation, still at the head of the kill
ring.  Because editing already pushed the previous translation on the
kill ring, she merely has to type ‘M-w’ prior to ‘#’, and the previous
translation will be right there, all ready for being introduced by some
explanatory text.

   On the other hand, presume there are some translator comments already
and that the translator wants to add to those comments, instead of
wholly replacing them.  Then, she should edit the comment right away
with ‘#’.  Once inside the editing window, she can use the regular Emacs
commands ‘C-y’ (‘yank’) and ‘M-y’ (‘yank-pop’) to get the previous
translation where she likes.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Subedit,  Next: C Sources Context,  Prev: Modifying Comments,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.11 Details of Sub Edition
-----------------------------

   The PO subedit minor mode has a few peculiarities worth being
described in fuller detail.  It installs a few commands over the usual
editing set of Emacs, which are described below.

‘C-c C-c’
     Complete edition (‘po-subedit-exit’).

‘C-c C-k’
     Abort edition (‘po-subedit-abort’).

‘C-c C-a’
     Consult auxiliary PO files (‘po-subedit-cycle-auxiliary’).

   The window's contents represents a translation for a given message,
or a translator comment.  The translator may modify this window to her
heart's content.  Once this is done, the command ‘C-c C-c’
(‘po-subedit-exit’) may be used to return the edited translation into
the PO file, replacing the original translation, even if it moved out of
sight or if buffers were switched.

   If the translator becomes unsatisfied with her translation or
comment, to the extent she prefers keeping what was existent prior to
the ‘<RET>’ or ‘#’ command, she may use the command ‘C-c C-k’
(‘po-subedit-abort’) to merely get rid of edition, while preserving the
original translation or comment.  Another way would be for her to exit
normally with ‘C-c C-c’, then type ‘U’ once for undoing the whole effect
of last edition.

   The command ‘C-c C-a’ (‘po-subedit-cycle-auxiliary’) allows for
glancing through translations already achieved in other languages,
directly while editing the current translation.  This may be quite
convenient when the translator is fluent at many languages, but of
course, only makes sense when such completed auxiliary PO files are
already available to her (*note Auxiliary::).

   Functions found on ‘po-subedit-mode-hook’, if any, are executed after
the string has been inserted in the edit buffer.

   While editing her translation, the translator should pay attention to
not inserting unwanted ‘<RET>’ (newline) characters at the end of the
translated string if those are not meant to be there, or to removing
such characters when they are required.  Since these characters are not
visible in the editing buffer, they are easily introduced by mistake.
To help her, ‘<RET>’ automatically puts the character ‘<’ at the end of
the string being edited, but this ‘<’ is not really part of the string.
On exiting the editing window with ‘C-c C-c’, PO mode automatically
removes such ‘<’ and all whitespace added after it.  If the translator
adds characters after the terminating ‘<’, it looses its delimiting
property and integrally becomes part of the string.  If she removes the
delimiting ‘<’, then the edited string is taken _as is_, with all
trailing newlines, even if invisible.  Also, if the translated string
ought to end itself with a genuine ‘<’, then the delimiting ‘<’ may not
be removed; so the string should appear, in the editing window, as
ending with two ‘<’ in a row.

   When a translation (or a comment) is being edited, the translator may
move the cursor back into the PO file buffer and freely move to other
entries, browsing at will.  If, with an edition pending, the translator
wanders in the PO file buffer, she may decide to start modifying another
entry.  Each entry being edited has its own subedit buffer.  It is
possible to simultaneously edit the translation _and_ the comment of a
single entry, or to edit entries in different PO files, all at once.
Typing ‘<RET>’ on a field already being edited merely resumes that
particular edit.  Yet, the translator should better be comfortable at
handling many Emacs windows!

   Pending subedits may be completed or aborted in any order, regardless
of how or when they were started.  When many subedits are pending and
the translator asks for quitting the PO file (with the ‘q’ command),
subedits are automatically resumed one at a time, so she may decide for
each of them.


File: gettext.info,  Node: C Sources Context,  Next: Auxiliary,  Prev: Subedit,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.12 C Sources Context
------------------------

   PO mode is particularly powerful when used with PO files created
through GNU ‘gettext’ utilities, as those utilities insert special
comments in the PO files they generate.  Some of these special comments
relate the PO file entry to exactly where the untranslated string
appears in the program sources.

   When the translator gets to an untranslated entry, she is fairly
often faced with an original string which is not as informative as it
normally should be, being succinct, cryptic, or otherwise ambiguous.
Before choosing how to translate the string, she needs to understand
better what the string really means and how tight the translation has to
be.  Most of the time, when problems arise, the only way left to make
her judgment is looking at the true program sources from where this
string originated, searching for surrounding comments the programmer
might have put in there, and looking around for helping clues of _any_
kind.

   Surely, when looking at program sources, the translator will receive
more help if she is a fluent programmer.  However, even if she is not
versed in programming and feels a little lost in C code, the translator
should not be shy at taking a look, once in a while.  It is most
probable that she will still be able to find some of the hints she
needs.  She will learn quickly to not feel uncomfortable in program
code, paying more attention to programmer's comments, variable and
function names (if he dared choosing them well), and overall
organization, than to the program code itself.

   The following commands are meant to help the translator at getting
program source context for a PO file entry.

‘s’
     Resume the display of a program source context, or cycle through
     them (‘po-cycle-source-reference’).

‘M-s’
     Display of a program source context selected by menu
     (‘po-select-source-reference’).

‘S’
     Add a directory to the search path for source files
     (‘po-consider-source-path’).

‘M-S’
     Delete a directory from the search path for source files
     (‘po-ignore-source-path’).

   The commands ‘s’ (‘po-cycle-source-reference’) and ‘M-s’
(‘po-select-source-reference’) both open another window displaying some
source program file, and already positioned in such a way that it shows
an actual use of the string to be translated.  By doing so, the command
gives source program context for the string.  But if the entry has no
source context references, or if all references are unresolved along the
search path for program sources, then the command diagnoses this as an
error.

   Even if ‘s’ (or ‘M-s’) opens a new window, the cursor stays in the PO
file window.  If the translator really wants to get into the program
source window, she ought to do it explicitly, maybe by using command
‘O’.

   When ‘s’ is typed for the first time, or for a PO file entry which is
different of the last one used for getting source context, then the
command reacts by giving the first context available for this entry, if
any.  If some context has already been recently displayed for the
current PO file entry, and the translator wandered off to do other
things, typing ‘s’ again will merely resume, in another window, the
context last displayed.  In particular, if the translator moved the
cursor away from the context in the source file, the command will bring
the cursor back to the context.  By using ‘s’ many times in a row, with
no other commands intervening, PO mode will cycle to the next available
contexts for this particular entry, getting back to the first context
once the last has been shown.

   The command ‘M-s’ behaves differently.  Instead of cycling through
references, it lets the translator choose a particular reference among
many, and displays that reference.  It is best used with completion, if
the translator types ‘<TAB>’ immediately after ‘M-s’, in response to the
question, she will be offered a menu of all possible references, as a
reminder of which are the acceptable answers.  This command is useful
only where there are really many contexts available for a single string
to translate.

   Program source files are usually found relative to where the PO file
stands.  As a special provision, when this fails, the file is also
looked for, but relative to the directory immediately above it.  Those
two cases take proper care of most PO files.  However, it might happen
that a PO file has been moved, or is edited in a different place than
its normal location.  When this happens, the translator should tell PO
mode in which directory normally sits the genuine PO file.  Many such
directories may be specified, and all together, they constitute what is
called the “search path” for program sources.  The command ‘S’
(‘po-consider-source-path’) is used to interactively enter a new
directory at the front of the search path, and the command ‘M-S’
(‘po-ignore-source-path’) is used to select, with completion, one of the
directories she does not want anymore on the search path.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Auxiliary,  Prev: C Sources Context,  Up: PO Mode

9.7.13 Consulting Auxiliary PO Files
------------------------------------

   PO mode is able to help the knowledgeable translator, being fluent in
many languages, at taking advantage of translations already achieved in
other languages she just happens to know.  It provides these other
language translations as additional context for her own work.  Moreover,
it has features to ease the production of translations for many
languages at once, for translators preferring to work in this way.

   An “auxiliary” PO file is an existing PO file meant for the same
package the translator is working on, but targeted to a different mother
tongue language.  Commands exist for declaring and handling auxiliary PO
files, and also for showing contexts for the entry under work.

   Here are the auxiliary file commands available in PO mode.

‘a’
     Seek auxiliary files for another translation for the same entry
     (‘po-cycle-auxiliary’).

‘C-c C-a’
     Switch to a particular auxiliary file (‘po-select-auxiliary’).

‘A’
     Declare this PO file as an auxiliary file
     (‘po-consider-as-auxiliary’).

‘M-A’
     Remove this PO file from the list of auxiliary files
     (‘po-ignore-as-auxiliary’).

   Command ‘A’ (‘po-consider-as-auxiliary’) adds the current PO file to
the list of auxiliary files, while command ‘M-A’
(‘po-ignore-as-auxiliary’ just removes it.

   The command ‘a’ (‘po-cycle-auxiliary’) seeks all auxiliary PO files,
round-robin, searching for a translated entry in some other language
having an ‘msgid’ field identical as the one for the current entry.  The
found PO file, if any, takes the place of the current PO file in the
display (its window gets on top).  Before doing so, the current PO file
is also made into an auxiliary file, if not already.  So, ‘a’ in this
newly displayed PO file will seek another PO file, and so on, so
repeating ‘a’ will eventually yield back the original PO file.

   The command ‘C-c C-a’ (‘po-select-auxiliary’) asks the translator for
her choice of a particular auxiliary file, with completion, and then
switches to that selected PO file.  The command also checks if the
selected file has an ‘msgid’ field identical as the one for the current
entry, and if yes, this entry becomes current.  Otherwise, the cursor of
the selected file is left undisturbed.

   For all this to work fully, auxiliary PO files will have to be
normalized, in that way that ‘msgid’ fields should be written _exactly_
the same way.  It is possible to write ‘msgid’ fields in various ways
for representing the same string, different writing would break the
proper behaviour of the auxiliary file commands of PO mode.  This is not
expected to be much a problem in practice, as most existing PO files
have their ‘msgid’ entries written by the same GNU ‘gettext’ tools.

   However, PO files initially created by PO mode itself, while marking
strings in source files, are normalised differently.  So are PO files
resulting of the ‘M-x normalize’ command.  Until these discrepancies
between PO mode and other GNU ‘gettext’ tools get fully resolved, the
translator should stay aware of normalisation issues.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Vim,  Next: Compendium,  Prev: PO Mode,  Up: Editing

9.8 Editing PO Files in vim
===========================

   FIXME: Try these scripts.  Do they work well?  How do they compare?

   There are two ‘vim’ plugins for editing PO files in ‘vim’:

   • The one by Aleksandar Jelenak (2005), at
     <https://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=695>.

   • A fork of it (2009), at
     <https://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2530>.

   Additionally, if you only need syntax highlighting, not editing, of
PO files, there is a ‘vim’ script for that at
<https://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=913>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Compendium,  Prev: Vim,  Up: Editing

9.9 Using Translation Compendia
===============================

   A “compendium” is a special PO file containing a set of translations
recurring in many different packages.  The translator can use gettext
tools to build a new compendium, to add entries to her compendium, and
to initialize untranslated entries, or to update already translated
entries, from translations kept in the compendium.

* Menu:

* Creating Compendia::          Merging translations for later use
* Using Compendia::             Using older translations if they fit


File: gettext.info,  Node: Creating Compendia,  Next: Using Compendia,  Up: Compendium

9.9.1 Creating Compendia
------------------------

   Basically every PO file consisting of translated entries only can be
declared as a valid compendium.  Often the translator wants to have
special compendia; let's consider two cases: ‘concatenating PO files’
and ‘extracting a message subset from a PO file’.

9.9.1.1 Concatenate PO Files
............................

   To concatenate several valid PO files into one compendium file you
can use ‘msgcomm’ or ‘msgcat’ (the latter preferred):

     msgcat -o compendium.po file1.po file2.po

   By default, ‘msgcat’ will accumulate divergent translations for the
same string.  Those occurrences will be marked as ‘fuzzy’ and highly
visible decorated; calling ‘msgcat’ on ‘file1.po’:

     #: src/hello.c:200
     #, c-format
     msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n"
     msgstr "Comunicar `bugs' a <%s>.\n"

and ‘file2.po’:

     #: src/bye.c:100
     #, c-format
     msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n"
     msgstr "Comunicar \"bugs\" a <%s>.\n"

will result in:

     #: src/hello.c:200 src/bye.c:100
     #, fuzzy, c-format
     msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n"
     msgstr ""
     "#-#-#-#-#  file1.po  #-#-#-#-#\n"
     "Comunicar `bugs' a <%s>.\n"
     "#-#-#-#-#  file2.po  #-#-#-#-#\n"
     "Comunicar \"bugs\" a <%s>.\n"

The translator will have to resolve this "conflict" manually; she has to
decide whether the first or the second version is appropriate (or
provide a new translation), to delete the "marker lines", and finally to
remove the ‘fuzzy’ mark.

   If the translator knows in advance the first found translation of a
message is always the best translation she can make use to the
‘--use-first’ switch:

     msgcat --use-first -o compendium.po file1.po file2.po

   A good compendium file must not contain ‘fuzzy’ or untranslated
entries.  If input files are "dirty" you must preprocess the input files
or postprocess the result using ‘msgattrib --translated --no-fuzzy’.

9.9.1.2 Extract a Message Subset from a PO File
...............................................

   Nobody wants to translate the same messages again and again; thus you
may wish to have a compendium file containing ‘getopt.c’ messages.

   To extract a message subset (e.g., all ‘getopt.c’ messages) from an
existing PO file into one compendium file you can use ‘msggrep’:

     msggrep --location src/getopt.c -o compendium.po file.po


File: gettext.info,  Node: Using Compendia,  Prev: Creating Compendia,  Up: Compendium

9.9.2 Using Compendia
---------------------

   You can use a compendium file to initialize a translation from
scratch or to update an already existing translation.

9.9.2.1 Initialize a New Translation File
.........................................

   Since a PO file with translations does not exist the translator can
merely use ‘/dev/null’ to fake the "old" translation file.

     msgmerge --compendium compendium.po -o file.po /dev/null file.pot

9.9.2.2 Update an Existing Translation File
...........................................

   Concatenate the compendium file(s) and the existing PO, merge the
result with the POT file and remove the obsolete entries (optional, here
done using ‘msgattrib’):

     msgcat --use-first -o update.po compendium1.po compendium2.po file.po
     msgmerge update.po file.pot | msgattrib --no-obsolete > file.po


File: gettext.info,  Node: Manipulating,  Next: Binaries,  Prev: Editing,  Up: Top

10 Manipulating PO Files
************************

   Sometimes it is necessary to manipulate PO files in a way that is
better performed automatically than by hand.  GNU ‘gettext’ includes a
complete set of tools for this purpose.

   When merging two packages into a single package, the resulting POT
file will be the concatenation of the two packages' POT files.  Thus the
maintainer must concatenate the two existing package translations into a
single translation catalog, for each language.  This is best performed
using ‘msgcat’.  It is then the translators' duty to deal with any
possible conflicts that arose during the merge.

   When a translator takes over the translation job from another
translator, but she uses a different character encoding in her locale,
she will convert the catalog to her character encoding.  This is best
done through the ‘msgconv’ program.

   When a maintainer takes a source file with tagged messages from
another package, he should also take the existing translations for this
source file (and not let the translators do the same job twice).  One
way to do this is through ‘msggrep’, another is to create a POT file for
that source file and use ‘msgmerge’.

   When a translator wants to adjust some translation catalog for a
special dialect or orthography -- for example, German as written in
Switzerland versus German as written in Germany -- she needs to apply
some text processing to every message in the catalog.  The tool for
doing this is ‘msgfilter’.

   Another use of ‘msgfilter’ is to produce approximately the POT file
for which a given PO file was made.  This can be done through a filter
command like ‘msgfilter sed -e d | sed -e '/^# /d'’.  Note that the
original POT file may have had different comments and different plural
message counts, that's why it's better to use the original POT file if
available.

   When a translator wants to check her translations, for example
according to orthography rules or using a non-interactive spell checker,
she can do so using the ‘msgexec’ program.

   When third party tools create PO or POT files, sometimes duplicates
cannot be avoided.  But the GNU ‘gettext’ tools give an error when they
encounter duplicate msgids in the same file and in the same domain.  To
merge duplicates, the ‘msguniq’ program can be used.

   ‘msgcomm’ is a more general tool for keeping or throwing away
duplicates, occurring in different files.

   ‘msgcmp’ can be used to check whether a translation catalog is
completely translated.

   ‘msgattrib’ can be used to select and extract only the fuzzy or
untranslated messages of a translation catalog.

   ‘msgen’ is useful as a first step for preparing English translation
catalogs.  It copies each message's msgid to its msgstr.

   Finally, for those applications where all these various programs are
not sufficient, a library ‘libgettextpo’ is provided that can be used to
write other specialized programs that process PO files.

* Menu:

* msgcat Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgcat’ Program
* msgconv Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msgconv’ Program
* msggrep Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msggrep’ Program
* msgfilter Invocation::        Invoking the ‘msgfilter’ Program
* msguniq Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msguniq’ Program
* msgcomm Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msgcomm’ Program
* msgcmp Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgcmp’ Program
* msgattrib Invocation::        Invoking the ‘msgattrib’ Program
* msgen Invocation::            Invoking the ‘msgen’ Program
* msgexec Invocation::          Invoking the ‘msgexec’ Program
* Colorizing::                  Highlighting parts of PO files
* Other tools::                 Other tools for manipulating PO files
* libgettextpo::                Writing your own programs that process PO files


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgcat Invocation,  Next: msgconv Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.1 Invoking the ‘msgcat’ Program
==================================

     msgcat [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]...

   The ‘msgcat’ program concatenates and merges the specified PO files.
It finds messages which are common to two or more of the specified PO
files.  By using the ‘--more-than’ option, greater commonality may be
requested before messages are printed.  Conversely, the ‘--less-than’
option may be used to specify less commonality before messages are
printed (i.e. ‘--less-than=2’ will only print the unique messages).
Translations, comments, extracted comments, and file positions will be
cumulated, except that if ‘--use-first’ is specified, they will be taken
from the first PO file to define them.

   To concatenate POT files, better use ‘xgettext’, not ‘msgcat’,
because ‘msgcat’ would choke on the undefined charsets in the specified
POT files.

10.1.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE ...’
     Input files.

‘-f FILE’
‘--files-from=FILE’
     Read the names of the input files from FILE instead of getting them
     from the command line.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If INPUTFILE is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.1.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.1.3 Message selection
------------------------

‘-< NUMBER’
‘--less-than=NUMBER’
     Print messages with less than NUMBER definitions, defaults to
     infinite if not set.

‘-> NUMBER’
‘--more-than=NUMBER’
     Print messages with more than NUMBER definitions, defaults to 0 if
     not set.

‘-u’
‘--unique’
     Shorthand for ‘--less-than=2’.  Requests that only unique messages
     be printed.

10.1.4 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input files are Java ResourceBundles in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input files are NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource
     files in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.1.5 Output details
---------------------

‘-t’
‘--to-code=NAME’
     Specify encoding for output.

‘--use-first’
     Use first available translation for each message.  Don't merge
     several translations into one.

‘--lang=CATALOGNAME’
     Specify the ‘Language’ field to be used in the header entry.  See
     *note Header Entry:: for the meaning of this field.  Note: The
     ‘Language-Team’ and ‘Plural-Forms’ fields are left unchanged.

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.1.6 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgconv Invocation,  Next: msggrep Invocation,  Prev: msgcat Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.2 Invoking the ‘msgconv’ Program
===================================

     msgconv [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]

   The ‘msgconv’ program converts a translation catalog to a different
character encoding.

10.2.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.2.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.2.3 Conversion target
------------------------

‘-t’
‘--to-code=NAME’
     Specify encoding for output.

   The default encoding is the current locale's encoding.

10.2.4 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.2.5 Output details
---------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.2.6 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msggrep Invocation,  Next: msgfilter Invocation,  Prev: msgconv Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.3 Invoking the ‘msggrep’ Program
===================================

     msggrep [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]

   The ‘msggrep’ program extracts all messages of a translation catalog
that match a given pattern or belong to some given source files.

10.3.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.3.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.3.3 Message selection
------------------------

       [-N SOURCEFILE]... [-M DOMAINNAME]...
       [-J MSGCTXT-PATTERN] [-K MSGID-PATTERN] [-T MSGSTR-PATTERN]
       [-C COMMENT-PATTERN] [-X EXTRACTED-COMMENT-PATTERN]
       [-W WORKFLOW-FLAG] [-S STICKY-FLAG]

   A message is selected if
   • it comes from one of the specified source files,
   • or if it comes from one of the specified domains,
   • or if ‘-J’ is given and its context (msgctxt) matches
     MSGCTXT-PATTERN,
   • or if ‘-K’ is given and its key (msgid or msgid_plural) matches
     MSGID-PATTERN,
   • or if ‘-T’ is given and its translation (msgstr) matches
     MSGSTR-PATTERN,
   • or if ‘-C’ is given and the translator's comment matches
     COMMENT-PATTERN,
   • or if ‘-X’ is given and the extracted comment matches
     EXTRACTED-COMMENT-PATTERN,
   • or if ‘-W’ is given and its flags contain WORKFLOW-FLAG,
   • or if ‘-S’ is given and its flags contain STICKY-FLAG.

   When more than one selection criterion is specified, the set of
selected messages is the union of the selected messages of each
criterion.

   MSGCTXT-PATTERN or MSGID-PATTERN or MSGSTR-PATTERN syntax:
       [-E | -F] [-e PATTERN | -f FILE]...
   PATTERNs are basic regular expressions by default, or extended
regular expressions if -E is given, or fixed strings if -F is given.

‘-N SOURCEFILE’
‘--location=SOURCEFILE’
     Select messages extracted from SOURCEFILE.  SOURCEFILE can be
     either a literal file name or a wildcard pattern.

‘-M DOMAINNAME’
‘--domain=DOMAINNAME’
     Select messages belonging to domain DOMAINNAME.

‘-J’
‘--msgctxt’
     Start of patterns for the msgctxt.

‘-K’
‘--msgid’
     Start of patterns for the msgid.

‘-T’
‘--msgstr’
     Start of patterns for the msgstr.

‘-C’
‘--comment’
     Start of patterns for the translator's comment.

‘-X’
‘--extracted-comment’
     Start of patterns for the extracted comments.

‘-E’
‘--extended-regexp’
     Specify that PATTERN is an extended regular expression.

‘-F’
‘--fixed-strings’
     Specify that PATTERN is a set of newline-separated strings.

‘-e PATTERN’
‘--regexp=PATTERN’
     Use PATTERN as a regular expression.

‘-f FILE’
‘--file=FILE’
     Obtain PATTERN from FILE.

‘-i’
‘--ignore-case’
     Ignore case distinctions.

‘-W WORKFLOW-FLAG’
‘--workflow-flag=WORKFLOW-FLAG’
     Select messages with WORKFLOW-FLAG.  Workflow flags are defined in
     *note Workflow flags::.

‘-S STICKY-FLAG’
‘--sticky-flag=STICKY-FLAG’
     Select messages with STICKY-FLAG.  Sticky flags are defined in
     *note Sticky flags::.

‘-v’
‘--invert-match’
     Output only the messages that do not match any selection criterion,
     instead of the messages that match a selection criterion.

10.3.4 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.3.5 Output details
---------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.3.6 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

10.3.7 Examples
---------------

   To extract the messages that come from the source files
‘gnulib-lib/error.c’ and ‘gnulib-lib/getopt.c’:

     msggrep -N gnulib-lib/error.c -N gnulib-lib/getopt.c input.po

   To extract the messages that contain the string "Please specify" in
the original string:

     msggrep --msgid -F -e 'Please specify' input.po

   To extract the messages that have a context specifier of either
"Menu>File" or "Menu>Edit" or a submenu of them:

     msggrep --msgctxt -E -e '^Menu>(File|Edit)' input.po

   To extract the messages whose translation contains one of the strings
in the file ‘wordlist.txt’:

     msggrep --msgstr -F -f wordlist.txt input.po


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgfilter Invocation,  Next: msguniq Invocation,  Prev: msggrep Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.4 Invoking the ‘msgfilter’ Program
=====================================

     msgfilter [OPTION] FILTER [FILTER-OPTION]

   The ‘msgfilter’ program applies a filter to all translations of a
translation catalog.

   During each FILTER invocation, the environment variable
‘MSGFILTER_MSGID’ is bound to the message's msgid, and the environment
variable ‘MSGFILTER_LOCATION’ is bound to the location in the PO file of
the message.  If the message has a context, the environment variable
‘MSGFILTER_MSGCTXT’ is bound to the message's msgctxt, otherwise it is
unbound.  If the message has a plural form, environment variable
‘MSGFILTER_MSGID_PLURAL’ is bound to the message's msgid_plural and
‘MSGFILTER_PLURAL_FORM’ is bound to the order number of the plural
actually processed (starting with 0), otherwise both are unbound.  If
the message has a previous msgid (added by ‘msgmerge’), environment
variable ‘MSGFILTER_PREV_MSGCTXT’ is bound to the message's previous
msgctxt, ‘MSGFILTER_PREV_MSGID’ is bound to the previous msgid, and
‘MSGFILTER_PREV_MSGID_PLURAL’ is bound to the previous msgid_plural.

10.4.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘-i INPUTFILE’
‘--input=INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.4.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.4.3 The filter
-----------------

   The FILTER can be any program that reads a translation from standard
input and writes a modified translation to standard output.  A
frequently used filter is ‘sed’.  A few particular built-in filters are
also recognized.

‘--newline’
     Add newline at the end of each input line and also strip the ending
     newline from the output line.

   Note: If the filter is not a built-in filter, you have to care about
encodings: It is your responsibility to ensure that the FILTER can cope
with input encoded in the translation catalog's encoding.  If the FILTER
wants input in a particular encoding, you can in a first step convert
the translation catalog to that encoding using the ‘msgconv’ program,
before invoking ‘msgfilter’.  If the FILTER wants input in the locale's
encoding, but you want to avoid the locale's encoding, then you can
first convert the translation catalog to UTF-8 using the ‘msgconv’
program and then make ‘msgfilter’ work in an UTF-8 locale, by using the
‘LC_ALL’ environment variable.

   Note: Most translations in a translation catalog don't end with a
newline character.  For this reason, unless the ‘--newline’ option is
used, it is important that the FILTER recognizes its last input line
even if it ends without a newline, and that it doesn't add an undesired
trailing newline at the end.  The ‘sed’ program on some platforms is
known to ignore the last line of input if it is not terminated with a
newline.  You can use GNU ‘sed’ instead; it does not have this
limitation.

10.4.4 Useful FILTER-OPTIONs when the FILTER is ‘sed’
-----------------------------------------------------

‘-e SCRIPT’
‘--expression=SCRIPT’
     Add SCRIPT to the commands to be executed.

‘-f SCRIPTFILE’
‘--file=SCRIPTFILE’
     Add the contents of SCRIPTFILE to the commands to be executed.

‘-n’
‘--quiet’
‘--silent’
     Suppress automatic printing of pattern space.

10.4.5 Built-in FILTERs
-----------------------

   The filter ‘recode-sr-latin’ is recognized as a built-in filter.  The
command ‘recode-sr-latin’ converts Serbian text, written in the Cyrillic
script, to the Latin script.  The command ‘msgfilter recode-sr-latin’
applies this conversion to the translations of a PO file.  Thus, it can
be used to convert an ‘sr.po’ file to an ‘sr@latin.po’ file.

   The filter ‘quot’ is recognized as a built-in filter.  The command
‘msgfilter quot’ converts any quotations surrounded by a pair of ‘"’,
‘'’, and ‘`’.

   The filter ‘boldquot’ is recognized as a built-in filter.  The
command ‘msgfilter boldquot’ converts any quotations surrounded by a
pair of ‘"’, ‘'’, and ‘`’, also adding the VT100 escape sequences to the
text to decorate it as bold.

   The use of built-in filters is not sensitive to the current locale's
encoding.  Moreover, when used with a built-in filter, ‘msgfilter’ can
automatically convert the message catalog to the UTF-8 encoding when
needed.

10.4.6 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.4.7 Output details
---------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--keep-header’
     Keep the header entry, i.e. the message with ‘msgid ""’,
     unmodified, instead of filtering it.  By default, the header entry
     is subject to filtering like any other message.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.4.8 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

10.4.9 Examples
---------------

   To convert German translations to Swiss orthography (in an UTF-8
locale):

     msgconv -t UTF-8 de.po | msgfilter sed -e 's/ß/ss/g'

   To convert Serbian translations in Cyrillic script to Latin script:

     msgfilter recode-sr-latin < sr.po


File: gettext.info,  Node: msguniq Invocation,  Next: msgcomm Invocation,  Prev: msgfilter Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.5 Invoking the ‘msguniq’ Program
===================================

     msguniq [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]

   The ‘msguniq’ program unifies duplicate translations in a translation
catalog.  It finds duplicate translations of the same message ID. Such
duplicates are invalid input for other programs like ‘msgfmt’,
‘msgmerge’ or ‘msgcat’.  By default, duplicates are merged together.
When using the ‘--repeated’ option, only duplicates are output, and all
other messages are discarded.  Comments and extracted comments will be
cumulated, except that if ‘--use-first’ is specified, they will be taken
from the first translation.  File positions will be cumulated.  When
using the ‘--unique’ option, duplicates are discarded.

10.5.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.5.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.5.3 Message selection
------------------------

‘-d’
‘--repeated’
     Print only duplicates.

‘-u’
‘--unique’
     Print only unique messages, discard duplicates.

10.5.4 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.5.5 Output details
---------------------

‘-t’
‘--to-code=NAME’
     Specify encoding for output.

‘--use-first’
     Use first available translation for each message.  Don't merge
     several translations into one.

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.5.6 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgcomm Invocation,  Next: msgcmp Invocation,  Prev: msguniq Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.6 Invoking the ‘msgcomm’ Program
===================================

     msgcomm [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]...

   The ‘msgcomm’ program finds messages which are common to two or more
of the specified PO files.  By using the ‘--more-than’ option, greater
commonality may be requested before messages are printed.  Conversely,
the ‘--less-than’ option may be used to specify less commonality before
messages are printed (i.e. ‘--less-than=2’ will only print the unique
messages).  Translations, comments and extracted comments will be
preserved, but only from the first PO file to define them.  File
positions from all PO files will be cumulated.

10.6.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE ...’
     Input files.

‘-f FILE’
‘--files-from=FILE’
     Read the names of the input files from FILE instead of getting them
     from the command line.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If INPUTFILE is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.6.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.6.3 Message selection
------------------------

‘-< NUMBER’
‘--less-than=NUMBER’
     Print messages with less than NUMBER definitions, defaults to
     infinite if not set.

‘-> NUMBER’
‘--more-than=NUMBER’
     Print messages with more than NUMBER definitions, defaults to 1 if
     not set.

‘-u’
‘--unique’
     Shorthand for ‘--less-than=2’.  Requests that only unique messages
     be printed.

10.6.4 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input files are Java ResourceBundles in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input files are NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource
     files in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.6.5 Output details
---------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

‘--omit-header’
     Don't write header with ‘msgid ""’ entry.  Note: Using this option
     may lead to an error in subsequent operations if the output
     contains non-ASCII characters.

10.6.6 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgcmp Invocation,  Next: msgattrib Invocation,  Prev: msgcomm Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.7 Invoking the ‘msgcmp’ Program
==================================

     msgcmp [OPTION] DEF.po REF.pot

   The ‘msgcmp’ program compares two Uniforum style .po files to check
that both contain the same set of msgid strings.  The DEF.po file is an
existing PO file with the translations.  The REF.pot file is the last
created PO file, or a PO Template file (generally created by
‘xgettext’).  This is useful for checking that you have translated each
and every message in your program.  Where an exact match cannot be
found, fuzzy matching is used to produce better diagnostics.

10.7.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘DEF.po’
     Translations.

‘REF.pot’
     References to the sources.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.

10.7.2 Operation modifiers
--------------------------

‘-m’
‘--multi-domain’
     Apply REF.pot to each of the domains in DEF.po.

‘-N’
‘--no-fuzzy-matching’
     Do not use fuzzy matching when an exact match is not found.  This
     may speed up the operation considerably.

‘--use-fuzzy’
     Consider fuzzy messages in the DEF.po file like translated
     messages.  Note that using this option is usually wrong, because
     fuzzy messages are exactly those which have not been validated by a
     human translator.

‘--use-untranslated’
     Consider untranslated messages in the DEF.po file like translated
     messages.  Note that using this option is usually wrong.

10.7.3 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input files are Java ResourceBundles in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input files are NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource
     files in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.7.4 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgattrib Invocation,  Next: msgen Invocation,  Prev: msgcmp Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.8 Invoking the ‘msgattrib’ Program
=====================================

     msgattrib [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]

   The ‘msgattrib’ program filters the messages of a translation catalog
according to their attributes, and manipulates the attributes.

10.8.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.8.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.8.3 Message selection
------------------------

‘--translated’
     Keep translated messages, remove untranslated messages.

‘--untranslated’
     Keep untranslated messages, remove translated messages.

‘--no-fuzzy’
     Remove 'fuzzy' marked messages.

‘--only-fuzzy’
     Keep 'fuzzy' marked messages, remove all other messages.

‘--no-obsolete’
     Remove obsolete #~ messages.

‘--only-obsolete’
     Keep obsolete #~ messages, remove all other messages.

10.8.4 Attribute manipulation
-----------------------------

   Attributes are modified after the message selection/removal has been
performed.  If the ‘--only-file’ or ‘--ignore-file’ option is specified,
the attribute modification is applied only to those messages that are
listed in the ONLY-FILE and not listed in the IGNORE-FILE.

‘--set-fuzzy’
     Set all messages 'fuzzy'.

‘--clear-fuzzy’
     Set all messages non-'fuzzy'.

‘--set-obsolete’
     Set all messages obsolete.

‘--clear-obsolete’
     Set all messages non-obsolete.

‘--previous’
     When setting 'fuzzy' mark, keep "previous msgid" of translated
     messages.

‘--clear-previous’
     Remove the "previous msgid" (‘#|’) comments from all messages.

‘--empty’
     When removing 'fuzzy' mark, also set msgstr empty.

‘--only-file=FILE’
     Limit the attribute changes to entries that are listed in FILE.
     FILE should be a PO or POT file.

‘--ignore-file=FILE’
     Limit the attribute changes to entries that are not listed in FILE.
     FILE should be a PO or POT file.

‘--fuzzy’
     Synonym for ‘--only-fuzzy --clear-fuzzy’: It keeps only the fuzzy
     messages and removes their 'fuzzy' mark.

‘--obsolete’
     Synonym for ‘--only-obsolete --clear-obsolete’: It keeps only the
     obsolete messages and makes them non-obsolete.

10.8.5 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.8.6 Output details
---------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.8.7 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgen Invocation,  Next: msgexec Invocation,  Prev: msgattrib Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.9 Invoking the ‘msgen’ Program
=================================

     msgen [OPTION] INPUTFILE

   The ‘msgen’ program creates an English translation catalog.  The
input file is the last created English PO file, or a PO Template file
(generally created by xgettext).  Untranslated entries are assigned a
translation that is identical to the msgid.

   Note: ‘msginit --no-translator --locale=en’ performs a very similar
task.  The main difference is that ‘msginit’ cares specially about the
header entry, whereas ‘msgen’ doesn't.

10.9.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘INPUTFILE’
     Input PO or POT file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If INPUTFILE is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.9.2 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

10.9.3 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.9.4 Output details
---------------------

‘--lang=CATALOGNAME’
     Specify the ‘Language’ field to be used in the header entry.  See
     *note Header Entry:: for the meaning of this field.  Note: The
     ‘Language-Team’ and ‘Plural-Forms’ fields are not set by this
     option.

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’
     Do not write ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines.

‘-n’
‘--add-location=TYPE’
     Generate ‘#: FILENAME:LINE’ lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’.  If it
     is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name
     and line number.  If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted.
     If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as
     ‘--no-location’).

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

‘-F’
‘--sort-by-file’
     Sort output by file location.

10.9.5 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgexec Invocation,  Next: Colorizing,  Prev: msgen Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.10 Invoking the ‘msgexec’ Program
====================================

     msgexec [OPTION] COMMAND [COMMAND-OPTION]

   The ‘msgexec’ program applies a command to all translations of a
translation catalog.  The COMMAND can be any program that reads a
translation from standard input.  It is invoked once for each
translation.  Its output becomes msgexec's output.  ‘msgexec’'s return
code is the maximum return code across all invocations.

   A special builtin command called ‘0’ outputs the translation,
followed by a null byte.  The output of ‘msgexec 0’ is suitable as input
for ‘xargs -0’.

‘--newline’
     Add newline at the end of each input line.

   During each COMMAND invocation, the environment variable
‘MSGEXEC_MSGID’ is bound to the message's msgid, and the environment
variable ‘MSGEXEC_LOCATION’ is bound to the location in the PO file of
the message.  If the message has a context, the environment variable
‘MSGEXEC_MSGCTXT’ is bound to the message's msgctxt, otherwise it is
unbound.  If the message has a plural form, environment variable
‘MSGEXEC_MSGID_PLURAL’ is bound to the message's msgid_plural and
‘MSGEXEC_PLURAL_FORM’ is bound to the order number of the plural
actually processed (starting with 0), otherwise both are unbound.  If
the message has a previous msgid (added by ‘msgmerge’), environment
variable ‘MSGEXEC_PREV_MSGCTXT’ is bound to the message's previous
msgctxt, ‘MSGEXEC_PREV_MSGID’ is bound to the previous msgid, and
‘MSGEXEC_PREV_MSGID_PLURAL’ is bound to the previous msgid_plural.

   Note: It is your responsibility to ensure that the COMMAND can cope
with input encoded in the translation catalog's encoding.  If the
COMMAND wants input in a particular encoding, you can in a first step
convert the translation catalog to that encoding using the ‘msgconv’
program, before invoking ‘msgexec’.  If the COMMAND wants input in the
locale's encoding, but you want to avoid the locale's encoding, then you
can first convert the translation catalog to UTF-8 using the ‘msgconv’
program and then make ‘msgexec’ work in an UTF-8 locale, by using the
‘LC_ALL’ environment variable.

10.10.1 Input file location
---------------------------

‘-i INPUTFILE’
‘--input=INPUTFILE’
     Input PO file.

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting ‘.po’
     file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

   If no INPUTFILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

10.10.2 Input file syntax
-------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file
     in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

10.10.3 Informative output
--------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Colorizing,  Next: Other tools,  Prev: msgexec Invocation,  Up: Manipulating

10.11 Highlighting parts of PO files
====================================

   Translators are usually only interested in seeing the untranslated
and fuzzy messages of a PO file.  Also, when a message is set fuzzy
because the msgid changed, they want to see the differences between the
previous msgid and the current one (especially if the msgid is long and
only few words in it have changed).  Finally, it's always welcome to
highlight the different sections of a message in a PO file (comments,
msgid, msgstr, etc.).

   Such highlighting is possible through the options ‘--color’ and
‘--style’.  They are supported by all the programs that produce a PO
file on standard output, such as ‘msgcat’, ‘msgmerge’, and ‘msgunfmt’.

* Menu:

* The --color option::          Triggering colorized output
* The TERM variable::           The environment variable ‘TERM’
* The --style option::          The ‘--style’ option
* Style rules::                 Style rules for PO files
* Customizing less::            Customizing ‘less’ for viewing PO files


File: gettext.info,  Node: The --color option,  Next: The TERM variable,  Up: Colorizing

10.11.1 The ‘--color’ option
----------------------------

   The ‘--color=WHEN’ option specifies under which conditions colorized
output should be generated.  The WHEN part can be one of the following:

‘always’
‘yes’
     The output will be colorized.

‘never’
‘no’
     The output will not be colorized.

‘auto’
‘tty’
     The output will be colorized if the output device is a tty, i.e.
     when the output goes directly to a text screen or terminal emulator
     window.

‘html’
     The output will be colorized and be in HTML format.

‘test’
     This is a special value, understood only by the ‘msgcat’ program.
     It is explained in the next section (*note The TERM variable::).

‘--color’ is equivalent to ‘--color=yes’.  The default is
‘--color=auto’.

   Thus, a command like ‘msgcat vi.po’ will produce colorized output
when called by itself in a command window.  Whereas in a pipe, such as
‘msgcat vi.po | less -R’, it will not produce colorized output.  To get
colorized output in this situation nevertheless, use the command ‘msgcat
--color vi.po | less -R’.

   The ‘--color=html’ option will produce output that can be viewed in a
browser.  This can be useful, for example, for Indic languages, because
the renderic of Indic scripts in browsers is usually better than in
terminal emulators.

   Note that the output produced with the ‘--color’ option is _not_ a
valid PO file in itself.  It contains additional terminal-specific
escape sequences or HTML tags.  A PO file reader will give a syntax
error when confronted with such content.  Except for the ‘--color=html’
case, you therefore normally don't need to save output produced with the
‘--color’ option in a file.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The TERM variable,  Next: The --style option,  Prev: The --color option,  Up: Colorizing

10.11.2 The environment variable ‘TERM’
---------------------------------------

   The environment variable ‘TERM’ contains a identifier for the text
window's capabilities.  You can get a detailed list of these
capabilities by using the ‘infocmp’ command, using ‘man 5 terminfo’ as a
reference.

   When producing text with embedded color directives, ‘msgcat’ looks at
the ‘TERM’ variable.  Text windows today typically support at least 8
colors.  Often, however, the text window supports 16 or more colors,
even though the ‘TERM’ variable is set to a identifier denoting only 8
supported colors.  It can be worth setting the ‘TERM’ variable to a
different value in these cases:

‘xterm’
     ‘xterm’ is in most cases built with support for 16 colors.  It can
     also be built with support for 88 or 256 colors (but not both).
     You can try to set ‘TERM’ to either ‘xterm-16color’,
     ‘xterm-88color’, or ‘xterm-256color’.

‘rxvt’
     ‘rxvt’ is often built with support for 16 colors.  You can try to
     set ‘TERM’ to ‘rxvt-16color’.

‘konsole’
     ‘konsole’ too is often built with support for 16 colors.  You can
     try to set ‘TERM’ to ‘konsole-16color’ or ‘xterm-16color’.

   After setting ‘TERM’, you can verify it by invoking ‘msgcat
--color=test’ and seeing whether the output looks like a reasonable
color map.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The --style option,  Next: Style rules,  Prev: The TERM variable,  Up: Colorizing

10.11.3 The ‘--style’ option
----------------------------

   The ‘--style=STYLE_FILE’ option specifies the style file to use when
colorizing.  It has an effect only when the ‘--color’ option is
effective.

   If the ‘--style’ option is not specified, the environment variable
‘PO_STYLE’ is considered.  It is meant to point to the user's preferred
style for PO files.

   The default style file is
‘$prefix/share/gettext/styles/po-default.css’, where ‘$prefix’ is the
installation location.

   A few style files are predefined:
‘po-vim.css’
     This style imitates the look used by vim 7.

‘po-emacs-x.css’
     This style imitates the look used by GNU Emacs 21 and 22 in an X11
     window.

‘po-emacs-xterm.css’
‘po-emacs-xterm16.css’
‘po-emacs-xterm256.css’
     This style imitates the look used by GNU Emacs 22 in a terminal of
     type ‘xterm’ (8 colors) or ‘xterm-16color’ (16 colors) or
     ‘xterm-256color’ (256 colors), respectively.

You can use these styles without specifying a directory.  They are
actually located in ‘$prefix/share/gettext/styles/’, where ‘$prefix’ is
the installation location.

   You can also design your own styles.  This is described in the next
section.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Style rules,  Next: Customizing less,  Prev: The --style option,  Up: Colorizing

10.11.4 Style rules for PO files
--------------------------------

   The same style file can be used for styling of a PO file, for
terminal output and for HTML output.  It is written in CSS (Cascading
Style Sheet) syntax.  See <https://www.w3.org/TR/css2/cover.html> for a
formal definition of CSS. Many HTML authoring tutorials also contain
explanations of CSS.

   In the case of HTML output, the style file is embedded in the HTML
output.  In the case of text output, the style file is interpreted by
the ‘msgcat’ program.  This means, in particular, that when ‘@import’ is
used with relative file names, the file names are

   − relative to the resulting HTML file, in the case of HTML output,

   − relative to the style sheet containing the ‘@import’, in the case
     of text output.  (Actually, ‘@import’s are not yet supported in
     this case, due to a limitation in ‘libcroco’.)

   CSS rules are built up from selectors and declarations.  The
declarations specify graphical properties; the selectors specify when
they apply.

   In PO files, the following simple selectors (based on "CSS classes",
see the CSS2 spec, section 5.8.3) are supported.

   • Selectors that apply to entire messages:

     ‘.header’
          This matches the header entry of a PO file.

     ‘.translated’
          This matches a translated message.

     ‘.untranslated’
          This matches an untranslated message (i.e. a message with
          empty translation).

     ‘.fuzzy’
          This matches a fuzzy message (i.e. a message which has a
          translation that needs review by the translator).

     ‘.obsolete’
          This matches an obsolete message (i.e. a message that was
          translated but is not needed by the current POT file any
          more).

   • Selectors that apply to parts of a message in PO syntax.  Recall
     the general structure of a message in PO syntax:

          WHITE-SPACE
          #  TRANSLATOR-COMMENTS
          #. EXTRACTED-COMMENTS
          #: REFERENCE...
          #, FLAG...
          #| msgid PREVIOUS-UNTRANSLATED-STRING
          msgid UNTRANSLATED-STRING
          msgstr TRANSLATED-STRING

     ‘.comment’
          This matches all comments (translator comments, extracted
          comments, source file reference comments, flag comments,
          previous message comments, as well as the entire obsolete
          messages).

     ‘.translator-comment’
          This matches the translator comments.

     ‘.extracted-comment’
          This matches the extracted comments, i.e. the comments placed
          by the programmer at the attention of the translator.

     ‘.reference-comment’
          This matches the source file reference comments (entire
          lines).

     ‘.reference’
          This matches the individual source file references inside the
          source file reference comment lines.

     ‘.flag-comment’
          This matches the flag comment lines (entire lines).

     ‘.flag’
          This matches the individual flags inside flag comment lines.

     ‘.fuzzy-flag’
          This matches the 'fuzzy' flag inside flag comment lines.

     ‘.previous-comment’
          This matches the comments containing the previous untranslated
          string (entire lines).

     ‘.previous’
          This matches the previous untranslated string including the
          string delimiters, the associated keywords (‘msgid’ etc.)  and
          the spaces between them.

     ‘.msgid’
          This matches the untranslated string including the string
          delimiters, the associated keywords (‘msgid’ etc.)  and the
          spaces between them.

     ‘.msgstr’
          This matches the translated string including the string
          delimiters, the associated keywords (‘msgstr’ etc.)  and the
          spaces between them.

     ‘.keyword’
          This matches the keywords (‘msgid’, ‘msgstr’, etc.).

     ‘.string’
          This matches strings, including the string delimiters (double
          quotes).

   • Selectors that apply to parts of strings:

     ‘.text’
          This matches the entire contents of a string (excluding the
          string delimiters, i.e. the double quotes).

     ‘.escape-sequence’
          This matches an escape sequence (starting with a backslash).

     ‘.format-directive’
          This matches a format string directive (starting with a ‘%’
          sign in the case of most programming languages, with a ‘{’ in
          the case of ‘java-format’ and ‘csharp-format’, with a ‘~’ in
          the case of ‘lisp-format’ and ‘scheme-format’, or with ‘$’ in
          the case of ‘sh-format’).

     ‘.invalid-format-directive’
          This matches an invalid format string directive.

     ‘.added’
          In an untranslated string, this matches a part of the string
          that was not present in the previous untranslated string.
          (Not yet implemented in this release.)

     ‘.changed’
          In an untranslated string or in a previous untranslated
          string, this matches a part of the string that is changed or
          replaced.  (Not yet implemented in this release.)

     ‘.removed’
          In a previous untranslated string, this matches a part of the
          string that is not present in the current untranslated string.
          (Not yet implemented in this release.)

   These selectors can be combined to hierarchical selectors.  For
example,

     .msgstr .invalid-format-directive { color: red; }

will highlight the invalid format directives in the translated strings.

   In text mode, pseudo-classes (CSS2 spec, section 5.11) and
pseudo-elements (CSS2 spec, section 5.12) are not supported.

   The declarations in HTML mode are not limited; any graphical
attribute supported by the browsers can be used.

   The declarations in text mode are limited to the following
properties.  Other properties will be silently ignored.

‘color’ (CSS2 spec, section 14.1)
‘background-color’ (CSS2 spec, section 14.2.1)
     These properties is supported.  Colors will be adjusted to match
     the terminal's capabilities.  Note that many terminals support only
     8 colors.

‘font-weight’ (CSS2 spec, section 15.2.3)
     This property is supported, but most terminals can only render two
     different weights: ‘normal’ and ‘bold’.  Values >= 600 are rendered
     as ‘bold’.

‘font-style’ (CSS2 spec, section 15.2.3)
     This property is supported.  The values ‘italic’ and ‘oblique’ are
     rendered the same way.

‘text-decoration’ (CSS2 spec, section 16.3.1)
     This property is supported, limited to the values ‘none’ and
     ‘underline’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Customizing less,  Prev: Style rules,  Up: Colorizing

10.11.5 Customizing ‘less’ for viewing PO files
-----------------------------------------------

   The ‘less’ program is a popular text file browser for use in a text
screen or terminal emulator.  It also supports text with embedded escape
sequences for colors and text decorations.

   You can use ‘less’ to view a PO file like this (assuming an UTF-8
environment):

     msgcat --to-code=UTF-8 --color xyz.po | less -R

   You can simplify this to this simple command:

     less xyz.po

after these three preparations:

  1. Add the options ‘-R’ and ‘-f’ to the ‘LESS’ environment variable.
     In sh shells:
          $ LESS="$LESS -R -f"
          $ export LESS

  2. If your system does not already have the ‘lessopen.sh’ and
     ‘lessclose.sh’ scripts, create them and set the ‘LESSOPEN’ and
     ‘LESSCLOSE’ environment variables, as indicated in the manual page
     (‘man less’).

  3. Add to ‘lessopen.sh’ a piece of script that recognizes PO files
     through their file extension and invokes ‘msgcat’ on them,
     producing a temporary file.  Like this:

          case "$1" in
            *.po)
              tmpfile=`mktemp "${TMPDIR-/tmp}/less.XXXXXX"`
              msgcat --to-code=UTF-8 --color "$1" > "$tmpfile"
              echo "$tmpfile"
              exit 0
              ;;
          esac


File: gettext.info,  Node: Other tools,  Next: libgettextpo,  Prev: Colorizing,  Up: Manipulating

10.12 Other tools for manipulating PO files
===========================================

Pology
------

   The "Pology" package is a Free Software package for manipulating PO
files.  It features, in particular:

   • Examination and in-place modification of collections of PO files.
   • Format-aware diffing and patching of PO files.
   • Handling of version-control branches.
   • Fine-grained asynchronous review workflow.
   • Custom translation validation.
   • Language and project specific support.

   Its home page is at <http://pology.nedohodnik.net/>.

Translate Toolkit
-----------------

   The "Translate Toolkit" is a Free Software package.  It contains a
set of programs to convert between PO files and other file formats,
merge translations, and perform various checks.

   Its home page is at <https://toolkit.translatehouse.org/>.  The code
is at <https://github.com/translate/translate>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: libgettextpo,  Prev: Other tools,  Up: Manipulating

10.13 Writing your own programs that process PO files
=====================================================

   For the tasks for which a combination of ‘msgattrib’, ‘msgcat’ etc.
is not sufficient, a set of C functions is provided in a library, to
make it possible to process PO files in your own programs.  When you use
this library, you don't need to write routines to parse the PO file;
instead, you retrieve a pointer in memory to each of messages contained
in the PO file.  Functions for writing those memory structures to a file
after working with them are provided too.

   The functions are declared in the header file ‘<gettext-po.h>’, and
are defined in a library called ‘libgettextpo’.

   The library is multithread-safe in the following sense: Different
threads can safely use the various functions simultaneously on unrelated
data objects.  For example, if several threads have created separate
‘po_file_t’ objects, each of them can safely work on its respective
‘po_file_t’ object, without caring about the other threads.

* Menu:

* Error Handling::              Error handling functions
* po_file_t API::               File management
* po_message_iterator_t API::   Message iteration
* po_message_t API::            The basic units of the file
* PO Header Entry API::         Meta information of the file
* po_filepos_t API::            References to the sources
* Format Type API::             Supported format types
* po_flag_iterator_t API::      Flag iteration
* Checking API::                Enforcing constraints

   The following example shows code how these functions can be used.
Error handling code is omitted, as its implementation is delegated to
the user provided functions.

     struct po_xerror_handler handler =
       {
         .xerror = ...,
         .xerror2 = ...
       };
     const char *filename = ...;
     /* Read the file into memory.  */
     po_file_t file = po_file_read (filename, &handler);

     {
       const char * const *domains = po_file_domains (file);
       const char * const *domainp;

       /* Iterate the domains contained in the file.  */
       for (domainp = domains; *domainp; domainp++)
         {
           po_message_t *message;
           const char *domain = *domainp;
           po_message_iterator_t iterator = po_message_iterator (file, domain);

           /* Iterate each message inside the domain.  */
           while ((message = po_next_message (iterator)) != NULL)
             {
               /* Read data from the message ...  */
               const char *msgid = po_message_msgid (message);
               const char *msgstr = po_message_msgstr (message);

               ...

               /* Modify its contents ...  */
               if (perform_some_tests (msgid, msgstr))
                 po_message_set_fuzzy (message, 1);

               ...
             }
           /* Always release returned po_message_iterator_t.  */
           po_message_iterator_free (iterator);
         }

       /* Write back the result.  */
       po_file_t result = po_file_write (file, filename, &handler);
     }

     /* Always release the returned po_file_t.  */
     po_file_free (file);


File: gettext.info,  Node: Error Handling,  Next: po_file_t API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.1 Error Handling
----------------------

   Error management is performed through callbacks provided by the user
of the library.  They are provided through a parameter with the
following type:

 -- Data Type: struct po_xerror_handler
     Its pointer is defined as ‘po_xerror_handler_t’.  Contains two
     fields, ‘xerror’ and ‘xerror2’, with the following function
     signatures.

 -- Function: void xerror (int SEVERITY, po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *FILENAME, size_t LINENO, size_t COLUMN,
          int MULTILINE_P, const char *MESSAGE_TEXT)

     This function is called to signal a problem of the given SEVERITY.
     It _must not return_ if SEVERITY is ‘PO_SEVERITY_FATAL_ERROR’.

     MESSAGE_TEXT is the problem description.  When MULTILINE_P is true,
     it can contain multiple lines of text, each terminated with a
     newline, otherwise a single line.

     MESSAGE and/or FILENAME and LINENO indicate where the problem
     occurred:

        • If FILENAME is ‘NULL’, FILENAME and LINENO and COLUMN should
          be ignored.

        • If LINENO is ‘(size_t)(-1)’, LINENO and COLUMN should be
          ignored.

        • If COLUMN is ‘(size_t)(-1)’, it should be ignored.

 -- Function: void xerror2 (int SEVERITY, po_message_t MESSAGE1,
          const char *FILENAME1, size_t LINENO1, size_t COLUMN1,
          int MULTILINE_P1, const char *MESSAGE_TEXT1,
          po_message_t MESSAGE2, const char *FILENAME2, size_t LINENO2,
          size_t COLUMN2, int MULTILINE_P2, const char *MESSAGE_TEXT2)

     This function is called to signal a problem of the given SEVERITY
     that refers to two messages.  It _must not return_ if SEVERITY is
     ‘PO_SEVERITY_FATAL_ERROR’.

     It is similar to two calls to xerror.  If possible, an ellipsis can
     be appended to MESSAGE_TEXT1 and prepended to MESSAGE_TEXT2.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po_file_t API,  Next: po_message_iterator_t API,  Prev: Error Handling,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.2 po_file_t API
---------------------

 -- Data Type: po_file_t
     This is a pointer type that refers to the contents of a PO file,
     after it has been read into memory.

 -- Function: po_file_t po_file_create ()
     The ‘po_file_create’ function creates an empty PO file
     representation in memory.

 -- Function: po_file_t po_file_read (const char *FILENAME,
          struct po_xerror_handler *HANDLER)
     The ‘po_file_read’ function reads a PO file into memory.  The file
     name is given as argument.  The return value is a handle to the PO
     file's contents, valid until ‘po_file_free’ is called on it.  In
     case of error, the functions from HANDLER are called to signal it.

     This function is exported as ‘po_file_read_v3’ at ABI level, but is
     defined as ‘po_file_read’ in C code after the inclusion of
     ‘<gettext-po.h>’.

 -- Function: po_file_t po_file_write (po_file_t FILE,
          const char *FILENAME, struct po_xerror_handler *HANDLER)
     The ‘po_file_write’ function writes the contents of the memory
     structure FILE the FILENAME given.  The return value is FILE after
     a successful operation.  In case of error, the functions from
     HANDLER are called to signal it.

     This function is exported as ‘po_file_write_v2’ at ABI level, but
     is defined as ‘po_file_write’ in C code after the inclusion of
     ‘<gettext-po.h>’.

 -- Function: void po_file_free (po_file_t FILE)
     The ‘po_file_free’ function frees a PO file's contents from memory,
     including all messages that are only implicitly accessible through
     iterators.

 -- Function: const char * const * po_file_domains (po_file_t FILE)
     The ‘po_file_domains’ function returns the domains for which the
     given PO file has messages.  The return value is a ‘NULL’
     terminated array which is valid as long as the FILE handle is
     valid.  For PO files which contain no ‘domain’ directive, the
     return value contains only one domain, namely the default domain
     ‘"messages"’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po_message_iterator_t API,  Next: po_message_t API,  Prev: po_file_t API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.3 po_message_iterator_t API
---------------------------------

 -- Data Type: po_message_iterator_t
     This is a pointer type that refers to an iterator that produces a
     sequence of messages.

 -- Function: po_message_iterator_t po_message_iterator (po_file_t FILE,
          const char *DOMAIN)
     The ‘po_message_iterator’ returns an iterator that will produce the
     messages of FILE that belong to the given DOMAIN.  If DOMAIN is
     ‘NULL’, the default domain is used instead.  To list the messages,
     use the function ‘po_next_message’ repeatedly.

 -- Function: void po_message_iterator_free
          (po_message_iterator_t ITERATOR)
     The ‘po_message_iterator_free’ function frees an iterator
     previously allocated through the ‘po_message_iterator’ function.

 -- Function: po_message_t po_next_message
          (po_message_iterator_t ITERATOR)
     The ‘po_next_message’ function returns the next message from
     ITERATOR and advances the iterator.  It returns ‘NULL’ when the
     iterator has reached the end of its message list.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po_message_t API,  Next: PO Header Entry API,  Prev: po_message_iterator_t API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.4 po_message_t API
------------------------

 -- Data Type: po_message_t
     This is a pointer type that refers to a message of a PO file,
     including its translation.

 -- Function: po_message_t po_message_create (void)
     Returns a freshly constructed message.  To finish initializing the
     message, you must set the ‘msgid’ and ‘msgstr’.  It _must_ be
     inserted into a file to manage its memory, as there is no
     ‘po_message_free’ available to the user of the library.

   The following functions access details of a ‘po_message_t’.  Recall
that the results are valid as long as the FILE handle is valid.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_msgctxt (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_msgctxt’ function returns the ‘msgctxt’, the
     context of MESSAGE.  Returns ‘NULL’ for a message not restricted to
     a context.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_msgctxt (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *MSGCTXT)
     The ‘po_message_set_msgctxt’ function changes the ‘msgctxt’, the
     context of the message, to the value provided through MSGCTXT.  The
     value ‘NULL’ removes the restriction.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_msgid (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_msgid’ function returns the ‘msgid’ (untranslated
     English string) of MESSAGE.  This is guaranteed to be non-‘NULL’.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_msgid (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *MSGID)
     The ‘po_message_set_msgid’ function changes the ‘msgid’
     (untranslated English string) of MESSAGE to the value provided
     through MSGID, a non-‘NULL’ string.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_msgid_plural
          (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_msgid_plural’ function returns the ‘msgid_plural’
     (untranslated English plural string) of MESSAGE, a message with
     plurals, or ‘NULL’ for a message without plural.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_msgid_plural (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *MSGID_PLURAL)
     The ‘po_message_set_msgid_plural’ function changes the
     ‘msgid_plural’ (untranslated English plural string) of a message to
     the value provided through MSGID_PLURAL, or removes the plurals if
     ‘NULL’ is provided as MSGID_PLURAL.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_msgstr (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_msgstr’ function returns the ‘msgstr’ (translation)
     of MESSAGE.  For an untranslated message, the return value is an
     empty string.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_msgstr (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *MSGSTR)
     The ‘po_message_set_msgstr’ function changes the ‘msgstr’
     (translation) of MESSAGE to the value provided through MSGSTR, a
     non-‘NULL’ string.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_msgstr_plural
          (po_message_t MESSAGE, int INDEX)
     The ‘po_message_msgstr_plural’ function returns the ‘msgstr[INDEX]’
     of MESSAGE, a message with plurals, or ‘NULL’ when the INDEX is out
     of range or for a message without plural.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_msgstr_plural (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          int INDEX, const char *MSGSTR_PLURAL)
     The ‘po_message_set_msgstr_plural’ function changes the
     ‘msgstr[INDEX]’ of MESSAGE, a message with plurals, to the value
     provided through MSGSTR_PLURAL.  MESSAGE must be a message with
     plurals.  Use ‘NULL’ as the value of MSGSTR_PLURAL with INDEX
     pointing to the last element to reduce the number of plural forms.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_comments (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_comments’ function returns the comments of MESSAGE,
     a multiline string, ending in a newline, or a non-‘NULL’ empty
     string.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_comments (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *COMMENTS)
     The ‘po_message_set_comments’ function changes the comments of
     MESSAGE to the value COMMENTS, a multiline string, ending in a
     newline, or a non-‘NULL’ empty string.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_extracted_comments
          (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_extracted_comments’ function returns the extracted
     comments of MESSAGE, a multiline string, ending in a newline, or a
     non-‘NULL’ empty string.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_extracted_comments
          (po_message_t MESSAGE, const char *EXTRACTED_COMMENTS)
     The ‘po_message_set_extracted_comments’ function changes the
     comments of MESSAGE to the value EXTRACTED_COMMENTS, a multiline
     string, ending in a newline, or a non-‘NULL’ empty string.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_prev_msgctxt
          (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_prev_msgctxt’ function returns the previous
     ‘msgctxt’, the previous context of MESSAGE.  Return ‘NULL’ for a
     message that does not have a previous context.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_prev_msgctxt (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *PREV_MSGCTXT)
     The ‘po_message_set_prev_msgctxt’ function changes the previous
     ‘msgctxt’, the context of the message, to the value provided
     through PREV_MSGCTXT.  The value ‘NULL’ removes the stored previous
     msgctxt.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_prev_msgid (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_prev_msgid’ function returns the previous ‘msgid’
     (untranslated English string) of MESSAGE, or ‘NULL’ if there is no
     previous ‘msgid’ stored.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_prev_msgid (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *PREV_MSGID)
     The ‘po_message_set_prev_msgid’ function changes the previous
     ‘msgid’ (untranslated English string) of MESSAGE to the value
     provided through PREV_MSGID, or removes the message when it is
     ‘NULL’.

 -- Function: const char * po_message_prev_msgid_plural
          (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_prev_msgid_plural’ function returns the previous
     ‘msgid_plural’ (untranslated English plural string) of MESSAGE, a
     message with plurals, or ‘NULL’ for a message without plural
     without any stored previous ‘msgid_plural’.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_prev_msgid_plural
          (po_message_t MESSAGE, const char *PREV_MSGID_PLURAL)
     The ‘po_message_set_prev_msgid_plural’ function changes the
     previous ‘msgid_plural’ (untranslated English plural string) of a
     message to the value provided through PREV_MSGID_PLURAL, or removes
     the stored previous ‘msgid_plural’ if ‘NULL’ is provided as
     PREV_MSGID_PLURAL.

 -- Function: int po_message_is_obsolete (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_is_obsolete’ function returns true when MESSAGE is
     marked as obsolete.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_obsolete (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          int OBSOLETE)
     The ‘po_message_set_obsolete’ function changes the obsolete mark of
     MESSAGE.

 -- Function: int po_message_is_fuzzy (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_is_fuzzy’ function returns true when MESSAGE is
     marked as fuzzy.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_fuzzy (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          int FUZZY)
     The ‘po_message_set_fuzzy’ function changes the fuzzy mark of
     MESSAGE.

 -- Function: int po_message_has_workflow_flag (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *WORKFLOW_FLAG)
     The ‘po_message_has_workflow_flag’ function returns true when
     MESSAGE is marked with a given workflow flag.

     When the argument WORKFLOW_FLAG is ‘"fuzzy"’, this function
     corresponds to the ‘po_message_is_fuzzy’ function.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_workflow_flag (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *WORKFLOW_FLAG, int VALUE)
     The ‘po_message_set_workflow_flag’ function changes a given
     workflow flag on MESSAGE: If the VALUE argument is non-zero, it
     sets it.  If the VALUE argument is zero, it unsets it.

     When the argument WORKFLOW_FLAG is ‘"fuzzy"’, this function
     corresponds to the ‘po_message_set_fuzzy’ function.

 -- Function: po_flag_iterator_t po_message_workflow_flags_iterator
          (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_workflow_flags_iterator’ function returns an
     iterator across the workflow flags of MESSAGE.  This includes the
     ‘"fuzzy"’ flag.  This iterator returns the workflow flags set on
     MESSAGE, one by one, through the function ‘po_flag_next’.  When
     done, you should free the iterator, through the function
     ‘po_flag_iterator_free’.

 -- Function: int po_message_is_format (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *FORMAT_TYPE)
     The ‘po_message_is_format’ function returns true when the message
     is marked as being a format string of FORMAT_TYPE.

 -- Function: int po_message_get_format (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *FORMAT_TYPE)
     The ‘po_message_get_format’ function returns an indicator whether
     the message is marked as being a format string of FORMAT_TYPE or
     the opposite (‘no-FORMAT_TYPE’).  More precisely, it returns 1 if
     the FORMAT_TYPE mark is set, 0 if the ‘no-FORMAT_TYPE’ mark is set,
     or -1 of neither the mark nor the opposite mark is set.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_format (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *FORMAT_TYPE, int VALUE)
     The ‘po_message_set_format’ function changes the format string mark
     of the message for the FORMAT_TYPE provided.  Pass VALUE = 1 to
     assert the format string mark (leading to e.g.  ‘c-format’), VALUE
     = 0 to assert the opposite (leading to e.g.  ‘no-c-format’), or
     VALUE = -1 to remove the format string mark and its opposite.

 -- Function: int po_message_has_sticky_flag (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *STICKY_FLAG)
     The ‘po_message_has_sticky_flag’ function returns true when MESSAGE
     is marked with a given sticky flag.

     This function is a generalization of the ‘po_message_is_format’ and
     ‘po_message_get_format’ format functions.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_sticky_flag (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *STICKY_FLAG, int VALUE)
     The ‘po_message_set_sticky_flag’ function changes a given sticky
     flag on MESSAGE: If the VALUE argument is non-zero, it sets it.  If
     the VALUE argument is zero, it unsets it.

     This function is a generalization of the ‘po_message_set_format’
     function.

     Note that a message cannot have the sticky flags ‘LANGUAGE-format’
     and ‘no-LANGUAGE-format’ at the same time.  Therefore, setting the
     ‘LANGUAGE-format’ flag for some LANGUAGE has the side effect of
     unsetting the ‘no-LANGUAGE-format’ flag, and vice versa.

 -- Function: po_flag_iterator_t po_message_sticky_flags_iterator
          (po_message_t MESSAGE)
     The ‘po_message_sticky_flags_iterator’ function returns an iterator
     across the sticky flags of MESSAGE.  This includes the various
     ‘LANGUAGE-format’ and ‘no-LANGUAGE-format’ flags, as well as the
     ‘no-wrap’ flag.  It does _not_ include the ‘"range"’, because that
     is not a flag.  This iterator returns the sticky flags set on
     MESSAGE, one by one, through the function ‘po_flag_next’.  When
     done, you should free the iterator, through the function
     ‘po_flag_iterator_free’.

 -- Function: int po_message_is_range (po_message_t MESSAGE, int *MINP,
          int *MAXP)
     The ‘po_message_is_range’ function returns true when the message
     has a numeric range set, and stores the minimum and maximum value
     in the locations pointed by MINP and MAXP respectively.

 -- Function: void po_message_set_range (po_message_t MESSAGE, int MIN,
          int MAX)
     The ‘po_message_set_range’ function changes the numeric range of
     the message.  MIN and MAX must be non-negative, with MIN < MAX.
     Use MIN and MAX with value ‘-1’ to remove the numeric range of
     MESSAGE.


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO Header Entry API,  Next: po_filepos_t API,  Prev: po_message_t API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.5 PO Header Entry API
---------------------------

   The following functions provide an interface to extract and
manipulate the header entry (*note Header Entry::) from a file loaded in
memory.  The meta information must be written back into the domain
message with the empty string as ‘msgid’.

 -- Function: const char * po_file_domain_header (po_file_t FILE,
          const char *DOMAIN)
     Returns the header entry of a domain from FILE, a PO file loaded in
     memory.  The value ‘NULL’ provided as DOMAIN denotes the default
     domain.  Returns ‘NULL’ if there is no header entry.

 -- Function: char * po_header_field (const char *HEADER,
          const char *FIELD)
     Returns the value of FIELD in the HEADER entry.  The return value
     is either a freshly allocated string, to be freed by the caller, or
     ‘NULL’.

 -- Function: char * po_header_set_field (const char *HEADER,
          const char *FIELD, const char *VALUE)
     Returns a freshly allocated string which contains the entry from
     HEADER with FIELD set to VALUE.  The field is added if necessary.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po_filepos_t API,  Next: Format Type API,  Prev: PO Header Entry API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.6 po_filepos_t API
------------------------

 -- Data Type: po_filepos_t
     This is a pointer type that refers to a string's position within a
     source file.

   The following functions provide an interface to extract and
manipulate these references.

 -- Function: po_filepos_t po_message_filepos (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          int INDEX)
     Returns the file reference in position INDEX from the message.  If
     INDEX is out of range, returns ‘NULL’.

 -- Function: void po_message_remove_filepos (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          int INDEX)
     Removes the file reference in position INDEX from the message.  It
     moves all references following INDEX one position backwards.

 -- Function: void po_message_add_filepos (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          const char *FILE, size_t START_LINE)
     Adds a reference to the string from FILE starting at START_LINE, if
     it is not already present for the message.  The value
     ‘(size_t)(-1)’ for START_LINE denotes that the line number is not
     available.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Format Type API,  Next: po_flag_iterator_t API,  Prev: po_filepos_t API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.7 Format Type API
-----------------------

 -- Function: const char * const * po_format_list (void)
     Returns a ‘NULL’ terminated array of the supported format types.

 -- Function: const char * po_format_pretty_name
          (const char *FORMAT_TYPE)
     Returns the pretty name associated with FORMAT_TYPE.  For example,
     it returns "C#" when FORMAT_TYPE is "csharp_format".  Return ‘NULL’
     if FORMAT_TYPE is not a supported format type.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po_flag_iterator_t API,  Next: Checking API,  Prev: Format Type API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.8 po_flag_iterator_t API
------------------------------

   The following functions apply to a ‘po_flag_iterator_t’ object, as
returned by the functions ‘po_message_workflow_flags_iterator’ and
‘po_message_sticky_flags_iterator’.

 -- Function: void po_flag_iterator_free (po_flag_iterator_t ITERATOR)
     The ‘po_flag_iterator_free’ function frees the given ITERATOR.

 -- Function: const char * po_flag_next (po_flag_iterator_t ITERATOR)
     The ‘po_flag_next’ function returns the next flag of the given kind
     on the given message.  At the end of the list of flags, it returns
     ‘NULL’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Checking API,  Prev: po_flag_iterator_t API,  Up: libgettextpo

10.13.9 Checking API
--------------------

 -- Function: void po_file_check_all (po_file_t FILE,
          po_xerror_handler_t HANDLER)
     Tests whether the entire FILE is valid, like ‘msgfmt’ does it.  If
     it is invalid, passes the reasons to HANDLER.

 -- Function: void po_message_check_all (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          po_message_iterator_t ITERATOR, po_xerror_handler_t HANDLER)
     Tests MESSAGE, to be inserted at ITERATOR in a PO file in memory,
     like ‘msgfmt’ does it.  If it is invalid, passes the reasons to
     HANDLER.  ITERATOR is not modified by this call; it only specifies
     the file and the domain.

 -- Function: void po_message_check_format (po_message_t MESSAGE,
          po_xerror_handler_t HANDLER)
     Tests whether the message translation from MESSAGE is a valid
     format string if the message is marked as being a format string.
     If it is invalid, passes the reasons to HANDLER.

     This function is exported as ‘po_message_check_format_v2’ at ABI
     level, but is defined as ‘po_message_check_format’ in C code after
     the inclusion of ‘<gettext-po.h>’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Binaries,  Next: Programmers,  Prev: Manipulating,  Up: Top

11 Producing Binary MO Files
****************************

* Menu:

* msgfmt Invocation::           Invoking the ‘msgfmt’ Program
* msgunfmt Invocation::         Invoking the ‘msgunfmt’ Program
* MO Files::                    The Format of GNU MO Files


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgfmt Invocation,  Next: msgunfmt Invocation,  Up: Binaries

11.1 Invoking the ‘msgfmt’ Program
==================================

     msgfmt [OPTION] FILENAME.po ...

   The ‘msgfmt’ programs generates a binary message catalog from a
textual translation description.

11.1.1 Input file location
--------------------------

‘FILENAME.po ...’

‘-D DIRECTORY’
‘--directory=DIRECTORY’
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are
     searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting
     binary file will be written relative to the current directory,
     though.

   If an input file is ‘-’, standard input is read.

11.1.2 Operation mode
---------------------

‘-j’
‘--java’
     Java mode: generate a Java ‘ResourceBundle’ class.

‘--java2’
     Like -java, and assume Java2 (JDK 1.2 or higher).

‘--csharp’
     C# mode: generate a .NET .dll file containing a subclass of
     ‘GettextResourceSet’.

‘--csharp-resources’
     C# resources mode: generate a .NET ‘.resources’ file.

‘--tcl’
     Tcl mode: generate a tcl/msgcat ‘.msg’ file.

‘--qt’
     Qt mode: generate a Qt ‘.qm’ file.

‘--desktop’
     Desktop Entry mode: generate a ‘.desktop’ file.

‘--xml’
     XML mode: generate an XML file.

11.1.3 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

‘--strict’
     Direct the program to work strictly following the Uniforum/Sun
     implementation.  Currently this only affects the naming of the
     output file.  If this option is not given the name of the output
     file is the same as the domain name.  If the strict Uniforum mode
     is enabled the suffix ‘.mo’ is added to the file name if it is not
     already present.

     We find this behaviour of Sun's implementation rather silly and so
     by default this mode is _not_ selected.

   If the output FILE is ‘-’, output is written to standard output.

11.1.4 Output file location in Java mode
----------------------------------------

‘-r RESOURCE’
‘--resource=RESOURCE’
     Specify the resource name.

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the base directory of classes directory hierarchy.

‘--source’
     Produce a .java source file, instead of a compiled .class file.

   The class name is determined by appending the locale name to the
resource name, separated with an underscore.  The ‘-d’ option is
mandatory.  The class is written under the specified directory.

11.1.5 Output file location in C# mode
--------------------------------------

‘-r RESOURCE’
‘--resource=RESOURCE’
     Specify the resource name.

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the base directory for locale dependent ‘.dll’ files.

   The ‘-l’ and ‘-d’ options are mandatory.  The ‘.dll’ file is written
in a subdirectory of the specified directory whose name depends on the
locale.

11.1.6 Output file location in Tcl mode
---------------------------------------

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the base directory of ‘.msg’ message catalogs.

   The ‘-l’ and ‘-d’ options are mandatory.  The ‘.msg’ file is written
in the specified directory.

11.1.7 Desktop Entry mode options
---------------------------------

‘--template=TEMPLATE’
     Specify a .desktop file used as a template.

‘-k[KEYWORDSPEC]’
‘--keyword[=KEYWORDSPEC]’
     Specify KEYWORDSPEC as an additional keyword to be looked for.
     Without a KEYWORDSPEC, the option means to not use default
     keywords.

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the directory where PO files are read.  The directory must
     contain the ‘LINGUAS’ file.

   To generate a ‘.desktop’ file for a single locale, you can use it as
follows.

     msgfmt --desktop --template=TEMPLATE --locale=LOCALE \
       -o FILE FILENAME.po ...

   msgfmt provides a special "bulk" operation mode to process multiple
‘.po’ files at a time.

     msgfmt --desktop --template=TEMPLATE -d DIRECTORY -o FILE

   msgfmt first reads the ‘LINGUAS’ file under DIRECTORY, and then
processes all ‘.po’ files listed there.  You can also limit the locales
to a subset, through the ‘LINGUAS’ environment variable.

   For either operation modes, the ‘-o’ and ‘--template’ options are
mandatory.

11.1.8 XML mode options
-----------------------

‘--template=TEMPLATE’
     Specify an XML file used as a template.

‘-L NAME’
‘--language=NAME’
     Specifies the language of the input files.

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the base directory of ‘.po’ message catalogs.

‘--replace-text’
     Output XML with translated text replacing the original text, not
     augmenting the original text.  With this option, ‘msgfmt’ produces
     a mono-lingual XML file.  Without this option, it produces a
     multi-lingual XML file.

   To generate an XML file for a single locale, you can use it as
follows.

     msgfmt --xml --template=TEMPLATE --locale=LOCALE \
       -o FILE FILENAME.po ...

   msgfmt provides a special "bulk" operation mode to process multiple
‘.po’ files at a time.

     msgfmt --xml --template=TEMPLATE -d DIRECTORY -o FILE

   msgfmt first reads the ‘LINGUAS’ file under DIRECTORY, and then
processes all ‘.po’ files listed there.  You can also limit the locales
to a subset, through the ‘LINGUAS’ environment variable.

   For either operation modes, the ‘-o’ and ‘--template’ options are
mandatory.

   If your XML file is not of one of the types covered by the
system-wide installed *.its files, you need a particular *.its file and
a corresponding *.loc file (*note Preparing ITS Rules::).  Furthermore
you need to store these files in a directory ‘PARENT_DIR/its/’ and set
the environment variable ‘GETTEXTDATADIRS’ to include ‘PARENT_DIR’.
More generally, the value of ‘GETTEXTDATADIRS’ should be a
colon-separated list of directory names.

11.1.9 Input file syntax
------------------------

‘-P’
‘--properties-input’
     Assume the input files are Java ResourceBundles in Java
     ‘.properties’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

‘--stringtable-input’
     Assume the input files are NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource
     files in ‘.strings’ syntax, not in PO file syntax.

11.1.10 Input file interpretation
---------------------------------

‘-c’
‘--check’
     Perform all the checks implied by ‘--check-format’,
     ‘--check-header’, ‘--check-domain’.

‘--check-format’
     Check language dependent format strings.

     If the string represents a format string used in a ‘printf’-like
     function both strings should have the same number of ‘%’ format
     specifiers, with matching types.  If the flag ‘c-format’ or
     ‘possible-c-format’ appears in the special comment <#,> for this
     entry a check is performed.  For example, the check will diagnose
     using ‘%.*s’ against ‘%s’, or ‘%d’ against ‘%s’, or ‘%d’ against
     ‘%x’.  It can even handle positional parameters.

     Normally the ‘xgettext’ program automatically decides whether a
     string is a format string or not.  This algorithm is not perfect,
     though.  It might regard a string as a format string though it is
     not used in a ‘printf’-like function and so ‘msgfmt’ might report
     errors where there are none.

     To solve this problem the programmer can dictate the decision to
     the ‘xgettext’ program (*note c-format::).  The translator should
     not consider removing the flag from the <#,> line.  This "fix"
     would be reversed again as soon as ‘msgmerge’ is called the next
     time.

‘--check-header’
     Verify presence and contents of the header entry.  *Note Header
     Entry::, for a description of the various fields in the header
     entry.

‘--check-domain’
     Check for conflicts between domain directives and the
     ‘--output-file’ option

‘-C’
‘--check-compatibility’
     Check that GNU msgfmt behaves like X/Open msgfmt.  This will give
     an error when attempting to use the GNU extensions.

‘--check-accelerators[=CHAR]’
     Check presence of keyboard accelerators for menu items.  This is
     based on the convention used in some GUIs that a keyboard
     accelerator in a menu item string is designated by an immediately
     preceding ‘&’ character.  Sometimes a keyboard accelerator is also
     called "keyboard mnemonic".  This check verifies that if the
     untranslated string has exactly one ‘&’ character, the translated
     string has exactly one ‘&’ as well.  If this option is given with a
     CHAR argument, this CHAR should be a non-alphanumeric character and
     is used as keyboard accelerator mark instead of ‘&’.

‘-f’
‘--use-fuzzy’
     Use fuzzy entries in output.  Note that using this option is
     usually wrong, because fuzzy messages are exactly those which have
     not been validated by a human translator.

11.1.11 Output details
----------------------

‘--no-convert’
     Don't convert the messages to UTF-8 encoding.  By default, messages
     are converted to UTF-8 encoding before being stored in a MO file;
     this helps avoiding conversions at run time, since nowadays most
     locales use the UTF-8 encoding.

‘--no-redundancy’
     Don't pre-expand ISO C 99 <inttypes.h> format string directive
     macros.  By default, messages that are marked as ‘c-format’ and
     contain ISO C 99 <inttypes.h> format string directive macros are
     pre-expanded for selected platforms, and these redundant expansions
     are stored in the MO file.  These redundant expansions make the
     translations of these messages work with the ‘gettext’
     implementation in the ‘libc’ of that platform, without requiring
     GNU ‘gettext’'s ‘libintl’.  The platforms that benefit from this
     pre-expansion are those with the musl libc.

‘-a NUMBER’
‘--alignment=NUMBER’
     Align strings to NUMBER bytes (default: 1).

‘--endianness=BYTEORDER’
     Write out 32-bit numbers in the given byte order.  The possible
     values are ‘big’ and ‘little’.  The default is ‘little’.

     MO files of any endianness can be used on any platform.  When a MO
     file has an endianness other than the platform's one, the 32-bit
     numbers from the MO file are swapped at runtime.  The performance
     impact is negligible.

     This option can be useful to produce MO files that are optimized
     for one platform.

‘--no-hash’
     Don't include a hash table in the binary file.  Lookup will be more
     expensive at run time (binary search instead of hash table lookup).

11.1.12 Informative output
--------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

‘--statistics’
     Print statistics about translations.  When the option ‘--verbose’
     is used in combination with ‘--statistics’, the input file name is
     printed in front of the statistics line.

‘-v’
‘--verbose’
     Increase verbosity level.


File: gettext.info,  Node: msgunfmt Invocation,  Next: MO Files,  Prev: msgfmt Invocation,  Up: Binaries

11.2 Invoking the ‘msgunfmt’ Program
====================================

     msgunfmt [OPTION] [FILE]...

   The ‘msgunfmt’ program converts a binary message catalog to a
Uniforum style .po file.

11.2.1 Operation mode
---------------------

‘-j’
‘--java’
     Java mode: input is a Java ‘ResourceBundle’ class.

‘--csharp’
     C# mode: input is a .NET .dll file containing a subclass of
     ‘GettextResourceSet’.

‘--csharp-resources’
     C# resources mode: input is a .NET ‘.resources’ file.

‘--tcl’
     Tcl mode: input is a tcl/msgcat ‘.msg’ file.

11.2.2 Input file location
--------------------------

‘FILE ...’
     Input .mo files.

   If no input FILE is given or if it is ‘-’, standard input is read.

11.2.3 Input file location in Java mode
---------------------------------------

‘-r RESOURCE’
‘--resource=RESOURCE’
     Specify the resource name.

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

   The class name is determined by appending the locale name to the
resource name, separated with an underscore.  The class is located using
the ‘CLASSPATH’.

11.2.4 Input file location in C# mode
-------------------------------------

‘-r RESOURCE’
‘--resource=RESOURCE’
     Specify the resource name.

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the base directory for locale dependent ‘.dll’ files.

   The ‘-l’ and ‘-d’ options are mandatory.  The ‘.msg’ file is located
in a subdirectory of the specified directory whose name depends on the
locale.

11.2.5 Input file location in Tcl mode
--------------------------------------

‘-l LOCALE’
‘--locale=LOCALE’
     Specify the locale name, either a language specification of the
     form LL or a combined language and country specification of the
     form LL_CC.

‘-d DIRECTORY’
     Specify the base directory of ‘.msg’ message catalogs.

   The ‘-l’ and ‘-d’ options are mandatory.  The ‘.msg’ file is located
in the specified directory.

11.2.6 Output file location
---------------------------

‘-o FILE’
‘--output-file=FILE’
     Write output to specified file.

   The results are written to standard output if no output file is
specified or if it is ‘-’.

11.2.7 Output details
---------------------

‘--color’
‘--color=WHEN’
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes.
     See *note The --color option:: for details.

‘--style=STYLE_FILE’
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for ‘--color’.  See *note
     The --style option:: for details.

‘--force-po’
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

‘-i’
‘--indent’
     Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--strict’
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this
     Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the
     GNU extensions.

‘-p’
‘--properties-output’
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java ‘.properties’ syntax.  Note
     that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently
     drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in ‘.strings’
     syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

‘-w NUMBER’
‘--width=NUMBER’
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will
     be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's
     width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given
     NUMBER.

‘--no-wrap’
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds
     the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only
     file reference lines which are wider than the output page width
     will be split.

‘-s’
‘--sort-output’
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much
     harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

11.2.8 Informative output
-------------------------

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

‘-v’
‘--verbose’
     Increase verbosity level.


File: gettext.info,  Node: MO Files,  Prev: msgunfmt Invocation,  Up: Binaries

11.3 The Format of GNU MO Files
===============================

   The format of the generated MO files is best described by a picture,
which appears below.

   The first two words serve the identification of the file.  The magic
number will always signal GNU MO files.  The number is stored in the
byte order used when the MO file was generated, so the magic number
really is two numbers: ‘0x950412de’ and ‘0xde120495’.

   The second word describes the current revision of the file format,
composed of a major and a minor revision number.  The revision numbers
ensure that the readers of MO files can distinguish new formats from old
ones and handle their contents, as far as possible.  For now the major
revision is 0 or 1, and the minor revision is also 0 or 1.  More
revisions might be added in the future.  A program seeing an unexpected
major revision number should stop reading the MO file entirely; whereas
an unexpected minor revision number means that the file can be read but
will not reveal its full contents, when parsed by a program that
supports only smaller minor revision numbers.

   The version is kept separate from the magic number, instead of using
different magic numbers for different formats, mainly because
‘/etc/magic’ is not updated often.

   Follow a number of pointers to later tables in the file, allowing for
the extension of the prefix part of MO files without having to recompile
programs reading them.  This might become useful for later inserting a
few flag bits, indication about the charset used, new tables, or other
things.

   Then, at offset O and offset T in the picture, two tables of string
descriptors can be found.  In both tables, each string descriptor uses
two 32 bits integers, one for the string length, another for the offset
of the string in the MO file, counting in bytes from the start of the
file.  The first table contains descriptors for the original strings,
and is sorted so the original strings are in increasing lexicographical
order.  The second table contains descriptors for the translated
strings, and is parallel to the first table: to find the corresponding
translation one has to access the array slot in the second array with
the same index.

   Having the original strings sorted enables the use of simple binary
search, for when the MO file does not contain an hashing table, or for
when it is not practical to use the hashing table provided in the MO
file.  This also has another advantage, as the empty string in a PO file
GNU ‘gettext’ is usually _translated_ into some system information
attached to that particular MO file, and the empty string necessarily
becomes the first in both the original and translated tables, making the
system information very easy to find.

   The size S of the hash table can be zero.  In this case, the hash
table itself is not contained in the MO file.  Some people might prefer
this because a precomputed hashing table takes disk space, and does not
win _that_ much speed.  The hash table contains indices to the sorted
array of strings in the MO file.  Conflict resolution is done by double
hashing.  The precise hashing algorithm used is fairly dependent on GNU
‘gettext’ code, and is not documented here.

   As for the strings themselves, they follow the hash file, and each is
terminated with a <NUL>, and this <NUL> is not counted in the length
which appears in the string descriptor.  The ‘msgfmt’ program has an
option selecting the alignment for MO file strings.  With this option,
each string is separately aligned so it starts at an offset which is a
multiple of the alignment value.  On some RISC machines, a correct
alignment will speed things up.

   Contexts are stored by storing the concatenation of the context, a
<EOT> byte, and the original string, instead of the original string.

   Plural forms are stored by letting the plural of the original string
follow the singular of the original string, separated through a <NUL>
byte.  The length which appears in the string descriptor includes both.
However, only the singular of the original string takes part in the hash
table lookup.  The plural variants of the translation are all stored
consecutively, separated through a <NUL> byte.  Here also, the length in
the string descriptor includes all of them.

   The character encoding of the strings can be any standard
ASCII-compatible encoding, such as UTF-8, ISO-8859-1, EUC-JP, etc., as
long as the encoding's name is stated in the header entry (*note Header
Entry::).  Starting with GNU ‘gettext’ version 0.22, the MO files
produced by ‘msgfmt’ have them in UTF-8 encoding, unless the ‘msgfmt’
option ‘--no-convert’ is used.

   Nothing prevents a MO file from having embedded <NUL>s in strings.
However, the program interface currently used already presumes that
strings are <NUL> terminated, so embedded <NUL>s are somewhat useless.
But the MO file format is general enough so other interfaces would be
later possible, if for example, we ever want to implement wide
characters right in MO files, where <NUL> bytes may accidentally appear.
(No, we don't want to have wide characters in MO files.  They would make
the file unnecessarily large, and the ‘wchar_t’ type being platform
dependent, MO files would be platform dependent as well.)

   This particular issue has been strongly debated in the GNU ‘gettext’
development forum, and it is expectable that MO file format will evolve
or change over time.  It is even possible that many formats may later be
supported concurrently.  But surely, we have to start somewhere, and the
MO file format described here is a good start.  Nothing is cast in
concrete, and the format may later evolve fairly easily, so we should
feel comfortable with the current approach.

             byte
                  +------------------------------------------+
               0  | magic number = 0x950412de                |
                  |                                          |
               4  | file format revision = 0                 |
                  |                                          |
               8  | number of strings                        |  == N
                  |                                          |
              12  | offset of table with original strings    |  == O
                  |                                          |
              16  | offset of table with translation strings |  == T
                  |                                          |
              20  | size of hashing table                    |  == S
                  |                                          |
              24  | offset of hashing table                  |  == H
                  |                                          |
                  .                                          .
                  .    (possibly more entries later)         .
                  .                                          .
                  |                                          |
               O  | length & offset 0th string  ----------------.
           O + 8  | length & offset 1st string  ------------------.
                   ...                                    ...   | |
     O + ((N-1)*8)| length & offset (N-1)th string           |  | |
                  |                                          |  | |
               T  | length & offset 0th translation  ---------------.
           T + 8  | length & offset 1st translation  -----------------.
                   ...                                    ...   | | | |
     T + ((N-1)*8)| length & offset (N-1)th translation      |  | | | |
                  |                                          |  | | | |
               H  | start hash table                         |  | | | |
                   ...                                    ...   | | | |
       H + S * 4  | end hash table                           |  | | | |
                  |                                          |  | | | |
                  | NUL terminated 0th string  <----------------' | | |
                  |                                          |    | | |
                  | NUL terminated 1st string  <------------------' | |
                  |                                          |      | |
                   ...                                    ...       | |
                  |                                          |      | |
                  | NUL terminated 0th translation  <---------------' |
                  |                                          |        |
                  | NUL terminated 1st translation  <-----------------'
                  |                                          |
                   ...                                    ...
                  |                                          |
                  +------------------------------------------+


File: gettext.info,  Node: Programmers,  Next: Translators,  Prev: Binaries,  Up: Top

12 The Programmer's View
************************

   One aim of the current message catalog implementation provided by GNU
‘gettext’ was to use the system's message catalog handling, if the
installer wishes to do so.  So we perhaps should first take a look at
the solutions we know about.  The people in the POSIX committee did not
manage to agree on one of the semi-official standards which we'll
describe below.  In fact they couldn't agree on anything, so they
decided only to include an example of an interface.  The major Unix
vendors are split in the usage of the two most important specifications:
X/Open's catgets vs.  Uniforum's gettext interface.  We'll describe them
both and later explain our solution of this dilemma.

* Menu:

* catgets::                     About ‘catgets’
* gettext::                     About ‘gettext’
* Comparison::                  Comparing the two interfaces
* Using libintl.a::             Using libintl.a in own programs
* gettext grok::                Being a ‘gettext’ grok
* Temp Programmers::            Temporary Notes for the Programmers Chapter


File: gettext.info,  Node: catgets,  Next: gettext,  Up: Programmers

12.1 About ‘catgets’
====================

   The ‘catgets’ implementation is defined in the X/Open Portability
Guide, Volume 3, XSI Supplementary Definitions, Chapter 5.  But the
process of creating this standard seemed to be too slow for some of the
Unix vendors so they created their implementations on preliminary
versions of the standard.  Of course this leads again to problems while
writing platform independent programs: even the usage of ‘catgets’ does
not guarantee a unique interface.

   Another, personal comment on this that only a bunch of committee
members could have made this interface.  They never really tried to
program using this interface.  It is a fast, memory-saving
implementation, an user can happily live with it.  But programmers hate
it (at least I and some others do...)

   But we must not forget one point: after all the trouble with
transferring the rights on Unix they at last came to X/Open, the very
same who published this specification.  This leads me to making the
prediction that this interface will be in future Unix standards (e.g.
Spec1170) and therefore part of all Unix implementation
(implementations, which are _allowed_ to wear this name).

* Menu:

* Interface to catgets::        The interface
* Problems with catgets::       Problems with the ‘catgets’ interface?!


File: gettext.info,  Node: Interface to catgets,  Next: Problems with catgets,  Up: catgets

12.1.1 The Interface
--------------------

   The interface to the ‘catgets’ implementation consists of three
functions which correspond to those used in file access: ‘catopen’ to
open the catalog for using, ‘catgets’ for accessing the message tables,
and ‘catclose’ for closing after work is done.  Prototypes for the
functions and the needed definitions are in the ‘<nl_types.h>’ header
file.

   ‘catopen’ is used like in this:

     nl_catd catd = catopen ("catalog_name", 0);

   The function takes as the argument the name of the catalog.  This
usual refers to the name of the program or the package.  The second
parameter is not further specified in the standard.  I don't even know
whether it is implemented consistently among various systems.  So the
common advice is to use ‘0’ as the value.  The return value is a handle
to the message catalog, equivalent to handles to file returned by
‘open’.

   This handle is of course used in the ‘catgets’ function which can be
used like this:

     char *translation = catgets (catd, set_no, msg_id, "original string");

   The first parameter is this catalog descriptor.  The second parameter
specifies the set of messages in this catalog, in which the message
described by ‘msg_id’ is obtained.  ‘catgets’ therefore uses a
three-stage addressing:

     catalog name ⇒ set number ⇒ message ID ⇒ translation

   The fourth argument is not used to address the translation.  It is
given as a default value in case when one of the addressing stages fail.
One important thing to remember is that although the return type of
catgets is ‘char *’ the resulting string _must not_ be changed.  It
should better be ‘const char *’, but the standard is published in 1988,
one year before ANSI C.

The last of these functions is used and behaves as expected:

     catclose (catd);

   After this no ‘catgets’ call using the descriptor is legal anymore.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Problems with catgets,  Prev: Interface to catgets,  Up: catgets

12.1.2 Problems with the ‘catgets’ Interface?!
----------------------------------------------

   Now that this description seemed to be really easy -- where are the
problems we speak of?  In fact the interface could be used in a
reasonable way, but constructing the message catalogs is a pain.  The
reason for this lies in the third argument of ‘catgets’: the unique
message ID. This has to be a numeric value for all messages in a single
set.  Perhaps you could imagine the problems keeping such a list while
changing the source code.  Add a new message here, remove one there.  Of
course there have been developed a lot of tools helping to organize this
chaos but one as the other fails in one aspect or the other.  We don't
want to say that the other approach has no problems but they are far
more easy to manage.


File: gettext.info,  Node: gettext,  Next: Comparison,  Prev: catgets,  Up: Programmers

12.2 About ‘gettext’
====================

   The definition of the ‘gettext’ interface comes from a Uniforum
proposal.  It was submitted there by Sun, who had implemented the
‘gettext’ function in SunOS 4, around 1990.  Nowadays, the ‘gettext’
interface is specified by the OpenI18N standard.

   The main point about this solution is that it does not follow the
method of normal file handling (open-use-close) and that it does not
burden the programmer with so many tasks, especially the unique key
handling.  Of course here also a unique key is needed, but this key is
the message itself (how long or short it is).  See *note Comparison::
for a more detailed comparison of the two methods.

   The following section contains a rather detailed description of the
interface.  We make it that detailed because this is the interface we
chose for the GNU ‘gettext’ Library.  Programmers interested in using
this library will be interested in this description.

* Menu:

* Interface to gettext::        The interface
* Ambiguities::                 Solving ambiguities
* Locating Catalogs::           Locating message catalog files
* Charset conversion::          How to request conversion to Unicode
* Contexts::                    Solving ambiguities in GUI programs
* Plural forms::                Additional functions for handling plurals
* Optimized gettext::           Optimization of the *gettext functions


File: gettext.info,  Node: Interface to gettext,  Next: Ambiguities,  Up: gettext

12.2.1 The Interface
--------------------

   The minimal functionality an interface must have is a) to select a
domain the strings are coming from (a single domain for all programs is
not reasonable because its construction and maintenance is difficult,
perhaps impossible) and b) to access a string in a selected domain.

   This is principally the description of the ‘gettext’ interface.  It
has a global domain which unqualified usages reference.  Of course this
domain is selectable by the user.

     char *textdomain (const char *domain_name);

   This provides the possibility to change or query the current status
of the current global domain of the ‘LC_MESSAGE’ category.  The argument
is a null-terminated string, whose characters must be legal in the use
in filenames.  If the DOMAIN_NAME argument is ‘NULL’, the function
returns the current value.  If no value has been set before, the name of
the default domain is returned: _messages_.  Please note that although
the return value of ‘textdomain’ is of type ‘char *’ no changing is
allowed.  It is also important to know that no checks of the
availability are made.  If the name is not available you will see this
by the fact that no translations are provided.

To use a domain set by ‘textdomain’ the function

     char *gettext (const char *msgid);

is to be used.  This is the simplest reasonable form one can imagine.
The translation of the string MSGID is returned if it is available in
the current domain.  If it is not available, the argument itself is
returned.  If the argument is ‘NULL’ the result is undefined.

   One thing which should come into mind is that no explicit dependency
to the used domain is given.  The current value of the domain is used.
If this changes between two executions of the same ‘gettext’ call in the
program, both calls reference a different message catalog.

   For the easiest case, which is normally used in internationalized
packages, once at the beginning of execution a call to ‘textdomain’ is
issued, setting the domain to a unique name, normally the package name.
In the following code all strings which have to be translated are
filtered through the gettext function.  That's all, the package speaks
your language.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Ambiguities,  Next: Locating Catalogs,  Prev: Interface to gettext,  Up: gettext

12.2.2 Solving Ambiguities
--------------------------

   While this single name domain works well for most applications there
might be the need to get translations from more than one domain.  Of
course one could switch between different domains with calls to
‘textdomain’, but this is really not convenient nor is it fast.  A
possible situation could be one case subject to discussion during this
writing: all error messages of functions in the set of common used
functions should go into a separate domain ‘error’.  By this mean we
would only need to translate them once.  Another case are messages from
a library, as these _have_ to be independent of the current domain set
by the application.

For this reasons there are two more functions to retrieve strings:

     char *dgettext (const char *domain_name, const char *msgid);
     char *dcgettext (const char *domain_name, const char *msgid,
                      int category);

   Both take an additional argument at the first place, which
corresponds to the argument of ‘textdomain’.  The third argument of
‘dcgettext’ allows to use another locale category but ‘LC_MESSAGES’.
But I really don't know where this can be useful.  If the DOMAIN_NAME is
‘NULL’ or CATEGORY has an value beside the known ones, the result is
undefined.  It should also be noted that this function is not part of
the second known implementation of this function family, the one found
in Solaris.

   A second ambiguity can arise by the fact, that perhaps more than one
domain has the same name.  This can be solved by specifying where the
needed message catalog files can be found.

     char *bindtextdomain (const char *domain_name,
                           const char *dir_name);

   Calling this function binds the given domain to a file in the
specified directory (how this file is determined follows below).
Especially a file in the systems default place is not favored against
the specified file anymore (as it would be by solely using
‘textdomain’).  A ‘NULL’ pointer for the DIR_NAME parameter returns the
binding associated with DOMAIN_NAME.  If DOMAIN_NAME itself is ‘NULL’
nothing happens and a ‘NULL’ pointer is returned.  Here again as for all
the other functions is true that none of the return value must be
changed!

   It is important to remember that relative path names for the DIR_NAME
parameter can be trouble.  Since the path is always computed relative to
the current directory different results will be achieved when the
program executes a ‘chdir’ command.  Relative paths should always be
avoided to avoid dependencies and unreliabilities.

     wchar_t *wbindtextdomain (const char *domain_name,
                               const wchar_t *dir_name);

   This function is provided only on native Windows platforms.  It is
like ‘bindtextdomain’, except that the DIR_NAME parameter is a wide
string (in UTF-16 encoding, as usual on Windows).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Locating Catalogs,  Next: Charset conversion,  Prev: Ambiguities,  Up: gettext

12.2.3 Locating Message Catalog Files
-------------------------------------

   Because many different languages for many different packages have to
be stored we need some way to add these information to file message
catalog files.  The way usually used in Unix environments is have this
encoding in the file name.  This is also done here.  The directory name
given in ‘bindtextdomain’s second argument (or the default directory),
followed by the name of the locale, the locale category, and the domain
name are concatenated:

     DIR_NAME/LOCALE/LC_CATEGORY/DOMAIN_NAME.mo

   The default value for DIR_NAME is system specific.  For the GNU
library, and for packages adhering to its conventions, it's:
     /usr/local/share/locale

LOCALE is the name of the locale category which is designated by
‘LC_CATEGORY’.  For ‘gettext’ and ‘dgettext’ this ‘LC_CATEGORY’ is
always ‘LC_MESSAGES’.(1)  The name of the locale category is determined
through ‘setlocale (LC_CATEGORY, NULL)’.  (2)  When using the function
‘dcgettext’, you can specify the locale category through the third
argument.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) Some system, e.g. mingw, don't have ‘LC_MESSAGES’.  Here we use a
more or less arbitrary value for it, namely 1729, the smallest positive
integer which can be represented in two different ways as the sum of two
cubes.

   (2) When the system does not support ‘setlocale’ its behavior in
setting the locale values is simulated by looking at the environment
variables.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Charset conversion,  Next: Contexts,  Prev: Locating Catalogs,  Up: gettext

12.2.4 How to specify the output character set ‘gettext’ uses
-------------------------------------------------------------

   ‘gettext’ not only looks up a translation in a message catalog.  It
also converts the translation on the fly to the desired output character
set.  This is useful if the user is working in a different character set
than the translator who created the message catalog, because it avoids
distributing variants of message catalogs which differ only in the
character set.

   The output character set is, by default, the value of ‘nl_langinfo
(CODESET)’, which depends on the ‘LC_CTYPE’ part of the current locale.
But programs which store strings in a locale independent way (e.g.
UTF-8) can request that ‘gettext’ and related functions return the
translations in that encoding, by use of the ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’
function.

   Note that the MSGID argument to ‘gettext’ is not subject to character
set conversion.  Also, when ‘gettext’ does not find a translation for
MSGID, it returns MSGID unchanged - independently of the current output
character set.  It is therefore recommended that all MSGIDs be US-ASCII
strings.

 -- Function: char * bind_textdomain_codeset (const char *DOMAINNAME,
          const char *CODESET)
     The ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function can be used to specify the
     output character set for message catalogs for domain DOMAINNAME.
     The CODESET argument must be a valid codeset name which can be used
     for the ‘iconv_open’ function, or a null pointer.

     If the CODESET parameter is the null pointer,
     ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ returns the currently selected codeset
     for the domain with the name DOMAINNAME.  It returns ‘NULL’ if no
     codeset has yet been selected.

     The ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function can be used several times.
     If used multiple times with the same DOMAINNAME argument, the later
     call overrides the settings made by the earlier one.

     The ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function returns a pointer to a
     string containing the name of the selected codeset.  The string is
     allocated internally in the function and must not be changed by the
     user.  If the system went out of core during the execution of
     ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’, the return value is ‘NULL’ and the
     global variable ERRNO is set accordingly.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Contexts,  Next: Plural forms,  Prev: Charset conversion,  Up: gettext

12.2.5 Using contexts for solving ambiguities
---------------------------------------------

   One place where the ‘gettext’ functions, if used normally, have big
problems is within programs with graphical user interfaces (GUIs).  The
problem is that many of the strings which have to be translated are very
short.  They have to appear in pull-down menus which restricts the
length.  But strings which are not containing entire sentences or at
least large fragments of a sentence may appear in more than one
situation in the program but might have different translations.  This is
especially true for the one-word strings which are frequently used in
GUI programs.

   As a consequence many people say that the ‘gettext’ approach is wrong
and instead ‘catgets’ should be used which indeed does not have this
problem.  But there is a very simple and powerful method to handle this
kind of problems with the ‘gettext’ functions.

   Contexts can be added to strings to be translated.  A context
dependent translation lookup is when a translation for a given string is
searched, that is limited to a given context.  The translation for the
same string in a different context can be different.  The different
translations of the same string in different contexts can be stored in
the in the same MO file, and can be edited by the translator in the same
PO file.

   The ‘gettext.h’ include file contains the lookup macros for strings
with contexts.  They are implemented as thin macros and inline functions
over the functions from ‘<libintl.h>’.

     const char *pgettext (const char *msgctxt, const char *msgid);

   In a call of this macro, MSGCTXT and MSGID must be string literals.
The macro returns the translation of MSGID, restricted to the context
given by MSGCTXT.

   The MSGCTXT string is visible in the PO file to the translator.  You
should try to make it somehow canonical and never changing.  Because
every time you change an MSGCTXT, the translator will have to review the
translation of MSGID.

   Finding a canonical MSGCTXT string that doesn't change over time can
be hard.  But you shouldn't use the file name or class name containing
the ‘pgettext’ call - because it is a common development task to rename
a file or a class, and it shouldn't cause translator work.  Also you
shouldn't use a comment in the form of a complete English sentence as
MSGCTXT - because orthography or grammar changes are often applied to
such sentences, and again, it shouldn't force the translator to do a
review.

   The ‘p’ in ‘pgettext’ stands for "particular": ‘pgettext’ fetches a
particular translation of the MSGID.

     const char *dpgettext (const char *domain_name,
                            const char *msgctxt, const char *msgid);
     const char *dcpgettext (const char *domain_name,
                             const char *msgctxt, const char *msgid,
                             int category);

   These are generalizations of ‘pgettext’.  They behave similarly to
‘dgettext’ and ‘dcgettext’, respectively.  The DOMAIN_NAME argument
defines the translation domain.  The CATEGORY argument allows to use
another locale category than ‘LC_MESSAGES’.

   As as example consider the following fictional situation.  A GUI
program has a menu bar with the following entries:

     +------------+------------+--------------------------------------+
     | File       | Printer    |                                      |
     +------------+------------+--------------------------------------+
     | Open     | | Select   |
     | New      | | Open     |
     +----------+ | Connect  |
                  +----------+

   To have the strings ‘File’, ‘Printer’, ‘Open’, ‘New’, ‘Select’, and
‘Connect’ translated there has to be at some point in the code a call to
a function of the ‘gettext’ family.  But in two places the string passed
into the function would be ‘Open’.  The translations might not be the
same and therefore we are in the dilemma described above.

   What distinguishes the two places is the menu path from the menu root
to the particular menu entries:

     Menu|File
     Menu|Printer
     Menu|File|Open
     Menu|File|New
     Menu|Printer|Select
     Menu|Printer|Open
     Menu|Printer|Connect

   The context is thus the menu path without its last part.  So, the
calls look like this:

     pgettext ("Menu|", "File")
     pgettext ("Menu|", "Printer")
     pgettext ("Menu|File|", "Open")
     pgettext ("Menu|File|", "New")
     pgettext ("Menu|Printer|", "Select")
     pgettext ("Menu|Printer|", "Open")
     pgettext ("Menu|Printer|", "Connect")

   Whether or not to use the ‘|’ character at the end of the context is
a matter of style.

   For more complex cases, where the MSGCTXT or MSGID are not string
literals, more general macros are available:

     const char *pgettext_expr (const char *msgctxt, const char *msgid);
     const char *dpgettext_expr (const char *domain_name,
                                 const char *msgctxt, const char *msgid);
     const char *dcpgettext_expr (const char *domain_name,
                                  const char *msgctxt, const char *msgid,
                                  int category);

   Here MSGCTXT and MSGID can be arbitrary string-valued expressions.
These macros are more general.  But in the case that both argument
expressions are string literals, the macros without the ‘_expr’ suffix
are more efficient.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Plural forms,  Next: Optimized gettext,  Prev: Contexts,  Up: gettext

12.2.6 Additional functions for plural forms
--------------------------------------------

   The functions of the ‘gettext’ family described so far (and all the
‘catgets’ functions as well) have one problem in the real world which
have been neglected completely in all existing approaches.  What is
meant here is the handling of plural forms.

   Looking through Unix source code before the time anybody thought
about internationalization (and, sadly, even afterwards) one can often
find code similar to the following:

        printf ("%d file%s deleted", n, n == 1 ? "" : "s");

After the first complaints from people internationalizing the code
people either completely avoided formulations like this or used strings
like ‘"file(s)"’.  Both look unnatural and should be avoided.  First
tries to solve the problem correctly looked like this:

        if (n == 1)
          printf ("%d file deleted", n);
        else
          printf ("%d files deleted", n);

   But this does not solve the problem.  It helps languages where the
plural form of a noun is not simply constructed by adding an 's' but
that is all.  Once again people fell into the trap of believing the
rules their language is using are universal.  But the handling of plural
forms differs widely between the language families.  For example, Rafal
Maszkowski ‘<rzm@mat.uni.torun.pl>’ reports:

     In Polish we use e.g. plik (file) this way:
          1 plik
          2,3,4 pliki
          5-21 pliko'w
          22-24 pliki
          25-31 pliko'w
     and so on (o' means 8859-2 oacute which should be rather okreska,
     similar to aogonek).

   There are two things which can differ between languages (and even
inside language families);

   • The form how plural forms are built differs.  This is a problem
     with languages which have many irregularities.  German, for
     instance, is a drastic case.  Though English and German are part of
     the same language family (Germanic), the almost regular forming of
     plural noun forms (appending an 's') is hardly found in German.

   • The number of plural forms differ.  This is somewhat surprising for
     those who only have experiences with Romanic and Germanic languages
     since here the number is the same (there are two).

     But other language families have only one form or many forms.  More
     information on this in an extra section.

   The consequence of this is that application writers should not try to
solve the problem in their code.  This would be localization since it is
only usable for certain, hardcoded language environments.  Instead the
extended ‘gettext’ interface should be used.

   These extra functions are taking instead of the one key string two
strings and a numerical argument.  The idea behind this is that using
the numerical argument and the first string as a key, the implementation
can select using rules specified by the translator the right plural
form.  The two string arguments then will be used to provide a return
value in case no message catalog is found (similar to the normal
‘gettext’ behavior).  In this case the rules for Germanic language is
used and it is assumed that the first string argument is the singular
form, the second the plural form.

   This has the consequence that programs without language catalogs can
display the correct strings only if the program itself is written using
a Germanic language.  This is a limitation but since the GNU C library
(as well as the GNU ‘gettext’ package) are written as part of the GNU
package and the coding standards for the GNU project require program
being written in English, this solution nevertheless fulfills its
purpose.

 -- Function: char * ngettext (const char *MSGID1, const char *MSGID2,
          unsigned long int N)
     The ‘ngettext’ function is similar to the ‘gettext’ function as it
     finds the message catalogs in the same way.  But it takes two extra
     arguments.  The MSGID1 parameter must contain the singular form of
     the string to be converted.  It is also used as the key for the
     search in the catalog.  The MSGID2 parameter is the plural form.
     The parameter N is used to determine the plural form.  If no
     message catalog is found MSGID1 is returned if ‘n == 1’, otherwise
     ‘msgid2’.

     An example for the use of this function is:

          printf (ngettext ("%d file removed", "%d files removed", n), n);

     Please note that the numeric value N has to be passed to the
     ‘printf’ function as well.  It is not sufficient to pass it only to
     ‘ngettext’.

     In the English singular case, the number - always 1 - can be
     replaced with "one":

          printf (ngettext ("One file removed", "%d files removed", n), n);

     This works because the ‘printf’ function discards excess arguments
     that are not consumed by the format string.

     If this function is meant to yield a format string that takes two
     or more arguments, you can not use it like this:

          printf (ngettext ("%d file removed from directory %s",
                            "%d files removed from directory %s",
                            n),
                  n, dir);

     because in many languages the translators want to replace the ‘%d’
     with an explicit word in the singular case, just like "one" in
     English, and C format strings cannot consume the second argument
     but skip the first argument.  Instead, you have to reorder the
     arguments so that ‘n’ comes last:

          printf (ngettext ("%2$d file removed from directory %1$s",
                            "%2$d files removed from directory %1$s",
                            n),
                  dir, n);

     See *note c-format:: for details about this argument reordering
     syntax.

     When you know that the value of ‘n’ is within a given range, you
     can specify it as a comment directed to the ‘xgettext’ tool.  This
     information may help translators to use more adequate translations.
     Like this:

          if (days > 7 && days < 14)
            /* xgettext: range: 1..6 */
            printf (ngettext ("one week and one day", "one week and %d days",
                              days - 7),
                    days - 7);

     There is one case where using ‘ngettext’ is *not* appropriate,
     however: namely, when neither of the two strings contains a
     cardinal number.  Consider the following example:

          puts (ngettext ("Delete the selected file?",
                          "Delete the selected files?",
                          n));
     The Russian language translator would need to provide separate
     translations for the following count forms:
        • 1, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91...
        • 2-4, 22-24, 32-34, 42-44...
        • 5-20, 25-30, 35-40...
     As you can see, the case ‘n == 1’ cannot be expressed with the
     Russian plural forms.  Instead, in this case, you need to use
     separate calls to ‘gettext’:
          puts (n == 1 ? gettext ("Delete the selected file?")
                       : gettext ("Delete the selected files?"));
     The translator will then use the right grammar constructs for
     singular and plural _without_ a number.

 -- Function: char * dngettext (const char *DOMAIN, const char *MSGID1,
          const char *MSGID2, unsigned long int N)
     The ‘dngettext’ is similar to the ‘dgettext’ function in the way
     the message catalog is selected.  The difference is that it takes
     two extra parameter to provide the correct plural form.  These two
     parameters are handled in the same way ‘ngettext’ handles them.

 -- Function: char * dcngettext (const char *DOMAIN, const char *MSGID1,
          const char *MSGID2, unsigned long int N, int CATEGORY)
     The ‘dcngettext’ is similar to the ‘dcgettext’ function in the way
     the message catalog is selected.  The difference is that it takes
     two extra parameter to provide the correct plural form.  These two
     parameters are handled in the same way ‘ngettext’ handles them.

   Now, how do these functions solve the problem of the plural forms?
Without the input of linguists (which was not available) it was not
possible to determine whether there are only a few different forms in
which plural forms are formed or whether the number can increase with
every new supported language.

   Therefore the solution implemented is to allow the translator to
specify the rules of how to select the plural form.  Since the formula
varies with every language this is the only viable solution except for
hardcoding the information in the code (which still would require the
possibility of extensions to not prevent the use of new languages).

   The information about the plural form selection has to be stored in
the header entry of the PO file (the one with the empty ‘msgid’ string).
The plural form information looks like this:

     Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;

   The ‘nplurals’ value must be a decimal number which specifies how
many different plural forms exist for this language.  The string
following ‘plural’ is an expression which is using the C language
syntax.  Exceptions are that no negative numbers are allowed, numbers
must be decimal, and the only variable allowed is ‘n’.  Spaces are
allowed in the expression, but backslash-newlines are not; in the
examples below the backslash-newlines are present for formatting
purposes only.  This expression will be evaluated whenever one of the
functions ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’, or ‘dcngettext’ is called.  The
numeric value passed to these functions is then substituted for all uses
of the variable ‘n’ in the expression.  The resulting value then must be
greater or equal to zero and smaller than the value given as the value
of ‘nplurals’.

The following rules are known at this point.  The language with families
are listed.  But this does not necessarily mean the information can be
generalized for the whole family (as can be easily seen in the table
below).(1)

Only one form:
     Some languages only require one single form.  There is no
     distinction between the singular and plural form.  An appropriate
     header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=1; plural=0;

     Languages with this property include:

     Asian family
          Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean
     Tai-Kadai family
          Thai

Two forms, singular used for one only
     This is the form used in most existing programs since it is what
     English is using.  A header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n != 1;

     (Note: this uses the feature of C expressions that boolean
     expressions have to value zero or one.)

     Languages with this property include:

     Germanic family
          English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese
     Romanic family
          Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
     Latin/Greek family
          Greek
     Slavic family
          Bulgarian
     Finno-Ugric family
          Finnish, Estonian
     Semitic family
          Hebrew
     Austronesian family
          Bahasa Indonesian
     Artificial
          Esperanto

     Other languages using the same header entry are:

     Finno-Ugric family
          Hungarian
     Turkic/Altaic family
          Turkish

     Hungarian does not appear to have a plural if you look at sentences
     involving cardinal numbers.  For example, "1 apple" is "1 alma",
     and "123 apples" is "123 alma".  But when the number is not
     explicit, the distinction between singular and plural exists: "the
     apple" is "az alma", and "the apples" is "az almák".  Since
     ‘ngettext’ has to support both types of sentences, it is classified
     here, under "two forms".

     The same holds for Turkish: "1 apple" is "1 elma", and "123 apples"
     is "123 elma".  But when the number is omitted, the distinction
     between singular and plural exists: "the apple" is "elma", and "the
     apples" is "elmalar".

Two forms, singular used for zero and one
     Exceptional case in the language family.  The header entry would
     be:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n>1;

     Languages with this property include:

     Romanic family
          Brazilian Portuguese, French

Three forms, special case for zero
     The header entry would be:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n != 0 ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Baltic family
          Latvian

Three forms, special cases for one and two
     The header entry would be:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n==1 ? 0 : n==2 ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Celtic
          Gaeilge (Irish)

Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 00 or [2-9][0-9]
     The header entry would be:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
              plural=n==1 ? 0 : (n==0 || (n%100 > 0 && n%100 < 20)) ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Romanic family
          Romanian

Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9]
     The header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
              plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
                     n%10>=2 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Baltic family
          Lithuanian

Three forms, special cases for numbers ending in 1 and 2, 3, 4, except those ending in 1[1-4]
     The header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
              plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
                     n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Slavic family
          Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbian, Croatian

Three forms, special cases for 1 and 2, 3, 4
     The header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
              plural=(n==1) ? 0 : (n>=2 && n<=4) ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Slavic family
          Czech, Slovak

Three forms, special case for one and some numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4
     The header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
              plural=n==1 ? 0 : \
                     n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;

     Languages with this property include:

     Slavic family
          Polish

Four forms, special case for one and all numbers ending in 02, 03, or 04
     The header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=4; \
              plural=n%100==1 ? 0 : n%100==2 ? 1 : n%100==3 || n%100==4 ? 2 : 3;

     Languages with this property include:

     Slavic family
          Slovenian

Six forms, special cases for one, two, all numbers ending in 02, 03, ... 10, all numbers ending in 11 ... 99, and others
     The header entry would look like this:

          Plural-Forms: nplurals=6; \
              plural=n==0 ? 0 : n==1 ? 1 : n==2 ? 2 : n%100>=3 && n%100<=10 ? 3 \
              : n%100>=11 ? 4 : 5;

     Languages with this property include:

     Afroasiatic family
          Arabic

   You might now ask, ‘ngettext’ handles only numbers N of type
‘unsigned long’.  What about larger integer types?  What about negative
numbers?  What about floating-point numbers?

   About larger integer types, such as ‘uintmax_t’ or ‘unsigned long
long’: they can be handled by reducing the value to a range that fits in
an ‘unsigned long’.  Simply casting the value to ‘unsigned long’ would
not do the right thing, since it would treat ‘ULONG_MAX + 1’ like zero,
‘ULONG_MAX + 2’ like singular, and the like.  Here you can exploit the
fact that all mentioned plural form formulas eventually become periodic,
with a period that is a divisor of 100 (or 1000 or 1000000).  So, when
you reduce a large value to another one in the range [1000000, 1999999]
that ends in the same 6 decimal digits, you can assume that it will lead
to the same plural form selection.  This code does this:

     #include <inttypes.h>
     uintmax_t nbytes = ...;
     printf (ngettext ("The file has %"PRIuMAX" byte.",
                       "The file has %"PRIuMAX" bytes.",
                       (nbytes > ULONG_MAX
                        ? (nbytes % 1000000) + 1000000
                        : nbytes)),
             nbytes);

   Negative and floating-point values usually represent physical
entities for which singular and plural don't clearly apply.  In such
cases, there is no need to use ‘ngettext’; a simple ‘gettext’ call with
a form suitable for all values will do.  For example:

     printf (gettext ("Time elapsed: %.3f seconds"),
             num_milliseconds * 0.001);

Even if NUM_MILLISECONDS happens to be a multiple of 1000, the output
     Time elapsed: 1.000 seconds
is acceptable in English, and similarly for other languages.

   The translators' perspective regarding plural forms is explained in
*note Translating plural forms::.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) Additions are welcome.  Send appropriate information to
<bug-gettext@gnu.org> and <bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org>.  The Unicode CLDR
Project (<http://cldr.unicode.org>) provides a comprehensive set of
plural forms in a different format.  The ‘msginit’ program has
preliminary support for the format so you can use it as a baseline
(*note msginit Invocation::).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Optimized gettext,  Prev: Plural forms,  Up: gettext

12.2.7 Optimization of the *gettext functions
---------------------------------------------

   At this point of the discussion we should talk about an advantage of
the GNU ‘gettext’ implementation.  Some readers might have pointed out
that an internationalized program might have a poor performance if some
string has to be translated in an inner loop.  While this is unavoidable
when the string varies from one run of the loop to the other it is
simply a waste of time when the string is always the same.  Take the
following example:

     {
       while (...)
         {
           puts (gettext ("Hello world"));
         }
     }

When the locale selection does not change between two runs the resulting
string is always the same.  One way to use this is:

     {
       str = gettext ("Hello world");
       while (...)
         {
           puts (str);
         }
     }

But this solution is not usable in all situation (e.g. when the locale
selection changes) nor does it lead to legible code.

   For this reason, GNU ‘gettext’ caches previous translation results.
When the same translation is requested twice, with no new message
catalogs being loaded in between, ‘gettext’ will, the second time, find
the result through a single cache lookup.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Comparison,  Next: Using libintl.a,  Prev: gettext,  Up: Programmers

12.3 Comparing the Two Interfaces
=================================

   The following discussion is perhaps a little bit colored.  As said
above we implemented GNU ‘gettext’ following the Uniforum proposal and
this surely has its reasons.  But it should show how we came to this
decision.

   First we take a look at the developing process.  When we write an
application using NLS provided by ‘gettext’ we proceed as always.  Only
when we come to a string which might be seen by the users and thus has
to be translated we use ‘gettext("...")’ instead of ‘"..."’.  At the
beginning of each source file (or in a central header file) we define

     #define gettext(String) (String)

   Even this definition can be avoided when the system supports the
‘gettext’ function in its C library.  When we compile this code the
result is the same as if no NLS code is used.  When you take a look at
the GNU ‘gettext’ code you will see that we use ‘_("...")’ instead of
‘gettext("...")’.  This reduces the number of additional characters per
translatable string to _3_ (in words: three).

   When now a production version of the program is needed we simply
replace the definition

     #define _(String) (String)

by

     #include <libintl.h>
     #define _(String) gettext (String)

Additionally we run the program ‘xgettext’ on all source code file which
contain translatable strings and that's it: we have a running program
which does not depend on translations to be available, but which can use
any that becomes available.

   The same procedure can be done for the ‘gettext_noop’ invocations
(*note Special cases::).  One usually defines ‘gettext_noop’ as a no-op
macro.  So you should consider the following code for your project:

     #define gettext_noop(String) String
     #define N_(String) gettext_noop (String)

   ‘N_’ is a short form similar to ‘_’.  The ‘Makefile’ in the ‘po/’
directory of GNU ‘gettext’ knows by default both of the mentioned short
forms so you are invited to follow this proposal for your own ease.

   Now to ‘catgets’.  The main problem is the work for the programmer.
Every time he comes to a translatable string he has to define a number
(or a symbolic constant) which has also be defined in the message
catalog file.  He also has to take care for duplicate entries, duplicate
message IDs etc.  If he wants to have the same quality in the message
catalog as the GNU ‘gettext’ program provides he also has to put the
descriptive comments for the strings and the location in all source code
files in the message catalog.  This is nearly a Mission: Impossible.

   But there are also some points people might call advantages speaking
for ‘catgets’.  If you have a single word in a string and this string is
used in different contexts it is likely that in one or the other
language the word has different translations.  Example:

     printf ("%s: %d", gettext ("number"), number_of_errors)

     printf ("you should see %d %s", number_count,
             number_count == 1 ? gettext ("number") : gettext ("numbers"))

   Here we have to translate two times the string ‘"number"’.  Even if
you do not speak a language beside English it might be possible to
recognize that the two words have a different meaning.  In German the
first appearance has to be translated to ‘"Anzahl"’ and the second to
‘"Zahl"’.

   Now you can say that this example is really esoteric.  And you are
right!  This is exactly how we felt about this problem and decide that
it does not weight that much.  The solution for the above problem could
be very easy:

     printf ("%s %d", gettext ("number:"), number_of_errors)

     printf (number_count == 1 ? gettext ("you should see %d number")
                               : gettext ("you should see %d numbers"),
             number_count)

   We believe that we can solve all conflicts with this method.  If it
is difficult one can also consider changing one of the conflicting
string a little bit.  But it is not impossible to overcome.

   ‘catgets’ allows same original entry to have different translations,
but ‘gettext’ has another, scalable approach for solving ambiguities of
this kind: *Note Ambiguities::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Using libintl.a,  Next: gettext grok,  Prev: Comparison,  Up: Programmers

12.4 Using libintl.a in own programs
====================================

   Starting with version 0.9.4 the library ‘libintl.h’ should be
self-contained.  I.e., you can use it in your own programs without
providing additional functions.  The ‘Makefile’ will put the header and
the library in directories selected using the ‘$(prefix)’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: gettext grok,  Next: Temp Programmers,  Prev: Using libintl.a,  Up: Programmers

12.5 Being a ‘gettext’ grok
===========================

   * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
revised.

   To fully exploit the functionality of the GNU ‘gettext’ library it is
surely helpful to read the source code.  But for those who don't want to
spend that much time in reading the (sometimes complicated) code here is
a list comments:

   • Changing the language at runtime

     For interactive programs it might be useful to offer a selection of
     the used language at runtime.  To understand how to do this one
     need to know how the used language is determined while executing
     the ‘gettext’ function.  The method which is presented here only
     works correctly with the GNU implementation of the ‘gettext’
     functions.

     In the function ‘dcgettext’ at every call the current setting of
     the highest priority environment variable is determined and used.
     Highest priority means here the following list with decreasing
     priority:

       1. ‘LANGUAGE’
       2. ‘LC_ALL’
       3. ‘LC_xxx’, according to selected locale category
       4. ‘LANG’

     Afterwards the path is constructed using the found value and the
     translation file is loaded if available.

     What happens now when the value for, say, ‘LANGUAGE’ changes?
     According to the process explained above the new value of this
     variable is found as soon as the ‘dcgettext’ function is called.
     But this also means the (perhaps) different message catalog file is
     loaded.  In other words: the used language is changed.

     But there is one little hook.  The code for gcc-2.7.0 and up
     provides some optimization.  This optimization normally prevents
     the calling of the ‘dcgettext’ function as long as no new catalog
     is loaded.  But if ‘dcgettext’ is not called the program also
     cannot find the ‘LANGUAGE’ variable be changed (*note Optimized
     gettext::).  A solution for this is very easy.  Include the
     following code in the language switching function.

            /* Change language.  */
            setenv ("LANGUAGE", "fr", 1);

            /* Make change known.  */
            {
              extern int  _nl_msg_cat_cntr;
              ++_nl_msg_cat_cntr;
            }

     The variable ‘_nl_msg_cat_cntr’ is defined in ‘loadmsgcat.c’.  You
     don't need to know what this is for.  But it can be used to detect
     whether a ‘gettext’ implementation is GNU gettext and not non-GNU
     system's native gettext implementation.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Temp Programmers,  Prev: gettext grok,  Up: Programmers

12.6 Temporary Notes for the Programmers Chapter
================================================

   * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
revised.

* Menu:

* Temp Implementations::        Temporary - Two Possible Implementations
* Temp catgets::                Temporary - About ‘catgets’
* Temp WSI::                    Temporary - Why a single implementation
* Temp Notes::                  Temporary - Notes


File: gettext.info,  Node: Temp Implementations,  Next: Temp catgets,  Up: Temp Programmers

12.6.1 Temporary - Two Possible Implementations
-----------------------------------------------

   There are two competing methods for language independent messages:
the X/Open ‘catgets’ method, and the Uniforum ‘gettext’ method.  The
‘catgets’ method indexes messages by integers; the ‘gettext’ method
indexes them by their English translations.  The ‘catgets’ method has
been around longer and is supported by more vendors.  The ‘gettext’
method is supported by Sun, and it has been heard that the COSE
multi-vendor initiative is supporting it.  Neither method is a POSIX
standard; the POSIX.1 committee had a lot of disagreement in this area.

   Neither one is in the POSIX standard.  There was much disagreement in
the POSIX.1 committee about using the ‘gettext’ routines vs.  ‘catgets’
(XPG). In the end the committee couldn't agree on anything, so no
messaging system was included as part of the standard.  I believe the
informative annex of the standard includes the XPG3 messaging
interfaces, "...as an example of a messaging system that has been
implemented..."

   They were very careful not to say anywhere that you should use one
set of interfaces over the other.  For more on this topic please see the
Programming for Internationalization FAQ.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Temp catgets,  Next: Temp WSI,  Prev: Temp Implementations,  Up: Temp Programmers

12.6.2 Temporary - About ‘catgets’
----------------------------------

   There have been a few discussions of late on the use of ‘catgets’ as
a base.  I think it important to present both sides of the argument and
hence am opting to play devil's advocate for a little bit.

   I'll not deny the fact that ‘catgets’ could have been designed a lot
better.  It currently has quite a number of limitations and these have
already been pointed out.

   However there is a great deal to be said for consistency and
standardization.  A common recurring problem when writing Unix software
is the myriad portability problems across Unix platforms.  It seems as
if every Unix vendor had a look at the operating system and found parts
they could improve upon.  Undoubtedly, these modifications are probably
innovative and solve real problems.  However, software developers have a
hard time keeping up with all these changes across so many platforms.

   And this has prompted the Unix vendors to begin to standardize their
systems.  Hence the impetus for Spec1170.  Every major Unix vendor has
committed to supporting this standard and every Unix software developer
waits with glee the day they can write software to this standard and
simply recompile (without having to use autoconf) across different
platforms.

   As I understand it, Spec1170 is roughly based upon version 4 of the
X/Open Portability Guidelines (XPG4).  Because ‘catgets’ and friends are
defined in XPG4, I'm led to believe that ‘catgets’ is a part of Spec1170
and hence will become a standardized component of all Unix systems.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Temp WSI,  Next: Temp Notes,  Prev: Temp catgets,  Up: Temp Programmers

12.6.3 Temporary - Why a single implementation
----------------------------------------------

   Now it seems kind of wasteful to me to have two different systems
installed for accessing message catalogs.  If we do want to remedy
‘catgets’ deficiencies why don't we try to expand ‘catgets’ (in a
compatible manner) rather than implement an entirely new system.
Otherwise, we'll end up with two message catalog access systems
installed with an operating system - one set of routines for packages
using GNU ‘gettext’ for their internationalization, and another set of
routines (catgets) for all other software.  Bloated?

   Supposing another catalog access system is implemented.  Which do we
recommend?  At least for Linux, we need to attract as many software
developers as possible.  Hence we need to make it as easy for them to
port their software as possible.  Which means supporting ‘catgets’.  We
will be implementing the ‘libintl’ code within our ‘libc’, but does this
mean we also have to incorporate another message catalog access scheme
within our ‘libc’ as well?  And what about people who are going to be
using the ‘libintl’ + non-‘catgets’ routines.  When they port their
software to other platforms, they're now going to have to include the
front-end (‘libintl’) code plus the back-end code (the non-‘catgets’
access routines) with their software instead of just including the
‘libintl’ code with their software.

   Message catalog support is however only the tip of the iceberg.  What
about the data for the other locale categories?  They also have a number
of deficiencies.  Are we going to abandon them as well and develop
another duplicate set of routines (should ‘libintl’ expand beyond
message catalog support)?

   Like many parts of Unix that can be improved upon, we're stuck with
balancing compatibility with the past with useful improvements and
innovations for the future.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Temp Notes,  Prev: Temp WSI,  Up: Temp Programmers

12.6.4 Temporary - Notes
------------------------

   X/Open agreed very late on the standard form so that many
implementations differ from the final form.  Both of my system (old
Linux catgets and Ultrix-4) have a strange variation.

   OK. After incorporating the last changes I have to spend some time on
making the GNU/Linux ‘libc’ ‘gettext’ functions.  So in future Solaris
is not the only system having ‘gettext’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translators,  Next: Maintainers,  Prev: Programmers,  Up: Top

13 The Translator's View
************************

* Menu:

* Organization::                Organization
* Responsibilities::            Responsibilities in the Translation Project
* Dialects::                    Language dialects
* Translating plural forms::    How to fill in ‘msgstr[0]’, ‘msgstr[1]’
* Prioritizing messages::       How to find which messages to translate first


File: gettext.info,  Node: Organization,  Next: Responsibilities,  Up: Translators

13.1 Organization
=================

   For some software packages, each translator works on her own and
communicates directly with the developers of the package.  For some
other software packages, on the other hand, translators are organized
into _translation projects_ and _translation teams_.

   A _translation project_ applies to a group of software packages and
shares procedures and methodologies regarding the translation.

   There are currently three major translation projects:

   • The "Translation Project", which is used by all kinds of Free
     Software packages, but in particular by GNU packages.  It has its
     home at <https://translationproject.org/>.

   • The "KDE Localization Project", which is used by KDE packages.  It
     is at <https://l10n.kde.org/>.

   • The "GNOME Localization Project", which is used by GNOME packages.
     It is at <https://l10n.gnome.org/>.

   A _translation team_ is a group of translators for a single language,
in the scope of a translation project.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Responsibilities,  Next: Dialects,  Prev: Organization,  Up: Translators

13.2 Responsibilities in the Translation Project
================================================

   The following rules and habits apply to the Translation Project.

   The translator's responsibilities are:
   • She submits a translations disclaimer to the Free Software
     Foundation (once only, and only when she wants to translate a
     package that requires a disclaimer).

     A disclaimer is a legal document that allows the software package
     to distribute her translation work.  It is not as strong as a
     copyright assignment.  Merely, it says that the signer will never
     make use of the copyright on her translations: will never forbid
     copying them, and will never ask for some kind of compensation.
     This guarantees that the FSF (and everyone else) will always be
     allowed to freely distribute these translations.  The FSF wishes to
     have this guarantee in a legally binding manner, to be on the safe
     side.

     There are two ways to submit the disclaimer: Either online through
     this form on the FSF's web site, or by printing, signing, and
     submitting the file ‘disclaim-translations.txt’ found in the GNU
     gettext distribution.

   • Agree with the other translators of the same team who is "in
     charge" for the translations of a particular package.

   The Translation Project has a coordinator.  He can be reached at
‘coordinator@translationproject.org’.  His responsibilities are:
   • He maintains the web site <https://translationproject.org/>.
   • When he receives a release or prerelease announcement from one of
     the software package maintainers, he extracts the POT file(s) and
     sends notifications to all translation teams about it.

   The responsibilities of the package maintainers are:
   • To incorporate the translations in the software package before a
     release.
   • To forward bug reports about the translations to the respective
     translation team.  A developer or maintainer should never apply a
     translation fix himself, because that would cause conflicts with
     the translation team.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Dialects,  Next: Translating plural forms,  Prev: Responsibilities,  Up: Translators

13.3 Language dialects
======================

   For many languages, a translation into the main dialect is
intelligible by all speakers of the language.  Speakers of another
dialect can have a separate translation if they wish so.  In fact, since
the fallback mechanism implemented in GNU libc and GNU libintl applies
on a per-message basis, the message catalog for the dialect needs only
to contain the translations that differ from those in the main language.

   For example, French speakers in Canada (that is, users in the locale
‘fr_CA’) can use and do accept translations produced by French speakers
in France (typical file name: ‘fr.po’).  Nevertheless, the translation
system with PO files enables them to produce special message catalogs
(file name: ‘fr_CA.po’) that will take priority over ‘fr.po’ for users
in that locale.  Similarly for users in Austria, where message catalogs
‘de_AT.po’ take priority over the catalogs named ‘de.po’ that reflect
German as spoken in Germany.

   The situation is different for Chinese, though: Since users in the
People's Republic of China and in Singapore want translations with
Simplified Chinese characters, whereas Chinese users in other
territories (such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao) want translations
with Traditional Chinese characters, no translator should ever submit a
file named ‘zh.po’.  Instead, there will typically be two separate
translation teams: a team that produces translations with Simplified
Chinese characters (file name ‘zh_CN.po’) and a team that produces
translations with Traditional Chinese characters (file name ‘zh_TW.po’).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translating plural forms,  Next: Prioritizing messages,  Prev: Dialects,  Up: Translators

13.4 Translating plural forms
=============================

   Suppose you are translating a PO file, and it contains an entry like
this:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] ""
     msgstr[1] ""

What does this mean?  How do you fill it in?

   Such an entry denotes a message with plural forms, that is, a message
where the text depends on a cardinal number.  The general form of the
message, in English, is the ‘msgid_plural’ line.  The ‘msgid’ line is
the English singular form, that is, the form for when the number is
equal to 1.  More details about plural forms are explained in *note
Plural forms::.

   The first thing you need to look at is the ‘Plural-Forms’ line in the
header entry of the PO file.  It contains the number of plural forms and
a formula.  If the PO file does not yet have such a line, you have to
add it.  It only depends on the language into which you are translating.
You can get this info by using the ‘msginit’ command (see *note
Creating::) - it contains a database of known plural formulas - or by
asking other members of your translation team.

   Suppose the line looks as follows:

     "Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n%10>=2 && n"
     "%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;\n"

   It's logically one line; recall that the PO file formatting is
allowed to break long lines so that each physical line fits in 80
monospaced columns.

   The value of ‘nplurals’ here tells you that there are three plural
forms.  The first thing you need to do is to ensure that the entry
contains an ‘msgstr’ line for each of the forms:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] ""
     msgstr[1] ""
     msgstr[2] ""

   Then translate the ‘msgid_plural’ line and fill it in into each
‘msgstr’ line:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] "%d slika uklonjenih"
     msgstr[1] "%d slika uklonjenih"
     msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"

   Now you can refine the translation so that it matches the plural
form.  According to the formula above, ‘msgstr[0]’ is used when the
number ends in 1 but does not end in 11; ‘msgstr[1]’ is used when the
number ends in 2, 3, 4, but not in 12, 13, 14; and ‘msgstr[2]’ is used
in all other cases.  With this knowledge, you can refine the
translations:

     #, c-format
     msgid "One file removed"
     msgid_plural "%d files removed"
     msgstr[0] "%d slika je uklonjena"
     msgstr[1] "%d datoteke uklonjenih"
     msgstr[2] "%d slika uklonjenih"

   You noticed that in the English singular form (‘msgid’) the number
placeholder could be omitted and replaced by the numeral word "one".
Can you do this in your translation as well?

     msgstr[0] "jednom datotekom je uklonjen"

Well, it depends on whether ‘msgstr[0]’ applies only to the number 1, or
to other numbers as well.  If, according to the plural formula,
‘msgstr[0]’ applies only to ‘n == 1’, then you can use the specialized
translation without the number placeholder.  In our case, however,
‘msgstr[0]’ also applies to the numbers 21, 31, 41, etc., and therefore
you cannot omit the placeholder.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Prioritizing messages,  Prev: Translating plural forms,  Up: Translators

13.5 Prioritizing messages: How to determine which messages to translate first
==============================================================================

   A translator sometimes has only a limited amount of time per week to
spend on a package, and some packages have quite large message catalogs
(over 1000 messages).  Therefore she wishes to translate the messages
first that are the most visible to the user, or that occur most
frequently.  This section describes how to determine these "most urgent"
messages.  It also applies to determine the "next most urgent" messages
after the message catalog has already been partially translated.

   In a first step, she uses the programs like a user would do.  While
she does this, the GNU ‘gettext’ library logs into a file the not yet
translated messages for which a translation was requested from the
program.

   In a second step, she uses the PO mode to translate precisely this
set of messages.

   Here are more details.  The GNU ‘libintl’ library (but not the
corresponding functions in GNU ‘libc’) supports an environment variable
‘GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED’.  The GNU ‘libintl’ library will log into
this file the messages for which ‘gettext()’ and related functions
couldn't find the translation.  If the file doesn't exist, it will be
created as needed.  On systems with GNU ‘libc’ a shared library
‘preloadable_libintl.so’ is provided that can be used with the ELF
‘LD_PRELOAD’ mechanism.

   So, in the first step, the translator uses these commands on systems
with GNU ‘libc’:

     $ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/preloadable_libintl.so
     $ export LD_PRELOAD
     $ GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED=$HOME/gettextlogused
     $ export GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED

and these commands on other systems:

     $ GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED=$HOME/gettextlogused
     $ export GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED

   Then she uses and peruses the programs.  (It is a good and
recommended practice to use the programs for which you provide
translations: it gives you the needed context.)  When done, she removes
the environment variables:

     $ unset LD_PRELOAD
     $ unset GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED

   The second step starts with removing duplicates:

     $ msguniq $HOME/gettextlogused > missing.po

   The result is a PO file, but needs some preprocessing before a PO
file editor can be used with it.  First, it is a multi-domain PO file,
containing messages from many translation domains.  Second, it lacks all
translator comments and source references.  Here is how to get a list of
the affected translation domains:

     $ sed -n -e 's,^domain "\(.*\)"$,\1,p' < missing.po | sort | uniq

   Then the translator can handle the domains one by one.  For
simplicity, let's use environment variables to denote the language,
domain and source package.

     $ lang=nl             # your language
     $ domain=coreutils    # the name of the domain to be handled
     $ package=/usr/src/gnu/coreutils-4.5.4   # the package where it comes from

   She takes the latest copy of ‘$lang.po’ from the Translation Project,
or from the package (in most cases, ‘$package/po/$lang.po’), or creates
a fresh one if she's the first translator (see *note Creating::).  She
then uses the following commands to mark the not urgent messages as
"obsolete".  (This doesn't mean that these messages - translated and
untranslated ones - will go away.  It simply means that the PO file
editor will ignore them in the following editing session.)

     $ msggrep --domain=$domain missing.po | grep -v '^domain' \
       > $domain-missing.po
     $ msgattrib --set-obsolete --ignore-file $domain-missing.po $domain.$lang.po \
       > $domain.$lang-urgent.po

   Then she translates ‘$domain.$lang-urgent.po’ by use of a PO file
editor (*note Editing::).  (FIXME: I don't know whether ‘Lokalize’ and
‘gtranslator’ also preserve obsolete messages, as they should.)  Finally
she restores the not urgent messages (with their earlier translations,
for those which were already translated) through this command:

     $ msgmerge --no-fuzzy-matching $domain.$lang-urgent.po $package/po/$domain.pot \
       > $domain.$lang.po

   Then she can submit ‘$domain.$lang.po’ and proceed to the next
domain.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Maintainers,  Next: Installers,  Prev: Translators,  Up: Top

14 The Maintainer's View
************************

   The maintainer of a package has many responsibilities.  One of them
is ensuring that the package will install easily on many platforms, and
that the magic we described earlier (*note Users::) will work for
installers and end users.

   Of course, there are many possible ways by which GNU ‘gettext’ might
be integrated in a distribution, and this chapter does not cover them in
all generality.  Instead, it details one possible approach which is
especially adequate for many free software distributions following GNU
standards, or even better, Gnits standards, because GNU ‘gettext’ is
purposely for helping the internationalization of the whole GNU project,
and as many other good free packages as possible.  So, the maintainer's
view presented here presumes that the package already has a
‘configure.ac’ file and uses GNU Autoconf.

   Nevertheless, GNU ‘gettext’ may surely be useful for free packages
not following GNU standards and conventions, but the maintainers of such
packages might have to show imagination and initiative in organizing
their distributions so ‘gettext’ work for them in all situations.  There
are surely many, out there.

   Even if ‘gettext’ methods are now stabilizing, slight adjustments
might be needed between successive ‘gettext’ versions, so you should
ideally revise this chapter in subsequent releases, looking for changes.

* Menu:

* Flat and Non-Flat::           Flat or Non-Flat Directory Structures
* Prerequisites::               Prerequisite Works
* gettextize Invocation::       Invoking the ‘gettextize’ Program
* Adjusting Files::             Files You Must Create or Alter
* autoconf macros::             Autoconf macros for use in ‘configure.ac’
* Interfacing with the Translators::
* Version Control Issues::
* Release Management::          Creating a Distribution Tarball


File: gettext.info,  Node: Flat and Non-Flat,  Next: Prerequisites,  Up: Maintainers

14.1 Flat or Non-Flat Directory Structures
==========================================

   Some free software packages are distributed as ‘tar’ files which
unpack in a single directory, these are said to be “flat” distributions.
Other free software packages have a one level hierarchy of
subdirectories, using for example a subdirectory named ‘doc/’ for the
Texinfo manual and man pages, another called ‘lib/’ for holding
functions meant to replace or complement C libraries, and a subdirectory
‘src/’ for holding the proper sources for the package.  These other
distributions are said to be “non-flat”.

   We cannot say much about flat distributions.  A flat directory
structure has the disadvantage of increasing the difficulty of updating
to a new version of GNU ‘gettext’.  Also, if you have many PO files,
this could somewhat pollute your single directory.  Also, GNU
‘gettext’'s libintl sources consist of C sources, shell scripts, ‘sed’
scripts and complicated Makefile rules, which don't fit well into an
existing flat structure.  For these reasons, we recommend to use
non-flat approach in this case as well.

   Maybe because GNU ‘gettext’ itself has a non-flat structure, we have
more experience with this approach, and this is what will be described
in the remaining of this chapter.  Some maintainers might use this as an
opportunity to unflatten their package structure.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Prerequisites,  Next: gettextize Invocation,  Prev: Flat and Non-Flat,  Up: Maintainers

14.2 Prerequisite Works
=======================

   There are some works which are required for using GNU ‘gettext’ in
one of your package.  These works have some kind of generality that
escape the point by point descriptions used in the remainder of this
chapter.  So, we describe them here.

   • Before attempting to use ‘gettextize’ you should install some other
     packages first.  Ensure that recent versions of GNU ‘m4’, GNU
     Autoconf and GNU ‘gettext’ are already installed at your site, and
     if not, proceed to do this first.  If you get to install these
     things, beware that GNU ‘m4’ must be fully installed before GNU
     Autoconf is even _configured_.

     To further ease the task of a package maintainer the ‘automake’
     package was designed and implemented.  GNU ‘gettext’ now uses this
     tool and the ‘Makefile’ in the ‘po/’ directory therefore knows
     about all the goals necessary for using ‘automake’.

     Those four packages are only needed by you, as a maintainer; the
     installers of your own package and end users do not really need any
     of GNU ‘m4’, GNU Autoconf, GNU ‘gettext’, or GNU ‘automake’ for
     successfully installing and running your package, with messages
     properly translated.  But this is not completely true if you
     provide internationalized shell scripts within your own package:
     GNU ‘gettext’ shall then be installed at the user site if the end
     users want to see the translation of shell script messages.

   • Your package should use Autoconf and have a ‘configure.ac’ or
     ‘configure.in’ file.  If it does not, you have to learn how.  The
     Autoconf documentation is quite well written, it is a good idea
     that you print it and get familiar with it.

   • Your C sources should have already been modified according to
     instructions given earlier in this manual.  *Note Sources::.

   • Your ‘po/’ directory should receive all PO files submitted to you
     by the translator teams, each having ‘LL.po’ as a name.  This is
     not usually easy to get translation work done before your package
     gets internationalized and available!  Since the cycle has to start
     somewhere, the easiest for the maintainer is to start with
     absolutely no PO files, and wait until various translator teams get
     interested in your package, and submit PO files.

   It is worth adding here a few words about how the maintainer should
ideally behave with PO files submissions.  As a maintainer, your role is
to authenticate the origin of the submission as being the representative
of the appropriate translating teams of the Translation Project (forward
the submission to ‘coordinator@translationproject.org’ in case of
doubt), to ensure that the PO file format is not severely broken and
does not prevent successful installation, and for the rest, to merely
put these PO files in ‘po/’ for distribution.

   As a maintainer, you do not have to take on your shoulders the
responsibility of checking if the translations are adequate or complete,
and should avoid diving into linguistic matters.  Translation teams
drive themselves and are fully responsible of their linguistic choices
for the Translation Project.  Keep in mind that translator teams are
_not_ driven by maintainers.  You can help by carefully redirecting all
communications and reports from users about linguistic matters to the
appropriate translation team, or explain users how to reach or join
their team.

   Maintainers should _never ever_ apply PO file bug reports themselves,
short-cutting translation teams.  If some translator has difficulty to
get some of her points through her team, it should not be an option for
her to directly negotiate translations with maintainers.  Teams ought to
settle their problems themselves, if any.  If you, as a maintainer, ever
think there is a real problem with a team, please never try to _solve_ a
team's problem on your own.


File: gettext.info,  Node: gettextize Invocation,  Next: Adjusting Files,  Prev: Prerequisites,  Up: Maintainers

14.3 Invoking the ‘gettextize’ Program
======================================

   The ‘gettextize’ program is an interactive tool that helps the
maintainer of a package internationalized through GNU ‘gettext’.  It is
used for two purposes:

   • As a wizard, when a package is modified to use GNU ‘gettext’ for
     the first time.

   • As a migration tool, for upgrading the GNU ‘gettext’ support in a
     package from a previous to a newer version of GNU ‘gettext’.

   This program performs the following tasks:

   • It copies into the package some files that are consistently and
     identically needed in every package internationalized through GNU
     ‘gettext’.

   • It performs as many of the tasks mentioned in the next section
     *note Adjusting Files:: as can be performed automatically.

   • It removes obsolete files and idioms used for previous GNU
     ‘gettext’ versions to the form recommended for the current GNU
     ‘gettext’ version.

   • It prints a summary of the tasks that ought to be done manually and
     could not be done automatically by ‘gettextize’.

   It can be invoked as follows:

     gettextize [ OPTION... ] [ DIRECTORY ]

and accepts the following options:

‘-f’
‘--force’
     Force replacement of files which already exist.

‘--po-dir=DIR’
     Specify a directory containing PO files.  Such a directory contains
     the translations into various languages of a particular POT file.
     This option can be specified multiple times, once for each
     translation domain.  If it is not specified, the directory named
     ‘po/’ is updated.

‘--no-changelog’
     Don't update or create ChangeLog files.  By default, ‘gettextize’
     logs all changes (file additions, modifications and removals) in a
     file called ‘ChangeLog’ in each affected directory.

‘--symlink’
     Make symbolic links instead of copying the needed files.  This can
     be useful to save a few kilobytes of disk space, but it requires
     extra effort to create self-contained tarballs, it may disturb some
     mechanism the maintainer applies to the sources, and it is likely
     to introduce bugs when a newer version of ‘gettext’ is installed on
     the system.

‘-n’
‘--dry-run’
     Print modifications but don't perform them.  All actions that
     ‘gettextize’ would normally execute are inhibited and instead only
     listed on standard output.

‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   If DIRECTORY is given, this is the top level directory of a package
to prepare for using GNU ‘gettext’.  If not given, it is assumed that
the current directory is the top level directory of such a package.

   The program ‘gettextize’ provides the following files.  However, no
existing file will be replaced unless the option ‘--force’ (‘-f’) is
specified.

  1. The ‘ABOUT-NLS’ file is copied in the main directory of your
     package, the one being at the top level.  This file contains a
     reference to the GNU gettext documentation.  It also avoids an
     error from Automake in packages that use the Automake option
     ‘gnits’: "error: required file './ABOUT-NLS' not found".

  2. A ‘po/’ directory is created for eventually holding all translation
     files, but initially only containing the file ‘po/Makefile.in.in’
     from the GNU ‘gettext’ distribution (beware the double ‘.in’ in the
     file name) and a few auxiliary files.  If the ‘po/’ directory
     already exists, it will be preserved along with the files it
     contains, and only ‘Makefile.in.in’ and the auxiliary files will be
     overwritten.

     If ‘--po-dir’ has been specified, this holds for every directory
     specified through ‘--po-dir’, instead of ‘po/’.

  3. The file ‘config.rpath’ is copied into the directory containing
     configuration support files.  It is needed by the ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’
     autoconf macro.

  4. Only if the project is using GNU ‘automake’: A set of ‘autoconf’
     macro files is copied into the package's ‘autoconf’ macro
     repository, usually in a directory called ‘m4/’.

   If your site support symbolic links, ‘gettextize’ will not actually
copy the files into your package, but establish symbolic links instead.
This avoids duplicating the disk space needed in all packages.  Merely
using the ‘-h’ option while creating the ‘tar’ archive of your
distribution will resolve each link by an actual copy in the
distribution archive.  So, to insist, you really should use ‘-h’ option
with ‘tar’ within your ‘dist’ goal of your main ‘Makefile.in’.

   Furthermore, ‘gettextize’ will update all ‘Makefile.am’ files in each
affected directory, as well as the top level ‘configure.ac’ or
‘configure.in’ file.

   It is interesting to understand that most new files for supporting
GNU ‘gettext’ facilities in one package go in ‘po/’ and ‘m4/’
subdirectories.  Still, these directories will mostly contain package
dependent files.

   The ‘gettextize’ program makes backup files for all files it replaces
or changes, and also write ChangeLog entries about these changes.  This
way, the careful maintainer can check after running ‘gettextize’ whether
its changes are acceptable to him, and possibly adjust them.  An
exception to this rule is the ‘intl/’ directory, which is removed as a
whole if it still existed.

   It is important to understand that ‘gettextize’ can not do the entire
job of adapting a package for using GNU ‘gettext’.  The amount of
remaining work depends on whether the package uses GNU ‘automake’ or
not.  But in any case, the maintainer should still read the section
*note Adjusting Files:: after invoking ‘gettextize’.

   In particular, if after using ‘gettexize’, you get an error
‘AC_COMPILE_IFELSE was called before AC_GNU_SOURCE’ or ‘AC_RUN_IFELSE
was called before AC_GNU_SOURCE’, you can fix it by modifying
‘configure.ac’, as described in *note configure.ac::.

   It is also important to understand that ‘gettextize’ is not part of
the GNU build system, in the sense that it should not be invoked
automatically, and not be invoked by someone who doesn't assume the
responsibilities of a package maintainer.  For the latter purpose, a
separate tool is provided, see *note autopoint Invocation::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Adjusting Files,  Next: autoconf macros,  Prev: gettextize Invocation,  Up: Maintainers

14.4 Files You Must Create or Alter
===================================

   Besides files which are automatically added through ‘gettextize’,
there are many files needing revision for properly interacting with GNU
‘gettext’.  If you are closely following GNU standards for Makefile
engineering and auto-configuration, the adaptations should be easier to
achieve.  Here is a point by point description of the changes needed in
each.

   So, here comes a list of files, each one followed by a description of
all alterations it needs.  Many examples are taken out from the GNU
‘gettext’ 1.0 distribution itself, or from the GNU ‘hello’ distribution
(<https://www.gnu.org/software/hello>).  You may indeed refer to the
source code of the GNU ‘gettext’ and GNU ‘hello’ packages, as they are
intended to be good examples for using GNU gettext functionality.

* Menu:

* po/POTFILES.in::              ‘POTFILES.in’ in ‘po/’
* po/fetch-po::                 ‘fetch-po’ in ‘po/’
* po/LINGUAS::                  ‘LINGUAS’ in ‘po/’
* po/Makevars::                 ‘Makevars’ in ‘po/’
* po/Rules-*::                  Extending ‘Makefile’ in ‘po/’
* configure.ac::                ‘configure.ac’ at top level
* config.guess::                ‘config.guess’, ‘config.sub’ at top level
* mkinstalldirs::               ‘mkinstalldirs’ at top level
* aclocal::                     ‘aclocal.m4’ at top level
* config.h.in::                 ‘config.h.in’ at top level
* Makefile::                    ‘Makefile.in’ at top level
* src/Makefile::                ‘Makefile.in’ in ‘src/’
* lib/gettext.h::               ‘gettext.h’ in ‘lib/’


File: gettext.info,  Node: po/POTFILES.in,  Next: po/fetch-po,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.1 ‘POTFILES.in’ in ‘po/’
-----------------------------

   The ‘po/’ directory should receive a file named ‘POTFILES.in’.  This
file tells which files, among all program sources, have marked strings
needing translation.  Here is an example of such a file:

     # List of source files containing translatable strings.
     # Copyright (C) 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

     # Common library files
     lib/error.c
     lib/getopt.c
     lib/xmalloc.c

     # Package source files
     src/gettext.c
     src/msgfmt.c
     src/xgettext.c

Hash-marked comments and white lines are ignored.  All other lines list
those source files containing strings marked for translation (*note Mark
Keywords::), in a notation relative to the top level of your whole
distribution, rather than the location of the ‘POTFILES.in’ file itself.

   When a C file is automatically generated by a tool, like ‘flex’ or
‘bison’, that doesn't introduce translatable strings by itself, it is
recommended to list in ‘po/POTFILES.in’ the real source file (ending in
‘.l’ in the case of ‘flex’, or in ‘.y’ in the case of ‘bison’), not the
generated C file.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po/fetch-po,  Next: po/LINGUAS,  Prev: po/POTFILES.in,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.2 ‘fetch-po’ in ‘po/’
--------------------------

   The ‘po/’ directory should also contain an executable shell script
named ‘fetch-po’.  It is supposed to fetch the PO files, produced by
translators, from a translations project's site on the internet, store
them in the current directory, and generate a ‘LINGUAS’ file
accordingly.  (More on that below.)

   This script does not take any arguments.

   An initial ‘fetch-po’ file can be installed by ‘gettextize’.  But you
may need to customize it.

   There are two ways of implementing the ‘fetch-po’ script:
   • In packages whose translators commit their PO files directly into
     the version control of the package, or where a translations
     project's daemon does this automatically on behalf of the
     translators, this script does not do anything.
   • In packages where the translations are collected by a translation
     project, it uses a ‘po-fetch’ invocation.  See *note Translations
     under Version Control?:: for this script's relation to version
     control, and see *note po-fetch Invocation:: for the possible
     arguments.

   This script implements the ‘Makefile’'s target ‘fetch-po’.

   This script is not contained in distribution tarballs by default,
because it is part of the maintainer's release management infrastructure
and because it may, in rare cases, contain secrets (such as API keys).


File: gettext.info,  Node: po/LINGUAS,  Next: po/Makevars,  Prev: po/fetch-po,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.3 ‘LINGUAS’ in ‘po/’
-------------------------

   The ‘po/’ directory should also receive a file named ‘LINGUAS’.  This
file contains the list of available translations.  It is a whitespace
separated list.  Hash-marked comments and white lines are ignored.  Here
is an example file:

     # Set of available languages.
     de fr

This example means that German and French PO files are available, so
that these languages are currently supported by your package.  If you
want to further restrict, at installation time, the set of installed
languages, this should not be done by modifying the ‘LINGUAS’ file, but
rather by using the ‘LINGUAS’ environment variable (*note Installers::).

   In packages where the translations are collected by a translation
project, this file is generated by the ‘fetch-po’ script.

   It is recommended that you add the "languages" ‘en@quot’ and
‘en@boldquot’ to the ‘LINGUAS’ file.  ‘en@quot’ is a variant of English
message catalogs (‘en’) which uses real quotation marks instead of the
ugly looking asymmetric ASCII substitutes ‘`’ and ‘'’.  ‘en@boldquot’ is
a variant of ‘en@quot’ that additionally outputs quoted pieces of text
in a bold font, when used in a terminal emulator which supports the
VT100 escape sequences (such as ‘xterm’ or the Linux console, but not
Emacs in ‘M-x shell’ mode).

   These extra message catalogs ‘en@quot’ and ‘en@boldquot’ are
constructed automatically, not by translators; to support them, you need
the files ‘Rules-quot’, ‘quot.sed’, ‘boldquot.sed’, ‘en@quot.header’,
‘en@boldquot.header’, ‘insert-header.sed’ in the ‘po/’ directory.  You
can copy them from GNU gettext's ‘po/’ directory; they are also
installed by running ‘gettextize’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po/Makevars,  Next: po/Rules-*,  Prev: po/LINGUAS,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.4 ‘Makevars’ in ‘po/’
--------------------------

   The ‘po/’ directory also has a file named ‘Makevars’.  It contains
variables that are specific to your project.  ‘po/Makevars’ gets
inserted into the ‘po/Makefile’ when the latter is created.  The
variables thus take effect when the POT file is created or updated, and
when the message catalogs get installed.

   The first three variables can be left unmodified if your package has
a single message domain and, accordingly, a single ‘po/’ directory.
Only packages which have multiple ‘po/’ directories at different
locations need to adjust the three first variables defined in
‘Makevars’.

   As an alternative to the ‘XGETTEXT_OPTIONS’ variable, it is also
possible to specify ‘xgettext’ options through the ‘AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION’
autoconf macro.  See *note AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po/Rules-*,  Next: configure.ac,  Prev: po/Makevars,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.5 Extending ‘Makefile’ in ‘po/’
------------------------------------

   All files called ‘Rules-*’ in the ‘po/’ directory get appended to the
‘po/Makefile’ when it is created.  They present an opportunity to add
rules for special PO files to the Makefile, without needing to mess with
‘po/Makefile.in.in’.

   GNU gettext comes with a ‘Rules-quot’ file, containing rules for
building catalogs ‘en@quot.po’ and ‘en@boldquot.po’.  The effect of
‘en@quot.po’ is that people who set their ‘LANGUAGE’ environment
variable to ‘en@quot’ will get messages with proper looking symmetric
Unicode quotation marks instead of abusing the ASCII grave accent and
the ASCII apostrophe for indicating quotations.  To enable this catalog,
simply add ‘en@quot’ to the ‘po/LINGUAS’ file.  The effect of
‘en@boldquot.po’ is that people who set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘en@boldquot’ will
get not only proper quotation marks, but also the quoted text will be
shown in a bold font on terminals and consoles.  This catalog is useful
only for command-line programs, not GUI programs.  To enable it,
similarly add ‘en@boldquot’ to the ‘po/LINGUAS’ file.

   Similarly, you can create rules for building message catalogs for the
‘sr@latin’ locale - Serbian written with the Latin alphabet - from those
for the ‘sr’ locale - Serbian written with Cyrillic letters.  See *note
msgfilter Invocation::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: configure.ac,  Next: config.guess,  Prev: po/Rules-*,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.6 ‘configure.ac’ at top level
----------------------------------

   ‘configure.ac’ or ‘configure.in’ - this is the source from which
‘autoconf’ generates the ‘configure’ script.

  1. Declare the package and version.

     This is done by a set of lines like these:

          PACKAGE=gettext
          VERSION=1.0
          AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PACKAGE, "$PACKAGE")
          AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VERSION, "$VERSION")
          AC_SUBST(PACKAGE)
          AC_SUBST(VERSION)

     or, if you are using GNU ‘automake’, by a line like this:

          AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gettext, 1.0)

     Of course, you replace ‘gettext’ with the name of your package, and
     ‘1.0’ by its version numbers, exactly as they should appear in the
     packaged ‘tar’ file name of your distribution
     (‘gettext-1.0.tar.gz’, here).

  2. Check for internationalization support.

     Here is the main ‘m4’ macro for triggering internationalization
     support.  Just add this line to ‘configure.ac’:

          AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])

     This call is purposely simple, even if it generates a lot of
     configure time checking and actions.

  3. Have output files created.

     The ‘AC_OUTPUT’ directive, at the end of your ‘configure.ac’ file,
     needs to be modified in two ways:

          AC_OUTPUT([EXISTING CONFIGURATION FILES po/Makefile.in],
          [EXISTING ADDITIONAL ACTIONS])

     The modification to the first argument to ‘AC_OUTPUT’ asks for
     substitution in the ‘po/’ directory.  Note the ‘.in’ suffix used
     for ‘po/’ only.  This is because the distributed file is really
     ‘po/Makefile.in.in’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: config.guess,  Next: mkinstalldirs,  Prev: configure.ac,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.7 ‘config.guess’, ‘config.sub’ at top level
------------------------------------------------

   You need to add the GNU ‘config.guess’ and ‘config.sub’ files to your
distribution.  They are needed because the ‘AM_ICONV’ macro contains
knowledge about specific platforms and therefore needs to identify the
platform.

   You can obtain the newest version of ‘config.guess’ and ‘config.sub’
from the ‘config’ project at ‘https://savannah.gnu.org/’.  The commands
to fetch them are
     $ wget -O config.guess 'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.guess;hb=HEAD'
     $ wget -O config.sub 'https://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.sub;hb=HEAD'
Less recent versions are also contained in the GNU ‘automake’ and GNU
‘libtool’ packages.

   Normally, ‘config.guess’ and ‘config.sub’ are put at the top level of
a distribution.  But it is also possible to put them in a subdirectory,
altogether with other configuration support files like ‘install-sh’,
‘ltconfig’, ‘ltmain.sh’ or ‘missing’.  All you need to do, other than
moving the files, is to add the following line to your ‘configure.ac’.

     AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([SUBDIR])


File: gettext.info,  Node: mkinstalldirs,  Next: aclocal,  Prev: config.guess,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.8 ‘mkinstalldirs’ at top level
-----------------------------------

   With earlier versions of GNU gettext, you needed to add the GNU
‘mkinstalldirs’ script to your distribution.  This is not needed any
more.  You can remove it.


File: gettext.info,  Node: aclocal,  Next: config.h.in,  Prev: mkinstalldirs,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.9 ‘aclocal.m4’ at top level
--------------------------------

   If you do not have an ‘aclocal.m4’ file in your distribution, the
simplest is to concatenate the files ‘build-to-host.m4’, ‘gettext.m4’,
‘host-cpu-c-abi.m4’, ‘intlmacosx.m4’, ‘iconv.m4’, ‘lib-ld.m4’,
‘lib-link.m4’, ‘lib-prefix.m4’, ‘nls.m4’, ‘po.m4’, ‘progtest.m4’ from
GNU ‘gettext’'s ‘PREFIX/share/gettext/m4/’ directory into a single file.

   If you already have an ‘aclocal.m4’ file, then you will have to merge
the said macro files into your ‘aclocal.m4’.  Note that if you are
upgrading from a previous release of GNU ‘gettext’, you should most
probably _replace_ the macros (‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’, etc.), as they usually
change a little from one release of GNU ‘gettext’ to the next.  Their
contents may vary as we get more experience with strange systems out
there.

   You should be using GNU ‘automake’ 1.9 or newer.  With it, you need
to copy the files ‘build-to-host.m4’, ‘gettext.m4’, ‘host-cpu-c-abi.m4’,
‘intlmacosx.m4’, ‘iconv.m4’, ‘lib-ld.m4’, ‘lib-link.m4’,
‘lib-prefix.m4’, ‘nls.m4’, ‘po.m4’, ‘progtest.m4’ from GNU ‘gettext’'s
‘PREFIX/share/gettext/m4/’ directory to a subdirectory named ‘m4/’ and
add the line

     ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

to your top level ‘Makefile.am’.

   If you are using GNU ‘automake’ 1.12 or newer, it is even easier: Add
the line

     ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

to your top level ‘Makefile.am’, and run ‘aclocal --install
--system-acdir=PREFIX/share/gettext/m4 -I m4’.  This will copy the
needed files to the ‘m4/’ subdirectory automatically, before updating
‘aclocal.m4’.

   Note: This ‘--system-acdir’ option should only be used here, once.
If you were to use it after ‘autopoint’ has been run, it would destroy
the consistency that ‘autopoint’ guarantees and lead to all sorts of
malfunction at build time.

   These macros check for the internationalization support functions and
related information.


File: gettext.info,  Node: config.h.in,  Next: Makefile,  Prev: aclocal,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.10 ‘config.h.in’ at top level
----------------------------------

   The include file template that holds the C macros to be defined by
‘configure’ is usually called ‘config.h.in’ and may be maintained either
manually or automatically.

   If it is maintained automatically, by use of the ‘autoheader’
program, you need to do nothing about it.  This is the case in
particular if you are using GNU ‘automake’.

   If it is maintained manually, you can get away by adding the
following lines to ‘config.h.in’:

     /* Define to 1 if translation of program messages to the user's
        native language is requested. */
     #undef ENABLE_NLS


File: gettext.info,  Node: Makefile,  Next: src/Makefile,  Prev: config.h.in,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.11 ‘Makefile.in’ at top level
----------------------------------

   Here are a few modifications you need to make to your main, top-level
‘Makefile.in’ file.

  1. Add the following lines near the beginning of your ‘Makefile.in’,
     so the ‘dist:’ goal will work properly (as explained further down):

          PACKAGE = @PACKAGE@
          VERSION = @VERSION@

  2. Wherever you process subdirectories in your ‘Makefile.in’, be sure
     you also process the subdirectory ‘po’.  Special rules in the
     ‘Makefiles’ take care for the case where no internationalization is
     wanted.

     If you are using Makefiles, either generated by automake, or
     hand-written so they carefully follow the GNU coding standards, the
     effected goals for which the new subdirectories must be handled
     include ‘installdirs’, ‘install’, ‘uninstall’, ‘clean’,
     ‘distclean’.

     Here is an example of a canonical order of processing.  In this
     example, we also define ‘SUBDIRS’ in ‘Makefile.in’ for it to be
     further used in the ‘dist:’ goal.

          SUBDIRS = doc lib src po

  3. A delicate point is the ‘dist:’ goal, as ‘po/Makefile’ will later
     assume that the proper directory has been set up from the main
     ‘Makefile’.  Here is an example at what the ‘dist:’ goal might look
     like:

          distdir = $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)
          dist: Makefile
          	rm -fr $(distdir)
          	mkdir $(distdir)
          	chmod 777 $(distdir)
          	for file in $(DISTFILES); do \
          	  ln $$file $(distdir) 2>/dev/null || cp -p $$file $(distdir); \
          	done
          	for subdir in $(SUBDIRS); do \
          	  mkdir $(distdir)/$$subdir || exit 1; \
          	  chmod 777 $(distdir)/$$subdir; \
          	  (cd $$subdir && $(MAKE) $@) || exit 1; \
          	done
          	tar chozf $(distdir).tar.gz $(distdir)
          	rm -fr $(distdir)

   Note that if you are using GNU ‘automake’, ‘Makefile.in’ is
automatically generated from ‘Makefile.am’, and all needed changes to
‘Makefile.am’ are already made by running ‘gettextize’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: src/Makefile,  Next: lib/gettext.h,  Prev: Makefile,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.12 ‘Makefile.in’ in ‘src/’
-------------------------------

   Some of the modifications made in the main ‘Makefile.in’ will also be
needed in the ‘Makefile.in’ from your package sources, which we assume
here to be in the ‘src/’ subdirectory.  Here are all the modifications
needed in ‘src/Makefile.in’:

  1. In view of the ‘dist:’ goal, you should have these lines near the
     beginning of ‘src/Makefile.in’:

          PACKAGE = @PACKAGE@
          VERSION = @VERSION@

  2. If not done already, you should guarantee that ‘top_srcdir’ gets
     defined.  This will serve for ‘cpp’ include files.  Just add the
     line:

          top_srcdir = @top_srcdir@

  3. You might also want to define ‘subdir’ as ‘src’, later allowing for
     almost uniform ‘dist:’ goals in all your ‘Makefile.in’.  At list,
     the ‘dist:’ goal below assume that you used:

          subdir = src

  4. The ‘main’ function of your program will normally call
     ‘bindtextdomain’ (see *note Triggering::), like this:

          bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
          textdomain (PACKAGE);

     On native Windows platforms, the ‘main’ function may call
     ‘wbindtextdomain’ instead of ‘bindtextdomain’.

     To make LOCALEDIR known to the program, add the following lines to
     ‘Makefile.in’:

          datadir = @datadir@
          datarootdir= @datarootdir@
          localedir = @localedir@
          DEFS = -DLOCALEDIR=$(localedir_c_make) @DEFS@

     ‘$(localedir_c_make)’ expands to the value of ‘localedir’, in C
     syntax, escaped for use in a ‘Makefile’.  Note that ‘@datadir@’
     defaults to ‘$(prefix)/share’, and ‘$(localedir)’ defaults to
     ‘$(prefix)/share/locale’.

  5. You should ensure that the final linking will use ‘@LIBINTL@’ or
     ‘@LTLIBINTL@’ as a library.  ‘@LIBINTL@’ is for use without
     ‘libtool’, ‘@LTLIBINTL@’ is for use with ‘libtool’.  An easy way to
     achieve this is to manage that it gets into ‘LIBS’, like this:

          LIBS = @LIBINTL@ @LIBS@

     In most packages internationalized with GNU ‘gettext’, one will
     find a directory ‘lib/’ in which a library containing some helper
     functions will be build.  (You need at least the few functions
     which the GNU ‘gettext’ Library itself needs.)  However some of the
     functions in the ‘lib/’ also give messages to the user which of
     course should be translated, too.  Taking care of this, the support
     library (say ‘libsupport.a’) should be placed before ‘@LIBINTL@’
     and ‘@LIBS@’ in the above example.  So one has to write this:

          LIBS = ../lib/libsupport.a @LIBINTL@ @LIBS@

  6. Your ‘dist:’ goal has to conform with others.  Here is a reasonable
     definition for it:

          distdir = ../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)/$(subdir)
          dist: Makefile $(DISTFILES)
          	for file in $(DISTFILES); do \
          	  ln $$file $(distdir) 2>/dev/null || cp -p $$file $(distdir) || exit 1; \
          	done

   Note that if you are using GNU ‘automake’, ‘Makefile.in’ is
automatically generated from ‘Makefile.am’, and the first three changes
and the last change are not necessary.  The remaining needed
‘Makefile.am’ modifications are the following:

  1. To make LOCALEDIR known to the program, add the following to
     ‘Makefile.am’:

          <module>_CPPFLAGS = -DLOCALEDIR=$(localedir_c_make)

     for each specific module or compilation unit, or

          AM_CPPFLAGS = -DLOCALEDIR=$(localedir_c_make)

     for all modules and compilation units together.

  2. To ensure that the final linking will use ‘@LIBINTL@’ or
     ‘@LTLIBINTL@’ as a library, add the following to ‘Makefile.am’:

          <program>_LDADD = @LIBINTL@

     for each specific program, or

          LDADD = @LIBINTL@

     for all programs together.  Remember that when you use ‘libtool’ to
     link a program, you need to use @LTLIBINTL@ instead of @LIBINTL@
     for that program.


File: gettext.info,  Node: lib/gettext.h,  Prev: src/Makefile,  Up: Adjusting Files

14.4.13 ‘gettext.h’ in ‘lib/’
-----------------------------

   Internationalization of packages, as provided by GNU ‘gettext’, is
optional.  It can be turned off in two situations:

   • When the installer has specified ‘./configure --disable-nls’.  This
     can be useful when small binaries are more important than features,
     for example when building utilities for boot diskettes.  It can
     also be useful in order to get some specific C compiler warnings
     about code quality with some older versions of GCC (older than
     3.0).

   • When the libintl.h header (with its associated libintl library, if
     any) is not already installed on the system, it is preferable that
     the package builds without internationalization support, rather
     than to give a compilation error.

   A C preprocessor macro can be used to detect these two cases.
Usually, when ‘libintl.h’ was found and not explicitly disabled, the
‘ENABLE_NLS’ macro will be defined to 1 in the autoconf generated
configuration file (usually called ‘config.h’).  In the two negative
situations, however, this macro will not be defined, thus it will
evaluate to 0 in C preprocessor expressions.

   ‘gettext.h’ is a convenience header file for conditional use of
‘<libintl.h>’, depending on the ‘ENABLE_NLS’ macro.  If ‘ENABLE_NLS’ is
set, it includes ‘<libintl.h>’; otherwise it defines no-op substitutes
for the libintl.h functions.  We recommend the use of ‘"gettext.h"’ over
direct use of ‘<libintl.h>’, so that portability to older systems is
guaranteed and installers can turn off internationalization if they want
to.  In the C code, you will then write

     #include "gettext.h"

instead of

     #include <libintl.h>

   The location of ‘gettext.h’ is usually in a directory containing
auxiliary include files.  In many GNU packages, there is a directory
‘lib/’ containing helper functions; ‘gettext.h’ fits there.  In other
packages, it can go into the ‘src’ directory.

   Do not install the ‘gettext.h’ file in public locations.  Every
package that needs it should contain a copy of it on its own.


File: gettext.info,  Node: autoconf macros,  Next: Interfacing with the Translators,  Prev: Adjusting Files,  Up: Maintainers

14.5 Autoconf macros for use in ‘configure.ac’
==============================================

   GNU ‘gettext’ installs macros for use in a package's ‘configure.ac’
or ‘configure.in’.  *Note Introduction: (autoconf)Top.

   In order to copy these macros into your package, use the ‘gettextize’
or ‘autopoint’ programs.  See *note gettextize Invocation:: or *note
autopoint Invocation::.  Attempts to use the ‘autoreconf’ program for
this purpose are unreliable.

   The primary macro is, of course, ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’.

* Menu:

* AM_GNU_GETTEXT::              AM_GNU_GETTEXT in ‘gettext.m4’
* AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION::      AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION in ‘gettext.m4’
* AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED::         AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED in ‘gettext.m4’
* AM_PO_SUBDIRS::               AM_PO_SUBDIRS in ‘po.m4’
* AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION::          AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION in ‘po.m4’
* AM_ICONV::                    AM_ICONV in ‘iconv.m4’


File: gettext.info,  Node: AM_GNU_GETTEXT,  Next: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION,  Up: autoconf macros

14.5.1 AM_GNU_GETTEXT in ‘gettext.m4’
-------------------------------------

   The ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ macro tests for the presence of the GNU gettext
function family in either the C library or a separate ‘libintl’ library
(shared or static libraries are both supported).  It also invokes
‘AM_PO_SUBDIRS’, thus preparing the ‘po/’ directories of the package for
building.

   ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ accepts up to two optional arguments.  The general
syntax is

     AM_GNU_GETTEXT([INTLSYMBOL], [NEEDSYMBOL])

   INTLSYMBOL should always be ‘external’.

   If NEEDSYMBOL is specified and is ‘need-ngettext’, then GNU gettext
implementations (in libc or libintl) without the ‘ngettext()’ function
will be ignored.  If NEEDSYMBOL is specified and is
‘need-formatstring-macros’, then GNU gettext implementations that don't
support the ISO C 99 ‘<inttypes.h>’ formatstring macros will be ignored.
Only one NEEDSYMBOL can be specified.  These requirements can also be
specified by using the macro ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED’ elsewhere.  To
specify more than one requirement, just specify the strongest one among
them, or invoke the ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED’ macro several times.  The
hierarchy among the various alternatives is as follows:
‘need-formatstring-macros’ implies ‘need-ngettext’.

   The ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ macro determines whether GNU gettext is
available and should be used.  If so, it sets the ‘USE_NLS’ variable to
‘yes’; it defines ‘ENABLE_NLS’ to 1 in the autoconf generated
configuration file (usually called ‘config.h’); it sets the variables
‘LIBINTL’ and ‘LTLIBINTL’ to the linker options for use in a Makefile
(‘LIBINTL’ for use without libtool, ‘LTLIBINTL’ for use with libtool);
it adds an ‘-I’ option to ‘CPPFLAGS’ if necessary.  In the negative
case, it sets ‘USE_NLS’ to ‘no’; it sets ‘LIBINTL’ and ‘LTLIBINTL’ to
empty and doesn't change ‘CPPFLAGS’.

   The complexities that ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ deals with are the following:

   • Some operating systems have ‘gettext’ in the C library, for example
     glibc.  Some have it in a separate library ‘libintl’.  GNU
     ‘libintl’ might have been installed as part of the GNU ‘gettext’
     package.

   • GNU ‘libintl’, if installed, is not necessarily already in the
     search path (‘CPPFLAGS’ for the include file search path, ‘LDFLAGS’
     for the library search path).

   • Except for glibc and the Solaris 11 libc, the operating system's
     native ‘gettext’ cannot exploit the GNU mo files, doesn't have the
     necessary locale dependency features, and cannot convert messages
     from the catalog's text encoding to the user's locale encoding.

   • GNU ‘libintl’, if installed, is not necessarily already in the run
     time library search path.  To avoid the need for setting an
     environment variable like ‘LD_LIBRARY_PATH’, the macro adds the
     appropriate run time search path options to the ‘LIBINTL’ and
     ‘LTLIBINTL’ variables.  This works on most systems, but not on some
     operating systems with limited shared library support, like SCO.

   • GNU ‘libintl’ relies on POSIX/XSI ‘iconv’.  The macro checks for
     linker options needed to use iconv and appends them to the
     ‘LIBINTL’ and ‘LTLIBINTL’ variables.

   Additionally, the ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ macro sets two variables, for
convenience.  Both are derived from the ‘--localedir’ configure option.
They are correct even on native Windows, where directories frequently
contain backslashes.
‘localedir_c’
     This is the value of ‘localedir’, in C syntax.  This variable is
     meant to be substituted into C or C++ code through
     ‘AC_CONFIG_FILES’.

‘localedir_c_make’
     This is the value of ‘localedir’, in C syntax, escaped for use in a
     ‘Makefile’.  This variable is meant to be used in Makefiles, for
     example for defining a C macro named ‘LOCALEDIR’:
          AM_CPPFLAGS = ... -DLOCALEDIR=$(localedir_c_make) ...


File: gettext.info,  Node: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION,  Next: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED,  Prev: AM_GNU_GETTEXT,  Up: autoconf macros

14.5.2 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION in ‘gettext.m4’
---------------------------------------------

   The ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION’ macro declares the version number of the
GNU gettext infrastructure that is used by the package.

   The use of this macro is optional; only the ‘autopoint’ program makes
use of it (*note Version Control Issues::).


File: gettext.info,  Node: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED,  Next: AM_PO_SUBDIRS,  Prev: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION,  Up: autoconf macros

14.5.3 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED in ‘gettext.m4’
------------------------------------------

   The ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED’ macro declares a constraint regarding the
GNU gettext implementation.  The syntax is

     AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED([NEEDSYMBOL])

   If NEEDSYMBOL is ‘need-ngettext’, then GNU gettext implementations
(in libc or libintl) without the ‘ngettext()’ function will be ignored.
If NEEDSYMBOL is ‘need-formatstring-macros’, then GNU gettext
implementations that don't support the ISO C 99 ‘<inttypes.h>’
formatstring macros will be ignored.

   The optional second argument of ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ is also taken into
account.

   The ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED’ invocations can occur before or after the
‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT’ invocation; the order doesn't matter.


File: gettext.info,  Node: AM_PO_SUBDIRS,  Next: AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION,  Prev: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED,  Up: autoconf macros

14.5.4 AM_PO_SUBDIRS in ‘po.m4’
-------------------------------

   The ‘AM_PO_SUBDIRS’ macro prepares the ‘po/’ directories of the
package for building.  This macro should be used in internationalized
programs written in other programming languages than C, C++, Objective
C, for example ‘sh’, ‘Python’, ‘Lisp’.  See *note Programming
Languages:: for a list of programming languages that support
localization through PO files.

   The ‘AM_PO_SUBDIRS’ macro determines whether internationalization
should be used.  If so, it sets the ‘USE_NLS’ variable to ‘yes’,
otherwise to ‘no’.  It also determines the right values for Makefile
variables in each ‘po/’ directory.


File: gettext.info,  Node: AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION,  Next: AM_ICONV,  Prev: AM_PO_SUBDIRS,  Up: autoconf macros

14.5.5 AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION in ‘po.m4’
------------------------------------

   The ‘AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION’ macro registers a command-line option to be
used in the invocations of ‘xgettext’ in the ‘po/’ directories of the
package.

   For example, if you have a source file that defines a function
‘error_at_line’ whose fifth argument is a format string, you can use
     AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION([--flag=error_at_line:5:c-format])
to instruct ‘xgettext’ to mark all translatable strings in ‘gettext’
invocations that occur as fifth argument to this function as ‘c-format’.

   See *note xgettext Invocation:: for the list of options that
‘xgettext’ accepts.

   The use of this macro is an alternative to the use of the
‘XGETTEXT_OPTIONS’ variable in ‘po/Makevars’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: AM_ICONV,  Prev: AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION,  Up: autoconf macros

14.5.6 AM_ICONV in ‘iconv.m4’
-----------------------------

   The ‘AM_ICONV’ macro tests for the presence of the POSIX/XSI ‘iconv’
function family in either the C library or a separate ‘libiconv’
library.  If found, it sets the ‘am_cv_func_iconv’ variable to ‘yes’; it
defines ‘HAVE_ICONV’ to 1 in the autoconf generated configuration file
(usually called ‘config.h’); it defines ‘ICONV_CONST’ to ‘const’ or to
empty, depending on whether the second argument of ‘iconv()’ is of type
‘const char **’ or ‘char **’; it sets the variables ‘LIBICONV’ and
‘LTLIBICONV’ to the linker options for use in a Makefile (‘LIBICONV’ for
use without libtool, ‘LTLIBICONV’ for use with libtool); it adds an ‘-I’
option to ‘CPPFLAGS’ if necessary.  If not found, it sets ‘LIBICONV’ and
‘LTLIBICONV’ to empty and doesn't change ‘CPPFLAGS’.

   The complexities that ‘AM_ICONV’ deals with are the following:

   • Some operating systems have ‘iconv’ in the C library, for example
     glibc.  Some have it in a separate library ‘libiconv’, for example
     OSF/1 or FreeBSD. Regardless of the operating system, GNU
     ‘libiconv’ might have been installed.  In that case, it should be
     used instead of the operating system's native ‘iconv’.

   • GNU ‘libiconv’, if installed, is not necessarily already in the
     search path (‘CPPFLAGS’ for the include file search path, ‘LDFLAGS’
     for the library search path).

   • GNU ‘libiconv’ is binary incompatible with some operating system's
     native ‘iconv’, for example on FreeBSD. Use of an ‘iconv.h’ and
     ‘libiconv.so’ that don't fit together would produce program
     crashes.

   • GNU ‘libiconv’, if installed, is not necessarily already in the run
     time library search path.  To avoid the need for setting an
     environment variable like ‘LD_LIBRARY_PATH’, the macro adds the
     appropriate run time search path options to the ‘LIBICONV’
     variable.  This works on most systems, but not on some operating
     systems with limited shared library support, like SCO.

   ‘iconv.m4’ is distributed with the GNU gettext package because
‘gettext.m4’ relies on it.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Interfacing with the Translators,  Next: Version Control Issues,  Prev: autoconf macros,  Up: Maintainers

14.6 Interfacing with the Translators
=====================================

   You need to decide whether your package joins a translation project
or whether you want to connect to translators in an ad-hoc way.

   In a translation project, teams of translators work on a number of
packages.  They work together by exchanging common practice, technical
dictionaries, or advice.  Common translation projects are:
   • The "Translation Project" (https://translationproject.org/).  This
     translation project is a good place for GNU packages.
   • The GNOME translation project
     (https://wiki.gnome.org/TranslationProject).  This is the natural
     place for GNOME packages.
   • The KDE localization project (https://l10n.kde.org/).  This is the
     canonical place for KDE packages.  Note: KDE packages don't store
     their localizations in a ‘po/’ directory.
   • There are also many translation projects that use the Weblate
     (https://weblate.org/) localization suite.

   Connecting to translators in an ad-hoc way may be useful in the
beginning if your package has highly specialized terms and translator
volunteers already waiting.  In the long term, though, you will get more
language coverage by joining a translation team.

   When and how are the files in the ‘po/’ directory created, is related
to this choice.  See section *note Translations under Version Control?::
for details.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Version Control Issues,  Next: Release Management,  Prev: Interfacing with the Translators,  Up: Maintainers

14.7 Integrating with Version Control Systems
=============================================

   Many projects use version control systems for distributed development
and source backup.  This section gives some advice how to manage the
uses of ‘gettextize’, ‘autopoint’ and ‘autoconf’ on version controlled
files.

* Menu:

* Distributed Development::     Avoiding version mismatch in distributed development
* Files under Version Control::  Files to put under version control
* PO Template File under Version Control?::  Put the POT File under Version Control?
* Translations under Version Control?::  Put PO Files under Version Control?
* autopoint Invocation::        Invoking the ‘autopoint’ Program
* po-fetch Invocation::         Invoking the ‘po-fetch’ Program


File: gettext.info,  Node: Distributed Development,  Next: Files under Version Control,  Up: Version Control Issues

14.7.1 Avoiding version mismatch in distributed development
-----------------------------------------------------------

   In a project development with multiple developers, there should be a
single developer who occasionally - when there is desire to upgrade to a
new ‘gettext’ version - runs ‘gettextize’ and performs the changes
listed in *note Adjusting Files::, and then commits his changes to the
repository.

   It is highly recommended that all developers on a project use the
same version of GNU ‘gettext’ in the package.  In other words, if a
developer runs ‘gettextize’, he should go the whole way, make the
necessary remaining changes and commit his changes to the repository.
Otherwise the following damages will likely occur:

   • Apparent version mismatch between developers.  Since some ‘gettext’
     specific portions in ‘configure.ac’, ‘configure.in’ and
     ‘Makefile.am’, ‘Makefile.in’ files depend on the ‘gettext’ version,
     the use of infrastructure files belonging to different ‘gettext’
     versions can easily lead to build errors.

   • Hidden version mismatch.  Such version mismatch can also lead to
     malfunctioning of the package, that may be undiscovered by the
     developers.  The worst case of hidden version mismatch is that
     internationalization of the package doesn't work at all.

   • Release risks.  All developers implicitly perform constant testing
     on a package.  This is important in the days and weeks before a
     release.  If the guy who makes the release tar files uses a
     different version of GNU ‘gettext’ than the other developers, the
     distribution will be less well tested than if all had been using
     the same ‘gettext’ version.  For example, it is possible that a
     platform specific bug goes undiscovered due to this constellation.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Files under Version Control,  Next: PO Template File under Version Control?,  Prev: Distributed Development,  Up: Version Control Issues

14.7.2 Files to put under version control
-----------------------------------------

   There are basically three ways to deal with generated files in the
context of a version controlled repository, such as ‘configure’
generated from ‘configure.ac’, ‘PARSER.c’ generated from ‘PARSER.y’, or
‘po/Makefile.in.in’ autoinstalled by ‘gettextize’ or ‘autopoint’.

  1. All generated files are always committed into the repository.

  2. All generated files are committed into the repository occasionally,
     for example each time a release is made.

  3. Generated files are never committed into the repository.

   Each of these three approaches has different advantages and
drawbacks.

  1. The advantage is that anyone can check out the source at any moment
     and gets a working build.  The drawbacks are: 1a.  It requires some
     frequent "push" actions by the maintainers.  1b.  The repository
     grows in size quite fast.

  2. The advantage is that anyone can check out the source, and the
     usual "./configure; make" will work.  The drawbacks are: 2a.  The
     one who checks out the repository needs tools like GNU ‘automake’,
     GNU ‘autoconf’, GNU ‘m4’ installed in his PATH; sometimes he even
     needs particular versions of them.  2b.  When a release is made and
     a commit is made on the generated files, the other developers get
     conflicts on the generated files when merging the local work back
     to the repository.  Although these conflicts are easy to resolve,
     they are annoying.

  3. The advantage is less work for the maintainers.  The drawback is
     that anyone who checks out the source not only needs tools like GNU
     ‘automake’, GNU ‘autoconf’, GNU ‘m4’ installed in his PATH, but
     also that he needs to perform a package specific pre-build step
     before being able to "./configure; make".

   For the first and second approach, all files modified or brought in
by the occasional ‘gettextize’ invocation and update should be committed
into the repository.

   For the third approach, the maintainer can omit from the repository
all the files that ‘gettextize’ mentions as "copy".  Instead, he adds to
the ‘configure.ac’ or ‘configure.in’ a line of the form

     AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(1.0)

and adds to the package's pre-build script an invocation of ‘autopoint’.
For everyone who checks out the source, this ‘autopoint’ invocation will
copy into the right place the ‘gettext’ infrastructure files that have
been omitted from the repository.

   The version number used as argument to ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION’ is
the version of the ‘gettext’ infrastructure that the package wants to
use.  It is also the minimum version number of the ‘autopoint’ program.
So, if you write ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.11.5)’ then the developers
can have any version >= 0.11.5 installed; the package will work with the
0.11.5 infrastructure in all developers' builds.  When the maintainer
then runs gettextize from, say, version 0.12.1 on the package, the
occurrence of ‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.11.5)’ will be changed into
‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.12.1)’, and all other developers that use the
CVS will henceforth need to have GNU ‘gettext’ 0.12.1 or newer
installed.


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO Template File under Version Control?,  Next: Translations under Version Control?,  Prev: Files under Version Control,  Up: Version Control Issues

14.7.3 Put the PO Template File under Version Control or not?
-------------------------------------------------------------

   The PO template file (‘.pot’ file) is a generated file.  It should be
treated like other generated files, as discussed in the previous section
(*note Files under Version Control::).

   For instance, if a package uses the third approach, the ‘.pot’ file
will *not* be put under version control.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translations under Version Control?,  Next: autopoint Invocation,  Prev: PO Template File under Version Control?,  Up: Version Control Issues

14.7.4 Put the PO Files under Version Control or not?
-----------------------------------------------------

   The PO files produced by translators are source files.  Whether they
are put under version control, is related to how the ‘fetch-po’ script
operates.

   • In packages whose translators commit their PO files directly into
     the version control of the package, or where a translations
     project's daemon does this automatically on behalf of the
     translators, they are in version control.  This is the case where
     the ‘fetch-po’ script does not do anything.

   • In packages where the translations are collected by a translation
     project, the maintainer has the choice:
        • He may want to rely on this translation project only.  This
          means:
             • He will *not* put the PO files under version control.
             • Instead he will list them in the ‘.gitignore’ file.
             • In the script that fetches auxiliary sources from other
               places in the internet, typically called ‘autopull.sh’ or
               ‘bootstrap --pull’, he will have an invocation
                    (cd po && ./fetch-po)
             • The ‘fetch-po’ script will have a ‘po-fetch’ invocation
               *without* the ‘--git’ option.
          The net effect is that the developers will access the
          translation project's site regularly, namely each time they
          execute the ‘autopull.sh’ script.
        • Or he may want to use the package's version control as a
          "cache" for the PO files from the translation project.  This
          means:
             • He will put the PO files under version control.
             • The ‘autopull.sh’ or ‘bootstrap --pull’ script is not
               modified.
             • The ‘fetch-po’ script will have a ‘po-fetch’ invocation
               *with* the ‘--git’ option.
             • Before making a release, the maintainer will run
                    (cd po && ./fetch-po)
               and commit the changed or added or removed files in the
               ‘po/’ directory.
          The net effect is that only the maintainer will access the
          translation project's site, and only when making a release.
          In all other situations, the developers will be using the PO
          files from the package's version control.


File: gettext.info,  Node: autopoint Invocation,  Next: po-fetch Invocation,  Prev: Translations under Version Control?,  Up: Version Control Issues

14.7.5 Invoking the ‘autopoint’ Program
---------------------------------------

     autopoint [OPTION]...

   The ‘autopoint’ program copies standard gettext infrastructure files
into a source package.  It extracts from a macro call of the form
‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(VERSION)’, found in the package's ‘configure.in’
or ‘configure.ac’ file, the gettext version used by the package, and
copies the infrastructure files belonging to this version into the
package.

   To extract the latest available infrastructure which satisfies a
version requirement, then you can use the form
‘AM_GNU_GETTEXT_REQUIRE_VERSION(VERSION)’ instead.  For example, if
gettext 1.0 is installed on your system and ‘0.19.1’ is requested, then
the infrastructure files of version 1.0 will be copied into a source
package.

14.7.5.1 Options
................

‘-f’
‘--force’
     Force overwriting of files that already exist.

‘-n’
‘--dry-run’
     Print modifications but don't perform them.  All file copying
     actions that ‘autopoint’ would normally execute are inhibited and
     instead only listed on standard output.

14.7.5.2 Informative output
...........................

‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   ‘autopoint’ supports the GNU ‘gettext’ versions from 0.10.35 to the
current one, 1.0.  In order to apply ‘autopoint’ to a package using a
‘gettext’ version newer than 1.0, you need to install this same version
of GNU ‘gettext’ at least.

   In packages using GNU ‘automake’, an invocation of ‘autopoint’ should
be followed by invocations of ‘aclocal’ and then ‘autoconf’ and
‘autoheader’.  The reason is that ‘autopoint’ installs some autoconf
macro files, which are used by ‘aclocal’ to create ‘aclocal.m4’, and the
latter is used by ‘autoconf’ to create the package's ‘configure’ script
and by ‘autoheader’ to create the package's ‘config.h.in’ include file
template.

   The name ‘autopoint’ is an abbreviation of ‘auto-po-intl-m4’; in
earlier versions, the tool copied or updated mostly files in the ‘po’,
‘intl’, ‘m4’ directories.


File: gettext.info,  Node: po-fetch Invocation,  Prev: autopoint Invocation,  Up: Version Control Issues

14.7.6 Invoking the ‘po-fetch’ Program
--------------------------------------

     po-fetch [OPTION...] TP DOMAIN
     po-fetch [OPTION...] Weblate BASE-URL PROJECT COMPONENT
     po-fetch [OPTION...] git BASE-URL BRANCH SUBDIR

   The ‘po-fetch’ program fetches a set of PO files, produced by
translators, from a translation project's site on the internet, and
updates the ‘LINGUAS’ file accordingly.

   The first argument indicates the kind of translation project:

‘TP’
     denotes the Translation Project (‘translationproject.org’).
‘Weblate’
     denotes a Weblate instance.
‘git’
     denotes a web front-end to a ‘git’ repository (such as a ‘gitweb’
     instance, a ‘cgit’ instance, or a GitLab or GitHub or Forgejo
     instance).

14.7.6.1 Options
................

‘--git’
     Make changes in the ‘git’ index, to prepare for a ‘git’ commit.

14.7.6.2 Output files location
..............................

   The PO files and the ‘LINGUAS’ file are stored in the current
directory.

14.7.6.3 Informative output
...........................

‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Release Management,  Prev: Version Control Issues,  Up: Maintainers

14.8 Creating a Distribution Tarball
====================================

   First, in packages where the translations are collected by a
translation project, before creating a distribution tarball, the
maintainer should fetch the PO files from the translators.  There are
two ways to do this: Either

     $ (cd po; ./fetch-po)

or

     $ ./configure
     $ (cd po; make fetch-po)
     $ make distclean

   Second, updating generated files.  In projects that use GNU
‘automake’, the usual commands for creating a distribution tarball,
‘make dist’ or ‘make distcheck’, automatically update the generated
files in the ‘po/’ directories as needed.

   If GNU ‘automake’ is not used, the maintainer needs to perform this
update before making a release:

     $ ./configure
     $ (cd po; make update-po)
     $ make distclean


File: gettext.info,  Node: Installers,  Next: Programming Languages,  Prev: Maintainers,  Up: Top

15 The Installer's and Distributor's View
*****************************************

   By default, packages fully using GNU ‘gettext’, internally, are
installed in such a way as to allow translation of messages.  At
_configuration_ time, those packages should automatically detect whether
the underlying host system already provides the GNU ‘gettext’ functions.
If not, the GNU ‘gettext’ library should be automatically prepared and
used.  Installers may use special options at configuration time for
changing this behavior.  The command ‘./configure
--with-included-gettext’ bypasses system ‘gettext’ to use the included
GNU ‘gettext’ instead, while ‘./configure --disable-nls’ produces
programs totally unable to translate messages.

   Internationalized packages have usually many ‘LL.po’ or ‘LL_CC.po’
files, where

   • LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language.  For
     some languages, a two-letter code does not exist, and a
     three-letter code is used instead.
   • The optional CC is an ISO 3166 two-letter code of a country or
     territory.

Unless translations are disabled, all those available are installed
together with the package.  However, the environment variable ‘LINGUAS’
may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
‘LINGUAS’ should then contain a space separated list of locale names (of
the form ‘LL’ or ‘LL_CC’), stating which languages or language variants
are allowed.

   GNU ‘gettext’ uses *.its and *.loc files (*note Preparing ITS
Rules::) from other packages, provided they are installed in
‘PREFIX/share/gettext/its/’, where ‘PREFIX’ is the value of the
‘--prefix’ option passed to ‘gettext’'s ‘configure’ script.  So, this is
the canonical location for installing *.its and *.loc files from other
packages.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Programming Languages,  Next: Data Formats,  Prev: Installers,  Up: Top

16 Other Programming Languages
******************************

   While the presentation of ‘gettext’ focuses mostly on C and
implicitly applies to C++ as well, its scope is far broader than that:
Many programming languages, scripting languages and other textual data
like GUI resources or package descriptions can make use of the gettext
approach.

* Menu:

* Language Implementors::       The Language Implementor's View
* Programmers for other Languages::  The Programmer's View
* Translators for other Languages::  The Translator's View
* Maintainers for other Languages::  The Maintainer's View
* List of Programming Languages::  Individual Programming Languages


File: gettext.info,  Node: Language Implementors,  Next: Programmers for other Languages,  Up: Programming Languages

16.1 The Language Implementor's View
====================================

   All programming and scripting languages that have the notion of
strings are eligible to supporting ‘gettext’.  Supporting ‘gettext’
means the following:

  1. You should add to the language a syntax for translatable strings.
     In principle, a function call of ‘gettext’ would do, but a
     shorthand syntax helps keeping the legibility of internationalized
     programs.  For example, in C we use the syntax ‘_("string")’, and
     in GNU awk we use the shorthand ‘_"string"’.

  2. You should arrange that evaluation of such a translatable string at
     runtime calls the ‘gettext’ function, or performs equivalent
     processing.

  3. Similarly, you should make the functions ‘ngettext’, ‘dcgettext’,
     ‘dcngettext’ available from within the language.  These functions
     are less often used, but are nevertheless necessary for particular
     purposes: ‘ngettext’ for correct plural handling, and ‘dcgettext’
     and ‘dcngettext’ for obeying other locale-related environment
     variables than ‘LC_MESSAGES’, such as ‘LC_TIME’ or ‘LC_MONETARY’.
     For these latter functions, you need to make the ‘LC_*’ constants,
     available in the C header ‘<locale.h>’, referenceable from within
     the language, usually either as enumeration values or as strings.

  4. You should allow the programmer to designate a message domain,
     either by making the ‘textdomain’ function available from within
     the language, or by introducing a magic variable called
     ‘TEXTDOMAIN’.  Similarly, you should allow the programmer to
     designate where to search for message catalogs, by providing access
     to the ‘bindtextdomain’ function or -- on native Windows platforms
     -- to the ‘wbindtextdomain’ function.

  5. You should either perform a ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "")’ call during
     the startup of your language runtime, or allow the programmer to do
     so.  Remember that gettext will act as a no-op if the ‘LC_MESSAGES’
     and ‘LC_CTYPE’ locale categories are not both set.

  6. A programmer should have a way to extract translatable strings from
     a program into a PO file.  The GNU ‘xgettext’ program is being
     extended to support very different programming languages.  Please
     contact the GNU ‘gettext’ maintainers to help them doing this.  The
     GNU ‘gettext’ maintainers will need from you a formal description
     of the lexical structure of source files.  It should answer the
     questions:
        • What does a token look like?
        • What does a string literal look like?  What escape characters
          exist inside a string?
        • What escape characters exist outside of strings?  If Unicode
          escapes are supported, are they applied before or after
          tokenization?
        • What is the syntax for function calls?  How are consecutive
          arguments in the same function call separated?
        • What is the syntax for comments?
     Based on this description, the GNU ‘gettext’ maintainers can add
     support to ‘xgettext’.

     If the string extractor is best integrated into your language's
     parser, GNU ‘xgettext’ can function as a front end to your string
     extractor.

  7. The language's library should have a string formatting facility.
     Additionally:
       1. There must be a way, in the format string, to denote the
          arguments by a positional number or a name.  This is needed
          because for some languages and some messages with more than
          one substitutable argument, the translation will need to
          output the substituted arguments in different order.  *Note
          c-format Flag::.
       2. The syntax of format strings must be documented in a way that
          translators can understand.  The GNU ‘gettext’ manual will be
          extended to include a pointer to this documentation.
     Based on this, the GNU ‘gettext’ maintainers can add a format
     string equivalence checker to ‘msgfmt’, so that translators get
     told immediately when they have made a mistake during the
     translation of a format string.

  8. If the language has more than one implementation, and not all of
     the implementations use ‘gettext’, but the programs should be
     portable across implementations, you should provide a no-i18n
     emulation, that makes the other implementations accept programs
     written for yours, without actually translating the strings.

  9. To help the programmer in the task of marking translatable strings,
     which is sometimes performed using the Emacs PO mode (*note
     Marking::), you are welcome to contact the GNU ‘gettext’
     maintainers, so they can add support for your language to
     ‘po-mode.el’.

   On the implementation side, two approaches are possible, with
different effects on portability and copyright:

   • You may link against GNU ‘gettext’ functions if they are found in
     the C library.  For example, an autoconf test for ‘gettext()’ and
     ‘ngettext()’ will detect this situation.  For the moment, this test
     will succeed on GNU systems and on Solaris 11 platforms.  No severe
     copyright restrictions apply, except if you want to distribute
     statically linked binaries.

   • You may emulate or reimplement the GNU ‘gettext’ functionality.
     This has the advantage of full portability and no copyright
     restrictions, but also the drawback that you have to reimplement
     the GNU ‘gettext’ features (such as the ‘LANGUAGE’ environment
     variable, the locale aliases database, the automatic charset
     conversion, and plural handling).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Programmers for other Languages,  Next: Translators for other Languages,  Prev: Language Implementors,  Up: Programming Languages

16.2 The Programmer's View
==========================

   For the programmer, the general procedure is the same as for the C
language.  The Emacs PO mode marking supports other languages, and the
GNU ‘xgettext’ string extractor recognizes other languages based on the
file extension or a command-line option.  In some languages, ‘setlocale’
is not needed because it is already performed by the underlying language
runtime.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translators for other Languages,  Next: Maintainers for other Languages,  Prev: Programmers for other Languages,  Up: Programming Languages

16.3 The Translator's View
==========================

   The translator works exactly as in the C language case.  The only
difference is that when translating format strings, she has to be aware
of the language's particular syntax for positional arguments in format
strings.

* Menu:

* c-format::                    C Format Strings
* objc-format::                 Objective C Format Strings
* c++-format::                  C++ Format Strings
* python-format::               Python Format Strings
* java-format::                 Java Format Strings
* csharp-format::               C# Format Strings
* javascript-format::           JavaScript Format Strings
* scheme-format::               Scheme Format Strings
* lisp-format::                 Lisp Format Strings
* elisp-format::                Emacs Lisp Format Strings
* librep-format::               librep Format Strings
* rust-format::                 Rust Format Strings
* go-format::                   Go Format Strings
* ruby-format::                 Ruby Format Strings
* sh-format::                   Shell Format Strings
* awk-format::                  awk Format Strings
* lua-format::                  Lua Format Strings
* object-pascal-format::        Object Pascal Format Strings
* modula2-format::              Modula-2 Format Strings
* d-format::                    D Format Strings
* ocaml-format::                OCaml Format Strings
* smalltalk-format::            Smalltalk Format Strings
* qt-format::                   Qt Format Strings
* qt-plural-format::            Qt Plural Format Strings
* kde-format::                  KDE Format Strings
* kde-kuit-format::             KUIT Format Strings
* boost-format::                Boost Format Strings
* tcl-format::                  Tcl Format Strings
* perl-format::                 Perl Format Strings
* php-format::                  PHP Format Strings
* gcc-internal-format::         GCC internal Format Strings
* gfc-internal-format::         GFC internal Format Strings
* ycp-format::                  YCP Format Strings


File: gettext.info,  Node: c-format,  Next: objc-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.1 C Format Strings
-----------------------

   C format strings are described in POSIX (IEEE P1003.1 2001), section
XSH 3 fprintf(),
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/functions/fprintf.html>.
See also the fprintf() manual page man fprintf.

   Although format strings with positions that reorder arguments, such
as

     "Only %2$d bytes free on '%1$s'."

which is semantically equivalent to

     "'%s' has only %d bytes free."

are a POSIX/XSI feature and not specified by ISO C 99, translators can
rely on this reordering ability: On the few platforms where ‘printf()’,
‘fprintf()’ etc.  don't support this feature natively, ‘libintl.a’ or
‘libintl.so’ provides replacement functions, and GNU ‘<libintl.h>’
activates these replacement functions automatically.

   C format strings can contain placeholders that reference macros
defined in ISO C 99 ‘<inttypes.h>’.  For example, ‘<PRId64>’ references
the macro ‘PRId64’.  The value of such a macro is system-dependent, but
programmers and translators do not need to know this value.  ISO C 23
specifies system-independent format string elements, for example,
‘"%w64d"’ instead of ‘"%" PRId64’; however, as of 2024, these are not
implemented across systems and therefore cannot be used portably.

   As a special feature for Farsi (Persian) and maybe Arabic,
translators can insert an ‘I’ flag into numeric format directives.  For
example, the translation of ‘"%d"’ can be ‘"%Id"’.  The effect of this
flag, on systems with GNU ‘libc’, is that in the output, the ASCII
digits are replaced with the ‘outdigits’ defined in the ‘LC_CTYPE’
locale category.  On other systems, the ‘gettext’ function removes this
flag, so that it has no effect.

   Note that the programmer should _not_ put this flag into the
untranslated string.  (Putting the ‘I’ format directive flag into an
MSGID string would lead to undefined behaviour on platforms without
glibc when NLS is disabled.)


File: gettext.info,  Node: objc-format,  Next: c++-format,  Prev: c-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.2 Objective C Format Strings
---------------------------------

   Objective C format strings are like C format strings.  They support
an additional format directive: "%@", which when executed consumes an
argument of type ‘Object *’.

   Objective C format strings, like C format strings, can contain
placeholders that reference macros defined in ISO C 99 ‘<inttypes.h>’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: c++-format,  Next: python-format,  Prev: objc-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.3 C++ Format Strings
-------------------------

   C++ format strings are described in ISO C++ 20, namely in
<https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2020/n4861.pdf>,
section 20.20.2 Format string [format.string].

   An easier-to-read description is found at
<https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/utility/format/format#Parameters> and
<https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/utility/format/formatter#Standard_format_specification>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: python-format,  Next: java-format,  Prev: c++-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.4 Python Format Strings
----------------------------

   There are two kinds of format strings in Python: those acceptable to
the Python built-in format operator ‘%’, labelled as ‘python-format’,
and those acceptable to the ‘format’ method of the ‘str’ object.

   Python ‘%’ format strings are described in Python Library reference /
5.  Built-in Types / 5.6.  Sequence Types /
5.6.2.  String Formatting Operations.
<https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting-operations>.

   Python brace format strings are described in
PEP 3101 - Advanced String Formatting,
<https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3101/>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: java-format,  Next: csharp-format,  Prev: python-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.5 Java Format Strings
--------------------------

   There are two kinds of format strings in Java: those acceptable to
the ‘MessageFormat.format’ function, labelled as ‘java-format’, and
those acceptable to the ‘String.format’ and ‘PrintStream.printf’
functions, labelled as ‘java-printf-format’.

   Java format strings are described in the JDK documentation for class
‘java.text.MessageFormat’,
<https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/MessageFormat.html>.
See also the ICU documentation
<http://icu-project.org/apiref/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/MessageFormat.html>.

   Java ‘printf’ format strings are described in the JDK documentation
for class ‘java.util.Formatter’,
<https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/Formatter.html>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: csharp-format,  Next: javascript-format,  Prev: java-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.6 C# Format Strings
------------------------

   C# format strings are described in the .NET documentation for class
‘System.String’ and in
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpguide/html/cpConFormattingOverview.asp>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: javascript-format,  Next: scheme-format,  Prev: csharp-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.7 JavaScript Format Strings
--------------------------------

   Although JavaScript specification itself does not define any format
strings, many JavaScript implementations provide printf-like functions.
‘xgettext’ understands a set of common format strings used in popular
JavaScript implementations including Gjs, Seed, and Node.JS. In such a
format string, a directive starts with ‘%’ and is finished by a
specifier: ‘%’ denotes a literal percent sign, ‘c’ denotes a character,
‘s’ denotes a string, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘o’, ‘x’, ‘X’ denote an integer, ‘f’
denotes floating-point number, ‘j’ denotes a JSON object.


File: gettext.info,  Node: scheme-format,  Next: lisp-format,  Prev: javascript-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.8 Scheme Format Strings
----------------------------

   Scheme format strings are documented in the SLIB manual, section
Format Specification.


File: gettext.info,  Node: lisp-format,  Next: elisp-format,  Prev: scheme-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.9 Lisp Format Strings
--------------------------

   Lisp format strings are described in the Common Lisp HyperSpec,
chapter 22.3 Formatted Output,
<http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/doc/CommonLISP/HyperSpec/Body/sec_22-3.html>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: elisp-format,  Next: librep-format,  Prev: lisp-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.10 Emacs Lisp Format Strings
---------------------------------

   Emacs Lisp format strings are documented in the Emacs Lisp reference,
section Formatting Strings,
<https://www.gnu.org/manual/elisp-manual-21-2.8/html_chapter/elisp_4.html#SEC75>.
Note that as of version 21, XEmacs supports numbered argument
specifications in format strings while FSF Emacs doesn't.


File: gettext.info,  Node: librep-format,  Next: rust-format,  Prev: elisp-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.11 librep Format Strings
-----------------------------

   librep format strings are documented in the librep manual, section
Formatted Output,
<http://librep.sourceforge.net/librep-manual.html#Formatted%20Output>,
<http://www.gwinnup.org/research/docs/librep.html#SEC122>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: rust-format,  Next: go-format,  Prev: librep-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.12 Rust Format Strings
---------------------------

   Rust format strings are those supported by the ‘formatx’ library
<https://crates.io/crates/formatx>.  These are those supported by the
‘format!’ built-in <https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/fmt/> with the
restrictions listed in <https://crates.io/crates/formatx>, section
"Limitations".

   A Rust format string consists of
   • an opening brace ‘{’,
   • an optional non-empty sequence of digits or an optional identifier,
   • optionally, a ‘:’ and a format specifier, where a format specifier
     is of the form
     ‘[[FILL]ALIGN][SIGN][#][0][MINIMUMWIDTH][.PRECISION][TYPE]’ where
        - the FILL character is any character,
        - the ALIGN flag is one of ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘^’,
        - the SIGN is one of ‘+’, ‘-’,
        - the # flag is ‘#’,
        - the 0 flag is ‘0’,
        - MINIMUMWIDTH is a non-empty sequence of digits,
        - PRECISION is a non-empty sequence of digits,
        - TYPE is ‘?’,
   • optional white-space,
   • a closing brace ‘}’.
Brace characters ‘{’ and ‘}’ can be escaped by doubling them: ‘{{’ and
‘}}’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: go-format,  Next: ruby-format,  Prev: rust-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.13 Go Format Strings
-------------------------

   Go format strings are documented on the Go packages site, for package
‘fmt’, at <https://pkg.go.dev/fmt>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: ruby-format,  Next: sh-format,  Prev: go-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.14 Ruby Format Strings
---------------------------

   Ruby format strings are described in the documentation of the Ruby
functions ‘format’ and ‘sprintf’, in
<https://ruby-doc.org/core-2.7.1/Kernel.html#method-i-sprintf>.

   There are two kinds of format strings in Ruby:
   • Those that take a list of arguments without names.  They support
     argument reordering by use of the ‘%N$’ syntax.  Note that if one
     argument uses this syntax, all must use this syntax.
   • Those that take a hash table, containing named arguments.  The
     syntax is ‘%<NAME>’.  Note that ‘%{NAME}’ is equivalent to
     ‘%<NAME>s’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: sh-format,  Next: awk-format,  Prev: ruby-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.15 Shell Format Strings
----------------------------

   There are two kinds of format strings in shell scripts: those with
dollar notation for placeholders, called _Shell format strings_ and
labelled as ‘sh-format’, and those acceptable to the ‘printf’ command
(or shell built-in command), called _Shell ‘printf’ format strings_ and
labelled as ‘sh-printf-format’.

   Shell format strings, as supported by GNU gettext and the ‘envsubst’
program, are strings with references to shell variables in the form
‘$VARIABLE’ or ‘${VARIABLE}’.  References of the form
‘${VARIABLE-DEFAULT}’, ‘${VARIABLE:-DEFAULT}’, ‘${VARIABLE=DEFAULT}’,
‘${VARIABLE:=DEFAULT}’, ‘${VARIABLE+REPLACEMENT}’,
‘${VARIABLE:+REPLACEMENT}’, ‘${VARIABLE?IGNORED}’,
‘${VARIABLE:?IGNORED}’, that would be valid inside shell scripts, are
not supported.  The VARIABLE names must consist solely of alphanumeric
or underscore ASCII characters, not start with a digit and be nonempty;
otherwise such a variable reference is ignored.

   Shell ‘printf’ format strings are the format strings supported by the
POSIX ‘printf’ command
(<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/printf.html>),
including the floating-point conversion specifiers ‘a’, ‘A’, ‘e’, ‘E’,
‘f’, ‘F’, ‘g’, ‘G’, but without the obsolescent ‘b’ conversion
specifier.  Extensions by the GNU coreutils ‘printf’ command
(<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/printf-invocation.html>)
are not supported: use of the ‘'’ flag in the ‘%i’, ‘%d’, ‘%u’, ‘%f’,
‘%F’, ‘%g’, ‘%G’ directives; use of ‘*’ or ‘*M$’ as width or precision;
use of size specifiers ‘h’, ‘l’, ‘j’, ‘z’, ‘t’ (ignored); and the escape
sequences ‘\c’, ‘\xNN’, ‘\uNNNN’, ‘\UNNNNNNNN’.  Extensions by the GNU
bash ‘printf’ built-in
(<https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Builtins.html#index-printf>)
are not supported either: use of ‘*’ as width or precision; use of size
specifiers ‘h’, ‘l’, ‘j’, ‘z’, ‘t’ (ignored); the ‘%b’, ‘%q’, ‘%Q’,
‘%T’, ‘%n’ directives; and the escape sequences ‘\xNN’, ‘\uNNNN’,
‘\UNNNNNNNN’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: awk-format,  Next: lua-format,  Prev: sh-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.16 awk Format Strings
--------------------------

   awk format strings are described in the gawk documentation, section
Printf, <https://www.gnu.org/manual/gawk/html_node/Printf.html#Printf>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: lua-format,  Next: object-pascal-format,  Prev: awk-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.17 Lua Format Strings
--------------------------

   Lua format strings are described in the Lua reference manual, section
String Manipulation,
<https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html#pdf-string.format>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: object-pascal-format,  Next: modula2-format,  Prev: lua-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.18 Object Pascal Format Strings
------------------------------------

   Object Pascal format strings are described in the documentation of
the Free Pascal runtime library, section Format,
<https://www.freepascal.org/docs-html/rtl/sysutils/format.html>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: modula2-format,  Next: d-format,  Prev: object-pascal-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.19 Modula-2 Format Strings
-------------------------------

   Modula-2 format strings are defined as follows:
  1. Escape sequences are processed.  These escape sequences are
     understood: ‘\a’, ‘\b’, ‘\e’, ‘\f’, ‘\n’, ‘\r’, ‘\xHEX-DIGITS’,
     ‘\OCTAL-DIGITS’.  Other than that, a backslash is ignored.
  2. A directive consists of
        • a ‘%’ character,
        • optionally a flag character ‘-’,
        • optionally a flag character ‘0’,
        • optionally a width specification (a nonnegative integer),
        • and finally a specifier: ‘s’ that formats a string, ‘c’ that
          formats a character, ‘d’ and ‘u’, that format a
          (signed/unsigned) integer in decimal, or ‘x’, that formats an
          unsigned integer in hexadecimal.
     There is also the directive ‘%%’, that produces a single percent
     character.


File: gettext.info,  Node: d-format,  Next: ocaml-format,  Prev: modula2-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.20 D Format Strings
------------------------

   D format strings are described in the documentation of the D module
‘std.format’, at <https://dlang.org/library/std/format.html>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: ocaml-format,  Next: smalltalk-format,  Prev: d-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.21 OCaml Format Strings
----------------------------

   OCaml format strings are described in the documentation of the
‘Printf’ module, at
<https://ocaml.org/manual/5.3/api/Printf.html#VALfprintf>.  In
translated strings (‘msgstr’ values), arguments can be specified through
a number, using the syntax ‘%M$’ instead of ‘%’ and ‘*M$’ instead of ‘*’
to designate the argument number M.


File: gettext.info,  Node: smalltalk-format,  Next: qt-format,  Prev: ocaml-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.22 Smalltalk Format Strings
--------------------------------

   Smalltalk format strings are described in the GNU Smalltalk
documentation, class ‘CharArray’, methods ‘bindWith:’ and
‘bindWithArguments:’.
<https://www.gnu.org/software/smalltalk/gst-manual/gst_68.html#SEC238>.
In summary, a directive starts with ‘%’ and is followed by ‘%’ or a
nonzero digit (‘1’ to ‘9’).


File: gettext.info,  Node: qt-format,  Next: qt-plural-format,  Prev: smalltalk-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.23 Qt Format Strings
-------------------------

   Qt format strings are described in the documentation of the QString
class <file:/usr/lib/qt-4.3.0/doc/html/qstring.html>.  In summary, a
directive consists of a ‘%’ followed by a digit.  The same directive
cannot occur more than once in a format string.


File: gettext.info,  Node: qt-plural-format,  Next: kde-format,  Prev: qt-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.24 Qt Format Strings
-------------------------

   Qt format strings are described in the documentation of the
QObject::tr method <file:/usr/lib/qt-4.3.0/doc/html/qobject.html>.  In
summary, the only allowed directive is ‘%n’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: kde-format,  Next: kde-kuit-format,  Prev: qt-plural-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.25 KDE Format Strings
--------------------------

   KDE 4 format strings are defined as follows: A directive consists of
a ‘%’ followed by a non-zero decimal number.  If a ‘%n’ occurs in a
format strings, all of ‘%1’, ..., ‘%(n-1)’ must occur as well, except
possibly one of them.


File: gettext.info,  Node: kde-kuit-format,  Next: boost-format,  Prev: kde-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.26 KUIT Format Strings
---------------------------

   KUIT (KDE User Interface Text) is compatible with KDE 4 format
strings, while it also allows programmers to add semantic information to
a format string, through XML markup tags.  For example, if the first
format directive in a string is a filename, programmers could indicate
that with a ‘filename’ tag, like ‘<filename>%1</filename>’.

   KUIT format strings are described in
<https://api.kde.org/frameworks/ki18n/html/prg_guide.html#kuit_markup>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: boost-format,  Next: tcl-format,  Prev: kde-kuit-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.27 Boost Format Strings
----------------------------

   Boost format strings are described in the documentation of the
‘boost::format’ class, at
<https://www.boost.org/libs/format/doc/format.html>.  In summary, a
directive has either the same syntax as in a C format string, such as
‘%1$+5d’, or may be surrounded by vertical bars, such as ‘%|1$+5d|’ or
‘%|1$+5|’, or consists of just an argument number between percent signs,
such as ‘%1%’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: tcl-format,  Next: perl-format,  Prev: boost-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.28 Tcl Format Strings
--------------------------

   Tcl format strings are described in the ‘format.n’ manual page,
<http://www.scriptics.com/man/tcl8.3/TclCmd/format.htm>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: perl-format,  Next: php-format,  Prev: tcl-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.29 Perl Format Strings
---------------------------

   There are two kinds of format strings in Perl: those acceptable to
the Perl built-in function ‘printf’, labelled as ‘perl-format’, and
those acceptable to the ‘libintl-perl’ function ‘__x’, labelled as
‘perl-brace-format’.

   Perl ‘printf’ format strings are described in the ‘sprintf’ section
of ‘man perlfunc’.

   Perl brace format strings are described in the
‘Locale::TextDomain(3pm)’ manual page of the CPAN package libintl-perl.
In brief, Perl format uses placeholders put between braces (‘{’ and
‘}’).  The placeholder must have the syntax of simple identifiers.


File: gettext.info,  Node: php-format,  Next: gcc-internal-format,  Prev: perl-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.30 PHP Format Strings
--------------------------

   PHP format strings are described in the documentation of the PHP
function ‘sprintf’, in ‘phpdoc/manual/function.sprintf.html’ or
<http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.sprintf.php>.


File: gettext.info,  Node: gcc-internal-format,  Next: gfc-internal-format,  Prev: php-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.31 GCC internal Format Strings
-----------------------------------

   These format strings are used inside the GCC sources.  In such a
format string, a directive starts with ‘%’, is optionally followed by a
size specifier ‘l’ or ‘ll’ or ‘w’ or ‘z’ or ‘t’, an optional flag ‘q’
(indicates quotes), another optional flag ‘+’, another optional flag
‘#’, and is finished by a specifier:
   • ‘%’ denotes a literal percent sign,
   • ‘<’ denotes an opening quote,
   • ‘>’ or ‘'’ denotes a closing quote,
   • ‘r’ denotes the beginning of a colored text segment,
   • ‘R’ denotes the end of a colored text segment,
   • ‘{’ denotes the beginning of a clickable text segment,
   • ‘}’ denotes the end of a clickable text segment,
   • ‘c’ denotes a character,
   • ‘s’ denotes a string,
   • ‘i’ and ‘d’ denote an integer,
   • ‘o’, ‘u’, ‘x’ denote an unsigned integer,
   • ‘f’ denotes a floating-point number,
   • ‘.*s’ denotes a string preceded by a width specification,
   • ‘D’ denotes a general declaration,
   • ‘E’ denotes an expression,
   • ‘F’ denotes a function declaration,
   • ‘T’ denotes a type,
   • ‘A’ denotes a function argument,
   • ‘H’ denotes the first type in a type difference,
   • ‘I’ denotes the second type in a type difference,
   • ‘O’ denotes a binary operator,
   • ‘P’ denotes a function parameter index,
   • ‘Q’ denotes an assignment operator,
   • ‘S’ denotes a substitution,
   • ‘X’ denotes an exception,
   • ‘V’ or ‘v’ denotes a list of const/volatile qualifiers,
   • ‘C’ denotes a tree code or the current locus,
   • ‘L’ denotes a programming language or a locus,
   • ‘p’, ‘@’, ‘e’ denote various other types of compiler-internal
     objects,
   • ‘Z’ denotes an array of integers.


File: gettext.info,  Node: gfc-internal-format,  Next: ycp-format,  Prev: gcc-internal-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.32 GFC internal Format Strings
-----------------------------------

   These format strings are used inside the GNU Fortran Compiler
sources, that is, the Fortran frontend in the GCC sources, up to GCC
14.x.  In such a format string, a directive starts with ‘%’ and is
finished by a specifier: ‘%’ denotes a literal percent sign, ‘C’ denotes
the current source location, ‘L’ denotes a source location, ‘c’ denotes
a character, ‘s’ denotes a string, ‘i’ and ‘d’ denote an integer, ‘u’
denotes an unsigned integer.  ‘i’, ‘d’, and ‘u’ may be preceded by a
size specifier ‘l’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: ycp-format,  Prev: gfc-internal-format,  Up: Translators for other Languages

16.3.33 YCP Format Strings
--------------------------

   YCP sformat strings are described in the libycp documentation
<file:/usr/share/doc/packages/libycp/YCP-builtins.html>.  In summary, a
directive starts with ‘%’ and is followed by ‘%’ or a nonzero digit (‘1’
to ‘9’).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Maintainers for other Languages,  Next: List of Programming Languages,  Prev: Translators for other Languages,  Up: Programming Languages

16.4 The Maintainer's View
==========================

   For the maintainer, the general procedure differs from the C language
case:

   • If only a single programming language is used, the
     ‘XGETTEXT_OPTIONS’ variable in ‘po/Makevars’ (*note po/Makevars::)
     should be adjusted to match the ‘xgettext’ options for that
     particular programming language.  If the package uses more than one
     programming language with ‘gettext’ support, it becomes necessary
     to change the POT file construction rule in ‘po/Makefile.in.in’.
     It is recommended to make one ‘xgettext’ invocation per programming
     language, each with the options appropriate for that language, and
     to combine the resulting files using ‘msgcat’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: List of Programming Languages,  Prev: Maintainers for other Languages,  Up: Programming Languages

16.5 Individual Programming Languages
=====================================

* Menu:

* C::                           C, C++, Objective C
* Python::                      Python
* Java::                        Java
* C#::                          C#
* JavaScript::                  JavaScript
* TypeScript::                  TypeScript
* Scheme::                      GNU guile - Scheme
* Common Lisp::                 GNU clisp - Common Lisp
* clisp C::                     GNU clisp C sources
* Emacs Lisp::                  Emacs Lisp
* librep::                      librep
* Rust::                        Rust
* Go::                          Go
* Ruby::                        Ruby
* sh::                          sh - Shell Script
* bash::                        bash - Bourne-Again Shell Script
* gawk::                        GNU awk
* Lua::                         Lua
* Pascal::                      Pascal - Free Pascal Compiler
* Modula-2::                    Modula-2
* D::                           D
* OCaml::                       OCaml
* Smalltalk::                   GNU Smalltalk
* Vala::                        Vala
* wxWidgets::                   wxWidgets library
* Tcl::                         Tcl - Tk's scripting language
* Perl::                        Perl
* PHP::                         PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
* Pike::                        Pike
* GCC-source::                  GNU Compiler Collection sources
* YCP::                         YCP - YaST2 scripting language


File: gettext.info,  Node: C,  Next: Python,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.1 C, C++, Objective C
--------------------------

RPMs
     gcc, gpp, gobjc, glibc, gettext

Ubuntu packages
     gcc, g++, gobjc, libc6-dev, libasprintf-dev

File extension
     For C: ‘c’, ‘h’.
     For C++: ‘C’, ‘c++’, ‘cc’, ‘cxx’, ‘cpp’, ‘hpp’.
     For Objective C: ‘m’.

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
     ‘dcngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ and ‘wbindtextdomain’ functions

setlocale
     Programmer must call ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "")’

Prerequisite
     ‘#include <libintl.h>’
     ‘#include <locale.h>’
     ‘#define _(string) gettext (string)’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     Use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k_’
     For C++ with the Boost library: ‘xgettext --boost -k_’

Formatting with positions
     ‘fprintf "%2$d %1$d"’
     In C++: ‘autosprintf "%2$d %1$d"’ (*note Introduction:
     (autosprintf)Top.)
     In C++ 20 or newer: ‘std::vformat "{1} {0}"’
     In C++ with the Boost library: ‘boost::format "%2% %1%"’

Portability
     autoconf (gettext.m4) and #if ENABLE_NLS

po-mode marking
     yes

   The following examples are available in the ‘examples’ directory:
‘hello-c’, ‘hello-c-gnome2’, ‘hello-c-gnome3’, ‘hello-c-http’,
‘hello-c++’, ‘hello-c++20’, ‘hello-c++-qt’, ‘hello-c++-kde’,
‘hello-c++-gnome2’, ‘hello-c++-gnome3’, ‘hello-c++-wxwidgets’,
‘hello-objc’, ‘hello-objc-gnustep’, ‘hello-objc-gnome2’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Python,  Next: Java,  Prev: C,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.2 Python
-------------

RPMs
     python

Ubuntu packages
     python

File extension
     ‘py’

String syntax
     ‘'abc'’, ‘u'abc'’, ‘r'abc'’, ‘ur'abc'’,
     ‘"abc"’, ‘u"abc"’, ‘r"abc"’, ‘ur"abc"’,
     ‘'''abc'''’, ‘u'''abc'''’, ‘r'''abc'''’, ‘ur'''abc'''’,
     ‘"""abc"""’, ‘u"""abc"""’, ‘r"""abc"""’, ‘ur"""abc"""’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_('abc')’ etc.

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext.gettext’, ‘gettext.dgettext’, ‘gettext.ngettext’,
     ‘gettext.dngettext’, also ‘ugettext’, ‘ungettext’

textdomain
     ‘gettext.textdomain’ function, or ‘gettext.install(DOMAIN)’
     function

bindtextdomain
     ‘gettext.bindtextdomain’ function, or
     ‘gettext.install(DOMAIN,LOCALEDIR)’ function

setlocale
     not used by the gettext emulation

Prerequisite
     ‘import gettext’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     emulate

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘'...%(ident)d...' % { 'ident': value }’
     ‘'...{ident}...'.format(ident=value)’
     ‘'...{0}...{1}...'.format(value0,value1)’
     ‘'...{}...{}...'.format(value0,value1)’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-python’.

   A note about format strings: Python supports format strings with
unnamed arguments, such as ‘'...%d...'’, and format strings with named
arguments, such as ‘'...%(ident)d...'’.  The latter are preferable for
internationalized programs, for two reasons:

   • When a format string takes more than one argument, the translator
     can provide a translation that uses the arguments in a different
     order, if the format string uses named arguments.  For example, the
     translator can reformulate
          "'%(volume)s' has only %(freespace)d bytes free."
     to
          "Only %(freespace)d bytes free on '%(volume)s'."
     Additionally, the identifiers also provide some context to the
     translator.

   • In the context of plural forms, the format string used for the
     singular form does not use the numeric argument in many languages.
     Even in English, one prefers to write ‘"one hour"’ instead of ‘"1
     hour"’.  Omitting individual arguments from format strings like
     this is only possible with the named argument syntax.  (With
     unnamed arguments, Python - unlike C - verifies that the format
     string uses all supplied arguments.)

   A note about f-strings (PEP 498): ‘xgettext’
   • syntactically recognizes f-strings,
   • is able to extract f-strings that contain no sub-expressions.
However, ‘xgettext’ does not extract f-strings marked for translation
that contain sub-expressions.  This will not work as expected:
     _(f"The file {file[i]} does not exist.")
because the translator is generally not a programmer and should thus not
be confronted with expressions from the programming language.

Related software
----------------

   An internationalization system based on GNU gettext and PO files is
Babel (https://babel.pocoo.org/).


File: gettext.info,  Node: Java,  Next: C#,  Prev: Python,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.3 Java
-----------

RPMs
     java, java2

Ubuntu packages
     default-jdk

File extension
     ‘java’

String syntax
     "abc", """text block"""

gettext shorthand
     i18n("abc")

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘GettextResource.gettext’, ‘GettextResource.ngettext’,
     ‘GettextResource.pgettext’, ‘GettextResource.npgettext’

textdomain
     --, use ‘ResourceBundle.getResource’ instead

bindtextdomain
     --, use CLASSPATH instead

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     --, uses a Java specific message catalog format

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -ki18n’

Formatting with positions
     ‘MessageFormat.format "{1,number} {0,number}"’ or ‘String.format
     "%2$d %1$d"’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   Before marking strings as internationalizable, uses of the string
concatenation operator need to be converted to ‘MessageFormat’
applications.  For example, ‘"file "+filename+" not found"’ becomes
‘MessageFormat.format("file {0} not found", new Object[] { filename })’.
Only after this is done, can the strings be marked and extracted.

   GNU gettext uses the native Java internationalization mechanism,
namely ‘ResourceBundle’s.  There are two formats of ‘ResourceBundle’s:
‘.properties’ files and ‘.class’ files.  The ‘.properties’ format is a
text file which the translators can directly edit, like PO files, but
which doesn't support plural forms.  Whereas the ‘.class’ format is
compiled from ‘.java’ source code and can support plural forms (provided
it is accessed through an appropriate API, see below).

   To convert a PO file to a ‘.properties’ file, the ‘msgcat’ program
can be used with the option ‘--properties-output’.  To convert a
‘.properties’ file back to a PO file, the ‘msgcat’ program can be used
with the option ‘--properties-input’.  All the tools that manipulate PO
files can work with ‘.properties’ files as well, if given the
‘--properties-input’ and/or ‘--properties-output’ option.

   To convert a PO file to a ResourceBundle class, the ‘msgfmt’ program
can be used with the option ‘--java’ or ‘--java2’.  To convert a
ResourceBundle back to a PO file, the ‘msgunfmt’ program can be used
with the option ‘--java’.

   Two different programmatic APIs can be used to access
ResourceBundles.  Note that both APIs work with all kinds of
ResourceBundles, whether GNU gettext generated classes, or other
‘.class’ or ‘.properties’ files.

  1. The ‘java.util.ResourceBundle’ API.

     In particular, its ‘getString’ function returns a string
     translation.  Note that a missing translation yields a
     ‘MissingResourceException’.

     This has the advantage of being the standard API. And it does not
     require any additional libraries, only the ‘msgcat’ generated
     ‘.properties’ files or the ‘msgfmt’ generated ‘.class’ files.  But
     it cannot do plural handling, even if the resource was generated by
     ‘msgfmt’ from a PO file with plural handling.

  2. The ‘gnu.gettext.GettextResource’ API.

     Reference documentation in Javadoc 1.1 style format is in the
     javadoc2 directory (javadoc2/index.html).

     Its ‘gettext’ function returns a string translation.  Note that
     when a translation is missing, the MSGID argument is returned
     unchanged.

     This has the advantage of having the ‘ngettext’ function for plural
     handling and the ‘pgettext’ and ‘npgettext’ for strings constraint
     to a particular context.

     To use this API, one needs the ‘libintl.jar’ file which is part of
     the GNU gettext package and distributed under the LGPL.

   Four examples, using the second API, are available in the ‘examples’
directory: ‘hello-java’, ‘hello-java-awt’, ‘hello-java-swing’,
‘hello-java-qtjambi’.

   Now, to make use of the API and define a shorthand for ‘getString’,
there are three idioms that you can choose from:

   • (This one assumes Java 1.5 or newer.)  In a unique class of your
     project, say ‘Util’, define a static variable holding the
     ‘ResourceBundle’ instance and the shorthand:

          private static ResourceBundle myResources =
            ResourceBundle.getBundle("domain-name");
          public static String i18n(String s) {
            return myResources.getString(s);
          }

     All classes containing internationalized strings then contain

          import static Util.i18n;

     and the shorthand is used like this:

          System.out.println(i18n("Operation completed."));

   • In a unique class of your project, say ‘Util’, define a static
     variable holding the ‘ResourceBundle’ instance:

          public static ResourceBundle myResources =
            ResourceBundle.getBundle("domain-name");

     All classes containing internationalized strings then contain

          private static ResourceBundle res = Util.myResources;
          private static String i18n(String s) { return res.getString(s); }

     and the shorthand is used like this:

          System.out.println(i18n("Operation completed."));

   • You add a class with a very short name, say ‘S’, containing just
     the definition of the resource bundle and of the shorthand:

          public class S {
            public static ResourceBundle myResources =
              ResourceBundle.getBundle("domain-name");
            public static String i18n(String s) {
              return myResources.getString(s);
            }
          }

     and the shorthand is used like this:

          System.out.println(S.i18n("Operation completed."));

   Which of the three idioms you choose, will depend on whether your
project requires portability to Java versions prior to Java 1.5 and, if
so, whether copying two lines of codes into every class is more
acceptable in your project than a class with a single-letter name.


File: gettext.info,  Node: C#,  Next: JavaScript,  Prev: Java,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.4 C#
---------

RPMs
     mono or dotnet8.0

Ubuntu packages
     mono-mcs or dotnet8

File extension
     ‘cs’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’, ‘@"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     _("abc")

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘GettextResourceManager.GetString’,
     ‘GettextResourceManager.GetPluralString’
     ‘GettextResourceManager.GetParticularString’
     ‘GettextResourceManager.GetParticularPluralString’

textdomain
     ‘new GettextResourceManager(domain)’

bindtextdomain
     --, compiled message catalogs are located in subdirectories of the
     directory containing the executable

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     --, uses a C# specific message catalog format

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k_’

Formatting with positions
     ‘String.Format "{1} {0}"’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   Before marking strings as internationalizable, uses of the string
concatenation operator need to be converted to ‘String.Format’
invocations.  For example, ‘"file "+filename+" not found"’ becomes
‘String.Format("file {0} not found", filename)’.  Only after this is
done, can the strings be marked and extracted.

   GNU gettext uses the native C#/.NET internationalization mechanism,
namely the classes ‘ResourceManager’ and ‘ResourceSet’.  Applications
use the ‘ResourceManager’ methods to retrieve the native language
translation of strings.  An instance of ‘ResourceSet’ is the in-memory
representation of a message catalog file.  The ‘ResourceManager’ loads
and accesses ‘ResourceSet’ instances as needed to look up the
translations.

   There are two formats of ‘ResourceSet’s that can be directly loaded
by the C# runtime: ‘.resources’ files and ‘.dll’ files.

   • The ‘.resources’ format is a binary file usually generated through
     the ‘resgen’ or ‘monoresgen’ utility, but which doesn't support
     plural forms.  ‘.resources’ files can also be embedded in .NET
     ‘.exe’ files.  This only affects whether a file system access is
     performed to load the message catalog; it doesn't affect the
     contents of the message catalog.

   • On the other hand, the ‘.dll’ format is a binary file that is
     compiled from ‘.cs’ source code and can support plural forms
     (provided it is accessed through the GNU gettext API, see below).

   Note that these .NET ‘.dll’ and ‘.exe’ files are not tied to a
particular platform; their file format and GNU gettext for C# can be
used on any platform.

   To convert a PO file to a ‘.resources’ file, the ‘msgfmt’ program can
be used with the option ‘--csharp-resources’.  To convert a ‘.resources’
file back to a PO file, the ‘msgunfmt’ program can be used with the
option ‘--csharp-resources’.  You can also, in some cases, use the
‘monoresgen’ program (from the ‘mono’/‘mcs’ package).  This program can
also convert a ‘.resources’ file back to a PO file.  But beware: as of
this writing (January 2004), the ‘monoresgen’ converter is quite buggy.

   To convert a PO file to a ‘.dll’ file, the ‘msgfmt’ program can be
used with the option ‘--csharp’.  The result will be a ‘.dll’ file
containing a subclass of ‘GettextResourceSet’, which itself is a
subclass of ‘ResourceSet’.  To convert a ‘.dll’ file containing a
‘GettextResourceSet’ subclass back to a PO file, the ‘msgunfmt’ program
can be used with the option ‘--csharp’.

   The advantages of the ‘.dll’ format over the ‘.resources’ format are:

  1. Freedom to localize: Users can add their own translations to an
     application after it has been built and distributed.  Whereas when
     the programmer uses a ‘ResourceManager’ constructor provided by the
     system, the set of ‘.resources’ files for an application must be
     specified when the application is built and cannot be extended
     afterwards.

  2. Plural handling: A message catalog in ‘.dll’ format supports the
     plural handling function ‘GetPluralString’.  Whereas ‘.resources’
     files can only contain data and only support lookups that depend on
     a single string.

  3. Context handling: A message catalog in ‘.dll’ format supports the
     query-with-context functions ‘GetParticularString’ and
     ‘GetParticularPluralString’.  Whereas ‘.resources’ files can only
     contain data and only support lookups that depend on a single
     string.

  4. The ‘GettextResourceManager’ that loads the message catalogs in
     ‘.dll’ format also provides for inheritance on a per-message basis.
     For example, in Austrian (‘de_AT’) locale, translations from the
     German (‘de’) message catalog will be used for messages not found
     in the Austrian message catalog.  This has the consequence that the
     Austrian translators need only translate those few messages for
     which the translation into Austrian differs from the German one.
     Whereas when working with ‘.resources’ files, each message catalog
     must provide the translations of all messages by itself.

  5. The ‘GettextResourceManager’ that loads the message catalogs in
     ‘.dll’ format also provides for a fallback: The English MSGID is
     returned when no translation can be found.  Whereas when working
     with ‘.resources’ files, a language-neutral ‘.resources’ file must
     explicitly be provided as a fallback.

   On the side of the programmatic APIs, the programmer can use either
the standard ‘ResourceManager’ API and the GNU ‘GettextResourceManager’
API. The latter is an extension of the former, because
‘GettextResourceManager’ is a subclass of ‘ResourceManager’.

  1. The ‘System.Resources.ResourceManager’ API.

     This API works with resources in ‘.resources’ format.

     The creation of the ‘ResourceManager’ is done through
            new ResourceManager(domainname, Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly())

     The ‘GetString’ function returns a string's translation.  Note that
     this function returns null when a translation is missing (i.e. not
     even found in the fallback resource file).

  2. The ‘GNU.Gettext.GettextResourceManager’ API.

     This API works with resources in ‘.dll’ format.

     Reference documentation is in the csharpdoc directory
     (csharpdoc/index.html).

     The creation of the ‘ResourceManager’ is done through
            new GettextResourceManager(domainname)

     The ‘GetString’ function returns a string's translation.  Note that
     when a translation is missing, the MSGID argument is returned
     unchanged.

     The ‘GetPluralString’ function returns a string translation with
     plural handling, like the ‘ngettext’ function in C.

     The ‘GetParticularString’ function returns a string's translation,
     specific to a particular context, like the ‘pgettext’ function in
     C.  Note that when a translation is missing, the MSGID argument is
     returned unchanged.

     The ‘GetParticularPluralString’ function returns a string
     translation, specific to a particular context, with plural
     handling, like the ‘npgettext’ function in C.

     To use this API, one needs the ‘GNU.Gettext.dll’ file which is part
     of the GNU gettext package and distributed under the LGPL.

   You can also mix both approaches: use the
‘GNU.Gettext.GettextResourceManager’ constructor, but otherwise use only
the ‘ResourceManager’ type and only the ‘GetString’ method.  This is
appropriate when you want to profit from the tools for PO files, but
don't want to change an existing source code that uses ‘ResourceManager’
and don't (yet) need the ‘GetPluralString’ method.

   Two examples, using the second API, are available in the ‘examples’
directory: ‘hello-csharp’, ‘hello-csharp-forms’.

   Now, to make use of the API and define a shorthand for ‘GetString’,
there are two idioms that you can choose from:

   • In a unique class of your project, say ‘Util’, define a static
     variable holding the ‘ResourceManager’ instance:

          public static GettextResourceManager MyResourceManager =
            new GettextResourceManager("domain-name");

     All classes containing internationalized strings then contain

          private static GettextResourceManager Res = Util.MyResourceManager;
          private static String _(String s) { return Res.GetString(s); }

     and the shorthand is used like this:

          Console.WriteLine(_("Operation completed."));

   • You add a class with a very short name, say ‘S’, containing just
     the definition of the resource manager and of the shorthand:

          public class S {
            public static GettextResourceManager MyResourceManager =
              new GettextResourceManager("domain-name");
            public static String _(String s) {
               return MyResourceManager.GetString(s);
            }
          }

     and the shorthand is used like this:

          Console.WriteLine(S._("Operation completed."));

   Which of the two idioms you choose, will depend on whether copying
two lines of codes into every class is more acceptable in your project
than a class with a single-letter name.


File: gettext.info,  Node: JavaScript,  Next: TypeScript,  Prev: C#,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.5 JavaScript
-----------------

RPMs
     js

Ubuntu packages
     gjs

File extension
     ‘js’

String syntax

        • ‘"abc"’

        • ‘'abc'’

        • ‘`abc`’

        • ‘TAG`abc${EXPRESSION}def{EXPRESSION}...`’, see the description
          of ‘--tag’ in *note xgettext Invocation::.

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use, or emulate

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     A ‘format’ method on strings can be used.  But since it is not
     standard in JavaScript, you have to enable it yourself, through

          const Format = imports.format;
          String.prototype.format = Format.format;

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, the functions are not available.

po-mode marking
     --


File: gettext.info,  Node: TypeScript,  Next: Scheme,  Prev: JavaScript,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.6 TypeScript and TSX
-------------------------

RPMs
     js

Ubuntu packages
     gjs

File extension
     ‘ts’ for TypeScript, ‘tsx’ for TSX (TypeScript with JSX)

String syntax

        • ‘"abc"’

        • ‘'abc'’

        • ‘`abc`’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     unknown

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use, or emulate

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     A ‘format’ method on strings can be used.  But since it is not
     standard in TypeScript, you have to enable it yourself.

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, the functions are not available.

po-mode marking
     --


File: gettext.info,  Node: Scheme,  Next: Common Lisp,  Prev: TypeScript,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.7 GNU guile - Scheme
-------------------------

RPMs
     guile

Ubuntu packages
     guile-2.0

File extension
     ‘scm’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘(_ "abc")’, ‘_"abc"’ (GIMP script-fu extension)

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’

setlocale
     ‘(catch #t (lambda () (setlocale LC_ALL "")) (lambda args #f))’

Prerequisite
     ‘(use-modules (ice-9 format))’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -L Guile -k_’

     ‘xgettext -L Scheme’ and ‘xgettext -L Guile’ are nearly equivalent.
     They differ in the interpretation of escape sequences in string
     literals: While ‘xgettext -L Scheme’ assumes the R6RS and R7RS
     syntax of string literals, ‘xgettext -L Guile’ assumes the syntax
     of string literals understood by Guile 2.x and 3.0 (without
     command-line option ‘--r6rs’ or ‘--r7rs’, and before a ‘#!r6rs’
     directive is seen).  After a ‘#!r6rs’ directive, there is no
     difference any more between ‘xgettext -L Scheme’ and ‘xgettext -L
     Guile’ for the rest of the file.

Formatting with positions
     --

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, no translation.

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-guile’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Common Lisp,  Next: clisp C,  Prev: Scheme,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.8 GNU clisp - Common Lisp
------------------------------

RPMs
     clisp 2.28 or newer

Ubuntu packages
     clisp

File extension
     ‘lisp’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘(_ "abc")’, ‘(ENGLISH "abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘i18n:gettext’, ‘i18n:ngettext’

textdomain
     ‘i18n:textdomain’

bindtextdomain
     ‘i18n:textdomaindir’

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k_ -kENGLISH’

Formatting with positions
     ‘format "~1@*~D ~0@*~D"’

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, no translation.

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-clisp’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: clisp C,  Next: Emacs Lisp,  Prev: Common Lisp,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.9 GNU clisp C sources
--------------------------

RPMs
     clisp

Ubuntu packages
     clisp

File extension
     ‘d’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘ENGLISH ? "abc" : ""’
     ‘GETTEXT("abc")’
     ‘GETTEXTL("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘clgettext’, ‘clgettextl’

textdomain
     --

bindtextdomain
     --

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     ‘#include "lispbibl.c"’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘clisp-xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘fprintf "%2$d %1$d"’

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, no translation.

po-mode marking
     --


File: gettext.info,  Node: Emacs Lisp,  Next: librep,  Prev: clisp C,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.10 Emacs Lisp
------------------

RPMs
     emacs, xemacs

Ubuntu packages
     emacs, xemacs21

File extension
     ‘el’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘(_"abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’ (xemacs only)

textdomain
     ‘domain’ special form (xemacs only)

bindtextdomain
     ‘bind-text-domain’ function (xemacs only)

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘format "%2$d %1$d"’

Portability
     Only XEmacs.  Without ‘I18N3’ defined at build time, no
     translation.

po-mode marking
     --


File: gettext.info,  Node: librep,  Next: Rust,  Prev: Emacs Lisp,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.11 librep
--------------

RPMs
     librep 0.15.3 or newer

Ubuntu packages
     librep16

File extension
     ‘jl’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘(_"abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     --

Prerequisite
     ‘(require 'rep.i18n.gettext)’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘format "%2$d %1$d"’

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, no translation.

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-librep’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Rust,  Next: Go,  Prev: librep,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.12 Rust
------------

RPMs
     rust, rust-cargo

Ubuntu packages
     rustc, cargo

File extension
     ‘rs’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’, ‘r"abc"’, ‘r#"abc"#’ etc.

gettext shorthand
     --

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     ‘setlocale’ function

Prerequisite
     ‘$ cargo add gettext-rs’

     ‘use gettextrs::*;’

     Note: We recommend the ‘gettext-rs’ crate.  We do not recommend the
     ‘gettext’ crate, because (as of 2025) it does not handle catalog
     fallback (e.g.  from ‘de_AT’ to ‘de’) nor the ‘LANGUAGE’
     environment variable.

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     There are three common ways of doing string formatting in Rust:
        • Using the built-ins ‘format!’, ‘println!’, etc.  This facility
          supports only constant strings, known at compile-time.  Thus
          it cannot be used with translated format strings.  You would
          get an error such as "error: format argument must be a string
          literal".
        • Using the ‘strfmt’ library.  The facility cannot be
          recommended, because it does not support the case where some
          of the values are strings and some of the values are numbers
          (without an excessive amount of contortions).
        • Using the ‘formatx’ library.  This is the one we recommend.

     So, you have to convert the ‘format!’, ‘println!’, etc.
     invocations to use ‘formatx’.  For example,
          println!("Hello {}, you got {} coins.", name, left);
     becomes
          println!("{}", formatx!(gettext("Hello {}, you got {} coins."),
                                  name, left)
                         .unwrap());

     For swapped positions, a translator may translate ‘"Hello {}, you
     got {} coins."’ with ‘"Hello, {1} coins are left for you, {0}."’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-rust’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Go,  Next: Ruby,  Prev: Rust,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.13 Go
----------

   Three packages are available, that can be used for message
localization with PO files:
   • The ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ package.

     Documentation:
     <https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext>

     Source code: <https://github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext>
   • The ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ package.

     Documentation: <https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/gosexy/gettext>

     Source code: <https://github.com/gosexy/gettext>
   • The ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ package.

     Documentation: <https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/snapcore/go-gettext>

     Source code: <https://github.com/canonical/go-gettext>

   Go programs can be classified as one of:
   • _Single-locale_ programs, that use the same locale across all
     threads of the program.  Example: Most command-line programs.
   • _Multi-locale_ programs, that use one locale per thread.  Example:
     Web servers.

   The three different packages support these two classes of programs
differently:
   • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ package: It has two different
     APIs, one for the single-locale case and one for the multi-locale
     case.
   • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ package: Its API supports only the
     single-locale case.
   • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ package: Its API supports the
     single-locale case and the multi-locale case in the same way.

Gettext support characteristics:
--------------------------------

RPMs
     golang

Ubuntu packages
     golang-go (which provides the ‘go’ program), or gccgo (which
     provides a ‘go-VERSION’ command).
     gccgo has better portability; for example it works on SPARC CPUs.

File extension
     ‘go’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’, ‘`abc`’

gettext shorthand
     --

gettext/ngettext functions
     This depends on the API:
        • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ API: ‘Get’, ‘GetD’,
          ‘GetN’, ‘GetND’
        • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ API: ‘Gettext’, ‘DGettext’,
          ‘DCGettext’, ‘NGettext’, ‘DNGettext’, ‘DCNGettext’
        • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ API: ‘Gettext’, ‘NGettext’

     Note that the ‘ngettext’-like functions need to take two argument
     strings that consume the same number of arguments.  For example,
     you cannot write ‘fmt.Sprintf(gotext.GetN("a piece", "%d pieces",
     n), n)’ because in the singular case, ‘fmt.Sprintf’ would treat the
     unused argument as an error and produce ‘"a piece%!(EXTRA int=1)"’
     instead of the desired ‘"a piece"’.  As a workaround, you need to
     convert ‘n’ to a string and format that string with precision zero:
     ‘fmt.Sprintf(gotext.GetN("%.0sa piece", "%s pieces", n),
     strconv.Itoa(n))’

textdomain
     This depends on the API:
        • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ API: ‘Locale.AddDomain’
          method or ‘gotext.Configure’ function
        • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ API: ‘Textdomain’ function
        • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ API: ‘TextDomain’ constructor

bindtextdomain
     This depends on the API:
        • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ API: ‘gotext.NewLocale’
          function or ‘gotext.Configure’ function
        • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ API: ‘BindTextdomain’ function
        • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ API: ‘TextDomain’ constructor

setlocale
     This depends on the API:
        • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ API: Programmer must
          determine the appropriate locale and pass it to the
          ‘gotext.NewLocale’ function or ‘gotext.Configure’ function.
        • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ API: Programmer must call
          ‘gettext.SetLocale(gettext.LcAll, "")’.
        • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ API: Programmer must
          determine the appropriate locale and pass it to the
          ‘TextDomain.Locale’ method.

Prerequisite
     This depends on the API:
        • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ API: ‘import
          ("github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext")’
        • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ API: ‘import
          ("github.com/gosexy/gettext")’
        • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ API: ‘import
          ("github.com/snapcore/go-gettext")’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     This depends on the API:
        • ‘github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext’ API: Emulate
        • ‘github.com/gosexy/gettext’ API: Use
        • ‘github.com/snapcore/go-gettext’ API: Emulate

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘fmt.Sprintf("%[2]d %[1]d", ...)’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   Two examples are available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-go’
and ‘hello-go-http’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Ruby,  Next: sh,  Prev: Go,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.14 Ruby
------------

RPMs
     ruby, ruby-gettext

Ubuntu packages
     ruby, ruby-gettext

File extension
     ‘rb’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’, ‘'abc'’, ‘%q/abc/’ etc., ‘%q(abc)’, ‘%q[abc]’, ‘%q{abc}’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext’

textdomain
     --

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     --

Prerequisite
     ‘require 'gettext'’ ‘include GetText’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     emulate

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘sprintf("%2$d %1$d", x, y)’
     ‘"%{new} replaces %{old}" % {:old => oldvalue, :new => newvalue}’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-ruby’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: sh,  Next: bash,  Prev: Ruby,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.15 sh - Shell Script
-------------------------

RPMs
     bash, gettext

Ubuntu packages
     bash, gettext-base

File extension
     ‘sh’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’, ‘'abc'’, ‘abc’

gettext shorthand
     ‘"`gettext \"abc\"`"’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘ngettext’ programs
     ‘eval_gettext’, ‘eval_ngettext’, ‘eval_pgettext’, ‘eval_npgettext’
     shell functions
     ‘printf_gettext’, ‘printf_ngettext’ commands

textdomain
     environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAIN’

bindtextdomain
     environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     For the shell functions approach: ‘. gettext.sh’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     There are three approaches; see below for details.

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-sh’.

* Menu:

* sh - Three approaches::       Three approaches for Shell Scripts
* The gettext.sh approach::     The ‘gettext.sh’ approach
* The printf approach::         The ‘printf’ approach
* The printf_gettext approach:: The ‘printf_gettext’ approach
* Preparing for gettext.sh::    Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘gettext.sh’ approach
* Preparing for printf::        Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘printf’ approach
* Preparing for printf_gettext:: Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘printf_gettext’ approach
* gettext Invocation::          Invoking the ‘gettext’ program
* ngettext Invocation::         Invoking the ‘ngettext’ program
* printf_gettext Invocation::   Invoking the ‘printf_gettext’ program
* printf_ngettext Invocation::  Invoking the ‘printf_ngettext’ program
* envsubst Invocation::         Invoking the ‘envsubst’ program
* eval_gettext Invocation::     Invoking the ‘eval_gettext’ function
* eval_ngettext Invocation::    Invoking the ‘eval_ngettext’ function
* eval_pgettext Invocation::    Invoking the ‘eval_pgettext’ function
* eval_npgettext Invocation::   Invoking the ‘eval_npgettext’ function


File: gettext.info,  Node: sh - Three approaches,  Next: The gettext.sh approach,  Up: sh

16.5.15.1 Three approaches for Shell Scripts
............................................

   There are three approaches for internationalizing shell scripts.

   The common part is how to internationalize a message without
parameters: This is done through the invocation of the ‘gettext’
program, see *note gettext Invocation::.

   The approaches differ regarding how to internationalize a message
with parameters, that is, what is called "formatted output" in other
programming languages.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The gettext.sh approach,  Next: The printf approach,  Prev: sh - Three approaches,  Up: sh

16.5.15.2 The ‘gettext.sh’ approach
...................................

   This approach uses shell functions defined in the ‘gettext.sh’ file.

   Here's an example that references a shell variable ‘pid’:
     eval_gettext "Running as process number \$pid."; echo

   A ready-to-use example is available in the ‘hello-1.sh’ file in the
‘examples/hello-sh’ directory.

Contents of ‘gettext.sh’
------------------------

   ‘gettext.sh’, contained in the run-time package of GNU gettext,
provides the following:

‘$echo’
     The variable ‘echo’ is set to a command that outputs its first
     argument and a newline, without interpreting backslashes in the
     argument string.

‘eval_gettext’
     See *note eval_gettext Invocation::.

‘eval_ngettext’
     See *note eval_ngettext Invocation::.

‘eval_pgettext’
     See *note eval_pgettext Invocation::.

‘eval_npgettext’
     See *note eval_npgettext Invocation::.

Advantages and Drawbacks
------------------------

   Advantages:
   • Portability: This is fully portable.

   Drawbacks:
   • The strings passed to the ‘eval_gettext’ et al. functions must not
     start nor end with a newline.  This means, in order to add a
     newline after a message, you need to add an explicit invocation of
     ‘echo’.
   • References to shell variables must be introduced with ‘\$’, not
     just ‘$’.
   • Speed: Each invocation of the ‘eval_gettext’ et al. functions uses
     a pipe and a subshell.  This is slower than the ‘printf_gettext’
     approach.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The printf approach,  Next: The printf_gettext approach,  Prev: The gettext.sh approach,  Up: sh

16.5.15.3 The ‘printf’ approach
...............................

   This approach uses a POSIX:2024 compliant ‘printf’ command.

   Here's an example that references a shell variable ‘pid’:
     env printf "`gettext \"Running as process number %u.\"`"'\n' $pid

   An example is available in the ‘hello-2.sh’ file in the
‘examples/hello-sh’ directory.

Advantages and Drawbacks
------------------------

   Drawbacks:
   • Portability: A POSIX compliant ‘printf’
     (https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/printf.html)
     command is required, such as the one from GNU coreutils 9.6 or
     newer, from FreeBSD 11 or newer, or from Solaris 11 OpenIndiana or
     Solaris 11 OmniOS. At the time of this writing (2025), the only
     known shells whose ‘printf’ built-in is POSIX compliant are ‘ksh93’
     and ‘zsh’; ‘bash’ and ‘dash’ are not.  For this reason, the code
     needs to use ‘env printf’, not ‘printf’, so as to avoid invoking
     the shell's ‘printf’ built-in.
   • The strings passed to the ‘gettext’ et al. program inside a
     subshell must not start nor end with a newline.  This means, in
     order to add a newline after a message, you either need to append a
     newline to the format string argument of ‘printf’, or to add an
     explicit invocation of ‘echo’.
   • Some amount of backslashing is involved, see *note Preparing for
     printf::.  It is easy to make editing mistakes during this process.
   • Speed: Each invocation of ‘env printf’ uses a subshell.  This is
     slower than the ‘printf_gettext’ approach.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The printf_gettext approach,  Next: Preparing for gettext.sh,  Prev: The printf approach,  Up: sh

16.5.15.4 The ‘printf_gettext’ approach
.......................................

   This approach uses the ‘printf_gettext’ and ‘printf_ngettext’
programs, contained in the run-time package of GNU gettext 0.26 or
newer.

   Here's an example that references a shell variable ‘pid’:
     printf_gettext 'Running as process number %u.' $pid; echo

   An example is available in the ‘hello-3.sh’ file in the
‘examples/hello-sh’ directory.

Advantages and Drawbacks
------------------------

   Advantages:
   • Portability: The only requirement is GNU gettext 0.26 or newer.
   • Speed: Since no subshell needs to be created, this approach is
     about 30% faster than the two other approaches.

   An example is available in the ‘hello-3.sh’ file in the
‘examples/hello-sh’ directory.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Preparing for gettext.sh,  Next: Preparing for printf,  Prev: The printf_gettext approach,  Up: sh

16.5.15.5 Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘gettext.sh’ approach
...............................................................

   Preparing a shell script for internationalization is conceptually
similar to the steps described in *note Sources::.  The concrete steps
for shell scripts with this approach are as follows.

  1. Insert the line

          . gettext.sh

     near the top of the script.  ‘gettext.sh’ is a shell function
     library that provides the functions ‘eval_gettext’ (see *note
     eval_gettext Invocation::), ‘eval_ngettext’ (see *note
     eval_ngettext Invocation::), ‘eval_pgettext’ (see *note
     eval_pgettext Invocation::), and ‘eval_npgettext’ (see *note
     eval_npgettext Invocation::).  You have to ensure that ‘gettext.sh’
     can be found in the ‘PATH’.

  2. Set and export the ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ and ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ environment
     variables.  Usually ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ is the package or program name,
     and ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ is the absolute pathname corresponding to
     ‘$prefix/share/locale’, where ‘$prefix’ is the installation
     location.

          TEXTDOMAIN=@PACKAGE@
          export TEXTDOMAIN
          TEXTDOMAINDIR=@LOCALEDIR@
          export TEXTDOMAINDIR

  3. Prepare the strings for translation, as described in *note
     Preparing Strings::.

  4. Simplify translatable strings so that they don't contain command
     substitution (‘"`...`"’ or ‘"$(...)"’), variable access with
     defaulting (like ‘${VARIABLE-DEFAULT}’), access to positional
     arguments (like ‘$0’, ‘$1’, ...)  or highly volatile shell
     variables (like ‘$?’).  This can always be done through simple
     local code restructuring.  For example,

          echo "Usage: $0 [OPTION] FILE..."

     becomes

          program_name=$0
          echo "Usage: $program_name [OPTION] FILE..."

     Similarly,

          echo "Remaining files: `ls | wc -l`"

     becomes

          filecount="`ls | wc -l`"
          echo "Remaining files: $filecount"

  5. For each translatable string, change the output command ‘echo’ or
     ‘$echo’ to ‘gettext’ (if the string contains no references to shell
     variables) or to ‘eval_gettext’ (if it refers to shell variables),
     followed by a no-argument ‘echo’ command (to account for the
     terminating newline).  Similarly, for cases with plural handling,
     replace a conditional ‘echo’ command with an invocation of
     ‘ngettext’ or ‘eval_ngettext’, followed by a no-argument ‘echo’
     command.

     When doing this, you also need to add an extra backslash before the
     dollar sign in references to shell variables, so that the
     ‘eval_gettext’ function receives the translatable string before the
     variable values are substituted into it.  For example,

          echo "Remaining files: $filecount"

     becomes

          eval_gettext "Remaining files: \$filecount"; echo

     If the output command is not ‘echo’, you can make it use ‘echo’
     nevertheless, through the use of backquotes.  However, note that
     inside backquotes, backslashes must be doubled to be effective
     (because the backquoting eats one level of backslashes).  For
     example, assuming that ‘error’ is a shell function that signals an
     error,

          error "file not found: $filename"

     is first transformed into

          error "`echo \"file not found: \$filename\"`"

     which then becomes

          error "`eval_gettext \"file not found: \\\$filename\"`"


File: gettext.info,  Node: Preparing for printf,  Next: Preparing for printf_gettext,  Prev: Preparing for gettext.sh,  Up: sh

16.5.15.6 Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘printf’ approach
...........................................................

   Preparing a shell script for internationalization is conceptually
similar to the steps described in *note Sources::.  The concrete steps
for shell scripts with this approach are as follows.

  1. Set and export the ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ and ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ environment
     variables.  Usually ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ is the package or program name,
     and ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ is the absolute pathname corresponding to
     ‘$prefix/share/locale’, where ‘$prefix’ is the installation
     location.

          TEXTDOMAIN=@PACKAGE@
          export TEXTDOMAIN
          TEXTDOMAINDIR=@LOCALEDIR@
          export TEXTDOMAINDIR

  2. Prepare the strings for translation, as described in *note
     Preparing Strings::.

  3. Simplify translatable strings so that they don't contain command
     substitution (‘"`...`"’ or ‘"$(...)"’), variable access with
     defaulting (like ‘${VARIABLE-DEFAULT}’), access to positional
     arguments (like ‘$0’, ‘$1’, ...)  or highly volatile shell
     variables (like ‘$?’).  This can always be done through simple
     local code restructuring.  For example,

          echo "Usage: $0 [OPTION] FILE..."

     becomes

          program_name=$0
          echo "Usage: $program_name [OPTION] FILE..."

     Similarly,

          echo "Remaining files: `ls | wc -l`"

     becomes

          filecount="`ls | wc -l`"
          echo "Remaining files: $filecount"

  4. For each translatable string, change the output command ‘echo’ or
     ‘$echo’ to ‘gettext’ (if the string contains no references to shell
     variables) or to ‘env printf "`gettext ... `"’ (if it refers to
     shell variables), followed by a no-argument ‘echo’ command (to
     account for the terminating newline).  Similarly, for cases with
     plural handling, replace a conditional ‘echo’ command with an
     invocation of ‘ngettext’ or ‘env printf "`ngettext ... `"’,
     followed by a no-argument ‘echo’ command.

     When doing this, you also need to replace the references to shell
     variables with format string directives (see *note sh-format::), so
     that the ‘eval_gettext’ function receives the translatable string
     before the variable values are substituted into it.  For example,

          echo "Remaining files: $filecount"

     becomes

          env printf "`gettext \"Remaining files: %u.\"`"'\n' "$filecount"

     If the output command is not ‘echo’, you can make it use ‘echo’
     nevertheless, through the use of backquotes.  However, note that
     inside backquotes, backslashes must be doubled to be effective
     (because the backquoting eats one level of backslashes).  For
     example, assuming that ‘error’ is a shell function that signals an
     error,

          error "file not found: $filename"

     is first transformed into

          error "`echo \"file not found: \$filename\"`"

     which then becomes

          error "`env printf \"\`gettext \\\"file not found: %s\\\"\`\" \"\$filename\"`"


File: gettext.info,  Node: Preparing for printf_gettext,  Next: gettext Invocation,  Prev: Preparing for printf,  Up: sh

16.5.15.7 Preparing Shell Scripts for the ‘printf_gettext’ approach
...................................................................

   Preparing a shell script for internationalization is conceptually
similar to the steps described in *note Sources::.  The concrete steps
for shell scripts with this approach are as follows.

  1. Set and export the ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ and ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ environment
     variables.  Usually ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ is the package or program name,
     and ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ is the absolute pathname corresponding to
     ‘$prefix/share/locale’, where ‘$prefix’ is the installation
     location.

          TEXTDOMAIN=@PACKAGE@
          export TEXTDOMAIN
          TEXTDOMAINDIR=@LOCALEDIR@
          export TEXTDOMAINDIR

  2. Prepare the strings for translation, as described in *note
     Preparing Strings::.

  3. Simplify translatable strings so that they don't contain command
     substitution (‘"`...`"’ or ‘"$(...)"’), variable access with
     defaulting (like ‘${VARIABLE-DEFAULT}’), access to positional
     arguments (like ‘$0’, ‘$1’, ...)  or highly volatile shell
     variables (like ‘$?’).  This can always be done through simple
     local code restructuring.  For example,

          echo "Usage: $0 [OPTION] FILE..."

     becomes

          program_name=$0
          echo "Usage: $program_name [OPTION] FILE..."

     Similarly,

          echo "Remaining files: `ls | wc -l`"

     becomes

          filecount="`ls | wc -l`"
          echo "Remaining files: $filecount"

  4. For each translatable string, change the output command ‘echo’ or
     ‘$echo’ to ‘gettext’ (if the string contains no references to shell
     variables) or to ‘printf_gettext’ (if it refers to shell
     variables), followed by a no-argument ‘echo’ command (to account
     for the terminating newline).  Similarly, for cases with plural
     handling, replace a conditional ‘echo’ command with an invocation
     of ‘ngettext’ or ‘printf_ngettext’, followed by a no-argument
     ‘echo’ command.

     When doing this, you also need to replace the references to shell
     variables with format string directives (see *note sh-format::), so
     that the ‘eval_gettext’ function receives the translatable string
     before the variable values are substituted into it.  For example,

          echo "Remaining files: $filecount"

     becomes

          printf_gettext "Remaining files: %u." "$filecount"; echo

     If the output command is not ‘echo’, you can make it use ‘echo’
     nevertheless, through the use of backquotes.  However, note that
     inside backquotes, backslashes must be doubled to be effective
     (because the backquoting eats one level of backslashes).  For
     example, assuming that ‘error’ is a shell function that signals an
     error,

          error "file not found: $filename"

     is first transformed into

          error "`echo \"file not found: \$filename\"`"

     which then becomes

          error "`printf_gettext \"file not found: %s\" \"\$filename\"`"


File: gettext.info,  Node: gettext Invocation,  Next: ngettext Invocation,  Prev: Preparing for printf_gettext,  Up: sh

16.5.15.8 Invoking the ‘gettext’ program
........................................

     gettext [OPTION] [[TEXTDOMAIN] MSGID]
     gettext [OPTION] -s [MSGID]...

   The ‘gettext’ program displays the native language translation of a
textual message.

*Options and arguments*

‘-c CONTEXT’
‘--context=CONTEXT’
     Specify the context for the messages to be translated.  See *note
     Contexts:: for details.

‘-d TEXTDOMAIN’
‘--domain=TEXTDOMAIN’
     Retrieve translated messages from TEXTDOMAIN.  Usually a TEXTDOMAIN
     corresponds to a package, a program, or a module of a program.

‘-e’
     Enable expansion of some escape sequences.  This option is for
     compatibility with the ‘echo’ program or shell built-in.  The
     escape sequences ‘\a’, ‘\b’, ‘\c’, ‘\f’, ‘\n’, ‘\r’, ‘\t’, ‘\v’,
     ‘\\’, and ‘\’ followed by one to three octal digits, are
     interpreted like the System V ‘echo’ program did.

‘-E’
     This option is only for compatibility with the ‘echo’ program or
     shell built-in.  It has no effect.

‘-n’
     This option has only an effect if the ‘-s’ option is given.  It
     suppresses the additional newline at the end.

‘[TEXTDOMAIN] MSGID’
     Retrieve translated message corresponding to MSGID from TEXTDOMAIN.

*Informative output*

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   If the TEXTDOMAIN parameter is not given, the domain is determined
from the environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAIN’.  If the message catalog is
not found in the regular directory, another location can be specified
with the environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’.

   When used with the ‘-s’ option the program behaves like the ‘echo’
command.  But it does not simply copy its arguments to stdout.  Instead
those messages found in the selected catalog are translated.  Also, a
newline is added at the end, unless either the option ‘-n’ is specified
or the option ‘-e’ is specified and some of the argument strings
contains a ‘\c’ escape sequence.

   Note: ‘xgettext’ supports only the one-argument form of the ‘gettext’
invocation, where no options are present and the TEXTDOMAIN is implicit,
from the environment.


File: gettext.info,  Node: ngettext Invocation,  Next: printf_gettext Invocation,  Prev: gettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.9 Invoking the ‘ngettext’ program
.........................................

     ngettext [OPTION] [TEXTDOMAIN] MSGID MSGID-PLURAL COUNT

   The ‘ngettext’ program displays the native language translation of a
textual message whose grammatical form depends on a number.

*Options and arguments*

‘-c CONTEXT’
‘--context=CONTEXT’
     Specify the context for the messages to be translated.  See *note
     Contexts:: for details.

‘-d TEXTDOMAIN’
‘--domain=TEXTDOMAIN’
     Retrieve translated messages from TEXTDOMAIN.  Usually a TEXTDOMAIN
     corresponds to a package, a program, or a module of a program.

‘-e’
     Enable expansion of some escape sequences.  This option is for
     compatibility with the ‘gettext’ program.  The escape sequences
     ‘\a’, ‘\b’, ‘\f’, ‘\n’, ‘\r’, ‘\t’, ‘\v’, ‘\\’, and ‘\’ followed by
     one to three octal digits, are interpreted like the System V ‘echo’
     program did.

‘-E’
     This option is only for compatibility with the ‘gettext’ program.
     It has no effect.

‘TEXTDOMAIN’
     Retrieve translated message from TEXTDOMAIN.

‘MSGID MSGID-PLURAL’
     Translate MSGID (English singular) / MSGID-PLURAL (English plural).

‘COUNT’
     Choose singular/plural form based on this value.

*Informative output*

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   If the TEXTDOMAIN parameter is not given, the domain is determined
from the environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAIN’.  If the message catalog is
not found in the regular directory, another location can be specified
with the environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’.

   Note: ‘xgettext’ supports only the three-arguments form of the
‘ngettext’ invocation, where no options are present and the TEXTDOMAIN
is implicit, from the environment.


File: gettext.info,  Node: printf_gettext Invocation,  Next: printf_ngettext Invocation,  Prev: ngettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.10 Invoking the ‘printf_gettext’ program
................................................

     printf_gettext [OPTION] FORMAT [ARGUMENT]...

   The ‘printf_gettext’ program produces formatted output, applying the
native language translation of FORMAT to the ARGUMENTs.

*Options and arguments*

‘-c CONTEXT’
‘--context=CONTEXT’
     Specify the context for the format string to be translated.  See
     *note Contexts:: for details.

‘FORMAT’
     The format string.

‘ARGUMENT’
     A string or numeric argument.

*Informative output*

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   The format string consists of
   • plain text,
   • directives, that start with ‘%’,
   • escape sequences, that start with a backslash.

   A directive that consumes an argument
   • starts with ‘%’ or ‘%M$’ where M is a positive integer,
   • is optionally followed by any of the characters ‘#’, ‘0’, ‘-’, ‘ ’,
     ‘+’, each of which acts as a flag,
   • is optionally followed by a width specification (a nonnegative
     integer),
   • is optionally followed by ‘.’ and a precision specification (an
     optional nonnegative integer),
   • is finished by a specifier
        • ‘c’, that prints a character,
        • ‘s’, that prints a string,
        • ‘i’, ‘d’, that print an integer,
        • ‘u’, ‘o’, ‘x’, ‘X’, that print an unsigned (nonnegative)
          integer,
        • ‘e’, ‘E’, that print a floating-point number in scientific
          notation,
        • ‘f’, ‘F’, that print a floating-point number without an
          exponent,
        • ‘g’, ‘G’, that print a floating-point number in general
          notation,
        • ‘a’, ‘A’, that print a floating-point number in hexadecimal
          notation.

   Some flag+specifier combinations are invalid:
   • The ‘#’ flag with the specifiers ‘c’, ‘s’, ‘i’, ‘d’, ‘u’.
   • The ‘0’ flag with the specifiers ‘c’, ‘s’.

   Additionally there is the directive ‘%%’, that prints a single ‘%’.

   If a directive specifies the argument by its number (‘%M$’ notation),
all directives that consume an argument must do so.

   The escape sequences are:
‘\\’
     backslash
‘\a’
     alert (BEL)
‘\b’
     backspace (BS)
‘\f’
     form feed (FF)
‘\n’
     new line (LF)
‘\r’
     carriage return (CR)
‘\t’
     horizontal tab (HT)
‘\v’
     vertical tab (VT)
‘\NNN’
     octal number with 1 to 3 octal digits

*Environment Variables*

   The translation of the format string is looked up in the translation
domain given by the environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAIN’.

   It is looked up in the catalogs directory given by the environment
variable ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ or, if not present, in the default catalogs
directory.


File: gettext.info,  Node: printf_ngettext Invocation,  Next: envsubst Invocation,  Prev: printf_gettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.11 Invoking the ‘printf_ngettext’ program
.................................................

     printf_ngettext [OPTION] FORMAT FORMAT-PLURAL COUNT [ARGUMENT]...

   The ‘printf_ngettext’ program produces formatted output, applying the
native language translation of FORMAT and FORMAT-PLURAL, depending on
COUNT, to the ARGUMENTs.

*Options and arguments*

‘-c CONTEXT’
‘--context=CONTEXT’
     Specify the context for the format string to be translated.  See
     *note Contexts:: for details.

‘FORMAT’
     English singular form of format string.

‘FORMAT-PLURAL’
     English plural form of format string.

‘COUNT’
     A cardinal number.  The singular/plural form is chosen based on
     this value.

‘ARGUMENT’
     A string or numeric argument.

*Informative output*

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   Each format string consists of
   • plain text,
   • directives, that start with ‘%’,
   • escape sequences, that start with a backslash.

   A directive that consumes an argument
   • starts with ‘%’ or ‘%M$’ where M is a positive integer,
   • is optionally followed by any of the characters ‘#’, ‘0’, ‘-’, ‘ ’,
     ‘+’, each of which acts as a flag,
   • is optionally followed by a width specification (a nonnegative
     integer),
   • is optionally followed by ‘.’ and a precision specification (an
     optional nonnegative integer),
   • is finished by a specifier
        • ‘c’, that prints a character,
        • ‘s’, that prints a string,
        • ‘i’, ‘d’, that print an integer,
        • ‘u’, ‘o’, ‘x’, ‘X’, that print an unsigned (nonnegative)
          integer,
        • ‘e’, ‘E’, that print a floating-point number in scientific
          notation,
        • ‘f’, ‘F’, that print a floating-point number without an
          exponent,
        • ‘g’, ‘G’, that print a floating-point number in general
          notation,
        • ‘a’, ‘A’, that print a floating-point number in hexadecimal
          notation.

   Some flag+specifier combinations are invalid:
   • The ‘#’ flag with the specifiers ‘c’, ‘s’, ‘i’, ‘d’, ‘u’.
   • The ‘0’ flag with the specifiers ‘c’, ‘s’.

   Additionally there is the directive ‘%%’, that prints a single ‘%’.

   If a directive specifies the argument by its number (‘%M$’ notation),
all directives that consume an argument must do so.

   The escape sequences are:
‘\\’
     backslash
‘\a’
     alert (BEL)
‘\b’
     backspace (BS)
‘\f’
     form feed (FF)
‘\n’
     new line (LF)
‘\r’
     carriage return (CR)
‘\t’
     horizontal tab (HT)
‘\v’
     vertical tab (VT)
‘\NNN’
     octal number with 1 to 3 octal digits

*Environment Variables*

   The translation of the format string is looked up in the translation
domain given by the environment variable ‘TEXTDOMAIN’.

   It is looked up in the catalogs directory given by the environment
variable ‘TEXTDOMAINDIR’ or, if not present, in the default catalogs
directory.


File: gettext.info,  Node: envsubst Invocation,  Next: eval_gettext Invocation,  Prev: printf_ngettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.12 Invoking the ‘envsubst’ program
..........................................

     envsubst [OPTION] [SHELL-FORMAT]

   The ‘envsubst’ program substitutes the values of environment
variables.

*Operation mode*

‘-v’
‘--variables’
     Output the variables occurring in SHELL-FORMAT.

*Informative output*

‘-h’
‘--help’
     Display this help and exit.

‘-V’
‘--version’
     Output version information and exit.

   In normal operation mode, standard input is copied to standard
output, with references to environment variables of the form ‘$VARIABLE’
or ‘${VARIABLE}’ being replaced with the corresponding values.  If a
SHELL-FORMAT is given, only those environment variables that are
referenced in SHELL-FORMAT are substituted; otherwise all environment
variables references occurring in standard input are substituted.

   These substitutions are a subset of the substitutions that a shell
performs on unquoted and double-quoted strings.  Other kinds of
substitutions done by a shell, such as ‘${VARIABLE-DEFAULT}’ or
‘$(COMMAND-LIST)’ or ‘`COMMAND-LIST`’, are not performed by the
‘envsubst’ program, due to security reasons.

   When ‘--variables’ is used, standard input is ignored, and the output
consists of the environment variables that are referenced in
SHELL-FORMAT, one per line.


File: gettext.info,  Node: eval_gettext Invocation,  Next: eval_ngettext Invocation,  Prev: envsubst Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.13 Invoking the ‘eval_gettext’ function
...............................................

     eval_gettext MSGID

   This function outputs the native language translation of a textual
message, performing dollar-substitution on the result.  Note that only
shell variables mentioned in MSGID will be dollar-substituted in the
result.


File: gettext.info,  Node: eval_ngettext Invocation,  Next: eval_pgettext Invocation,  Prev: eval_gettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.14 Invoking the ‘eval_ngettext’ function
................................................

     eval_ngettext MSGID MSGID-PLURAL COUNT

   This function outputs the native language translation of a textual
message whose grammatical form depends on a number, performing
dollar-substitution on the result.  Note that only shell variables
mentioned in MSGID or MSGID-PLURAL will be dollar-substituted in the
result.


File: gettext.info,  Node: eval_pgettext Invocation,  Next: eval_npgettext Invocation,  Prev: eval_ngettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.15 Invoking the ‘eval_pgettext’ function
................................................

     eval_pgettext MSGCTXT MSGID

   This function outputs the native language translation of a textual
message in the given context MSGCTXT (see *note Contexts::), performing
dollar-substitution on the result.  Note that only shell variables
mentioned in MSGID will be dollar-substituted in the result.


File: gettext.info,  Node: eval_npgettext Invocation,  Prev: eval_pgettext Invocation,  Up: sh

16.5.15.16 Invoking the ‘eval_npgettext’ function
.................................................

     eval_npgettext MSGCTXT MSGID MSGID-PLURAL COUNT

   This function outputs the native language translation of a textual
message whose grammatical form depends on a number in the given context
MSGCTXT (see *note Contexts::), performing dollar-substitution on the
result.  Note that only shell variables mentioned in MSGID or
MSGID-PLURAL will be dollar-substituted in the result.


File: gettext.info,  Node: bash,  Next: gawk,  Prev: sh,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.16 bash - Bourne-Again Shell Script
----------------------------------------

   GNU ‘bash’ 2.0 or newer has a special shorthand for translating a
string and substituting variable values in it: ‘$"msgid"’.  But the use
of this construct is *discouraged*, due to the security holes it opens
and due to its portability problems.

   The security holes of ‘$"..."’ come from the fact that after looking
up the translation of the string, ‘bash’ processes it like it processes
any double-quoted string: dollar and backquote processing, like ‘eval’
does.

  1. In a locale whose encoding is one of BIG5, BIG5-HKSCS, GBK,
     GB18030, SHIFT_JIS, JOHAB, some double-byte characters have a
     second byte whose value is ‘0x60’.  For example, the byte sequence
     ‘\xe0\x60’ is a single character in these locales.  Many versions
     of ‘bash’ (all versions up to bash-2.05, and newer versions on
     platforms without ‘mbsrtowcs()’ function) don't know about
     character boundaries and see a backquote character where there is
     only a particular Chinese character.  Thus it can start executing
     part of the translation as a command list.  This situation can
     occur even without the translator being aware of it: if the
     translator provides translations in the UTF-8 encoding, it is the
     ‘gettext()’ function which will, during its conversion from the
     translator's encoding to the user's locale's encoding, produce the
     dangerous ‘\x60’ bytes.

  2. A translator could - voluntarily or inadvertently - use backquotes
     ‘"`...`"’ or dollar-parentheses ‘"$(...)"’ in her translations.
     The enclosed strings would be executed as command lists by the
     shell.

   The portability problem is that ‘bash’ must be built with
internationalization support; this is normally not the case on systems
that don't have the ‘gettext()’ function in libc.


File: gettext.info,  Node: gawk,  Next: Lua,  Prev: bash,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.17 GNU awk
---------------

RPMs
     gawk 3.1 or newer

Ubuntu packages
     gawk

File extension
     ‘awk’, ‘gawk’, ‘twjr’.  The file extension ‘twjr’ is used by
     TexiWeb Jr (<https://github.com/arnoldrobbins/texiwebjr>).

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_"abc"’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘dcgettext’, missing ‘dcngettext’ in gawk-3.1.0

textdomain
     ‘TEXTDOMAIN’ variable

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     automatic, but missing ‘setlocale (LC_MESSAGES, "")’ in gawk-3.1.0

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘printf "%2$d %1$d"’ (GNU awk only)

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, no translation.  On non-GNU awks, you
     must define ‘dcgettext’, ‘dcngettext’ and ‘bindtextdomain’
     yourself.

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-gawk’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Lua,  Next: Pascal,  Prev: gawk,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.18 Lua
-----------

RPMs
     lua

Ubuntu packages
     lua, lua-gettext
     You need to install the ‘lua-gettext’ package from
     <https://gitlab.com/sukhichev/lua-gettext/blob/master/README.us.md>.
     Debian and Ubuntu packages of it are available.  Download the
     appropriate one, and install it through ‘sudo dpkg -i
     lua-gettext_0.0+nmu1_amd64.deb’.

File extension
     ‘lua’

String syntax

        • ‘"abc"’

        • ‘'abc'’

        • ‘[[abc]]’

        • ‘[=[abc]=]’

        • ‘[==[abc]==]’

        • ...

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext.gettext’, ‘gettext.dgettext’, ‘gettext.dcgettext’,
     ‘gettext.ngettext’, ‘gettext.dngettext’, ‘gettext.dcngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     automatic

Prerequisite
     ‘require 'gettext'’ or running lua interpreter with ‘-l gettext’
     option

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     --

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, the functions are not available.

po-mode marking
     --


File: gettext.info,  Node: Pascal,  Next: Modula-2,  Prev: Lua,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.19 Pascal - Free Pascal Compiler
-------------------------------------

RPMs
     fpc

Ubuntu packages
     fp-compiler, fp-units-fcl

File extension
     ‘pp’, ‘pas’

String syntax
     ‘'abc'’

gettext shorthand
     automatic

gettext/ngettext functions
     --, use ‘ResourceString’ data type instead

textdomain
     --, use ‘TranslateResourceStrings’ function instead

bindtextdomain
     --, use ‘TranslateResourceStrings’ function instead

setlocale
     automatic, but uses only LANG, not LC_MESSAGES or LC_ALL

Prerequisite
     ‘{$mode delphi}’ or ‘{$mode objfpc}’
     ‘uses gettext;’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     emulate partially

Extractor
     ‘ppc386’ followed by ‘xgettext’ or ‘rstconv’

Formatting with positions
     ‘uses sysutils;’
     ‘format "%1:d %0:d"’

Portability
     ?

po-mode marking
     --

   The Pascal compiler has special support for the ‘ResourceString’ data
type.  It generates a ‘.rst’ file.  This is then converted to a ‘.pot’
file by use of ‘xgettext’ or ‘rstconv’.  At runtime, a ‘.mo’ file
corresponding to translations of this ‘.pot’ file can be loaded using
the ‘TranslateResourceStrings’ function in the ‘gettext’ unit.

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-pascal’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Modula-2,  Next: D,  Prev: Pascal,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.20 Modula-2
----------------

RPMs
     gcc-gm2, libgm2

Ubuntu packages
     gm2

File extension
     ‘mod’, ‘def’

String syntax
     ‘'abc'’, ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     --

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘Gettext’, ‘DGettext’, ‘DCGettext’, ‘NGettext’, ‘DNGettext’,
     ‘DCNGettext’

textdomain
     ‘TextDomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘BindTextDomain’ function

setlocale
     Programmer must call ‘SetLocale (LC_ALL, "")’

Prerequisite
     ‘FROM Libintl IMPORT Gettext ...;’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     Use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     --

Portability
     fully portable to all platforms supported by GNU Modula-2

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-modula2’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: D,  Next: OCaml,  Prev: Modula-2,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.21 D
---------

RPMs
     gcc-gdc or ldc

Ubuntu packages
     gdc or ldc

File extension
     ‘d’

String syntax
     ‘r"abc"’, ‘`abc`’, ‘"abc"’, ‘q"[abc]"’, ‘q"(abc)"’, ‘q"<abc>"’,
     ‘q"{abc}"’, ‘q{abc}’, ‘x"6A 6B 6C"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
     ‘dcngettext’

     Note that the ‘ngettext’-like functions need to take two argument
     strings that consume the same number of arguments.  For example,
     you cannot write ‘format(ngettext("a piece", "%d pieces", n), n)’
     because in the singular case, ‘format’ would treat the unused
     argument as an error and throw an exception.  As a workaround, you
     need to convert ‘n’ to a string and format that string with
     precision zero: ‘format(ngettext("%.0sa piece", "%s pieces", n),
     to!string(n))’ or ‘format(ngettext("%.0sa piece", "%s pieces", n),
     text(n))’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     Programmer must call ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "")’

Prerequisite
     ‘import gnu.libintl;’
     ‘alias _ = gettext;’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     Use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k_ --flag=_:1:pass-c-format --flag=_:1:pass-d-format’

Formatting with positions
     ‘fprintf "%2$d %1$d"’, ‘format "%2$d %1$d"’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-d’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: OCaml,  Next: Smalltalk,  Prev: D,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.22 OCaml
-------------

RPMs
     ocaml, ocaml-gettext-devel

Ubuntu packages
     ocaml, opam
     ‘opam install gettext-stub’

File extension
     ‘ml’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘(s_ "abc")’ or, for format strings, ‘(f_ "abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘s_’, ‘f_’, ‘sn_’, ‘fn_’, and also ‘gettext’, ‘fgettext’,
     ‘dgettext’, ‘fdgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘fdcgettext’, ‘ngettext’,
     ‘fngettext’, ‘dngettext’, ‘fdngettext’, ‘dcngettext’,
     ‘fdcngettext’.

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ field in first parameter of ‘Gettext.Program’

bindtextdomain
     ‘dir’ field in first parameter of ‘Gettext.Program’

setlocale
     --

Prerequisite
     Declare the libraries ‘gettext.base’ and ‘gettext-stub’ in the
     ‘dune’ file.

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     Use (assuming that you pass ‘GettextStub.Native’ as second
     parameter of ‘Gettext.Program’)

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     In the source code: ‘Printf.fprintf "%d %d"’
     In the msgid: ‘"%d %d"’
     In the msgstr: ‘"%2$d %1$d"’
     Note: This does not work yet; it depends on the completion of
     <https://github.com/gildor478/ocaml-gettext/issues/39>.

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-ocaml’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Smalltalk,  Next: Vala,  Prev: OCaml,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.23 GNU Smalltalk
---------------------

RPMs
     smalltalk

Ubuntu packages
     gnu-smalltalk

File extension
     ‘st’

String syntax
     ‘'abc'’

gettext shorthand
     ‘NLS ? 'abc'’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘LcMessagesDomain>>#at:’, ‘LcMessagesDomain>>#at:plural:with:’

textdomain
     ‘LcMessages>>#domain:localeDirectory:’ (returns a
     ‘LcMessagesDomain’ object).
     Example: ‘I18N Locale default messages domain: 'gettext'
     localeDirectory: /usr/local/share/locale'’

bindtextdomain
     ‘LcMessages>>#domain:localeDirectory:’, see above.

setlocale
     Automatic if you use ‘I18N Locale default’.

Prerequisite
     ‘PackageLoader fileInPackage: 'I18N'!’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     emulate

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘'%1 %2' bindWith: 'Hello' with: 'world'’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory:
‘hello-smalltalk’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Vala,  Next: wxWidgets,  Prev: Smalltalk,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.24 Vala
------------

RPMs
     vala

Ubuntu packages
     valac

File extension
     ‘vala’

String syntax

        • ‘"abc"’

        • ‘"""abc"""’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
     ‘dpgettext’, ‘dpgettext2’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function, defined under the ‘Intl’ namespace

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function, defined under the ‘Intl’ namespace

setlocale
     Programmer must call ‘Intl.setlocale (LocaleCategory.ALL, "")’

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     Use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     Same as for the C language.

Portability
     autoconf (gettext.m4) and #if ENABLE_NLS

po-mode marking
     yes


File: gettext.info,  Node: wxWidgets,  Next: Tcl,  Prev: Vala,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.25 wxWidgets library
-------------------------

RPMs
     wxGTK, gettext

Ubuntu packages
     libwxgtk3.0-dev or libwxgtk3.2-dev

File extension
     ‘cpp’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘wxLocale::GetString’, ‘wxGetTranslation’

textdomain
     ‘wxLocale::AddCatalog’

bindtextdomain
     ‘wxLocale::AddCatalogLookupPathPrefix’

setlocale
     ‘wxLocale::Init’, ‘wxSetLocale’

Prerequisite
     ‘#include <wx/intl.h>’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     emulate, see ‘include/wx/intl.h’ and ‘src/common/intl.cpp’

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     wxString::Format supports positions if and only if the system has
     ‘wprintf()’, ‘vswprintf()’ functions and they support positions
     according to POSIX.

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     yes


File: gettext.info,  Node: Tcl,  Next: Perl,  Prev: wxWidgets,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.26 Tcl - Tk's scripting language
-------------------------------------

RPMs
     tcl

Ubuntu packages
     tcl

File extension
     ‘tcl’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘[_ "abc"]’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘::msgcat::mc’

textdomain
     --

bindtextdomain
     --, use ‘::msgcat::mcload’ instead

setlocale
     automatic, uses LANG, but ignores LC_MESSAGES and LC_ALL

Prerequisite
     ‘package require msgcat’
     ‘proc _ {s} {return [::msgcat::mc $s]}’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     --, uses a Tcl specific message catalog format

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k_’

Formatting with positions
     ‘format "%2\$d %1\$d"’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   Two examples are available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-tcl’,
‘hello-tcl-tk’.

   Before marking strings as internationalizable, substitutions of
variables into the string need to be converted to ‘format’ applications.
For example, ‘"file $filename not found"’ becomes ‘[format "file %s not
found" $filename]’.  Only after this is done, can the strings be marked
and extracted.  After marking, this example becomes ‘[format [_ "file %s
not found"] $filename]’ or ‘[msgcat::mc "file %s not found" $filename]’.
Note that the ‘msgcat::mc’ function implicitly calls ‘format’ when more
than one argument is given.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Perl,  Next: PHP,  Prev: Tcl,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.27 Perl
------------

RPMs
     perl

Ubuntu packages
     perl, libintl-perl

File extension
     ‘pl’, ‘PL’, ‘pm’, ‘perl’, ‘cgi’

String syntax

        • ‘"abc"’

        • ‘'abc'’

        • ‘qq (abc)’

        • ‘q (abc)’

        • ‘qr /abc/’

        • ‘qx (/bin/date)’

        • ‘/pattern match/’

        • ‘?pattern match?’

        • ‘s/substitution/operators/’

        • ‘$tied_hash{"message"}’

        • ‘$tied_hash_reference->{"message"}’

        • etc., issue the command ‘man perlsyn’ for details

gettext shorthand
     ‘__’ (double underscore)

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
     ‘dcngettext’, ‘pgettext’, ‘dpgettext’, ‘dcpgettext’, ‘npgettext’,
     ‘dnpgettext’, ‘dcnpgettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

bind_textdomain_codeset
     ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function

setlocale
     Use ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "");’

Prerequisite
     ‘use POSIX;’
     ‘use Locale::TextDomain;’ (included in the package libintl-perl
     which is available on the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network CPAN,
     https://www.cpan.org/).

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     platform dependent: gettext_pp emulates, gettext_xs uses GNU
     gettext

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k__ -k\$__ -k%__ -k__x -k__n:1,2 -k__nx:1,2 -k__xn:1,2
     -kN__ -kN__n:1,2 -k__p:1c,2 -k__np:1c,2,3 -kN__p:1c,2
     -kN__np:1c,2,3’

Formatting with positions
     Both kinds of format strings support formatting with positions.
     ‘printf "%2\$d %1\$d", ...’ (requires Perl 5.8.0 or newer)
     ‘__expand("[new] replaces [old]", old => $oldvalue, new =>
     $newvalue)’

Portability
     The ‘libintl-perl’ package is platform independent but is not part
     of the Perl core.  The programmer is responsible for providing a
     dummy implementation of the required functions if the package is
     not installed on the target system.

po-mode marking
     --

Documentation
     Included in ‘libintl-perl’, available on CPAN
     (https://www.cpan.org/).

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-perl’.

   The ‘xgettext’ parser backend for Perl differs significantly from the
parser backends for other programming languages, just as Perl itself
differs significantly from other programming languages.  The Perl parser
backend offers many more string marking facilities than the other
backends but it also has some Perl specific limitations, the worst
probably being its imperfectness.

* Menu:

* General Problems::            General Problems Parsing Perl Code
* Default Keywords::            Which Keywords Will xgettext Look For?
* Special Keywords::            How to Extract Hash Keys
* Quote-like Expressions::      What are Strings And Quote-like Expressions?
* Interpolation I::             Unsupported String Interpolation
* Interpolation II::            Valid String Interpolation
* Parentheses::                 When To Use Parentheses
* Long Lines::                  How To Grok with Long Lines
* Perl Pitfalls::               Bugs, Pitfalls, and Things That Do Not Work


File: gettext.info,  Node: General Problems,  Next: Default Keywords,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.1 General Problems Parsing Perl Code
............................................

   It is often heard that only Perl can parse Perl.  This is not true.
Perl cannot be _parsed_ at all, it can only be _executed_.  Perl has
various built-in ambiguities that can only be resolved at runtime.

   The following example may illustrate one common problem:

     print gettext "Hello World!";

   Although this example looks like a bullet-proof case of a function
invocation, it is not:

     open gettext, ">testfile" or die;
     print gettext "Hello world!"

   In this context, the string ‘gettext’ looks more like a file handle.
But not necessarily:

     use Locale::Messages qw (:libintl_h);
     open gettext ">testfile" or die;
     print gettext "Hello world!";

   Now, the file is probably syntactically incorrect, provided that the
module ‘Locale::Messages’ found first in the Perl include path exports a
function ‘gettext’.  But what if the module ‘Locale::Messages’ really
looks like this?

     use vars qw (*gettext);

     1;

   In this case, the string ‘gettext’ will be interpreted as a file
handle again, and the above example will create a file ‘testfile’ and
write the string "Hello world!"  into it.  Even advanced control flow
analysis will not really help:

     if (0.5 < rand) {
        eval "use Sane";
     } else {
        eval "use InSane";
     }
     print gettext "Hello world!";

   If the module ‘Sane’ exports a function ‘gettext’ that does what we
expect, and the module ‘InSane’ opens a file for writing and associates
the _handle_ ‘gettext’ with this output stream, we are clueless again
about what will happen at runtime.  It is completely unpredictable.  The
truth is that Perl has so many ways to fill its symbol table at runtime
that it is impossible to interpret a particular piece of code without
executing it.

   Of course, ‘xgettext’ will not execute your Perl sources while
scanning for translatable strings, but rather use heuristics in order to
guess what you meant.

   Another problem is the ambiguity of the slash and the question mark.
Their interpretation depends on the context:

     # A pattern match.
     print "OK\n" if /foobar/;

     # A division.
     print 1 / 2;

     # Another pattern match.
     print "OK\n" if ?foobar?;

     # Conditional.
     print $x ? "foo" : "bar";

   The slash may either act as the division operator or introduce a
pattern match, whereas the question mark may act as the ternary
conditional operator or as a pattern match, too.  Other programming
languages like ‘awk’ present similar problems, but the consequences of a
misinterpretation are particularly nasty with Perl sources.  In ‘awk’
for instance, a statement can never exceed one line and the parser can
recover from a parsing error at the next newline and interpret the rest
of the input stream correctly.  Perl is different, as a pattern match is
terminated by the next appearance of the delimiter (the slash or the
question mark) in the input stream, regardless of the semantic context.
If a slash is really a division sign but mis-interpreted as a pattern
match, the rest of the input file is most probably parsed incorrectly.

   There are certain cases, where the ambiguity cannot be resolved at
all:

     $x = wantarray ? 1 : 0;

   The Perl built-in function ‘wantarray’ does not accept any arguments.
The Perl parser therefore knows that the question mark does not start a
regular expression but is the ternary conditional operator.

     sub wantarrays {}
     $x = wantarrays ? 1 : 0;

   Now the situation is different.  The function ‘wantarrays’ takes a
variable number of arguments (like any non-prototyped Perl function).
The question mark is now the delimiter of a pattern match, and hence the
piece of code does not compile.

     sub wantarrays() {}
     $x = wantarrays ? 1 : 0;

   Now the function is prototyped, Perl knows that it does not accept
any arguments, and the question mark is therefore interpreted as the
ternaray operator again.  But that unfortunately outsmarts ‘xgettext’.

   The Perl parser in ‘xgettext’ cannot know whether a function has a
prototype and what that prototype would look like.  It therefore makes
an educated guess.  If a function is known to be a Perl built-in and
this function does not accept any arguments, a following question mark
or slash is treated as an operator, otherwise as the delimiter of a
following regular expression.  The Perl built-ins that do not accept
arguments are ‘wantarray’, ‘fork’, ‘time’, ‘times’, ‘getlogin’,
‘getppid’, ‘getpwent’, ‘getgrent’, ‘gethostent’, ‘getnetent’,
‘getprotoent’, ‘getservent’, ‘setpwent’, ‘setgrent’, ‘endpwent’,
‘endgrent’, ‘endhostent’, ‘endnetent’, ‘endprotoent’, and ‘endservent’.

   If you find that ‘xgettext’ fails to extract strings from portions of
your sources, you should therefore look out for slashes and/or question
marks preceding these sections.  You may have come across a bug in
‘xgettext’'s Perl parser (and of course you should report that bug).  In
the meantime you should consider to reformulate your code in a manner
less challenging to ‘xgettext’.

   In particular, if the parser is too dumb to see that a function does
not accept arguments, use parentheses:

     $x = somefunc() ? 1 : 0;
     $y = (somefunc) ? 1 : 0;

   In fact the Perl parser itself has similar problems and warns you
about such constructs.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Default Keywords,  Next: Special Keywords,  Prev: General Problems,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.2 Which keywords will xgettext look for?
................................................

   Unless you instruct ‘xgettext’ otherwise by invoking it with one of
the options ‘--keyword’ or ‘-k’, it will recognize the following
keywords in your Perl sources:

   • ‘gettext’

   • ‘dgettext:2’

     The second argument will be extracted.

   • ‘dcgettext:2’

     The second argument will be extracted.

   • ‘ngettext:1,2’

     The first (singular) and the second (plural) argument will be
     extracted.

   • ‘dngettext:2,3’

     The second (singular) and the third (plural) argument will be
     extracted.

   • ‘dcngettext:2,3’

     The second (singular) and the third (plural) argument will be
     extracted.

   • ‘pgettext:1c,2’

     The first (message context) and the second argument will be
     extracted.

   • ‘dpgettext:2c,3’

     The second (message context) and the third argument will be
     extracted.

   • ‘dcpgettext:2c,3’

     The second (message context) and the third argument will be
     extracted.

   • ‘npgettext:1c,2,3’

     The first (message context), second (singular), and third (plural)
     argument will be extracted.

   • ‘dnpgettext:2c,3,4’

     The second (message context), third (singular), and fourth (plural)
     argument will be extracted.

   • ‘dcnpgettext:2c,3,4’

     The second (message context), third (singular), and fourth (plural)
     argument will be extracted.

   • ‘gettext_noop’

   • ‘%gettext’

     The keys of lookups into the hash ‘%gettext’ will be extracted.

   • ‘$gettext’

     The keys of lookups into the hash reference ‘$gettext’ will be
     extracted.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Special Keywords,  Next: Quote-like Expressions,  Prev: Default Keywords,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.3 How to Extract Hash Keys
..................................

   Translating messages at runtime is normally performed by looking up
the original string in the translation database and returning the
translated version.  The "natural" Perl implementation is a hash lookup,
and, of course, ‘xgettext’ supports such practice.

     print __"Hello world!";
     print $__{"Hello world!"};
     print $__->{"Hello world!"};
     print $$__{"Hello world!"};

   The above four lines all do the same thing.  The Perl module
‘Locale::TextDomain’ exports by default a hash ‘%__’ that is tied to the
function ‘__()’.  It also exports a reference ‘$__’ to ‘%__’.

   If an argument to the ‘xgettext’ option ‘--keyword’, resp.  ‘-k’
starts with a percent sign, the rest of the keyword is interpreted as
the name of a hash.  If it starts with a dollar sign, the rest of the
keyword is interpreted as a reference to a hash.

   Note that you can omit the quotation marks (single or double) around
the hash key (almost) whenever Perl itself allows it:

     print $gettext{Error};

   The exact rule is: You can omit the surrounding quotes, when the hash
key is a valid C (!)  identifier, i.e. when it starts with an underscore
or an ASCII letter and is followed by an arbitrary number of
underscores, ASCII letters or digits.  Other Unicode characters are
_not_ allowed, regardless of the ‘use utf8’ pragma.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Quote-like Expressions,  Next: Interpolation I,  Prev: Special Keywords,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.4 What are Strings And Quote-like Expressions?
......................................................

   Perl offers a plethora of different string constructs.  Those that
can be used either as arguments to functions or inside braces for hash
lookups are generally supported by ‘xgettext’.

   • *double-quoted strings*
          print gettext "Hello World!";

   • *single-quoted strings*
          print gettext 'Hello World!';

   • *the operator qq*
          print gettext qq |Hello World!|;
          print gettext qq <E-mail: <guido\@imperia.net>>;

     The operator ‘qq’ is fully supported.  You can use arbitrary
     delimiters, including the four bracketing delimiters (round, angle,
     square, curly) that nest.

   • *the operator q*
          print gettext q |Hello World!|;
          print gettext q <E-mail: <guido@imperia.net>>;

     The operator ‘q’ is fully supported.  You can use arbitrary
     delimiters, including the four bracketing delimiters (round, angle,
     square, curly) that nest.

   • *the operator qx*
          print gettext qx ;LANGUAGE=C /bin/date;
          print gettext qx [/usr/bin/ls | grep '^[A-Z]*'];

     The operator ‘qx’ is fully supported.  You can use arbitrary
     delimiters, including the four bracketing delimiters (round, angle,
     square, curly) that nest.

     The example is actually a useless use of ‘gettext’.  It will invoke
     the ‘gettext’ function on the output of the command specified with
     the ‘qx’ operator.  The feature was included in order to make the
     interface consistent (the parser will extract all strings and
     quote-like expressions).

   • *here documents*
          print gettext <<'EOF';
          program not found in $PATH
          EOF

          print ngettext <<EOF, <<"EOF";
          one file deleted
          EOF
          several files deleted
          EOF

     Here-documents are recognized.  If the delimiter is enclosed in
     single quotes, the string is not interpolated.  If it is enclosed
     in double quotes or has no quotes at all, the string is
     interpolated.

     Delimiters that start with a digit are not supported!


File: gettext.info,  Node: Interpolation I,  Next: Interpolation II,  Prev: Quote-like Expressions,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.5 Unsupported Uses Of String Interpolation
..................................................

   Perl is capable of interpolating variables into strings.  This offers
some nice features in localized programs but can also lead to problems.

   A common error is a construct like the following:

     print gettext "This is the program $0!\n";

   Perl will interpolate at runtime the value of the variable ‘$0’ into
the argument of the ‘gettext()’ function.  Hence, this argument is not a
string constant but a variable argument (‘$0’ is a global variable that
holds the name of the Perl script being executed).  The interpolation is
performed by Perl before the string argument is passed to ‘gettext()’
and will therefore depend on the name of the script which can only be
determined at runtime.  Consequently, it is almost impossible that a
translation can be looked up at runtime (except if, by accident, the
interpolated string is found in the message catalog).

   The ‘xgettext’ program will therefore produce a warning if it
encounters a variable inside of a string to be extracted, and not
extract that string.  In general, this will happen for all kinds of
string interpolations that cannot be safely performed at compile time.
If you absolutely know what you are doing, you can always circumvent
this behavior:

     my $know_what_i_am_doing = "This is program $0!\n";
     print gettext $know_what_i_am_doing;

   Since the parser only recognizes strings and quote-like expressions,
but not variables or other terms, the above construct will be accepted.
You will have to find another way, however, to let your original string
make it into your message catalog.

   If invoked with the option ‘--extract-all’, resp.  ‘-a’, variable
interpolation will be accepted.  Rationale: You will generally use this
option in order to prepare your sources for internationalization.

   Please see the manual page ‘man perlop’ for details of strings and
quote-like expressions that are subject to interpolation and those that
are not.  Safe interpolations (that will not lead to a warning) are:

   • the escape sequences ‘\t’ (tab, HT, TAB), ‘\n’ (newline, NL), ‘\r’
     (return, CR), ‘\f’ (form feed, FF), ‘\b’ (backspace, BS), ‘\a’
     (alarm, bell, BEL), and ‘\e’ (escape, ESC).

   • octal chars, like ‘\033’
     Note that octal escapes in the range of 400-777 are translated into
     a UTF-8 representation, regardless of the presence of the ‘use
     utf8’ pragma.

   • hex chars, like ‘\x1b’

   • wide hex chars, like ‘\x{263a}’
     Note that this escape is translated into a UTF-8 representation,
     regardless of the presence of the ‘use utf8’ pragma.

   • control chars, like ‘\c[’ (CTRL-[)

   • named Unicode chars, like ‘\N{LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CEDILLA}’

     Note that this escape is translated into a UTF-8 representation,
     regardless of the presence of the ‘use utf8’ pragma.

   The following escapes are considered partially safe:

   • ‘\l’ lowercase next char

   • ‘\u’ uppercase next char

   • ‘\L’ lowercase till \E

   • ‘\U’ uppercase till \E

   • ‘\E’ end case modification

   • ‘\Q’ quote non-word characters till \E

   These escapes are only considered safe if the string consists of
ASCII characters only.  Translation of characters outside the range
defined by ASCII is locale-dependent and can actually only be performed
at runtime; ‘xgettext’ doesn't do these locale-dependent translations at
extraction time.

   Except for the modifier ‘\Q’, these translations, albeit valid, are
generally useless and only obfuscate your sources.  If a translation can
be safely performed at compile time you can just as well write what you
mean.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Interpolation II,  Next: Parentheses,  Prev: Interpolation I,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.6 Valid Uses Of String Interpolation
............................................

   Perl is often used to generate sources for other programming
languages or arbitrary file formats.  Web applications that output HTML
code make a prominent example for such usage.

   You will often come across situations where you want to intersperse
code written in the target (programming) language with translatable
messages, like in the following HTML example:

     print gettext <<EOF;
     <h1>My Homepage</h1>
     <script language="JavaScript"><!--
     for (i = 0; i < 100; ++i) {
         alert ("Thank you so much for visiting my homepage!");
     }
     //--></script>
     EOF

   The parser will extract the entire here document, and it will appear
entirely in the resulting PO file, including the JavaScript snippet
embedded in the HTML code.  If you exaggerate with constructs like the
above, you will run the risk that the translators of your package will
look out for a less challenging project.  You should consider an
alternative expression here:

     print <<EOF;
     <h1>$gettext{"My Homepage"}</h1>
     <script language="JavaScript"><!--
     for (i = 0; i < 100; ++i) {
         alert ("$gettext{'Thank you so much for visiting my homepage!'}");
     }
     //--></script>
     EOF

   Only the translatable portions of the code will be extracted here,
and the resulting PO file will begrudgingly improve in terms of
readability.

   You can interpolate hash lookups in all strings or quote-like
expressions that are subject to interpolation (see the manual page ‘man
perlop’ for details).  Double interpolation is unsupported, however:

     # TRANSLATORS: Replace "the earth" with the name of your planet.
     print gettext qq{Welcome to $gettext->{"the earth"}};

   The ‘qq’-quoted string is recognized as an argument to ‘xgettext’ in
the first place, and checked for unsupported variable interpolation.
The dollar sign of hash-dereferencing will therefore terminate the
parser with an "unsupported interpolation" warning.

   It is valid to interpolate hash lookups in regular expressions:

     if ($var =~ /$gettext{"the earth"}/) {
        print gettext "Match!\n";
     }
     s/$gettext{"U. S. A."}/$gettext{"U. S. A."} $gettext{"(dial +0)"}/g;


File: gettext.info,  Node: Parentheses,  Next: Long Lines,  Prev: Interpolation II,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.7 When To Use Parentheses
.................................

   In Perl, parentheses around function arguments are mostly optional.
‘xgettext’ will always assume that all recognized keywords (except for
hashes and hash references) are names of properly prototyped functions,
and will (hopefully) only require parentheses where Perl itself requires
them.  All constructs in the following example are therefore ok to use:

     print gettext ("Hello World!\n");
     print gettext "Hello World!\n";
     print dgettext ($package => "Hello World!\n");
     print dgettext $package, "Hello World!\n";

     # The "fat comma" => turns the left-hand side argument into a
     # single-quoted string!
     print dgettext smellovision => "Hello World!\n";

     # The following assignment only works with prototyped functions.
     # Otherwise, the functions will act as "greedy" list operators and
     # eat up all following arguments.
     my $anonymous_hash = {
        planet => gettext "earth",
        cakes => ngettext "one cake", "several cakes", $n,
        still => $works,
     };
     # The same without fat comma:
     my $other_hash = {
        'planet', gettext "earth",
        'cakes', ngettext "one cake", "several cakes", $n,
        'still', $works,
     };

     # Parentheses are only significant for the first argument.
     print dngettext 'package', ("one cake", "several cakes", $n), $discarded;


File: gettext.info,  Node: Long Lines,  Next: Perl Pitfalls,  Prev: Parentheses,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.8 How To Grok with Long Lines
.....................................

   The necessity of long messages can often lead to a cumbersome or
unreadable coding style.  Perl has several options that may prevent you
from writing unreadable code, and ‘xgettext’ does its best to do
likewise.  This is where the dot operator (the string concatenation
operator) may come in handy:

     print gettext ("This is a very long"
                    . " message that is still"
                    . " readable, because"
                    . " it is split into"
                    . " multiple lines.\n");

   Perl is smart enough to concatenate these constant string fragments
into one long string at compile time, and so is ‘xgettext’.  You will
only find one long message in the resulting POT file.

   Note that the future Perl 6 will probably use the underscore (‘_’) as
the string concatenation operator, and the dot (‘.’) for dereferencing.
This new syntax is not yet supported by ‘xgettext’.

   If embedded newline characters are not an issue, or even desired, you
may also insert newline characters inside quoted strings wherever you
feel like it:

     print gettext ("<em>In HTML output
     embedded newlines are generally no
     problem, since adjacent whitespace
     is always rendered into a single
     space character.</em>");

   You may also consider to use here documents:

     print gettext <<EOF;
     <em>In HTML output
     embedded newlines are generally no
     problem, since adjacent whitespace
     is always rendered into a single
     space character.</em>
     EOF

   Please do not forget that the line breaks are real, i.e. they
translate into newline characters that will consequently show up in the
resulting POT file.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Perl Pitfalls,  Prev: Long Lines,  Up: Perl

16.5.27.9 Bugs, Pitfalls, And Things That Do Not Work
.....................................................

   The foregoing sections should have proven that ‘xgettext’ is quite
smart in extracting translatable strings from Perl sources.  Yet, some
more or less exotic constructs that could be expected to work, actually
do not work.

   One of the more relevant limitations can be found in the
implementation of variable interpolation inside quoted strings.  Only
simple hash lookups can be used there:

     print <<EOF;
     $gettext{"The dot operator"
               . " does not work"
               . "here!"}
     Likewise, you cannot @{[ gettext ("interpolate function calls") ]}
     inside quoted strings or quote-like expressions.
     EOF

   This is valid Perl code and will actually trigger invocations of the
‘gettext’ function at runtime.  Yet, the Perl parser in ‘xgettext’ will
fail to recognize the strings.  A less obvious example can be found in
the interpolation of regular expressions:

     s/<!--START_OF_WEEK-->/gettext ("Sunday")/e;

   The modifier ‘e’ will cause the substitution to be interpreted as an
evaluable statement.  Consequently, at runtime the function ‘gettext()’
is called, but again, the parser fails to extract the string "Sunday".
Use a temporary variable as a simple workaround if you really happen to
need this feature:

     my $sunday = gettext "Sunday";
     s/<!--START_OF_WEEK-->/$sunday/;

   Hash slices would also be handy but are not recognized:

     my @weekdays = @gettext{'Sunday', 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday',
                             'Thursday', 'Friday', 'Saturday'};
     # Or even:
     @weekdays = @gettext{qw (Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
                              Friday Saturday) };

   This is perfectly valid usage of the tied hash ‘%gettext’ but the
strings are not recognized and therefore will not be extracted.

   Another caveat of the current version is its rudimentary support for
non-ASCII characters in identifiers.  You may encounter serious problems
if you use identifiers with characters outside the range of 'A'-'Z',
'a'-'z', '0'-'9' and the underscore '_'.

   Maybe some of these missing features will be implemented in future
versions, but since you can always make do without them at minimal
effort, these todos have very low priority.

   A nasty problem are brace format strings that already contain braces
as part of the normal text, for example the usage strings typically
encountered in programs:

     die "usage: $0 {OPTIONS} FILENAME...\n";

   If you want to internationalize this code with Perl brace format
strings, you will run into a problem:

     die __x ("usage: {program} {OPTIONS} FILENAME...\n", program => $0);

   Whereas ‘{program}’ is a placeholder, ‘{OPTIONS}’ is not and should
probably be translated.  Yet, there is no way to teach the Perl parser
in ‘xgettext’ to recognize the first one, and leave the other one alone.

   There are two possible work-arounds for this problem.  If you are
sure that your program will run under Perl 5.8.0 or newer (these Perl
versions handle positional parameters in ‘printf()’) or if you are sure
that the translator will not have to reorder the arguments in her
translation - for example if you have only one brace placeholder in your
string, or if it describes a syntax, like in this one -, you can mark
the string as ‘no-perl-brace-format’ and use ‘printf()’:

     # xgettext: no-perl-brace-format
     die sprintf ("usage: %s {OPTIONS} FILENAME...\n", $0);

   If you want to use the more portable Perl brace format, you will have
to do put placeholders in place of the literal braces:

     die __x ("usage: {program} {[}OPTIONS{]} FILENAME...\n",
              program => $0, '[' => '{', ']' => '}');

   Perl brace format strings know no escaping mechanism.  No matter how
this escaping mechanism looked like, it would either give the programmer
a hard time, make translating Perl brace format strings heavy-going, or
result in a performance penalty at runtime, when the format directives
get executed.  Most of the time you will happily get along with
‘printf()’ for this special case.


File: gettext.info,  Node: PHP,  Next: Pike,  Prev: Perl,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.28 PHP Hypertext Preprocessor
----------------------------------

RPMs
     php

Ubuntu packages
     php

File extension
     ‘php’, ‘php3’, ‘php4’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’, ‘'abc'’, ‘<<<EOT’, ‘<<<"EOT"’, ‘<<<'EOT'’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
     ‘dcngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     Programmer must call ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "")’

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘printf "%2\$d %1\$d"’

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, the functions are not available.

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-php’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Pike,  Next: GCC-source,  Prev: PHP,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.29 Pike
------------

RPMs
     roxen

Ubuntu packages
     pike8.0 or pike7.8

File extension
     ‘pike’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     --

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     ‘setlocale’ function

Prerequisite
     ‘import Locale.Gettext;’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     --

Formatting with positions
     --

Portability
     On platforms without gettext, the functions are not available.

po-mode marking
     --


File: gettext.info,  Node: GCC-source,  Next: YCP,  Prev: Pike,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.30 GNU Compiler Collection sources
---------------------------------------

RPMs
     gcc

Ubuntu packages
     gcc

File extension
     ‘c’, ‘h’.

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’, ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
     ‘dcngettext’

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ function

bindtextdomain
     ‘bindtextdomain’ function

setlocale
     Programmer must call ‘setlocale (LC_ALL, "")’

Prerequisite
     ‘#include "intl.h"’

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     Use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext -k_’

Formatting with positions
     --

Portability
     Uses autoconf macros

po-mode marking
     yes


File: gettext.info,  Node: YCP,  Prev: GCC-source,  Up: List of Programming Languages

16.5.31 YCP - YaST2 scripting language
--------------------------------------

RPMs
     libycp, libycp-devel, yast2-core, yast2-core-devel

Ubuntu packages
     --

File extension
     ‘ycp’

String syntax
     ‘"abc"’

gettext shorthand
     ‘_("abc")’

gettext/ngettext functions
     ‘_()’ with 1 or 3 arguments

textdomain
     ‘textdomain’ statement

bindtextdomain
     --

setlocale
     --

Prerequisite
     --

Use or emulate GNU gettext
     use

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’

Formatting with positions
     ‘sformat "%2 %1"’

Portability
     fully portable

po-mode marking
     --

   An example is available in the ‘examples’ directory: ‘hello-ycp’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Data Formats,  Next: Conclusion,  Prev: Programming Languages,  Up: Top

17 Other Data Formats
*********************

   While the GNU gettext tools deal mainly with POT and PO files, they
can also manipulate a couple of other data formats.

   For support for many document formats, such as plain text, MarkDown,
manual pages, XML, DocBook, and others, you can use the ‘po4a’ tools
(<https://www.po4a.org>).

   For LibreOffice document formats, such as ‘.odt’ files, there are no
PO file based workflows.  Instead, you can use
   • Lokalize (<https://apps.kde.org/lokalize/>) with the menu actions
     _Project > Create OpenDocument translation project_ and _File >
     Merge translation into OpenDocument_, or
   • OmegaT (Wikipedia: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmegaT>, home
     page: <https://omegat.org/>, code:
     <https://github.com/omegat-org/omegat>).
With these tools, a translator can translate LibreOffice document
directly, without going through the workflow with POT and PO files.
(Internally, they use XLIFF or TMX files for storage of the
translations.)  Alternatively, you can have a workflow with an XLIFF
file instead of a PO file, through the Translate Toolkit
<https://toolkit.translatehouse.org/> (see its documentation).

* Menu:

* Internationalizable Data::    Internationalizable Data Formats
* Localized Data::              Localized Data Formats


File: gettext.info,  Node: Internationalizable Data,  Next: Localized Data,  Up: Data Formats

17.1 Internationalizable Data Formats
=====================================

   Here is a list of other data formats which can be internationalized
using GNU gettext.

* Menu:

* POT::                         POT - Portable Object Template
* RST::                         Resource String Table
* Glade::                       Glade - GNOME user interface description
* GSettings::                   GSettings - GNOME user configuration schema
* AppData::                     AppData - freedesktop.org application description
* Preparing ITS Rules::         Preparing Rules for XML Internationalization


File: gettext.info,  Node: POT,  Next: RST,  Up: Internationalizable Data

17.1.1 POT - Portable Object Template
-------------------------------------

RPMs
     gettext

Ubuntu packages
     gettext

File extension
     ‘pot’, ‘po’

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’


File: gettext.info,  Node: RST,  Next: Glade,  Prev: POT,  Up: Internationalizable Data

17.1.2 Resource String Table
----------------------------

   RST is the format of resource string table files of the Free Pascal
compiler versions older than 3.0.0.  RSJ is the new format of resource
string table files, created by the Free Pascal compiler version 3.0.0 or
newer.

RPMs
     fpk

Ubuntu packages
     fp-compiler

File extension
     ‘rst’, ‘rsj’

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’, ‘rstconv’


File: gettext.info,  Node: Glade,  Next: GSettings,  Prev: RST,  Up: Internationalizable Data

17.1.3 Glade - GNOME user interface description
-----------------------------------------------

RPMs
     glade, libglade, glade2, libglade2, intltool

Ubuntu packages
     glade, libglade2-dev, intltool

File extension
     ‘glade’, ‘glade2’, ‘ui’

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’, ‘libglade-xgettext’, ‘xml-i18n-extract’,
     ‘intltool-extract’


File: gettext.info,  Node: GSettings,  Next: AppData,  Prev: Glade,  Up: Internationalizable Data

17.1.4 GSettings - GNOME user configuration schema
--------------------------------------------------

RPMs
     glib2

Ubuntu packages
     libglib2.0-dev

File extension
     ‘gschema.xml’

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’, ‘intltool-extract’


File: gettext.info,  Node: AppData,  Next: Preparing ITS Rules,  Prev: GSettings,  Up: Internationalizable Data

17.1.5 AppData - freedesktop.org application description
--------------------------------------------------------

   This file format is specified in
<https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/>.

RPMs
     appdata-tools, appstream, libappstream-glib,
     libappstream-glib-builder

Ubuntu packages
     appdata-tools, appstream, libappstream-glib-dev

File extension
     ‘appdata.xml’, ‘metainfo.xml’

Extractor
     ‘xgettext’, ‘intltool-extract’, ‘itstool’


File: gettext.info,  Node: Preparing ITS Rules,  Prev: AppData,  Up: Internationalizable Data

17.1.6 Preparing Rules for XML Internationalization
---------------------------------------------------

* Menu:

* ITS Rules::                   Specifying ITS Rules
* Locating Rules::              Specifying where to find the ITS Rules


File: gettext.info,  Node: ITS Rules,  Next: Locating Rules,  Up: Preparing ITS Rules

17.1.6.1 Specifying ITS Rules
.............................

   Marking translatable strings in an XML file is done through a
separate "rule" file, making use of the Internationalization Tag Set
standard (ITS, <https://www.w3.org/TR/its20/>).  The currently supported
ITS data categories are: ‘Translate’, ‘Localization Note’, ‘Elements
Within Text’, and ‘Preserve Space’.  In addition to them, ‘xgettext’
also recognizes the following extended data categories:

‘Context’

     This data category associates ‘msgctxt’ to the extracted text.  In
     the global rule, the ‘contextRule’ element contains the following:

        • A required ‘selector’ attribute.  It contains an absolute
          selector that selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

        • A required ‘contextPointer’ attribute that contains a relative
          selector pointing to a node that holds the ‘msgctxt’ value.

        • An optional ‘textPointer’ attribute that contains a relative
          selector pointing to a node that holds the ‘msgid’ value.

‘Extended Preserve Space’

     This data category extends the standard ‘Preserve Space’ data
     category with the additional values ‘trim’ and ‘paragraph’.  ‘trim’
     means to remove the leading and trailing whitespaces of the
     content, but not to normalize whitespaces in the middle.
     ‘paragraph’ means to normalize the content but keep the paragraph
     boundaries.  In the global rule, the ‘preserveSpaceRule’ element
     contains the following:

        • A required ‘selector’ attribute.  It contains an absolute
          selector that selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

        • A required ‘space’ attribute with the value ‘default’,
          ‘preserve’, ‘trim’, or ‘paragraph’.

‘Escape Special Characters’

     This data category indicates whether the special XML characters
     (‘<’, ‘>’, ‘&’, ‘"’) are escaped with entity references.  In the
     global rule, the ‘escapeRule’ element contains the following:

        • A required ‘selector’ attribute.  It contains an absolute
          selector that selects the nodes to which this rule applies.

        • A required ‘escape’ attribute with the value ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

        • An optional ‘unescape-if’ attribute with the value ‘xml’,
          ‘xhtml’, ‘html’, or ‘no’.

     The default values, ‘escape="no"’ and ‘unescape-if="no"’, should be
     good for most XML file types.  A rule with ‘escape="no"’, that was
     necessary with GNU gettext versions before 0.23, is now redundant.

     The ‘unescape-if’ attribute is useful for XML file types which
     present messages with embedded XML elements to the translator.
     Such file types are for example DocBook or XHTML. If
     ‘unescape-if="xml"’ is specified and the translation of a message
     looks like valid XML, the usual escaping of ‘<’, ‘>’, and character
     references is omitted.  The resulting XML document then is likely
     what the translator intended.  However, if the translator did not
     merely copy the XML markup from the message to the translation, but
     added or removed markup, the resulting XML document may be invalid.
     It is therefore useful if, after invoking ‘msgfmt’, you check the
     resulting XML document against the appropriate XML schema or DTD.

     Similarly, if ‘unescape-if="xhtml"’ is specified and the
     translation looks like valid XHTML, the usual escaping is omitted.
     And likewise for ‘unescape-if="html"’.

   All those extended data categories can only be expressed with global
rules, and the rule elements have to have the
‘https://www.gnu.org/s/gettext/ns/its/extensions/1.0’ namespace.

   Given the following XML document in a file ‘messages.xml’:

     <?xml version="1.0"?>
     <messages>
       <message>
         <p>A translatable string</p>
       </message>
       <message>
         <p translatable="no">A non-translatable string</p>
       </message>
     </messages>

   To extract the first text content ("A translatable string"), but not
the second ("A non-translatable string"), the following ITS rules can be
used:

     <?xml version="1.0"?>
     <its:rules xmlns:its="http://www.w3.org/2005/11/its" version="1.0">
       <its:translateRule selector="/messages" translate="no"/>
       <its:translateRule selector="//message/p" translate="yes"/>

       <!-- If 'p' has an attribute 'translatable' with the value 'no', then
            the content is not translatable.  -->
       <its:translateRule selector="//message/p[@translatable = 'no']"
         translate="no"/>
     </its:rules>

   ITS rules files must have the ‘.its’ file extension and obey the XML
schema version 1.0 encoded by ‘its.xsd10’ or the XML schema version 1.1
encoded by ‘its.xsd11’ and its auxiliary schema ‘its-extensions.xsd’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Locating Rules,  Prev: ITS Rules,  Up: Preparing ITS Rules

17.1.6.2 Specifying where to find the ITS Rules
...............................................

   ‘xgettext’ needs another file called "locating rules" to associate an
ITS rule with an XML file.  If the above ITS file is saved as
‘messages.its’, the locating rules file would look like:

     <?xml version="1.0"?>
     <locatingRules>
       <locatingRule name="Messages" pattern="*.xml">
         <documentRule localName="messages" target="messages.its"/>
       </locatingRule>
       <locatingRule name="Messages" pattern="*.msg" target="messages.its"/>
     </locatingRules>

   The ‘locatingRule’ element must have a ‘pattern’ attribute, which
denotes either a literal file name or a wildcard pattern of the XML
file(1).  The ‘locatingRule’ element can have child ‘documentRule’
element, which adds checks on the content of the XML file.

   The first rule matches any file with the ‘.xml’ file extension, but
it only applies to XML files whose root element is ‘<messages>’.

   The second rule indicates that the same ITS rules file are also
applicable to any file with the ‘.msg’ file extension.  The optional
‘name’ attribute of ‘locatingRule’ allows to choose rules by name,
typically with ‘xgettext’'s ‘-L’ option.

   The associated ITS rules file is indicated by the ‘target’ attribute
of ‘locatingRule’ or ‘documentRule’.  If it is specified in a
‘documentRule’ element, the parent ‘locatingRule’ shouldn't have the
‘target’ attribute.

   Locating rules files must have the ‘.loc’ file extension and obey the
XML schema version 1.0 encoded by ‘locating-rules.xsd10’ or the XML
schema version 1.1 encoded by ‘locating-rules.xsd11’.  Both ITS rules
files and locating rules files must be installed in the
‘$prefix/share/gettext/its’ directory.  Once those files are properly
installed, ‘xgettext’ can extract translatable strings from the matching
XML files.

17.1.6.3 Two Use-cases of Translated Strings in XML
...................................................

   After strings have been extracted from an XML file to a POT file
through ‘xgettext’ and the translator has produced a PO file with
translations, it can be used in two ways:

   • The PO file (or the MO file generated from it) can be directly
     consumed by a program.

   • Or the translated strings can be merged back to the original XML
     document.  To do this use the ‘msgfmt’ program with the option
     ‘--xml’.  *Note msgfmt Invocation::, for more details about how one
     calls the ‘msgfmt’ program.

     During this merge from a PO file into an XML file, it may happen
     that more escaping of special characters for XML is needed than
     what ‘msgfmt’ does by default.  In this case, you can enforce more
     escaping either throuch an ‘<escapeRule>’ ITS rule, or through an
     attribute ‘gt:escape="yes"’ on the particular XML element.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) Note that the file name matching is done after removing any ‘.in’
suffix from the input file name.  Thus the ‘pattern’ attribute must not
include a pattern matching ‘.in’.  For example, if the input file name
is ‘foo.msg.in’, the pattern should be either ‘*.msg’ or just ‘*’,
rather than ‘*.in’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Localized Data,  Prev: Internationalizable Data,  Up: Data Formats

17.2 Localized Data Formats
===========================

   Here is a list of file formats that contain localized data and that
the GNU gettext tools can manipulate.

* Menu:

* Editable Message Catalogs::   Editable Message Catalogs
* Compiled Message Catalogs::   Compiled Message Catalogs
* Desktop Entry::               Desktop Entry files
* XML::                         XML files


File: gettext.info,  Node: Editable Message Catalogs,  Next: Compiled Message Catalogs,  Up: Localized Data

17.2.1 Editable Message Catalogs
--------------------------------

   These file formats can be used with all of the ‘msg*’ tools and with
the ‘xgettext’ program.

   If you just want to convert among these formats, you can use the
‘msgcat’ program (with the appropriate option) or the ‘xgettext’
program.

* Menu:

* PO::                          PO - Portable Object
* Java .properties::            Java .properties
* GNUstep .strings::            NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO,  Next: Java .properties,  Up: Editable Message Catalogs

17.2.1.1 PO - Portable Object
.............................

File extension
     ‘po’


File: gettext.info,  Node: Java .properties,  Next: GNUstep .strings,  Prev: PO,  Up: Editable Message Catalogs

17.2.1.2 Java .properties
.........................

File extension
     ‘properties’


File: gettext.info,  Node: GNUstep .strings,  Prev: Java .properties,  Up: Editable Message Catalogs

17.2.1.3 NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings
..................................

File extension
     ‘strings’


File: gettext.info,  Node: Compiled Message Catalogs,  Next: Desktop Entry,  Prev: Editable Message Catalogs,  Up: Localized Data

17.2.2 Compiled Message Catalogs
--------------------------------

   These file formats can be created through ‘msgfmt’ and converted back
to PO format through ‘msgunfmt’.

* Menu:

* MO::                          MO - Machine Object
* Java ResourceBundle::         Java ResourceBundle
* C# Satellite Assembly::       C# Satellite Assembly
* C# Resource::                 C# Resource
* Tcl message catalog::         Tcl message catalog
* Qt message catalog::          Qt message catalog


File: gettext.info,  Node: MO,  Next: Java ResourceBundle,  Up: Compiled Message Catalogs

17.2.2.1 MO - Machine Object
............................

File extension
     ‘mo’

   See section *note MO Files:: for details.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Java ResourceBundle,  Next: C# Satellite Assembly,  Prev: MO,  Up: Compiled Message Catalogs

17.2.2.2 Java ResourceBundle
............................

File extension
     ‘class’

   For more information, see the section *note Java:: and the examples
‘hello-java’, ‘hello-java-awt’, ‘hello-java-swing’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: C# Satellite Assembly,  Next: C# Resource,  Prev: Java ResourceBundle,  Up: Compiled Message Catalogs

17.2.2.3 C# Satellite Assembly
..............................

File extension
     ‘dll’

   For more information, see the section *note C#::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: C# Resource,  Next: Tcl message catalog,  Prev: C# Satellite Assembly,  Up: Compiled Message Catalogs

17.2.2.4 C# Resource
....................

File extension
     ‘resources’

   For more information, see the section *note C#::.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Tcl message catalog,  Next: Qt message catalog,  Prev: C# Resource,  Up: Compiled Message Catalogs

17.2.2.5 Tcl message catalog
............................

File extension
     ‘msg’

   For more information, see the section *note Tcl:: and the examples
‘hello-tcl’, ‘hello-tcl-tk’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Qt message catalog,  Prev: Tcl message catalog,  Up: Compiled Message Catalogs

17.2.2.6 Qt message catalog
...........................

File extension
     ‘qm’

   For more information, see the examples ‘hello-c++-qt’ and
‘hello-c++-kde’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Desktop Entry,  Next: XML,  Prev: Compiled Message Catalogs,  Up: Localized Data

17.2.3 Desktop Entry files
--------------------------

   The programmer produces a desktop entry file template with only the
English strings.  These strings get included in the POT file, by way of
‘xgettext’ (usually by listing the template in ‘po/POTFILES.in’).  The
translators produce PO files, one for each language.  Finally, an
‘msgfmt --desktop’ invocation collects all the translations in the
desktop entry file.

   For more information, see the example ‘hello-c-gnome3’.

* Menu:

* Icons::                       Handling icons


File: gettext.info,  Node: Icons,  Up: Desktop Entry

17.2.3.1 How to handle icons in Desktop Entry files
...................................................

   Icons are generally locale dependent, for the following reasons:

   • Icons may contain signs that are considered rude in some cultures.
     For example, the high-five sign, in some cultures, is perceived as
     an unfriendly "stop" sign.
   • Icons may contain metaphors that are culture specific.  For
     example, a mailbox in the U.S. looks different than mailboxes all
     around the world.
   • Icons may need to be mirrored for right-to-left locales.
   • Icons may contain text strings (a bad practice, but anyway).

   However, icons are not covered by GNU gettext localization, because
   • Icons cannot be easily embedded in PO files,
   • The need to localize an icon is rare, and the ability to do so in a
     PO file would introduce translator mistakes.

   Desktop Entry files may contain an ‘Icon’ property, and this property
is localizable.  If a translator wishes to localize an icon, she should
do so by bypassing the normal workflow with PO files:
  1. The translator contacts the package developers directly, sending
     them the icon appropriate for her locale, with a request to change
     the template file.
  2. The package developers add the icon file to their repository, and a
     line
          Icon[LOCALE]=ICON_FILE_NAME
     to the template file.
This line remains in place when this template file is merged with the
translators' PO files, through ‘msgfmt’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: XML,  Prev: Desktop Entry,  Up: Localized Data

17.2.4 XML files
----------------

   See the section *note Preparing ITS Rules:: and *note msgfmt
Invocation::, subsection "XML mode operations".


File: gettext.info,  Node: Conclusion,  Next: Language Codes,  Prev: Data Formats,  Up: Top

18 Concluding Remarks
*********************

   We would like to conclude this GNU ‘gettext’ manual by presenting an
history of the Translation Project so far.  We finally give a few
pointers for those who want to do further research or readings about
Native Language Support matters.

* Menu:

* History::                     History of GNU ‘gettext’
* The original ABOUT-NLS::      Historical introduction
* References::                  Related Readings


File: gettext.info,  Node: History,  Next: The original ABOUT-NLS,  Up: Conclusion

18.1 History of GNU ‘gettext’
=============================

   Internationalization concerns and algorithms have been informally and
casually discussed for years in GNU, sometimes around GNU ‘libc’, maybe
around the incoming ‘Hurd’, or otherwise (nobody clearly remembers).
And even then, when the work started for real, this was somewhat
independently of these previous discussions.

   This all began in July 1994, when Patrick D'Cruze had the idea and
initiative of internationalizing version 3.9.2 of GNU ‘fileutils’.  He
then asked Jim Meyering, the maintainer, how to get those changes folded
into an official release.  That first draft was full of ‘#ifdef’s and
somewhat disconcerting, and Jim wanted to find nicer ways.  Patrick and
Jim shared some tries and experimentations in this area.  Then, feeling
that this might eventually have a deeper impact on GNU, Jim wanted to
know what standards were, and contacted Richard Stallman, who very
quickly and verbally described an overall design for what was meant to
become ‘glocale’, at that time.

   Jim implemented ‘glocale’ and got a lot of exhausting feedback from
Patrick and Richard, of course, but also from Mitchum DSouza (who wrote
a ‘catgets’-like package), Roland McGrath, maybe David MacKenzie,
François Pinard, and Paul Eggert, all pushing and pulling in various
directions, not always compatible, to the extent that after a couple of
test releases, ‘glocale’ was torn apart.  In particular, Paul Eggert -
always keeping an eye on developments in Solaris - advocated the use of
the ‘gettext’ API over ‘glocale’'s ‘catgets’-based API.

   While Jim took some distance and time and became dad for a second
time, Roland wanted to get GNU ‘libc’ internationalized, and got Ulrich
Drepper involved in that project.  Instead of starting from ‘glocale’,
Ulrich rewrote something from scratch, but more conforming to the set of
guidelines who emerged out of the ‘glocale’ effort.  Then, Ulrich got
people from the previous forum to involve themselves into this new
project, and the switch from ‘glocale’ to what was first named
‘msgutils’, renamed ‘nlsutils’, and later ‘gettext’, became officially
accepted by Richard in May 1995 or so.

   Let's summarize by saying that Ulrich Drepper wrote GNU ‘gettext’ in
April 1995.  The first official release of the package, including PO
mode, occurred in July 1995, and was numbered 0.7.  Other people
contributed to the effort by providing a discussion forum around Ulrich,
writing little pieces of code, or testing.  These are quoted in the
‘THANKS’ file which comes with the GNU ‘gettext’ distribution.

   While this was being done, François adapted half a dozen of GNU
packages to ‘glocale’ first, then later to ‘gettext’, putting them in
pretest, so providing along the way an effective user environment for
fine tuning the evolving tools.  He also took the responsibility of
organizing and coordinating the Translation Project.  After nearly a
year of informal exchanges between people from many countries,
translator teams started to exist in May 1995, through the creation and
support by Patrick D'Cruze of twenty unmoderated mailing lists for that
many native languages, and two moderated lists: one for reaching all
teams at once, the other for reaching all willing maintainers of
internationalized free software packages.

   François also wrote PO mode in June 1995 with the collaboration of
Greg McGary, as a kind of contribution to Ulrich's package.  He also
gave a hand with the GNU ‘gettext’ Texinfo manual.

   In 1997, Ulrich Drepper released the GNU libc 2.0, which included the
‘gettext’, ‘textdomain’ and ‘bindtextdomain’ functions.

   In 2000, Ulrich Drepper added plural form handling (the ‘ngettext’
function) to GNU libc.  Later, in 2001, he released GNU libc 2.2.x,
which is the first free C library with full internationalization
support.

   Ulrich being quite busy in his role of General Maintainer of GNU
libc, he handed over the GNU ‘gettext’ maintenance to Bruno Haible in
2000.  Bruno added the plural form handling to the tools as well, added
support for UTF-8 and CJK locales, and wrote a few new tools for
manipulating PO files.


File: gettext.info,  Node: The original ABOUT-NLS,  Next: References,  Prev: History,  Up: Conclusion

18.2 Notes on the Free Translation Project
==========================================

   This section contains the text that was, for a long time, distributed
as a file named ‘ABOUT-NLS’.

   * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated.  It it included
here for historical purposes only.

   Free software is going international!  The Free Translation Project
is a way to get maintainers of free software, translators, and users all
together, so that free software will gradually become able to speak many
languages.  A few packages already provide translations for their
messages.

   If you found this ‘ABOUT-NLS’ file inside a distribution, you may
assume that the distributed package does use GNU ‘gettext’ internally,
itself available at your nearest GNU archive site.  But you do _not_
need to install GNU ‘gettext’ prior to configuring, installing or using
this package with messages translated.

   Installers will find here some useful hints.  These notes also
explain how users should proceed for getting the programs to use the
available translations.  They tell how people wanting to contribute and
work on translations can contact the appropriate team.

* Menu:

* INSTALL Matters::
* Using This Package::
* Translating Teams::
* Available Packages::
* Using gettext in own code::


File: gettext.info,  Node: INSTALL Matters,  Next: Using This Package,  Up: The original ABOUT-NLS

18.2.1 INSTALL Matters
----------------------

   Some packages are “localizable” when properly installed; the programs
they contain can be made to speak your own native language.  Most such
packages use GNU ‘gettext’.  Other packages have their own ways to
internationalization, predating GNU ‘gettext’.

   By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of
messages.  It will automatically detect whether the system already
provides the GNU ‘gettext’ functions.  Installers may use special
options at configuration time for changing the default behaviour.  The
command:

     ./configure --disable-nls

will _totally_ disable translation of messages.

   When you already have GNU ‘gettext’ installed on your system and run
configure without an option for your new package, ‘configure’ will
probably detect the previously built and installed ‘libintl’ library and
will decide to use it.  If not, you may have to to use the
‘--with-libintl-prefix’ option to tell ‘configure’ where to look for it.

   Internationalized packages usually have many ‘po/LL.po’ or
‘po/LL_CC.po’ files, where

   • LL gives an ISO 639 two-letter code identifying the language.  For
     some languages, a two-letter code does not exist, and a
     three-letter code is used instead.
   • The optional CC is an ISO 3166 two-letter code of a country or
     territory.

Unless translations have been forbidden at ‘configure’ time by using the
‘--disable-nls’ switch, all available translations are installed
together with the package.  However, the environment variable ‘LINGUAS’
may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set.
‘LINGUAS’ should then contain a space separated list of locale names (of
the form ‘LL’ or ‘LL_CC’, stating which languages or language variants
are allowed.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Using This Package,  Next: Translating Teams,  Prev: INSTALL Matters,  Up: The original ABOUT-NLS

18.2.2 Using This Package
-------------------------

   As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, you
only have to set the ‘LANG’ environment variable to the appropriate
‘LL_CC’ combination.  If you happen to have the ‘LC_ALL’ or some other
‘LC_xxx’ environment variables set, you should unset them before setting
‘LANG’, otherwise the setting of ‘LANG’ will not have the desired
effect.  Here

   • ‘LL’ is an ISO 639 two-letter language code.  For some languages, a
     two-letter code does not exist, and a three-letter code is used
     instead.
   • ‘CC’ is an ISO 3166 two-letter code of a country or territory.

For example, let's suppose that you speak German and live in Germany.
At the shell prompt, merely execute ‘setenv LANG de_DE’ (in ‘csh’),
‘export LANG; LANG=de_DE’ (in ‘sh’) or ‘export LANG=de_DE’ (in ‘bash’).
This can be done from your ‘.login’ or ‘.profile’ file, once and for
all.

   You might think that the country code specification is redundant.
But in fact, some languages have dialects in different countries.  For
example, ‘de_AT’ is used for Austria, and ‘pt_BR’ for Brazil.  The
country code serves to distinguish the dialects.

   The locale naming convention of ‘LL_CC’, with ‘LL’ denoting the
language and ‘CC’ denoting the country, is the one use on systems based
on GNU libc.  On other systems, some variations of this scheme are used,
such as ‘LL’ or ‘LL_CC.ENCODING’.  You can get the list of locales
supported by your system for your language by running the command
‘locale -a | grep '^LL'’.

   Not all programs have translations for all languages.  By default, an
English message is shown in place of a nonexistent translation.  If you
understand other languages, you can set up a priority list of languages.
This is done through a different environment variable, called
‘LANGUAGE’.  GNU ‘gettext’ gives preference to ‘LANGUAGE’ over ‘LANG’
for the purpose of message handling, but you still need to have ‘LANG’
set to the primary language; this is required by other parts of the
system libraries.  For example, some Swedish users who would rather read
translations in German than English for when Swedish is not available,
set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘sv:de’ while leaving ‘LANG’ to ‘sv_SE’.

   Special advice for Norwegian users: The language code for Norwegian
bokmål changed from ‘no’ to ‘nb’ recently (in 2003).  During the
transition period, while some message catalogs for this language are
installed under ‘nb’ and some older ones under ‘no’, it's recommended
for Norwegian users to set ‘LANGUAGE’ to ‘nb:no’ so that both newer and
older translations are used.

   In the ‘LANGUAGE’ environment variable, but not in the ‘LANG’
environment variable, ‘LL_CC’ combinations can be abbreviated as ‘LL’ to
denote the language's main dialect.  For example, ‘de’ is equivalent to
‘de_DE’ (German as spoken in Germany), and ‘pt’ to ‘pt_PT’ (Portuguese
as spoken in Portugal) in this context.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Translating Teams,  Next: Available Packages,  Prev: Using This Package,  Up: The original ABOUT-NLS

18.2.3 Translating Teams
------------------------

   For the Free Translation Project to be a success, we need interested
people who like their own language and write it well, and who are also
able to synergize with other translators speaking the same language.
Each translation team has its own mailing list.  The up-to-date list of
teams can be found at the Free Translation Project's homepage,
‘https://translationproject.org/’, in the "Teams" area.

   If you'd like to volunteer to _work_ at translating messages, you
should become a member of the translating team for your own language.
The subscribing address is _not_ the same as the list itself, it has
‘-request’ appended.  For example, speakers of Swedish can send a
message to ‘sv-request@li.org’, having this message body:

     subscribe

   Keep in mind that team members are expected to participate _actively_
in translations, or at solving translational difficulties, rather than
merely lurking around.  If your team does not exist yet and you want to
start one, or if you are unsure about what to do or how to get started,
please write to ‘coordinator@translationproject.org’ to reach the
coordinator for all translator teams.

   The English team is special.  It works at improving and uniformizing
the terminology in use.  Proven linguistic skills are praised more than
programming skills, here.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Available Packages,  Next: Using gettext in own code,  Prev: Translating Teams,  Up: The original ABOUT-NLS

18.2.4 Available Packages
-------------------------

   Languages are not equally supported in all packages.  The following
matrix shows the current state of internationalization, as of January
2026.  The matrix shows, in regard of each package, for which languages
PO files have been submitted to translation coordination, with a
translation percentage of at least 50%.

     Ready PO files       ab af an ar ast be bg bn bn_IN ca ckb crh cs da
                        +-------------------------------------------------+
     a2ps               |                                           []    |
     anubis             |                                              [] |
     aspell             |             []  []             []         [] [] |
     bash               |                    []          []         []    |
     beebase            |                                                 |
     bfd                |                                                 |
     binutils           |          []                    []               |
     bison              |                    []          []               |
     bison-runtime      |             []     []          []            [] |
     buzztrax           |                                           [] [] |
     ccd2cue            |                                              [] |
     ccide              |                                              [] |
     cflow              |                                                 |
     chambercourt       |                                                 |
     clisp              |                                              [] |
     coreutils          |          []        []          []         [] [] |
     cpio               |                    []                        [] |
     cppi               |                                              [] |
     cpplib             |                                                 |
     cryptsetup         |                                           [] [] |
     datamash           |                                              [] |
     denemo             |                                []         [] [] |
     dfarc              |                                []            [] |
     dialog             |                    []                           |
     dico               |                                              [] |
     diffutils          |                    []                     [] [] |
     dink               |                                []            [] |
     direvent           |                                              [] |
     doodle             |                                           [] [] |
     dos2unix           |                                []            [] |
     dos2unix-man       |                                                 |
     e2fsprogs          |                                []         [] [] |
     enscript           |                                []            [] |
     exif               |             []                            [] [] |
     fetchmail          |                                []         [] [] |
     findutils          |          []     [] []                     [] [] |
     flex               |                    []          []            [] |
     freedink           |                                []         [] [] |
     gas                |                                                 |
     gawk               |                    []          []               |
     gcal               |                                []            [] |
     gcc                |                                                 |
     gdbm               |                                                 |
     gettext-examples   |             []     []          []         [] [] |
     gettext-runtime    |                    []                     []    |
     gettext-tools      |                    []          []               |
     gnubik             |          []                                  [] |
     gnuchess           |                                              [] |
     gnucobol           |                                                 |
     gnulib             |                    []                           |
     gnunet             |                                                 |
     gnunet-gtk         |                                                 |
     gnutls             |                                           []    |
     gphoto2            |          []                               [] [] |
     gprof              |                    []                        [] |
     grep               |                 [] []          []         [] [] |
     grip               |                 [] []          []            [] |
     grub               |             []                 []            [] |
     gsasl              |                                              [] |
     gss                |                                              [] |
     gst-plugins-bad    |          [] []     []                     [] [] |
     gst-plugins-base   |          []        []          []         [] [] |
     gst-plugins-good   |          []        []          []         [] [] |
     gst-plugins-ugly   |          [] []     []          []         [] [] |
     gstreamer          |          [] []     []          []         [] [] |
     gtick              |                                           [] [] |
     gtkam              |                 []                        [] [] |
     gtkspell           |    []    [] []  []             []         [] [] |
     gutenprint         |                                []            [] |
     hello              |                                           []    |
     help2man           |                                              [] |
     help2man-texi      |                                                 |
     i18nparse          |                                                 |
     idutils            |                                              [] |
     kbd                |                                           []    |
     klavaro            |          []        [] []       []         [] [] |
     ld                 |                                                 |
     libc               |          []     [] []          []         [] [] |
     libexif            |          []                                  [] |
     libextractor       |          []                                  [] |
     libgphoto2         |          []                               [] [] |
     libgphoto2_port    |          []                               [] [] |
     libiconv           |                 [] []                     [] [] |
     libidn             |                                           [] [] |
     libidn2            |                                           [] [] |
     lilypond           |                                []         [] [] |
     lordsawar          |                                []            [] |
     lynx               |                                []         [] [] |
     m4                 |                    []                     []    |
     mailfromd          |                                              [] |
     mailutils          |                                                 |
     make               |                    []                     [] [] |
     man-db             |             []                 []         [] [] |
     man-db-manpages    |                                                 |
     meritous           |                                              [] |
     midi-instruments   |          []                    []         [] [] |
     minicom            |                                           [] [] |
     mpop               |                                                 |
     msmtp              |                                                 |
     nano               |                                []         [] [] |
     opcodes            |                                                 |
     parted             |                                           [] [] |
     pies               |                                                 |
     procps-ng          |                                                 |
     procps-ng-man      |                                                 |
     psmisc             |                 []                        [] [] |
     psmisc-man         |                                                 |
     pspp               |          []                    []               |
     pyspread           |                                              [] |
     radius             |                                []               |
     recode             |                 []             []         [] [] |
     recutils           |                                                 |
     rush               |                                              [] |
     sarg               |                                              [] |
     savane             |                                                 |
     sed                |             []  [] []          []         [] [] |
     sharutils          |                                           []    |
     shepherd           |                                                 |
     shishi             |                                                 |
     skribilo           |                                              [] |
     sudo               |             []                 []         [] [] |
     sudoers            |                                []         []    |
     sysstat            |                 []                              |
     tar                |                    []          []         [] [] |
     texinfo            |                                []         [] [] |
     texinfo_document   |                                []         []    |
     tigervnc           |          []        []                     []    |
     tin                |                                              [] |
     tin-man            |                                                 |
     trader             |                                              [] |
     util-linux         |                                           [] [] |
     util-linux-man     |                                                 |
     vmm                |                                                 |
     vorbis-tools       |                                           [] [] |
     wastesedge         |                                              [] |
     wcd                |                                              [] |
     wcd-man            |                                                 |
     wdiff              |                                []         [] [] |
     wget               |          []     []                        [] [] |
     wget2              |          []                                     |
     wincoll            |                                                 |
     wyslij-po          |                                              [] |
     xboard             |                                              [] |
     xdg-user-dirs      | [] [] [] [] []  [] []     []   [] []  []  [] [] |
     xkeyboard-config   |          []        []          []         [] [] |
     xz                 |          []                    []               |
     xz-man             |          []                                     |
                        +-------------------------------------------------+
                          ab af an ar ast be bg bn bn_IN ca ckb crh cs da
                           1  2  1 26 13  14 32  1   1   49  1   1  61 91

                          de  el en en_GB eo es  et eu fa fi fr  fur ga gd
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
     a2ps               | []  []             []  []          []            |
     anubis             | []                 []           [] []            |
     aspell             | []         []   [] []           [] []  []  []    |
     bash               | []              [] []              []            |
     beebase            | []                 []              []            |
     bfd                |                    []              []            |
     binutils           |                                    []            |
     bison              | []  []          [] []  []       [] []            |
     bison-runtime      | []  []          [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     buzztrax           | []                 []           [] []            |
     ccd2cue            | []              [] []              []            |
     ccide              | []              [] []           [] []  []        |
     cflow              | []              [] []              []            |
     chambercourt       |     []                             []            |
     clisp              | []     []          []              []            |
     coreutils          | []                     []          []            |
     cpio               | []                 []           [] []      []    |
     cppi               | []              [] []           [] []            |
     cpplib             | []                 []              []            |
     cryptsetup         | []                 []              []            |
     datamash           | []              [] []              []            |
     denemo             |                                                  |
     dfarc              | []              [] []           [] []  []        |
     dialog             | []              []           []                  |
     dico               | []                 []           [] []            |
     diffutils          | []  []          [] []           [] []            |
     dink               | []              [] []           [] []            |
     direvent           | []              [] []              []            |
     doodle             | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     dos2unix           | []              [] []              []  []        |
     dos2unix-man       | []                 []              []            |
     e2fsprogs          | []                 []              []            |
     enscript           | []         []   [] []           [] []      []    |
     exif               | []              [] []           [] []  []        |
     fetchmail          | ()         []   [] []              []            |
     findutils          | []  []          [] []  []       [] []            |
     flex               | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     freedink           | []  []          [] []     []    [] []  []        |
     gas                |                    []           [] []            |
     gawk               | []                 []           [] []            |
     gcal               | []                 []              []            |
     gcc                | []                                 []            |
     gdbm               | []              [] []              []            |
     gettext-examples   | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     gettext-runtime    | []                 []                            |
     gettext-tools      | []                 []           [] []            |
     gnubik             | []              [] []           [] []  []        |
     gnuchess           | []              [] []              []            |
     gnucobol           | []                                 []            |
     gnulib             | []              [] []           [] []            |
     gnunet             |                    []                            |
     gnunet-gtk         | []                 []                            |
     gnutls             | []              [] []           [] []            |
     gphoto2            | ()              []                 []            |
     gprof              | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     grep               | []              [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     grip               | []                 []           [] []  []        |
     grub               | []              [] []           [] []            |
     gsasl              | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     gss                | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     gst-plugins-bad    | []              [] []              []  []        |
     gst-plugins-base   | []  []          [] []           [] []  []        |
     gst-plugins-good   | []  []          [] []           [] []  []        |
     gst-plugins-ugly   | []  []          [] []     []    [] []  []        |
     gstreamer          | []  []          [] []     []    [] []  []        |
     gtick              | ()              [] []           [] []      []    |
     gtkam              | ()              [] []           [] []            |
     gtkspell           | []  []          [] []     []    [] []  []  []    |
     gutenprint         | []                 []              []            |
     hello              | []                     []    [] [] []            |
     help2man           | []  []          [] []           [] []            |
     help2man-texi      | []                 []              []            |
     i18nparse          | []              [] []              ()            |
     idutils            | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     kbd                | []  []          [] []              []            |
     klavaro            | []  []          [] []     []       []            |
     ld                 |                    []              []            |
     libc               | []                 []           [] []            |
     libexif            | []                 []              []            |
     libextractor       | []                 []              []            |
     libgphoto2         | ()                                 []            |
     libgphoto2_port    | ()                 []     []    [] []  []        |
     libiconv           | []              [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     libidn             | []              [] []           [] []            |
     libidn2            | []              [] []              []  []        |
     lilypond           | []              [] []              []            |
     lordsawar          | []                                 []            |
     lynx               | []              []     []       [] []            |
     m4                 | []              [] []              []            |
     mailfromd          | []                                 []            |
     mailutils          | []                 []           [] []            |
     make               | []                 []           [] []      []    |
     man-db             | []              [] []              []            |
     man-db-manpages    | []                 []              []            |
     meritous           |                 []                               |
     midi-instruments   | []  []          [] []  []    [] [] []            |
     minicom            | []                 []           [] []            |
     mpop               | []              [] []              []            |
     msmtp              | []              [] []              []            |
     nano               | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     opcodes            | []                 []              []            |
     parted             | []                 []              []  []        |
     pies               | []                 []              []            |
     procps-ng          | []                 []              []            |
     procps-ng-man      | []                                               |
     psmisc             | []  []          [] []           [] []            |
     psmisc-man         | []                                 []            |
     pspp               | []  []             []              []            |
     pyspread           | []                                 []            |
     radius             |                    []              []            |
     recode             | []              [] []           [] []      []    |
     recutils           | []                              [] []            |
     rush               | []                 []              []            |
     sarg               | []                 []              []            |
     savane             | []                 []              []            |
     sed                | []  []          [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     sharutils          | []              []     []          []            |
     shepherd           | []                                 []            |
     shishi             | []                              [] []            |
     skribilo           |                 [] []              []  []        |
     sudo               | []              [] []        [] [] []  []        |
     sudoers            | []              []              [] []            |
     sysstat            | []              []              [] []  []        |
     tar                | []              [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     texinfo            | []              [] []              []            |
     texinfo_document   |                    []              []            |
     tigervnc           | []                 []           [] []  []        |
     tin                | []                     []          []            |
     tin-man            | []                                               |
     trader             | []         []   []              [] []            |
     util-linux         | []                 []              []            |
     util-linux-man     | []                                 []            |
     vmm                |                                                  |
     vorbis-tools       | []              [] []              []            |
     wastesedge         |                                    []            |
     wcd                | []              [] []           [] []  []        |
     wcd-man            | []                                 []            |
     wdiff              | []              [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     wget               | []              [] []  []       [] []      []    |
     wget2              | []                 []              []            |
     wincoll            | []  []             []              []            |
     wyslij-po          | []              [] []           [] []            |
     xboard             | []                 []              []            |
     xdg-user-dirs      | []  []          [] []  [] [] [] [] []  []  [] [] |
     xkeyboard-config   | []              [] []           [] []  []        |
     xz                 | []              [] []           []               |
     xz-man             | []                                 []            |
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
                          de  el en en_GB eo es  et eu fa fi fr  fur ga gd
                          129 21  1   4   78 117 17  7  5 69 137 24  23  1

                          gl gu he hi hr hu hy id is it ja ka kab kk kn ko
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
     a2ps               |             [] []             []              [] |
     anubis             |             [] []    []    []                    |
     aspell             |             [] []    []    [] []                 |
     bash               |             [] []          []                 [] |
     beebase            |                            ()                    |
     bfd                |                                                  |
     binutils           |                                                  |
     bison              |                               []                 |
     bison-runtime      | []          [] []    []    [] [] []              |
     buzztrax           |                                                  |
     ccd2cue            |                []                                |
     ccide              |             [] []                []              |
     cflow              |                                                  |
     chambercourt       |                                                  |
     clisp              |                                                  |
     coreutils          |             [] []             []              [] |
     cpio               |             [] []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     cppi               | []          [] []          [] [] []              |
     cpplib             |                                                  |
     cryptsetup         |                               []                 |
     datamash           |                                                  |
     denemo             |                                                  |
     dfarc              |             [] []          []                    |
     dialog             |                      []       [] []              |
     dico               |                                                  |
     diffutils          |             [] []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     dink               |                []                                |
     direvent           |                []                                |
     doodle             |                            []                    |
     dos2unix           |                []             [] []           [] |
     dos2unix-man       |                                               [] |
     e2fsprogs          |                []                                |
     enscript           |             []       []                          |
     exif               | []          [] []    [] [] [] [] []           [] |
     fetchmail          |                      []    [] []                 |
     findutils          |             [] []    []    []    []           [] |
     flex               |                                                  |
     freedink           |             [] []    []    []                    |
     gas                |                      []                          |
     gawk               |                      []    ()                 [] |
     gcal               |                                                  |
     gcc                |                                                  |
     gdbm               |                                  []              |
     gettext-examples   | []          [] []          [] [] []              |
     gettext-runtime    |             []             [] []              [] |
     gettext-tools      |             []             [] []              [] |
     gnubik             | []    []    []             []                    |
     gnuchess           | []                                               |
     gnucobol           |                                                  |
     gnulib             |                            []    []              |
     gnunet             |                                                  |
     gnunet-gtk         |                                                  |
     gnutls             |                            []    []              |
     gphoto2            |                []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     gprof              |                []    []    []    []              |
     grep               | []          [] []    []    [] [] [] []        [] |
     grip               |                []          [] []              [] |
     grub               | []    []    [] []    []    []    []           [] |
     gsasl              |                []    []    []    []              |
     gss                |             [] []    []    []    []              |
     gst-plugins-bad    |             [] []    []    []    []              |
     gst-plugins-base   | []          [] []    []    []    []              |
     gst-plugins-good   | []          [] []    []    [] [] []              |
     gst-plugins-ugly   | []          [] []    []    [] [] []              |
     gstreamer          | []          [] []    []    []                    |
     gtick              | []             []    []    []                    |
     gtkam              |       []       []    [] [] [] []                 |
     gtkspell           | []    []    [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []              |
     gutenprint         | []          [] []          []    []              |
     hello              |             []                   []              |
     help2man           |             []             [] []              [] |
     help2man-texi      |                                                  |
     i18nparse          |                                  []              |
     idutils            |                []    []          []              |
     kbd                |                      []                          |
     klavaro            | []          [] []    []    []           []       |
     ld                 |                                                  |
     libc               | []          []       []    [] []              [] |
     libexif            |                            []                    |
     libextractor       |                                                  |
     libgphoto2         |                                                  |
     libgphoto2_port    |                            [] [] []              |
     libiconv           | []          [] []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     libidn             |             [] []    []    []                 [] |
     libidn2            |                []    []          []           [] |
     lilypond           |                            [] []                 |
     lordsawar          |                               []                 |
     lynx               |                []    []    [] []                 |
     m4                 |                                               [] |
     mailfromd          |                                                  |
     mailutils          |                                                  |
     make               |             []       []    [] []              [] |
     man-db             |                      []    [] []              [] |
     man-db-manpages    |                      []                       [] |
     meritous           |                                                  |
     midi-instruments   | []    []    [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []           [] |
     minicom            |                []    []       [] []           [] |
     mpop               |                                                  |
     msmtp              |                                                  |
     nano               | []          [] []    [] [] [] []              [] |
     opcodes            |                                                  |
     parted             |                []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     pies               |                                                  |
     procps-ng          |                                               [] |
     procps-ng-man      |                                                  |
     psmisc             |             [] []    []    []    []           [] |
     psmisc-man         |             []                                [] |
     pspp               |                []             []                 |
     pyspread           |                                                  |
     radius             |                      []                          |
     recode             | []    []    [] []    []    []                    |
     recutils           |                                                  |
     rush               |                                                  |
     sarg               |                                  []              |
     savane             |       []                                         |
     sed                | []          [] []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     sharutils          |                                                  |
     shepherd           |                                                  |
     shishi             |                                                  |
     skribilo           |                []                                |
     sudo               | []          [] []    []    [] [] []           [] |
     sudoers            |             []       []    [] []              [] |
     sysstat            |             []       []    []    []           [] |
     tar                |             [] []    []    [] []              [] |
     texinfo            |             []             []                    |
     texinfo_document   |             []                   []              |
     tigervnc           |       []             []          []           [] |
     tin                |                                                  |
     tin-man            |                                                  |
     trader             |             [] []                                |
     util-linux         |             []                []              [] |
     util-linux-man     |                                                  |
     vmm                |                                                  |
     vorbis-tools       |             []       []          []              |
     wastesedge         |                            []                    |
     wcd                |                                                  |
     wcd-man            |                                                  |
     wdiff              | []             []          []                    |
     wget               |             [] []    []    [] []              [] |
     wget2              |             []       []    [] []              [] |
     wincoll            |                                                  |
     wyslij-po          | []          [] []    []                          |
     xboard             |                                                  |
     xdg-user-dirs      | [] [] [] [] [] []    [] [] [] [] [] []  [] [] [] |
     xkeyboard-config   | []    []    [] []    []    []    []           [] |
     xz                 |             [] []          []    []           [] |
     xz-man             |                            []                 [] |
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
                          gl gu he hi hr hu hy id is it ja ka kab kk kn ko
                          27  1 10  1 57 60  2 57  6 65 45 45  2   2  1 45

                          ku ky lg lt lv mk ml mn mr ms mt nb ne nl nn or
                        +-------------------------------------------------+
     a2ps               |                            []    []    []       |
     anubis             |                            []    []    []       |
     aspell             |                      []                []       |
     bash               |                                  []    []       |
     beebase            |                                        []       |
     bfd                |                                                 |
     binutils           |                                                 |
     bison              |                            []                   |
     bison-runtime      |    []    [] []             []    []    []       |
     buzztrax           |                                                 |
     ccd2cue            |                                                 |
     ccide              |             []                         []       |
     cflow              |                                                 |
     chambercourt       |                                                 |
     clisp              |                                        []       |
     coreutils          |                                  []    []       |
     cpio               |                                        []       |
     cppi               |                                                 |
     cpplib             |                                                 |
     cryptsetup         |                                                 |
     datamash           |                                  []    []       |
     denemo             |                                        []       |
     dfarc              |                []                      []       |
     dialog             |                                                 |
     dico               |                                                 |
     diffutils          |             []             []    []    []       |
     dink               |                                        []       |
     direvent           |                                        []       |
     doodle             |                                        []       |
     dos2unix           |                                  []    []       |
     dos2unix-man       |                                        []       |
     e2fsprogs          |                                        []       |
     enscript           |                                        []       |
     exif               |             []             []          []       |
     fetchmail          |                                        []       |
     findutils          |                                  []    []       |
     flex               |                                        []       |
     freedink           |             []                   []    []       |
     gas                |                                                 |
     gawk               |                                        []       |
     gcal               |                                                 |
     gcc                |                                                 |
     gdbm               |                                                 |
     gettext-examples   |    []       []             []    []    [] []    |
     gettext-runtime    |                                                 |
     gettext-tools      |                                                 |
     gnubik             |                                  []    []       |
     gnuchess           |                                  []    []       |
     gnucobol           |                                                 |
     gnulib             |                                        []       |
     gnunet             |                                                 |
     gnunet-gtk         |                                                 |
     gnutls             |                            []          []       |
     gphoto2            |                                        []       |
     gprof              |                            []          []       |
     grep               |                                  []    []       |
     grip               |                                  []    []       |
     grub               |          []                      []    []       |
     gsasl              |                                        []       |
     gss                |                                                 |
     gst-plugins-bad    |             []                   []    []       |
     gst-plugins-base   |             []                   []    []       |
     gst-plugins-good   |             []                   []    []       |
     gst-plugins-ugly   |             []             [] [] []    []       |
     gstreamer          |          [] []                   []    []       |
     gtick              |                                  []    []       |
     gtkam              |                                  []    []       |
     gtkspell           |    []    [] []       []    []    []    []       |
     gutenprint         |                                        []       |
     hello              |             []                   []    []       |
     help2man           |                                  []             |
     help2man-texi      |                                                 |
     i18nparse          |                                        []       |
     idutils            |                                  []    []       |
     kbd                |                                                 |
     klavaro            |                                  []    []       |
     ld                 |                                                 |
     libc               |                                        []       |
     libexif            |                                        []       |
     libextractor       |                                        []       |
     libgphoto2         |                                        []       |
     libgphoto2_port    |                                        []       |
     libiconv           |          []                            []       |
     libidn             |                                        []       |
     libidn2            |             []                         []       |
     lilypond           |                                        []       |
     lordsawar          |                                                 |
     lynx               |                                        []       |
     m4                 |                                        []       |
     mailfromd          |                                                 |
     mailutils          |                                                 |
     make               |                                        []       |
     man-db             |                                        []       |
     man-db-manpages    |                                                 |
     meritous           |                                                 |
     midi-instruments   | []       []          []    []       [] []       |
     minicom            |                                  []             |
     mpop               |                                                 |
     msmtp              |                                                 |
     nano               |                            []    []    []       |
     opcodes            |                                                 |
     parted             |                                        []       |
     pies               |                                                 |
     procps-ng          |                                                 |
     procps-ng-man      |                                                 |
     psmisc             |                                        []       |
     psmisc-man         |                                                 |
     pspp               |          []                            []       |
     pyspread           |                                           []    |
     radius             |                                        []       |
     recode             |                                  []    []       |
     recutils           |                                        []       |
     rush               |                                                 |
     sarg               |                                                 |
     savane             |                                                 |
     sed                |                                  []    []       |
     sharutils          |                                        []       |
     shepherd           |                                                 |
     shishi             |                                                 |
     skribilo           |                                                 |
     sudo               |                                  []    []       |
     sudoers            |                                  []             |
     sysstat            |             []                   []    []       |
     tar                |    []                            []    []       |
     texinfo            |                                        []       |
     texinfo_document   |                                                 |
     tigervnc           |                                                 |
     tin                |                                                 |
     tin-man            |                                                 |
     trader             |                                  []             |
     util-linux         |                                        []       |
     util-linux-man     |                                                 |
     vmm                |                                                 |
     vorbis-tools       |                                        []       |
     wastesedge         |                                        []       |
     wcd                |                                        []       |
     wcd-man            |                                        []       |
     wdiff              |                            []    []    []       |
     wget               |                                  []    []       |
     wget2              |                                                 |
     wincoll            |                                                 |
     wyslij-po          |                                        [] []    |
     xboard             |                                        []       |
     xdg-user-dirs      | [] [] [] [] [] [] []    []       []    [] [] [] |
     xkeyboard-config   |          []                            []       |
     xz                 |                                        []       |
     xz-man             |                                                 |
                        +-------------------------------------------------+
                          ku ky lg lt lv mk ml mn mr ms mt nb ne nl nn or
                           2  5  1  9 16  2  1  3  1 14  1 40  1 90  4  1

                          pa pl pt pt_BR ro  ru rw scn sk sl sq sr  sv  sw
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
     a2ps               |    []          []  []                 []  []     |
     anubis             |    [] []       []  []                 []  []     |
     aspell             |    [] []  []   []  []        [] [] [] []  []     |
     bash               |    [] []  []   []                     []  []     |
     beebase            |                []                     []  []     |
     bfd                |       []       []  []                 []  []     |
     binutils           |       []       []  []                 []  []     |
     bison              |    [] []  []                          []  []     |
     bison-runtime      |    [] []  []   []  []           [] [] []  []     |
     buzztrax           |           []   []                     []  []     |
     ccd2cue            |           []   []                     []  []     |
     ccide              |    []          []  []                 []  []     |
     cflow              |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     chambercourt       |           []   []                     []  []     |
     clisp              |                    []                 []  []     |
     coreutils          |    [] []  []   []  []           []    []  []     |
     cpio               |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     cppi               |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     cpplib             |                []                     []  []     |
     cryptsetup         |    []          []  []        []       []  []     |
     datamash           |           []   []                     []  []     |
     denemo             |                                                  |
     dfarc              |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     dialog             |    [] []       []  []              [] []  []     |
     dico               |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     diffutils          |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     dink               |                                           []     |
     direvent           |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     doodle             |           []   []                  [] []  []     |
     dos2unix           |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     dos2unix-man       |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     e2fsprogs          |    [] []       []                     []  []     |
     enscript           |    []     []   []  []           []    []  []     |
     exif               |    [] []  []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     fetchmail          |    []          []  []              [] []  []     |
     findutils          |    [] []  []   []  []           []    []  []     |
     flex               |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     freedink           |    []     []   []  []           []    []  []     |
     gas                |                []  []                     []     |
     gawk               |    [] []  []   []                     []  []     |
     gcal               |                []                     []  []     |
     gcc                |                    []                     []     |
     gdbm               |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     gettext-examples   |    [] []  []   []  []        [] [] [] []  []     |
     gettext-runtime    |    [] []  []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     gettext-tools      |    [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     gnubik             |    [] []  []   []               []    []  []     |
     gnuchess           |           []   []                     []  []     |
     gnucobol           |                                       []         |
     gnulib             |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     gnunet             |                                       []         |
     gnunet-gtk         |                                       []         |
     gnutls             |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     gphoto2            |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     gprof              |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     grep               |    [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     grip               |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     grub               |    [] []       []  []           []    []  []     |
     gsasl              |    []     []   []            []       []  []     |
     gss                |    []     []   []            []       []  []     |
     gst-plugins-bad    |    []     []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     gst-plugins-base   |    []     []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     gst-plugins-good   |    []     []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     gst-plugins-ugly   |    []     []   []  []        [] [] [] []  []     |
     gstreamer          |    []     []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     gtick              |    []     []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     gtkam              | [] [] []  []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     gtkspell           |    [] []  []   []  []        [] [] [] []  []     |
     gutenprint         |                []  []        [] []        []     |
     hello              |    [] []  []   []  []    []  []       []  []     |
     help2man           |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     help2man-texi      |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     i18nparse          |           []   []               []    []  []     |
     idutils            |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     kbd                |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     klavaro            | [] [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     ld                 |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     libc               |    [] []  []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     libexif            |    []          []            []       []  []     |
     libextractor       |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     libgphoto2         |    []          []                         []     |
     libgphoto2_port    |    []     []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     libiconv           |    []     []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     libidn             |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     libidn2            |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     lilypond           |                []                         []     |
     lordsawar          |                    []                     []     |
     lynx               |           []   []  []                     []     |
     m4                 |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     mailfromd          |    []     []   []                     []         |
     mailutils          |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     make               |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     man-db             |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     man-db-manpages    |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     meritous           |           []   []                     []  []     |
     midi-instruments   |    [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     minicom            |    []     []   []  []                 []  []     |
     mpop               |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     msmtp              |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     nano               |    [] []  []   []  []        []    [] []  []     |
     opcodes            |           []   []                     []  []     |
     parted             |    [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     pies               |    []     []   []                     []         |
     procps-ng          |    []     []   []                         []     |
     procps-ng-man      |                []                         []     |
     psmisc             |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     psmisc-man         |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     pspp               |                    []                     []     |
     pyspread           |           []                          []  []     |
     radius             |    []          []  []                 []  []     |
     recode             |    [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     recutils           |           []   []                     []  []     |
     rush               |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     sarg               |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     savane             |           []   []  ()                            |
     sed                |    [] []  []   []  []        [] []    []  []     |
     sharutils          |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     shepherd           |                []            []       []  []     |
     shishi             |    []          []                     []  []     |
     skribilo           |           []   []                     []  []     |
     sudo               |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     sudoers            |    [] []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     sysstat            |       []  []   []  []                 []  []     |
     tar                |    [] []  []   []  []           []    []  []     |
     texinfo            |    [] []  []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     texinfo_document   |    [] []  []   []            []       []  []     |
     tigervnc           |                []  []        []       []  []     |
     tin                |                []                                |
     tin-man            |                []                         []     |
     trader             |           []   []  []                 []  []     |
     util-linux         |    [] []  []   []                     []  []     |
     util-linux-man     |    []          []                     []  []     |
     vmm                |                []                     []         |
     vorbis-tools       |    []     []   []               []    []  []     |
     wastesedge         |           []                              []     |
     wcd                |           []   []                     []  []     |
     wcd-man            |           []   []                     []  []     |
     wdiff              |    []     []   []  []           []    []  []     |
     wget               |    [] []  []   []  []        []       []  []     |
     wget2              |    []          []  []                 []  []     |
     wincoll            |           []   []            []       []  []     |
     wyslij-po          |    []     []   []                     []  []     |
     xboard             |    []          []  []                 []  []     |
     xdg-user-dirs      | [] [] []  []   []  []        [] [] [] []  []     |
     xkeyboard-config   |    [] []  []   []  []           [] [] []  []     |
     xz                 |    [] []  []   []                     []  []     |
     xz-man             |           []   []                     []  []     |
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
                          pa pl pt pt_BR ro  ru rw scn sk sl sq sr  sv  sw
                           3 97 49  109  135 83  0  1  36 30 11 131 138  0

                          ta te tg th tr uk  ur vi wa wo zh_CN zh_HK zh_TW
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
     a2ps               |          []    []                                | 20
     anubis             |             [] []     []                         | 21
     aspell             |                []     [] []     []               | 34
     bash               |                []     []        []          []   | 23
     beebase            |                []                                |  8
     bfd                |                []                                |  8
     binutils           |                []                                |  9
     bison              |                []                           []   | 18
     bison-runtime      | []       [] [] []     []        []          []   | 41
     buzztrax           |                       []        []               | 12
     ccd2cue            |          []    []     []        []               | 14
     ccide              |                []     []        []               | 20
     cflow              |                []               []               | 11
     chambercourt       |                []                                |  7
     clisp              |                                                  | 13
     coreutils          |             [] []     []        []          []   | 27
     cpio               |             [] []     []        []               | 26
     cppi               |                []     []        []               | 20
     cpplib             |                []               []               |  8
     cryptsetup         |                []               []               | 14
     datamash           |                []                                | 12
     denemo             |                                 []    []    []   |  7
     dfarc              |                       []                         | 19
     dialog             |                []                                | 15
     dico               |                []                                | 11
     diffutils          |             [] []     []        []          []   | 32
     dink               |             []                                   | 11
     direvent           |                []     []                         | 14
     doodle             |                []     []        []               | 18
     dos2unix           |                []     []        []          []   | 23
     dos2unix-man       |                []               []               | 12
     e2fsprogs          |                []     []        []               | 16
     enscript           |             [] []     []                         | 22
     exif               |             [] []     []        []               | 33
     fetchmail          |                       []        []               | 19
     findutils          |             [] []     []        []          []   | 33
     flex               |             [] []     []        []          []   | 22
     freedink           |          []           []                         | 27
     gas                |                []                                |  8
     gawk               |             [] []     []        []               | 19
     gcal               |             []                  []               | 10
     gcc                |                []                                |  5
     gdbm               |                []     []                         | 13
     gettext-examples   | []          [] []     []        []          []   | 39
     gettext-runtime    |                []               []               | 18
     gettext-tools      |                []     []        []          []   | 23
     gnubik             |                []     []        []               | 24
     gnuchess           |                []     []        []               | 15
     gnucobol           |                                                  |  3
     gnulib             |                []               []          []   | 19
     gnunet             |                                                  |  2
     gnunet-gtk         |                                                  |  3
     gnutls             |                []     []        []               | 18
     gphoto2            |                []     []        []          []   | 22
     gprof              |             [] []     []                         | 22
     grep               | []       [] [] []     []        []          []   | 39
     grip               |                []     []        []    []    []   | 26
     grub               |             [] []     []        []               | 30
     gsasl              |                []     []        []               | 21
     gss                |                       []        []               | 20
     gst-plugins-bad    |             [] []     []        []          []   | 31
     gst-plugins-base   |             [] []     []        []               | 33
     gst-plugins-good   |             [] []     []        []          []   | 35
     gst-plugins-ugly   | []          [] []     []        []          []   | 41
     gstreamer          |             [] []     []        []          []   | 36
     gtick              |                []     []        []               | 23
     gtkam              |                []     []        []               | 27
     gtkspell           | []       [] [] []     [] []     []    []    []   | 52
     gutenprint         |             [] []               []               | 19
     hello              | []       []    []               []               | 24
     help2man           |                []     []        []               | 21
     help2man-texi      |                []                                |  9
     i18nparse          |                []                                | 11
     idutils            |                []     []        []               | 21
     kbd                |                []                                | 15
     klavaro            |             [] []  [] []    []  []               | 36
     ld                 |                []                                |  8
     libc               |             [] []     []        []          []   | 30
     libexif            |                []     []        []               | 15
     libextractor       |                []     []                         | 13
     libgphoto2         |                []     []        []               | 11
     libgphoto2_port    |                []     []        []          []   | 23
     libiconv           |                []     [] []     []          []   | 34
     libidn             |                []     []        []               | 21
     libidn2            |                []               []               | 21
     lilypond           |                                 []               | 13
     lordsawar          |             []                                   |  8
     lynx               |             [] []     []                         | 20
     m4                 |                []               []               | 15
     mailfromd          |                []     []                         |  9
     mailutils          |                []     []                         | 11
     make               |                []     []        []          []   | 25
     man-db             |             [] []     []        []          []   | 25
     man-db-manpages    |             [] []               []               | 15
     meritous           |                                                  |  6
     midi-instruments   |          [] [] []     []        []          []   | 44
     minicom            |                       []                    []   | 20
     mpop               |                []                                | 10
     msmtp              |                []               []               | 11
     nano               |             [] []     []        []          []   | 34
     opcodes            |                []                                |  8
     parted             |             [] []     []        []          []   | 27
     pies               |                []     []                         |  9
     procps-ng          |                []     []        []               | 11
     procps-ng-man      |                []               []               |  5
     psmisc             |                []     []        []          []   | 27
     psmisc-man         |                []                                | 10
     pspp               | []       []    []               []               | 16
     pyspread           |                []                                |  8
     radius             |                []     []                         | 12
     recode             |             [] []     []        []               | 31
     recutils           |                []     []                         | 10
     rush               |                []               []               | 11
     sarg               |                                                  | 10
     savane             |                []                                |  7
     sed                |             [] []     []        []          []   | 38
     sharutils          |                []     []        []               | 14
     shepherd           |                []               []               |  8
     shishi             |                       []        []               |  9
     skribilo           |                []                                | 11
     sudo               |             [] []     []        []          []   | 33
     sudoers            |                []               []          []   | 22
     sysstat            |             [] []     []        []               | 24
     tar                |             [] []     []        []          []   | 33
     texinfo            |             [] []     []                         | 21
     texinfo_document   |                []                                | 14
     tigervnc           |             [] []               []          []   | 21
     tin                |             []                  []          []   |  8
     tin-man            |                                                  |  3
     trader             |                                                  | 14
     util-linux         |             [] []               []               | 18
     util-linux-man     |                []                                |  7
     vmm                |                []                                |  3
     vorbis-tools       |                       []                         | 17
     wastesedge         |             []                                   |  7
     wcd                |                []     []        []               | 15
     wcd-man            |                []                                |  8
     wdiff              |                []     []        []          []   | 27
     wget               |             [] []     []        []          []   | 32
     wget2              |                []               []               | 16
     wincoll            |                []                                | 10
     wyslij-po          |                []     []        []               | 20
     xboard             |             [] []               []               | 13
     xdg-user-dirs      | [] []    [] [] []     [] []     []    []    []   | 73
     xkeyboard-config   |             [] []               []               | 33
     xz                 |             [] []     []        []          []   | 23
     xz-man             |                []                                | 10
                        +--------------------------------------------------+
       87 teams           ta te tg th tr uk  ur vi wa wo zh_CN zh_HK zh_TW
      147 domains          8  1  0 10 47 124  1 83  4  1  92     4    40    2782

   Some counters in the preceding matrix are higher than the number of
visible blocks let us expect.  This is because a few extra PO files are
used for implementing regional variants of languages, or language
dialects.

   For a PO file in the matrix above to be effective, the package to
which it applies should also have been internationalized and distributed
as such by its maintainer.  There might be an observable lag between the
mere existence a PO file and its wide availability in a distribution.

   If January 2026 seems to be old, you may fetch a more recent copy of
this ‘ABOUT-NLS’ file on most GNU archive sites.  The most up-to-date
matrix with full percentage details can be found at
‘https://translationproject.org/extra/matrix.html’.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Using gettext in own code,  Prev: Available Packages,  Up: The original ABOUT-NLS

18.2.5 Using ‘gettext’ in new packages
--------------------------------------

   If you are writing a freely available program and want to
internationalize it you are welcome to use GNU ‘gettext’ in your
package.  Of course you have to respect the GNU Lesser General Public
License which covers the use of the GNU ‘gettext’ library.  This means
in particular that even non-free programs can use ‘libintl’ as a shared
library, whereas only free software can use ‘libintl’ as a static
library or use modified versions of ‘libintl’.

   Once the sources are changed appropriately and the setup can handle
the use of ‘gettext’ the only thing missing are the translations.  The
Free Translation Project is also available for packages which are not
developed inside the GNU project.  Therefore the information given above
applies also for every other Free Software Project.  Contact
‘coordinator@translationproject.org’ to make the ‘.pot’ files available
to the translation teams.


File: gettext.info,  Node: References,  Prev: The original ABOUT-NLS,  Up: Conclusion

18.3 Related Readings
=====================

   * NOTE: * This documentation section is outdated and needs to be
revised.

   Eugene H. Dorr (‘dorre@well.com’) maintains an interesting
bibliography on internationalization matters, called
‘Internationalization Reference List’, which is available as:
     ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/i18n-books.txt

   Michael Gschwind (‘mike@vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at’) maintains a Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ) list, entitled ‘Programming for
Internationalisation’.  This FAQ discusses writing programs which can
handle different language conventions, character sets, etc.; and is
applicable to all character set encodings, with particular emphasis on
ISO 8859-1.  It is regularly published in Usenet groups
‘comp.unix.questions’, ‘comp.std.internat’,
‘comp.software.international’, ‘comp.lang.c’, ‘comp.windows.x’,
‘comp.std.c’, ‘comp.answers’ and ‘news.answers’.  The home location of
this document is:
     ftp://ftp.vlsivie.tuwien.ac.at/pub/8bit/ISO-programming

   Patrick D'Cruze (‘pdcruze@li.org’) wrote a tutorial about NLS
matters, and Jochen Hein (‘Hein@student.tu-clausthal.de’) took over the
responsibility of maintaining it.  It may be found as:
     ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/nls/catalogs/Incoming/...
          ...locale-tutorial-0.8.txt.gz
This site is mirrored in:
     ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/

   A French version of the same tutorial should be findable at:
     ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/french/docs/
together with French translations of many Linux-related documents.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Language Codes,  Next: Country Codes,  Prev: Conclusion,  Up: Top

Appendix A Language Codes
*************************

   The ISO 639 standard defines two-letter codes for many languages, and
three-letter codes for more rarely used languages.  All abbreviations
for languages used in the Translation Project should come from this
standard.

* Menu:

* Usual Language Codes::        Two-letter ISO 639 language codes
* Rare Language Codes::         Three-letter ISO 639 language codes


File: gettext.info,  Node: Usual Language Codes,  Next: Rare Language Codes,  Up: Language Codes

A.1 Usual Language Codes
========================

   For the commonly used languages, the ISO 639-1 standard defines
two-letter codes.

‘aa’
     Afar.
‘ab’
     Abkhazian.
‘ae’
     Avestan.
‘af’
     Afrikaans.
‘ak’
     Akan.
‘am’
     Amharic.
‘an’
     Aragonese.
‘ar’
     Arabic.
‘as’
     Assamese.
‘av’
     Avaric.
‘ay’
     Aymara.
‘az’
     Azerbaijani.
‘ba’
     Bashkir.
‘be’
     Belarusian.
‘bg’
     Bulgarian.
‘bh’
     Bihari languages.
‘bi’
     Bislama.
‘bm’
     Bambara.
‘bn’
     Bengali.
‘bo’
     Tibetan.
‘br’
     Breton.
‘bs’
     Bosnian.
‘ca’
     Catalan; Valencian.
‘ce’
     Chechen.
‘ch’
     Chamorro.
‘co’
     Corsican.
‘cr’
     Cree.
‘cs’
     Czech.
‘cu’
     Church Slavic; Old Slavonic; Church Slavonic; Old Bulgarian; Old
     Church Slavonic.
‘cv’
     Chuvash.
‘cy’
     Welsh.
‘da’
     Danish.
‘de’
     German.
‘dv’
     Divehi; Dhivehi; Maldivian.
‘dz’
     Dzongkha.
‘ee’
     Ewe.
‘el’
     Greek, Modern (1453-).
‘en’
     English.
‘eo’
     Esperanto.
‘es’
     Spanish; Castilian.
‘et’
     Estonian.
‘eu’
     Basque.
‘fa’
     Persian.
‘ff’
     Fulah.
‘fi’
     Finnish.
‘fj’
     Fijian.
‘fo’
     Faroese.
‘fr’
     French.
‘fy’
     Western Frisian.
‘ga’
     Irish.
‘gd’
     Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic.
‘gl’
     Galician.
‘gn’
     Guarani.
‘gu’
     Gujarati.
‘gv’
     Manx.
‘ha’
     Hausa.
‘he’
     Hebrew.
‘hi’
     Hindi.
‘ho’
     Hiri Motu.
‘hr’
     Croatian.
‘ht’
     Haitian; Haitian Creole.
‘hu’
     Hungarian.
‘hy’
     Armenian.
‘hz’
     Herero.
‘ia’
     Interlingua (International Auxiliary Language Association).
‘id’
     Indonesian.
‘ie’
     Interlingue; Occidental.
‘ig’
     Igbo.
‘ii’
     Sichuan Yi; Nuosu.
‘ik’
     Inupiak.
‘io’
     Ido.
‘is’
     Icelandic.
‘it’
     Italian.
‘iu’
     Inuktitut.
‘ja’
     Japanese.
‘jv’
     Javanese.
‘ka’
     Georgian.
‘kg’
     Kongo.
‘ki’
     Kikuyu; Gikuyu.
‘kj’
     Kuanyama; Kwanyama.
‘kk’
     Kazakh.
‘kl’
     Kalaallisut; Greenlandic.
‘km’
     Central Khmer.
‘kn’
     Kannada.
‘ko’
     Korean.
‘kr’
     Kanuri.
‘ks’
     Kashmiri.
‘ku’
     Kurdish.
‘kv’
     Komi.
‘kw’
     Cornish.
‘ky’
     Kirghiz; Kyrgyz.
‘la’
     Latin.
‘lb’
     Luxembourgish; Letzeburgesch.
‘lg’
     Ganda.
‘li’
     Limburgan; Limburger; Limburgish.
‘ln’
     Lingala.
‘lo’
     Lao.
‘lt’
     Lithuanian.
‘lu’
     Luba-Katanga.
‘lv’
     Latvian.
‘mg’
     Malagasy.
‘mh’
     Marshallese.
‘mi’
     Maori.
‘mk’
     Macedonian.
‘ml’
     Malayalam.
‘mn’
     Mongolian.
‘mr’
     Marathi.
‘ms’
     Malay.
‘mt’
     Maltese.
‘my’
     Burmese.
‘na’
     Nauru.
‘nb’
     Bokmål, Norwegian; Norwegian Bokmål.
‘nd’
     Ndebele, North; North Ndebele.
‘ne’
     Nepali.
‘ng’
     Ndonga.
‘nl’
     Dutch; Flemish.
‘nn’
     Norwegian Nynorsk; Nynorsk, Norwegian.
‘no’
     Norwegian.
‘nr’
     Ndebele, South; South Ndebele.
‘nv’
     Navajo; Navaho.
‘ny’
     Chichewa; Nyanja.
‘oc’
     Occitan (post 1500); Provençal.
‘oj’
     Ojibwa.
‘om’
     Oromo.
‘or’
     Oriya.
‘os’
     Ossetian; Ossetic.
‘pa’
     Panjabi; Punjabi.
‘pi’
     Pali.
‘pl’
     Polish.
‘ps’
     Pushto; Pashto.
‘pt’
     Portuguese.
‘qu’
     Quechua.
‘rm’
     Romansh.
‘rn’
     Rundi.
‘ro’
     Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan.
‘ru’
     Russian.
‘rw’
     Kinyarwanda.
‘sa’
     Sanskrit.
‘sc’
     Sardinian.
‘sd’
     Sindhi.
‘se’
     Northern Sami.
‘sg’
     Sango.
‘si’
     Sinhala; Sinhalese.
‘sk’
     Slovak.
‘sl’
     Slovenian.
‘sm’
     Samoan.
‘sn’
     Shona.
‘so’
     Somali.
‘sq’
     Albanian.
‘sr’
     Serbian.
‘ss’
     Swati.
‘st’
     Sotho, Southern.
‘su’
     Sundanese.
‘sv’
     Swedish.
‘sw’
     Swahili.
‘ta’
     Tamil.
‘te’
     Telugu.
‘tg’
     Tajik.
‘th’
     Thai.
‘ti’
     Tigrinya.
‘tk’
     Turkmen.
‘tl’
     Tagalog.
‘tn’
     Tswana.
‘to’
     Tonga (Tonga Islands).
‘tr’
     Turkish.
‘ts’
     Tsonga.
‘tt’
     Tatar.
‘tw’
     Twi.
‘ty’
     Tahitian.
‘ug’
     Uighur; Uyghur.
‘uk’
     Ukrainian.
‘ur’
     Urdu.
‘uz’
     Uzbek.
‘ve’
     Venda.
‘vi’
     Vietnamese.
‘vo’
     Volapük.
‘wa’
     Walloon.
‘wo’
     Wolof.
‘xh’
     Xhosa.
‘yi’
     Yiddish.
‘yo’
     Yoruba.
‘za’
     Zhuang; Chuang.
‘zh’
     Chinese.
‘zu’
     Zulu.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Rare Language Codes,  Prev: Usual Language Codes,  Up: Language Codes

A.2 Rare Language Codes
=======================

   For rarely used languages, the ISO 639-2 standard defines
three-letter codes.  Here is the current list, reduced to only living
languages with at least one million of speakers.

‘ace’
     Achinese.
‘awa’
     Awadhi.
‘bal’
     Baluchi.
‘ban’
     Balinese.
‘bej’
     Beja; Bedawiyet.
‘bem’
     Bemba.
‘bho’
     Bhojpuri.
‘bik’
     Bikol.
‘bin’
     Bini; Edo.
‘bug’
     Buginese.
‘ceb’
     Cebuano.
‘din’
     Dinka.
‘doi’
     Dogri.
‘fil’
     Filipino; Pilipino.
‘fon’
     Fon.
‘gon’
     Gondi.
‘gsw’
     Swiss German; Alemannic; Alsatian.
‘hil’
     Hiligaynon.
‘hmn’
     Hmong.
‘ilo’
     Iloko.
‘kab’
     Kabyle.
‘kam’
     Kamba.
‘kbd’
     Kabardian.
‘kmb’
     Kimbundu.
‘kok’
     Konkani.
‘kru’
     Kurukh.
‘lua’
     Luba-Lulua.
‘luo’
     Luo (Kenya and Tanzania).
‘mad’
     Madurese.
‘mag’
     Magahi.
‘mai’
     Maithili.
‘mak’
     Makasar.
‘man’
     Mandingo.
‘men’
     Mende.
‘min’
     Minangkabau.
‘mni’
     Manipuri.
‘mos’
     Mossi.
‘mwr’
     Marwari.
‘nap’
     Neapolitan.
‘nso’
     Pedi; Sepedi; Northern Sotho.
‘nym’
     Nyamwezi.
‘nyn’
     Nyankole.
‘pag’
     Pangasinan.
‘pam’
     Pampanga; Kapampangan.
‘raj’
     Rajasthani.
‘sas’
     Sasak.
‘sat’
     Santali.
‘scn’
     Sicilian.
‘shn’
     Shan.
‘sid’
     Sidamo.
‘srr’
     Serer.
‘suk’
     Sukuma.
‘sus’
     Susu.
‘tem’
     Timne.
‘tiv’
     Tiv.
‘tum’
     Tumbuka.
‘umb’
     Umbundu.
‘wal’
     Walamo.
‘war’
     Waray.
‘yao’
     Yao.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Country Codes,  Next: Licenses,  Prev: Language Codes,  Up: Top

Appendix B Country Codes
************************

   The ISO 3166 standard defines two character codes for many countries
and territories.  All abbreviations for countries used in the
Translation Project should come from this standard.

‘AD’
     Andorra.
‘AE’
     United Arab Emirates.
‘AF’
     Afghanistan.
‘AG’
     Antigua and Barbuda.
‘AI’
     Anguilla.
‘AL’
     Albania.
‘AM’
     Armenia.
‘AO’
     Angola.
‘AQ’
     Antarctica.
‘AR’
     Argentina.
‘AS’
     American Samoa.
‘AT’
     Austria.
‘AU’
     Australia.
‘AW’
     Aruba.
‘AX’
     Aaland Islands.
‘AZ’
     Azerbaijan.
‘BA’
     Bosnia and Herzegovina.
‘BB’
     Barbados.
‘BD’
     Bangladesh.
‘BE’
     Belgium.
‘BF’
     Burkina Faso.
‘BG’
     Bulgaria.
‘BH’
     Bahrain.
‘BI’
     Burundi.
‘BJ’
     Benin.
‘BL’
     Saint Barthelemy.
‘BM’
     Bermuda.
‘BN’
     Brunei Darussalam.
‘BO’
     Bolivia, Plurinational State of.
‘BQ’
     Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
‘BR’
     Brazil.
‘BS’
     Bahamas.
‘BT’
     Bhutan.
‘BV’
     Bouvet Island.
‘BW’
     Botswana.
‘BY’
     Belarus.
‘BZ’
     Belize.
‘CA’
     Canada.
‘CC’
     Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
‘CD’
     Congo, Democratic Republic of the.
‘CF’
     Central African Republic.
‘CG’
     Congo.
‘CH’
     Switzerland.
‘CI’
     Côte d'Ivoire.
‘CK’
     Cook Islands.
‘CL’
     Chile.
‘CM’
     Cameroon.
‘CN’
     China.
‘CO’
     Colombia.
‘CR’
     Costa Rica.
‘CU’
     Cuba.
‘CV’
     Cabo Verde.
‘CW’
     Curaçao.
‘CX’
     Christmas Island.
‘CY’
     Cyprus.
‘CZ’
     Czechia.
‘DE’
     Germany.
‘DJ’
     Djibouti.
‘DK’
     Denmark.
‘DM’
     Dominica.
‘DO’
     Dominican Republic.
‘DZ’
     Algeria.
‘EC’
     Ecuador.
‘EE’
     Estonia.
‘EG’
     Egypt.
‘EH’
     Western Sahara.
‘ER’
     Eritrea.
‘ES’
     Spain.
‘ET’
     Ethiopia.
‘FI’
     Finland.
‘FJ’
     Fiji.
‘FK’
     Falkland Islands (Malvinas).
‘FM’
     Micronesia, Federated States of.
‘FO’
     Faroe Islands.
‘FR’
     France.
‘GA’
     Gabon.
‘GB’
     United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
‘GD’
     Grenada.
‘GE’
     Georgia.
‘GF’
     French Guiana.
‘GG’
     Guernsey.
‘GH’
     Ghana.
‘GI’
     Gibraltar.
‘GL’
     Greenland.
‘GM’
     Gambia.
‘GN’
     Guinea.
‘GP’
     Guadeloupe.
‘GQ’
     Equatorial Guinea.
‘GR’
     Greece.
‘GS’
     South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
‘GT’
     Guatemala.
‘GU’
     Guam.
‘GW’
     Guinea-Bissau.
‘GY’
     Guyana.
‘HK’
     Hong Kong.
‘HM’
     Heard Island and McDonald Islands.
‘HN’
     Honduras.
‘HR’
     Croatia.
‘HT’
     Haiti.
‘HU’
     Hungary.
‘ID’
     Indonesia.
‘IE’
     Ireland.
‘IL’
     Israel.
‘IM’
     Isle of Man.
‘IN’
     India.
‘IO’
     British Indian Ocean Territory.
‘IQ’
     Iraq.
‘IR’
     Iran, Islamic Republic of.
‘IS’
     Iceland.
‘IT’
     Italy.
‘JE’
     Jersey.
‘JM’
     Jamaica.
‘JO’
     Jordan.
‘JP’
     Japan.
‘KE’
     Kenya.
‘KG’
     Kyrgyzstan.
‘KH’
     Cambodia.
‘KI’
     Kiribati.
‘KM’
     Comoros.
‘KN’
     Saint Kitts and Nevis.
‘KP’
     Korea, Democratic People's Republic of.
‘KR’
     Korea, Republic of.
‘KW’
     Kuwait.
‘KY’
     Cayman Islands.
‘KZ’
     Kazakhstan.
‘LA’
     Lao People's Democratic Republic.
‘LB’
     Lebanon.
‘LC’
     Saint Lucia.
‘LI’
     Liechtenstein.
‘LK’
     Sri Lanka.
‘LR’
     Liberia.
‘LS’
     Lesotho.
‘LT’
     Lithuania.
‘LU’
     Luxembourg.
‘LV’
     Latvia.
‘LY’
     Libya.
‘MA’
     Morocco.
‘MC’
     Monaco.
‘MD’
     Moldova, Republic of.
‘ME’
     Montenegro.
‘MF’
     Saint Martin (French part).
‘MG’
     Madagascar.
‘MH’
     Marshall Islands.
‘MK’
     North Macedonia.
‘ML’
     Mali.
‘MM’
     Myanmar.
‘MN’
     Mongolia.
‘MO’
     Macao.
‘MP’
     Northern Mariana Islands.
‘MQ’
     Martinique.
‘MR’
     Mauritania.
‘MS’
     Montserrat.
‘MT’
     Malta.
‘MU’
     Mauritius.
‘MV’
     Maldives.
‘MW’
     Malawi.
‘MX’
     Mexico.
‘MY’
     Malaysia.
‘MZ’
     Mozambique.
‘NA’
     Namibia.
‘NC’
     New Caledonia.
‘NE’
     Niger.
‘NF’
     Norfolk Island.
‘NG’
     Nigeria.
‘NI’
     Nicaragua.
‘NL’
     Netherlands, Kingdom of the.
‘NO’
     Norway.
‘NP’
     Nepal.
‘NR’
     Nauru.
‘NU’
     Niue.
‘NZ’
     New Zealand.
‘OM’
     Oman.
‘PA’
     Panama.
‘PE’
     Peru.
‘PF’
     French Polynesia.
‘PG’
     Papua New Guinea.
‘PH’
     Philippines.
‘PK’
     Pakistan.
‘PL’
     Poland.
‘PM’
     Saint Pierre and Miquelon.
‘PN’
     Pitcairn.
‘PR’
     Puerto Rico.
‘PS’
     Palestine, State of.
‘PT’
     Portugal.
‘PW’
     Palau.
‘PY’
     Paraguay.
‘QA’
     Qatar.
‘RE’
     Reunion.
‘RO’
     Romania.
‘RS’
     Serbia.
‘RU’
     Russian Federation.
‘RW’
     Rwanda.
‘SA’
     Saudi Arabia.
‘SB’
     Solomon Islands.
‘SC’
     Seychelles.
‘SD’
     Sudan.
‘SE’
     Sweden.
‘SG’
     Singapore.
‘SH’
     Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
‘SI’
     Slovenia.
‘SJ’
     Svalbard and Jan Mayen.
‘SK’
     Slovakia.
‘SL’
     Sierra Leone.
‘SM’
     San Marino.
‘SN’
     Senegal.
‘SO’
     Somalia.
‘SR’
     Suriname.
‘SS’
     South Sudan.
‘ST’
     Sao Tome and Principe.
‘SV’
     El Salvador.
‘SX’
     Sint Maarten (Dutch part).
‘SY’
     Syrian Arab Republic.
‘SZ’
     Eswatini.
‘TC’
     Turks and Caicos Islands.
‘TD’
     Chad.
‘TF’
     French Southern Territories.
‘TG’
     Togo.
‘TH’
     Thailand.
‘TJ’
     Tajikistan.
‘TK’
     Tokelau.
‘TL’
     Timor-Leste.
‘TM’
     Turkmenistan.
‘TN’
     Tunisia.
‘TO’
     Tonga.
‘TR’
     Türkiye.
‘TT’
     Trinidad and Tobago.
‘TV’
     Tuvalu.
‘TW’
     Taiwan, Province of China.
‘TZ’
     Tanzania, United Republic of.
‘UA’
     Ukraine.
‘UG’
     Uganda.
‘UM’
     United States Minor Outlying Islands.
‘US’
     United States of America.
‘UY’
     Uruguay.
‘UZ’
     Uzbekistan.
‘VA’
     Holy See.
‘VC’
     Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
‘VE’
     Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of.
‘VG’
     Virgin Islands (British).
‘VI’
     Virgin Islands (U.S.).
‘VN’
     Viet Nam.
‘VU’
     Vanuatu.
‘WF’
     Wallis and Futuna.
‘WS’
     Samoa.
‘YE’
     Yemen.
‘YT’
     Mayotte.
‘ZA’
     South Africa.
‘ZM’
     Zambia.
‘ZW’
     Zimbabwe.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Licenses,  Next: Program Index,  Prev: Country Codes,  Up: Top

Appendix C Licenses
*******************

   The files of this package are covered by the licenses indicated in
each particular file or directory.  Here is a summary:

   • The ‘libintl’ and ‘libasprintf’ libraries are covered by the GNU
     Lesser General Public License (LGPL). A copy of the license is
     included in *note GNU LGPL::.

   • The executable programs of this package and the ‘libgettextpo’
     library are covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL). A copy
     of the license is included in *note GNU GPL::.

   • This manual is free documentation.  It is dually licensed under the
     GNU FDL and the GNU GPL. This means that you can redistribute this
     manual under either of these two licenses, at your choice.
     This manual is covered by the GNU FDL. Permission is granted to
     copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
     GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), either version 1.2 of the
     License, or (at your option) any later version published by the
     Free Software Foundation (FSF); with no Invariant Sections, with no
     Front-Cover Text, and with no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the
     license is included in *note GNU FDL::.
     This manual is covered by the GNU GPL. You can redistribute it
     and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
     (GPL), either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
     later version published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). A
     copy of the license is included in *note GNU GPL::.

* Menu:

* GNU GPL::                     GNU General Public License
* GNU LGPL::                    GNU Lesser General Public License
* GNU FDL::                     GNU Free Documentation License


File: gettext.info,  Node: GNU GPL,  Next: GNU LGPL,  Up: Licenses

C.1 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
==============================

                         Version 2, June 1991

     Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     <https://fsf.org/>

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble
========

   The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public License is
intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to
make sure the software is free for all its users.  This General Public
License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and
to any other program whose authors commit to using it.  (Some other Free
Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Lesser General Public
License instead.)  You can apply it to your programs, too.

   When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if
you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

   To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

   For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.

   We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software,
and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.

   Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors' reputations.

   Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

   The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
===============================================================

  0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a
     notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
     under the terms of this General Public License.  The "Program",
     below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the
     Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under
     copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a
     portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
     translated into another language.  (Hereinafter, translation is
     included without limitation in the term "modification".)  Each
     licensee is addressed as "you".

     Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are
     not covered by this License; they are outside its scope.  The act
     of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the
     Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on
     the Program (independent of having been made by running the
     Program).  Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

  1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source
     code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
     conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
     copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
     notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any
     warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of
     this License along with the Program.

     You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy,
     and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange
     for a fee.

  2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
     it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
     distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
     above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:

       a. You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
          stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

       b. You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that
          in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or
          any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to
          all third parties under the terms of this License.

       c. If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
          when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
          interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display
          an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and
          a notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you
          provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the
          program under these conditions, and telling the user how to
          view a copy of this License.  (Exception: if the Program
          itself is interactive but does not normally print such an
          announcement, your work based on the Program is not required
          to print an announcement.)

     These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.  If
     identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the
     Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate
     works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply
     to those sections when you distribute them as separate works.  But
     when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a
     work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on
     the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees
     extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part
     regardless of who wrote it.

     Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or
     contest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the
     intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of
     derivative or collective works based on the Program.

     In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the
     Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a
     volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other
     work under the scope of this License.

  3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
     under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms
     of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the
     following:

       a. Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
          source code, which must be distributed under the terms of
          Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for
          software interchange; or,

       b. Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
          years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
          cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
          machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
          distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a
          medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

       c. Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
          to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
          allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
          received the program in object code or executable form with
          such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

     The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
     making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete
     source code means all the source code for all modules it contains,
     plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts
     used to control compilation and installation of the executable.
     However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need
     not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source
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     that component itself accompanies the executable.

     If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
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     distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
     compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

  4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
     except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
     otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
     void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this
     License.  However, parties who have received copies, or rights,
     from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated
     so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

  5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
     signed it.  However, nothing else grants you permission to modify
     or distribute the Program or its derivative works.  These actions
     are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License.
     Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work
     based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License
     to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying,
     distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

  6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
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     restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted
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  7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
     infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent
     issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order,
     agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this
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     License.  If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously
     your obligations under this License and any other pertinent
     obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the
     Program at all.  For example, if a patent license would not permit
     royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive
     copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you
     could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely
     from distribution of the Program.

     If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable
     under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is
     intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply
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     It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
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     willing to distribute software through any other system and a
     licensee cannot impose that choice.

     This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed
     to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

  8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
     certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces,
     the original copyright holder who places the Program under this
     License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation
     excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only
     in or among countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this
     License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of
     this License.

  9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new
     versions of the General Public License from time to time.  Such new
     versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
     differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

     Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the
     Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to
     it and "any later version", you have the option of following the
     terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version
     published by the Free Software Foundation.  If the Program does not
     specify a version number of this License, you may choose any
     version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

  10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
     programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the
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     the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software
     Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this.  Our decision
     will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of
     all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing
     and reuse of software generally.

                              NO WARRANTY

  11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO
     WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE
     LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS
     AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY
     OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
     LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
     FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
     PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE
     DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR
     OR CORRECTION.

  12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN
     WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY
     MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE
     LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL,
     INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR
     INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF
     DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU
     OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY
     OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN
     ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

                      END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
=======================================================

   If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.

   To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the
"copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.

     ONE LINE TO GIVE THE PROGRAM'S NAME AND A BRIEF IDEA OF WHAT IT DOES.
     Copyright (C) YYYY  NAME OF AUTHOR

     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
     the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
     (at your option) any later version.

     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
     but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
     GNU General Public License for more details.

     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
     along with this program; if not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

   Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper
mail.

   If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like
this when it starts in an interactive mode:

     Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) YEAR NAME OF AUTHOR
     Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
     This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
     under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.

   The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should show the
appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of course, the
commands you use may be called something other than ‘show w’ and ‘show
c’; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your
program.

   You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program,
if necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:

     Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
     `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.

     SIGNATURE OF MOE GHOUL, 1 April 1989
     Moe Ghoul, President of Vice

   This General Public License does not permit incorporating your
program into proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine
library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library.  If this is what you want to do, use the
GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License.


File: gettext.info,  Node: GNU LGPL,  Next: GNU FDL,  Prev: GNU GPL,  Up: Licenses

C.2 GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
=====================================

                      Version 2.1, February 1999

     Copyright © 1991, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     <https://fsf.org/>

     Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
     of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

     [This is the first released version of the Lesser GPL.  It also counts
     as the successor of the GNU Library Public License, version 2, hence the
     version number 2.1.]

Preamble
--------

   The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom
to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public Licenses
are intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.

   This license, the Lesser General Public License, applies to some
specially designated software--typically libraries--of the Free Software
Foundation and other authors who decide to use it.  You can use it too,
but we suggest you first think carefully about whether this license or
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particular case, based on the explanations below.

   When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom of use,
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   Finally, software patents pose a constant threat to the existence of
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   Most GNU software, including some libraries, is covered by the
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   When a program is linked with a library, whether statically or using
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   Although the Lesser General Public License is Less protective of the
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   The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
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TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
---------------------------------------------------------------

  0. This License Agreement applies to any software library or other
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END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
---------------------------

How to Apply These Terms to Your New Libraries
----------------------------------------------

   If you develop a new library, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, we recommend making it free software that
everyone can redistribute and change.  You can do so by permitting
redistribution under these terms (or, alternatively, under the terms of
the ordinary General Public License).

   To apply these terms, attach the following notices to the library.
It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most
effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have
at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is
found.

     ONE LINE TO GIVE THE LIBRARY'S NAME AND AN IDEA OF WHAT IT DOES.
     Copyright (C) YEAR  NAME OF AUTHOR

     This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
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     This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
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     You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
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   Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper
mail.

   You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or
your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the library,
if necessary.  Here is a sample; alter the names:

     Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the library
     `Frob' (a library for tweaking knobs) written by James Random Hacker.

     SIGNATURE OF MOE GHOUL, 1 April 1990
     Moe Ghoul, President of Vice

   That's all there is to it!


File: gettext.info,  Node: GNU FDL,  Prev: GNU LGPL,  Up: Licenses

C.3 GNU Free Documentation License
==================================

                     Version 1.3, 3 November 2008

     Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     <https://fsf.org/>

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  0. PREAMBLE

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     titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the
     notice that says that the Document is released under this License.
     If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it
     is not allowed to be designated as Invariant.  The Document may
     contain zero Invariant Sections.  If the Document does not identify
     any Invariant Sections then there are none.

     The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are
     listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice
     that says that the Document is released under this License.  A
     Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may
     be at most 25 words.

     A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,
     represented in a format whose specification is available to the
     general public, that is suitable for revising the document
     straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed
     of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely
     available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text
     formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats
     suitable for input to text formatters.  A copy made in an otherwise
     Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has
     been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by
     readers is not Transparent.  An image format is not Transparent if
     used for any substantial amount of text.  A copy that is not
     "Transparent" is called "Opaque".

     Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
     ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format,
     SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming
     simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification.
     Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG.
     Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and
     edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which
     the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and
     the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word
     processors for output purposes only.

     The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,
     plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the
     material this License requires to appear in the title page.  For
     works in formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title
     Page" means the text near the most prominent appearance of the
     work's title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

     The "publisher" means any person or entity that distributes copies
     of the Document to the public.

     A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document
     whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses
     following text that translates XYZ in another language.  (Here XYZ
     stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as
     "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".)
     To "Preserve the Title" of such a section when you modify the
     Document means that it remains a section "Entitled XYZ" according
     to this definition.

     The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice
     which states that this License applies to the Document.  These
     Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in
     this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other
     implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and
     has no effect on the meaning of this License.

  2. VERBATIM COPYING

     You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
     commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
     copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License
     applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you
     add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License.  You
     may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading
     or further copying of the copies you make or distribute.  However,
     you may accept compensation in exchange for copies.  If you
     distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the
     conditions in section 3.

     You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above,
     and you may publicly display copies.

  3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

     If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly
     have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and
     the Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must
     enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all
     these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and
     Back-Cover Texts on the back cover.  Both covers must also clearly
     and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies.  The
     front cover must present the full title with all words of the title
     equally prominent and visible.  You may add other material on the
     covers in addition.  Copying with changes limited to the covers, as
     long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these
     conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

     If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
     legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
     reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto
     adjacent pages.

     If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document
     numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable
     Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with
     each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general
     network-using public has access to download using public-standard
     network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free
     of added material.  If you use the latter option, you must take
     reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque
     copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will
     remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one
     year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or
     through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

     It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
     the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies,
     to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
     Document.

  4. MODIFICATIONS

     You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
     under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
     release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the
     Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
     distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever
     possesses a copy of it.  In addition, you must do these things in
     the Modified Version:

       A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title
          distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous
          versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the
          History section of the Document).  You may use the same title
          as a previous version if the original publisher of that
          version gives permission.

       B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or
          entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
          the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
          principal authors of the Document (all of its principal
          authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you
          from this requirement.

       C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the
          Modified Version, as the publisher.

       D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

       E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications
          adjacent to the other copyright notices.

       F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license
          notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
          Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in
          the Addendum below.

       G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant
          Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
          license notice.

       H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

       I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title,
          and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
          authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the
          Title Page.  If there is no section Entitled "History" in the
          Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and
          publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add
          an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the
          previous sentence.

       J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document
          for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
          likewise the network locations given in the Document for
          previous versions it was based on.  These may be placed in the
          "History" section.  You may omit a network location for a work
          that was published at least four years before the Document
          itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers
          to gives permission.

       K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications",
          Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section
          all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
          acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

       L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered
          in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers or the
          equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

       M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements".  Such a section
          may not be included in the Modified Version.

       N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
          "Endorsements" or to conflict in title with any Invariant
          Section.

       O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

     If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
     appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no
     material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate
     some or all of these sections as invariant.  To do this, add their
     titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's
     license notice.  These titles must be distinct from any other
     section titles.

     You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains
     nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
     parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text
     has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
     definition of a standard.

     You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text,
     and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of
     the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version.  Only one passage
     of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or
     through arrangements made by) any one entity.  If the Document
     already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added
     by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on
     behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old
     one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added
     the old one.

     The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this
     License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
     assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

  5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

     You may combine the Document with other documents released under
     this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for
     modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all
     of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
     unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
     combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all
     their Warranty Disclaimers.

     The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
     multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
     copy.  If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name
     but different contents, make the title of each such section unique
     by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the
     original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a
     unique number.  Make the same adjustment to the section titles in
     the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the
     combined work.

     In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled
     "History" in the various original documents, forming one section
     Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
     "Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications".  You
     must delete all sections Entitled "Endorsements."

  6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

     You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
     documents released under this License, and replace the individual
     copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy
     that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the
     rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents
     in all other respects.

     You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
     distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert
     a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
     License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that
     document.

  7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

     A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other
     separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a
     storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the
     copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the
     legal rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual
     works permit.  When the Document is included in an aggregate, this
     License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which
     are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

     If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
     copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half
     of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed
     on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
     electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic
     form.  Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket
     the whole aggregate.

  8. TRANSLATION

     Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
     distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section
     4.  Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
     permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
     translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
     original versions of these Invariant Sections.  You may include a
     translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
     Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also
     include the original English version of this License and the
     original versions of those notices and disclaimers.  In case of a
     disagreement between the translation and the original version of
     this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will
     prevail.

     If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",
     "Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to
     Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the
     actual title.

  9. TERMINATION

     You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
     except as expressly provided under this License.  Any attempt
     otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void,
     and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

     However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your
     license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a)
     provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and
     finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the
     copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some
     reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

     Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is
     reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the
     violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have
     received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from
     that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days
     after your receipt of the notice.

     Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate
     the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you
     under this License.  If your rights have been terminated and not
     permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the
     same material does not give you any rights to use it.

  10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

     The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of
     the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time.  Such new
     versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
     differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.  See
     <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

     Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
     number.  If the Document specifies that a particular numbered
     version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you
     have the option of following the terms and conditions either of
     that specified version or of any later version that has been
     published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.  If the
     Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may
     choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free
     Software Foundation.  If the Document specifies that a proxy can
     decide which future versions of this License can be used, that
     proxy's public statement of acceptance of a version permanently
     authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.

  11. RELICENSING

     "Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site" (or "MMC Site") means any
     World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also
     provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works.  A
     public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server.
     A "Massive Multiauthor Collaboration" (or "MMC") contained in the
     site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC
     site.

     "CC-BY-SA" means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
     license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit
     corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco,
     California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license
     published by that same organization.

     "Incorporate" means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or
     in part, as part of another Document.

     An MMC is "eligible for relicensing" if it is licensed under this
     License, and if all works that were first published under this
     License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently
     incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover
     texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior
     to November 1, 2008.

     The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the
     site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1,
     2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents
====================================================

   To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of
the License in the document and put the following copyright and license
notices just after the title page:

       Copyright (C)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
       or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
       with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
       Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
       Free Documentation License''.

   If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover
Texts, replace the "with...Texts." line with this:

         with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with
         the Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts
         being LIST.

   If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the
situation.

   If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free
software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit
their use in free software.


File: gettext.info,  Node: Program Index,  Next: Option Index,  Prev: Licenses,  Up: Top

Program Index
*************

[index]
* Menu:

* autopoint:                             autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* boldquot:                              msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 111)
* envsubst:                              envsubst Invocation. (line   6)
* gettext:                               sh.                  (line  22)
* gettext <1>:                           gettext Invocation.  (line   6)
* gettextize:                            gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  34)
* msgattrib:                             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* msgcat:                                msgcat Invocation.   (line   6)
* msgcmp:                                msgcmp Invocation.   (line   6)
* msgcomm:                               msgcomm Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgconv:                               msgconv Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgen:                                 msgen Invocation.    (line   6)
* msgexec:                               msgexec Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgfilter:                             msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* msgfmt:                                msgfmt Invocation.   (line   6)
* msggrep:                               msggrep Invocation.  (line   6)
* msginit:                               msginit Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgmerge:                              msgmerge Invocation. (line   6)
* msgpre:                                msgpre Invocation.   (line   6)
* msgunfmt:                              msgunfmt Invocation. (line   6)
* msguniq:                               msguniq Invocation.  (line   6)
* ngettext:                              sh.                  (line  22)
* ngettext <1>:                          ngettext Invocation. (line   6)
* po-fetch:                              po-fetch Invocation. (line   6)
* printf_gettext:                        printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* printf_ngettext:                       printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* quot:                                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 107)
* recode-sr-latin:                       msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 101)
* spit:                                  spit Invocation.     (line   6)
* xgettext:                              xgettext Invocation. (line   6)


File: gettext.info,  Node: Option Index,  Next: Variable Index,  Prev: Program Index,  Up: Top

Option Index
************

[index]
* Menu:

* --add-comments, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line  98)
* --add-location, msgattrib option:      msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 138)
* --add-location, msgcat option:         msgcat Invocation.   (line 118)
* --add-location, msgcomm option:        msgcomm Invocation.  (line 100)
* --add-location, msgconv option:        msgconv Invocation.  (line  80)
* --add-location, msgen option:          msgen Invocation.    (line  83)
* --add-location, msgfilter option:      msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 161)
* --add-location, msggrep option:        msggrep Invocation.  (line 167)
* --add-location, msgmerge option:       msgmerge Invocation. (line 157)
* --add-location, msgpre option:         msgpre Invocation.   (line 115)
* --add-location, msguniq option:        msguniq Invocation.  (line  97)
* --add-location, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line 446)
* --alignment, msgfmt option:            msgfmt Invocation.   (line 319)
* --backup, msgmerge option:             msgmerge Invocation. (line  62)
* --boost, xgettext option:              xgettext Invocation. (line 381)
* --c++, xgettext option:                xgettext Invocation. (line  67)
* --check-accelerators, msgfmt option:   msgfmt Invocation.   (line 281)
* --check-compatibility, msgfmt option:  msgfmt Invocation.   (line 277)
* --check-domain, msgfmt option:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 272)
* --check-format, msgfmt option:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 244)
* --check-header, msgfmt option:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 267)
* --check, msgfmt option:                msgfmt Invocation.   (line 240)
* --check, xgettext option:              xgettext Invocation. (line 128)
* --clear-fuzzy, msgattrib option:       msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  68)
* --clear-obsolete, msgattrib option:    msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  74)
* --clear-previous, msgattrib option:    msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  81)
* --color, msgattrib option:             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 119)
* --color, msgcat option:                msgcat Invocation.   (line  99)
* --color, msgcat option <1>:            The --color option.  (line   6)
* --color, msgcomm option:               msgcomm Invocation.  (line  81)
* --color, msgconv option:               msgconv Invocation.  (line  61)
* --color, msgen option:                 msgen Invocation.    (line  64)
* --color, msgfilter option:             msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 138)
* --color, msggrep option:               msggrep Invocation.  (line 149)
* --color, msginit option:               msginit Invocation.  (line 100)
* --color, msgmerge option:              msgmerge Invocation. (line 138)
* --color, msgpre option:                msgpre Invocation.   (line  97)
* --color, msgunfmt option:              msgunfmt Invocation. (line 103)
* --color, msguniq option:               msguniq Invocation.  (line  78)
* --color, xgettext option:              xgettext Invocation. (line 425)
* --comment, msggrep option:             msggrep Invocation.  (line  91)
* --compendium, msgmerge option:         msgmerge Invocation. (line  36)
* --context, gettext option:             gettext Invocation.  (line  16)
* --context, ngettext option:            ngettext Invocation. (line  15)
* --context, printf_gettext option:      printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  15)
* --context, printf_ngettext option:     printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  16)
* --copyright-holder, xgettext option:   xgettext Invocation. (line 526)
* --csharp-resources, msgfmt option:     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  40)
* --csharp-resources, msgunfmt option:   msgunfmt Invocation. (line  23)
* --csharp, msgfmt option:               msgfmt Invocation.   (line  36)
* --csharp, msgunfmt option:             msgunfmt Invocation. (line  19)
* --debug, xgettext option:              xgettext Invocation. (line 385)
* --default-domain, xgettext option:     xgettext Invocation. (line  38)
* --desktop, msgfmt option:              msgfmt Invocation.   (line  49)
* --directory, msgattrib option:         msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  19)
* --directory, msgcat option:            msgcat Invocation.   (line  35)
* --directory, msgcmp option:            msgcmp Invocation.   (line  27)
* --directory, msgcomm option:           msgcomm Invocation.  (line  30)
* --directory, msgconv option:           msgconv Invocation.  (line  19)
* --directory, msgen option:             msgen Invocation.    (line  25)
* --directory, msgexec option:           msgexec Invocation.  (line  54)
* --directory, msgfilter option:         msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  34)
* --directory, msgfmt option:            msgfmt Invocation.   (line  18)
* --directory, msggrep option:           msggrep Invocation.  (line  19)
* --directory, msgmerge option:          msgmerge Invocation. (line  30)
* --directory, msgpre option:            msgpre Invocation.   (line  22)
* --directory, msguniq option:           msguniq Invocation.  (line  26)
* --directory, xgettext option:          xgettext Invocation. (line  27)
* --domain, gettext option:              gettext Invocation.  (line  21)
* --domain, msggrep option:              msggrep Invocation.  (line  75)
* --domain, ngettext option:             ngettext Invocation. (line  20)
* --dry-run, autopoint option:           autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line  31)
* --dry-run, gettextize option:          gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  64)
* --empty, msgattrib option:             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  84)
* --endianness, msgfmt option:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 322)
* --exclude-file, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line  93)
* --expression, msgfilter option:        msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  87)
* --extended-regexp, msggrep option:     msggrep Invocation.  (line  99)
* --extract-all, xgettext option:        xgettext Invocation. (line 196)
* --extracted-comment, msggrep option:   msggrep Invocation.  (line  95)
* --file, msgfilter option:              msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  91)
* --file, msggrep option:                msggrep Invocation.  (line 111)
* --files-from, msgcat option:           msgcat Invocation.   (line  30)
* --files-from, msgcomm option:          msgcomm Invocation.  (line  25)
* --files-from, xgettext option:         xgettext Invocation. (line  19)
* --fixed-strings, msggrep option:       msggrep Invocation.  (line 103)
* --flag, xgettext option:               xgettext Invocation. (line 313)
* --for-msgfmt, msgmerge option:         msgmerge Invocation. (line  99)
* --force-po, msgattrib option:          msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 127)
* --force-po, msgcat option:             msgcat Invocation.   (line 107)
* --force-po, msgcomm option:            msgcomm Invocation.  (line  89)
* --force-po, msgconv option:            msgconv Invocation.  (line  69)
* --force-po, msgen option:              msgen Invocation.    (line  72)
* --force-po, msgfilter option:          msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 146)
* --force-po, msggrep option:            msggrep Invocation.  (line 157)
* --force-po, msgmerge option:           msgmerge Invocation. (line 146)
* --force-po, msgpre option:             msgpre Invocation.   (line 105)
* --force-po, msgunfmt option:           msgunfmt Invocation. (line 111)
* --force-po, msguniq option:            msguniq Invocation.  (line  86)
* --force-po, xgettext option:           xgettext Invocation. (line 433)
* --force, autopoint option:             autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line  27)
* --force, gettextize option:            gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  40)
* --foreign-user, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line 541)
* --from-code, xgettext option:          xgettext Invocation. (line  76)
* --fuzzy, msgattrib option:             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  95)
* --generated, xgettext option:          xgettext Invocation. (line 576)
* --git, po-fetch option:                po-fetch Invocation. (line  29)
* --help, autopoint option:              autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line  39)
* --help, envsubst option:               envsubst Invocation. (line  21)
* --help, gettext option:                gettext Invocation.  (line  46)
* --help, gettextize option:             gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  69)
* --help, msgattrib option:              msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 188)
* --help, msgcat option:                 msgcat Invocation.   (line 168)
* --help, msgcmp option:                 msgcmp Invocation.   (line  69)
* --help, msgcomm option:                msgcomm Invocation.  (line 155)
* --help, msgconv option:                msgconv Invocation.  (line 130)
* --help, msgen option:                  msgen Invocation.    (line 133)
* --help, msgexec option:                msgexec Invocation.  (line  77)
* --help, msgfilter option:              msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 211)
* --help, msgfmt option:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 342)
* --help, msggrep option:                msggrep Invocation.  (line 215)
* --help, msginit option:                msginit Invocation.  (line 135)
* --help, msgmerge option:               msgmerge Invocation. (line 208)
* --help, msgpre option:                 msgpre Invocation.   (line 165)
* --help, msgunfmt option:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line 155)
* --help, msguniq option:                msguniq Invocation.  (line 147)
* --help, ngettext option:               ngettext Invocation. (line  47)
* --help, po-fetch option:               po-fetch Invocation. (line  41)
* --help, printf_gettext option:         printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  28)
* --help, printf_ngettext option:        printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  36)
* --help, spit option:                   spit Invocation.     (line  65)
* --help, xgettext option:               xgettext Invocation. (line 614)
* --ignore-case, msggrep option:         msggrep Invocation.  (line 115)
* --ignore-file, msgattrib option:       msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  91)
* --indent, msgattrib option:            msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 131)
* --indent, msgcat option:               msgcat Invocation.   (line 111)
* --indent, msgcomm option:              msgcomm Invocation.  (line  93)
* --indent, msgconv option:              msgconv Invocation.  (line  73)
* --indent, msgen option:                msgen Invocation.    (line  76)
* --indent, msgfilter option:            msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 149)
* --indent, msggrep option:              msggrep Invocation.  (line 160)
* --indent, msgmerge option:             msgmerge Invocation. (line 150)
* --indent, msgpre option:               msgpre Invocation.   (line 108)
* --indent, msgunfmt option:             msgunfmt Invocation. (line 115)
* --indent, msguniq option:              msguniq Invocation.  (line  90)
* --indent, xgettext option:             xgettext Invocation. (line 437)
* --input, msgexec option:               msgexec Invocation.  (line  50)
* --input, msgfilter option:             msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  30)
* --input, msginit option:               msginit Invocation.  (line  51)
* --input, msgpre option:                msgpre Invocation.   (line  18)
* --invert-match, msggrep option:        msggrep Invocation.  (line 129)
* --its, xgettext option:                xgettext Invocation. (line 406)
* --itstool, xgettext option:            xgettext Invocation. (line 469)
* --java, msgfmt option:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line  30)
* --java, msgunfmt option:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line  16)
* --java2, msgfmt option:                msgfmt Invocation.   (line  33)
* --join-existing, xgettext option:      xgettext Invocation. (line  89)
* --kde, xgettext option:                xgettext Invocation. (line 377)
* --keep-fuzzy, msgpre option:           msgpre Invocation.   (line  42)
* --keep-header, msgfilter option:       msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 152)
* --keyword, msgfmt option:              msgfmt Invocation.   (line 140)
* --keyword, xgettext option:            xgettext Invocation. (line 205)
* --lang, msgcat option:                 msgcat Invocation.   (line  93)
* --lang, msgen option:                  msgen Invocation.    (line  57)
* --lang, msgmerge option:               msgmerge Invocation. (line 130)
* --language, msgfmt option:             msgfmt Invocation.   (line 180)
* --language, xgettext option:           xgettext Invocation. (line  57)
* --less-than, msgcat option:            msgcat Invocation.   (line  56)
* --less-than, msgcomm option:           msgcomm Invocation.  (line  51)
* --locale, msgfmt option:               msgfmt Invocation.   (line  83)
* --locale, msgfmt option <1>:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 106)
* --locale, msgfmt option <2>:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 122)
* --locale, msgfmt option <3>:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 146)
* --locale, msgfmt option <4>:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 184)
* --locale, msginit option:              msginit Invocation.  (line  88)
* --locale, msgunfmt option:             msgunfmt Invocation. (line  45)
* --locale, msgunfmt option <1>:         msgunfmt Invocation. (line  62)
* --locale, msgunfmt option <2>:         msgunfmt Invocation. (line  78)
* --location, msggrep option:            msggrep Invocation.  (line  70)
* --model, msgpre option:                msgpre Invocation.   (line  59)
* --model, spit option:                  spit Invocation.     (line  30)
* --more-than, msgcat option:            msgcat Invocation.   (line  61)
* --more-than, msgcomm option:           msgcomm Invocation.  (line  56)
* --msgctxt, msggrep option:             msggrep Invocation.  (line  79)
* --msgid-bugs-address, xgettext option: xgettext Invocation. (line 554)
* --msgid, msggrep option:               msggrep Invocation.  (line  83)
* --msgstr-prefix, xgettext option:      xgettext Invocation. (line 603)
* --msgstr-suffix, xgettext option:      xgettext Invocation. (line 607)
* --msgstr, msggrep option:              msggrep Invocation.  (line  87)
* --multi-domain, msgcmp option:         msgcmp Invocation.   (line  35)
* --multi-domain, msgmerge option:       msgmerge Invocation. (line  96)
* --newline, msgfilter option:           msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  59)
* --newline, msgfilter option <1>:       msgexec Invocation.  (line  19)
* --no-changelog, gettextize option:     gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  50)
* --no-check, xgettext option:           xgettext Invocation. (line 164)
* --no-convert, msgfmt option:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 301)
* --no-fuzzy-matching, msgcmp option:    msgcmp Invocation.   (line  39)
* --no-fuzzy-matching, msgmerge option:  msgmerge Invocation. (line 107)
* --no-fuzzy, msgattrib option:          msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  45)
* --no-git, xgettext option:             xgettext Invocation. (line 509)
* --no-hash, msgfmt option:              msgfmt Invocation.   (line 334)
* --no-location, msgattrib option:       msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 134)
* --no-location, msgcat option:          msgcat Invocation.   (line 114)
* --no-location, msgcomm option:         msgcomm Invocation.  (line  96)
* --no-location, msgconv option:         msgconv Invocation.  (line  76)
* --no-location, msgen option:           msgen Invocation.    (line  79)
* --no-location, msgfilter option:       msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 157)
* --no-location, msggrep option:         msggrep Invocation.  (line 163)
* --no-location, msgmerge option:        msgmerge Invocation. (line 153)
* --no-location, msgpre option:          msgpre Invocation.   (line 111)
* --no-location, msguniq option:         msguniq Invocation.  (line  93)
* --no-location, xgettext option:        xgettext Invocation. (line 440)
* --no-obsolete, msgattrib option:       msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  51)
* --no-redundancy, msgfmt option:        msgfmt Invocation.   (line 307)
* --no-translator, msginit option:       msginit Invocation.  (line  95)
* --no-wrap, msgattrib option:           msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 169)
* --no-wrap, msgcat option:              msgcat Invocation.   (line 149)
* --no-wrap, msgcomm option:             msgcomm Invocation.  (line 131)
* --no-wrap, msgconv option:             msgconv Invocation.  (line 111)
* --no-wrap, msgen option:               msgen Invocation.    (line 114)
* --no-wrap, msgfilter option:           msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 192)
* --no-wrap, msggrep option:             msggrep Invocation.  (line 198)
* --no-wrap, msginit option:             msginit Invocation.  (line 125)
* --no-wrap, msgmerge option:            msgmerge Invocation. (line 188)
* --no-wrap, msgpre option:              msgpre Invocation.   (line 146)
* --no-wrap, msgunfmt option:            msgunfmt Invocation. (line 140)
* --no-wrap, msguniq option:             msguniq Invocation.  (line 128)
* --no-wrap, xgettext option:            xgettext Invocation. (line 480)
* --obsolete, msgattrib option:          msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  99)
* --omit-header, msgcomm option:         msgcomm Invocation.  (line 146)
* --omit-header, xgettext option:        xgettext Invocation. (line 496)
* --only-file, msgattrib option:         msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  87)
* --only-fuzzy, msgattrib option:        msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  48)
* --only-obsolete, msgattrib option:     msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  54)
* --output-dir, xgettext option:         xgettext Invocation. (line  47)
* --output-file, msgattrib option:       msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  30)
* --output-file, msgcat option:          msgcat Invocation.   (line  46)
* --output-file, msgcomm option:         msgcomm Invocation.  (line  41)
* --output-file, msgconv option:         msgconv Invocation.  (line  30)
* --output-file, msgen option:           msgen Invocation.    (line  36)
* --output-file, msgfilter option:       msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  45)
* --output-file, msgfmt option:          msgfmt Invocation.   (line  59)
* --output-file, msggrep option:         msggrep Invocation.  (line  30)
* --output-file, msginit option:         msginit Invocation.  (line  61)
* --output-file, msgmerge option:        msgmerge Invocation. (line  51)
* --output-file, msgpre option:          msgpre Invocation.   (line  33)
* --output-file, msgunfmt option:        msgunfmt Invocation. (line  93)
* --output-file, msguniq option:         msguniq Invocation.  (line  37)
* --output, xgettext option:             xgettext Invocation. (line  42)
* --package-name, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line 547)
* --package-version, xgettext option:    xgettext Invocation. (line 550)
* --po-dir, gettextize option:           gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  43)
* --postprocess, msgpre option:          msgpre Invocation.   (line  72)
* --postprocess, spit option:            spit Invocation.     (line  52)
* --previous, msgattrib option:          msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  77)
* --previous, msgmerge option:           msgmerge Invocation. (line 111)
* --prompt, msgpre option:               msgpre Invocation.   (line  64)
* --prompt, spit option:                 spit Invocation.     (line  45)
* --properties-input, msgattrib option:  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 107)
* --properties-input, msgcat option:     msgcat Invocation.   (line  74)
* --properties-input, msgcmp option:     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  57)
* --properties-input, msgcomm option:    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  69)
* --properties-input, msgconv option:    msgconv Invocation.  (line  49)
* --properties-input, msgen option:      msgen Invocation.    (line  46)
* --properties-input, msgexec option:    msgexec Invocation.  (line  65)
* --properties-input, msgfilter option:  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 126)
* --properties-input, msgfmt option:     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 228)
* --properties-input, msggrep option:    msggrep Invocation.  (line 137)
* --properties-input, msginit option:    msginit Invocation.  (line  76)
* --properties-input, msgmerge option:   msgmerge Invocation. (line 119)
* --properties-input, msgpre option:     msgpre Invocation.   (line  85)
* --properties-input, msguniq option:    msguniq Invocation.  (line  58)
* --properties-output, msgattrib option: msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 153)
* --properties-output, msgcat option:    msgcat Invocation.   (line 133)
* --properties-output, msgcomm option:   msgcomm Invocation.  (line 115)
* --properties-output, msgconv option:   msgconv Invocation.  (line  95)
* --properties-output, msgen option:     msgen Invocation.    (line  98)
* --properties-output, msgfilter option: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 176)
* --properties-output, msggrep option:   msggrep Invocation.  (line 182)
* --properties-output, msginit option:   msginit Invocation.  (line 109)
* --properties-output, msgmerge option:  msgmerge Invocation. (line 172)
* --properties-output, msgpre option:    msgpre Invocation.   (line 130)
* --properties-output, msgunfmt option:  msgunfmt Invocation. (line 124)
* --properties-output, msguniq option:   msguniq Invocation.  (line 112)
* --properties-output, xgettext option:  xgettext Invocation. (line 460)
* --qt, msgfmt option:                   msgfmt Invocation.   (line  46)
* --qt, xgettext option:                 xgettext Invocation. (line 373)
* --quiet, msgfilter option:             msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  96)
* --quiet, msgmerge option:              msgmerge Invocation. (line 221)
* --quiet, msgpre option:                msgpre Invocation.   (line 174)
* --reference, xgettext option:          xgettext Invocation. (line 585)
* --regexp=, msggrep option:             msggrep Invocation.  (line 107)
* --repeated, msguniq option:            msguniq Invocation.  (line  47)
* --replace-text, msgfmt option:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 192)
* --resource, msgfmt option:             msgfmt Invocation.   (line  79)
* --resource, msgfmt option <1>:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 102)
* --resource, msgunfmt option:           msgunfmt Invocation. (line  41)
* --resource, msgunfmt option <1>:       msgunfmt Invocation. (line  58)
* --sentence-end, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line 183)
* --set-fuzzy, msgattrib option:         msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  65)
* --set-obsolete, msgattrib option:      msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  71)
* --silent, msgfilter option:            msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  96)
* --silent, msgmerge option:             msgmerge Invocation. (line 221)
* --silent, msgpre option:               msgpre Invocation.   (line 174)
* --sort-by-file, msgattrib option:      msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 181)
* --sort-by-file, msgcat option:         msgcat Invocation.   (line 161)
* --sort-by-file, msgcomm option:        msgcomm Invocation.  (line 143)
* --sort-by-file, msgconv option:        msgconv Invocation.  (line 123)
* --sort-by-file, msgen option:          msgen Invocation.    (line 126)
* --sort-by-file, msgfilter option:      msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 204)
* --sort-by-file, msggrep option:        msggrep Invocation.  (line 208)
* --sort-by-file, msgmerge option:       msgmerge Invocation. (line 201)
* --sort-by-file, msgpre option:         msgpre Invocation.   (line 158)
* --sort-by-file, msguniq option:        msguniq Invocation.  (line 140)
* --sort-by-file, xgettext option:       xgettext Invocation. (line 493)
* --sort-output, msgattrib option:       msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 176)
* --sort-output, msgcat option:          msgcat Invocation.   (line 156)
* --sort-output, msgcomm option:         msgcomm Invocation.  (line 138)
* --sort-output, msgconv option:         msgconv Invocation.  (line 118)
* --sort-output, msgen option:           msgen Invocation.    (line 121)
* --sort-output, msgfilter option:       msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 199)
* --sort-output, msggrep option:         msggrep Invocation.  (line 204)
* --sort-output, msgmerge option:        msgmerge Invocation. (line 195)
* --sort-output, msgpre option:          msgpre Invocation.   (line 153)
* --sort-output, msgunfmt option:        msgunfmt Invocation. (line 147)
* --sort-output, msguniq option:         msguniq Invocation.  (line 135)
* --sort-output, xgettext option:        xgettext Invocation. (line 487)
* --source, msgfmt option:               msgfmt Invocation.   (line  91)
* --species, msgpre option:              msgpre Invocation.   (line  49)
* --species, spit option:                spit Invocation.     (line  20)
* --statistics, msgfmt option:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 349)
* --sticky-flag, msggrep option:         msggrep Invocation.  (line 124)
* --strict, msgattrib option:            msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 147)
* --strict, msgcat option:               msgcat Invocation.   (line 127)
* --strict, msgcomm option:              msgcomm Invocation.  (line 109)
* --strict, msgconv option:              msgconv Invocation.  (line  89)
* --strict, msgen option:                msgen Invocation.    (line  92)
* --strict, msgfilter option:            msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 170)
* --strict, msgfmt option:               msgfmt Invocation.   (line  62)
* --strict, msggrep option:              msggrep Invocation.  (line 176)
* --strict, msgmerge option:             msgmerge Invocation. (line 166)
* --strict, msgpre option:               msgpre Invocation.   (line 124)
* --strict, msgunfmt option:             msgunfmt Invocation. (line 118)
* --strict, msguniq option:              msguniq Invocation.  (line 106)
* --strict, xgettext option:             xgettext Invocation. (line 455)
* --stringtable-input, msgattrib option: msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 111)
* --stringtable-input, msgcat option:    msgcat Invocation.   (line  78)
* --stringtable-input, msgcmp option:    msgcmp Invocation.   (line  61)
* --stringtable-input, msgcomm option:   msgcomm Invocation.  (line  73)
* --stringtable-input, msgen option:     msgen Invocation.    (line  50)
* --stringtable-input, msgexec option:   msgexec Invocation.  (line  69)
* --stringtable-input, msgfilter option: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 130)
* --stringtable-input, msgfmt option:    msgfmt Invocation.   (line 232)
* --stringtable-input, msggrep option:   msggrep Invocation.  (line 141)
* --stringtable-input, msginit option:   msginit Invocation.  (line  80)
* --stringtable-input, msgmerge option:  msgmerge Invocation. (line 123)
* --stringtable-input, msgonv option:    msgconv Invocation.  (line  53)
* --stringtable-input, msgpre option:    msgpre Invocation.   (line  89)
* --stringtable-input, msguniq option:   msguniq Invocation.  (line  62)
* --stringtable-output, msgattrib option: msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 158)
* --stringtable-output, msgcat option:   msgcat Invocation.   (line 138)
* --stringtable-output, msgcomm option:  msgcomm Invocation.  (line 120)
* --stringtable-output, msgconv option:  msgconv Invocation.  (line 100)
* --stringtable-output, msgen option:    msgen Invocation.    (line 103)
* --stringtable-output, msgfilter option: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 181)
* --stringtable-output, msggrep option:  msggrep Invocation.  (line 187)
* --stringtable-output, msginit option:  msginit Invocation.  (line 114)
* --stringtable-output, msgmerge option: msgmerge Invocation. (line 177)
* --stringtable-output, msgpre option:   msgpre Invocation.   (line 135)
* --stringtable-output, msgunfmt option: msgunfmt Invocation. (line 129)
* --stringtable-output, msguniq option:  msguniq Invocation.  (line 117)
* --stringtable-output, xgettext option: xgettext Invocation. (line 465)
* --style, msgattrib option:             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 123)
* --style, msgcat option:                msgcat Invocation.   (line 103)
* --style, msgcat option <1>:            The --style option.  (line   6)
* --style, msgcomm option:               msgcomm Invocation.  (line  85)
* --style, msgconv option:               msgconv Invocation.  (line  65)
* --style, msgen option:                 msgen Invocation.    (line  68)
* --style, msgfilter option:             msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 142)
* --style, msggrep option:               msggrep Invocation.  (line 153)
* --style, msginit option:               msginit Invocation.  (line 104)
* --style, msgmerge option:              msgmerge Invocation. (line 142)
* --style, msgpre option:                msgpre Invocation.   (line 101)
* --style, msgunfmt option:              msgunfmt Invocation. (line 107)
* --style, msguniq option:               msguniq Invocation.  (line  82)
* --style, xgettext option:              xgettext Invocation. (line 429)
* --suffix, msgmerge option:             msgmerge Invocation. (line  65)
* --symlink, gettextize option:          gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  55)
* --tag, xgettext option:                xgettext Invocation. (line 353)
* --tcl, msgfmt option:                  msgfmt Invocation.   (line  43)
* --tcl, msgunfmt option:                msgunfmt Invocation. (line  26)
* --template, msgfmt option:             msgfmt Invocation.   (line 136)
* --template, msgfmt option <1>:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 176)
* --to-code, msgcat option:              msgcat Invocation.   (line  86)
* --to-code, msgconv option:             msgconv Invocation.  (line  40)
* --to-code, msguniq option:             msguniq Invocation.  (line  70)
* --to, spit option:                     spit Invocation.     (line  35)
* --translated, msgattrib option:        msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  39)
* --trigraphs, xgettext option:          xgettext Invocation. (line 367)
* --unique, msgcat option:               msgcat Invocation.   (line  66)
* --unique, msgcomm option:              msgcomm Invocation.  (line  61)
* --unique, msguniq option:              msguniq Invocation.  (line  51)
* --untranslated, msgattrib option:      msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  42)
* --update, msgmerge option:             msgmerge Invocation. (line  44)
* --url, msgpre option:                  msgpre Invocation.   (line  53)
* --url, spit option:                    spit Invocation.     (line  24)
* --use-first, msgcat option:            msgcat Invocation.   (line  89)
* --use-first, msguniq option:           msguniq Invocation.  (line  73)
* --use-fuzzy, msgcmp option:            msgcmp Invocation.   (line  43)
* --use-fuzzy, msgfmt option:            msgfmt Invocation.   (line 293)
* --use-untranslated, msgcmp option:     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  49)
* --variables, envsubst option:          envsubst Invocation. (line  15)
* --verbose, msgfmt option:              msgfmt Invocation.   (line 355)
* --verbose, msgmerge option:            msgmerge Invocation. (line 216)
* --verbose, msgunfmt option:            msgunfmt Invocation. (line 163)
* --verbose, xgettext option:            xgettext Invocation. (line 622)
* --version, autopoint option:           autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line  42)
* --version, envsubst option:            envsubst Invocation. (line  25)
* --version, gettext option:             gettext Invocation.  (line  50)
* --version, gettextize option:          gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  72)
* --version, msgattrib option:           msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 192)
* --version, msgcat option:              msgcat Invocation.   (line 172)
* --version, msgcmp option:              msgcmp Invocation.   (line  73)
* --version, msgcomm option:             msgcomm Invocation.  (line 159)
* --version, msgconv option:             msgconv Invocation.  (line 134)
* --version, msgen option:               msgen Invocation.    (line 137)
* --version, msgexec option:             msgexec Invocation.  (line  81)
* --version, msgfilter option:           msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 215)
* --version, msgfmt option:              msgfmt Invocation.   (line 346)
* --version, msggrep option:             msggrep Invocation.  (line 219)
* --version, msginit option:             msginit Invocation.  (line 139)
* --version, msgmerge option:            msgmerge Invocation. (line 212)
* --version, msgpre option:              msgpre Invocation.   (line 169)
* --version, msgunfmt option:            msgunfmt Invocation. (line 159)
* --version, msguniq option:             msguniq Invocation.  (line 151)
* --version, ngettext option:            ngettext Invocation. (line  51)
* --version, po-fetch option:            po-fetch Invocation. (line  44)
* --version, printf_gettext option:      printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  32)
* --version, printf_ngettext option:     printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  40)
* --version, spit option:                spit Invocation.     (line  69)
* --version, xgettext option:            xgettext Invocation. (line 618)
* --width, msgattrib option:             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 163)
* --width, msgcat option:                msgcat Invocation.   (line 143)
* --width, msgcomm option:               msgcomm Invocation.  (line 125)
* --width, msgconv option:               msgconv Invocation.  (line 105)
* --width, msgen option:                 msgen Invocation.    (line 108)
* --width, msgfilter option:             msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 186)
* --width, msggrep option:               msggrep Invocation.  (line 192)
* --width, msginit option:               msginit Invocation.  (line 119)
* --width, msgmerge option:              msgmerge Invocation. (line 182)
* --width, msgpre option:                msgpre Invocation.   (line 140)
* --width, msgunfmt option:              msgunfmt Invocation. (line 134)
* --width, msguniq option:               msguniq Invocation.  (line 122)
* --width, xgettext option:              xgettext Invocation. (line 474)
* --workflow-flag, msggrep option:       msggrep Invocation.  (line 119)
* --xml, msgfmt option:                  msgfmt Invocation.   (line  52)
* -<, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  56)
* -<, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  51)
* ->, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  61)
* ->, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  56)
* -a, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 319)
* -a, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 196)
* -c, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  16)
* -c, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 240)
* -C, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 277)
* -C, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  91)
* -C, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line  36)
* -c, ngettext option:                   ngettext Invocation. (line  15)
* -c, printf_gettext option:             printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  15)
* -c, printf_ngettext option:            printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  16)
* -C, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  67)
* -c, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  98)
* -d, autopoint option:                  autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line  31)
* -d, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  21)
* -d, gettextize option:                 gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  64)
* -D, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  19)
* -D, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  35)
* -D, msgcmp option:                     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  27)
* -D, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  30)
* -D, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line  19)
* -D, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line  25)
* -D, msgexec option:                    msgexec Invocation.  (line  54)
* -D, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  34)
* -D, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  18)
* -d, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  88)
* -d, msgfmt option <1>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 111)
* -d, msgfmt option <2>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 127)
* -d, msgfmt option <3>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 151)
* -d, msgfmt option <4>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 189)
* -D, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  19)
* -D, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line  30)
* -D, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line  22)
* -d, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line  67)
* -d, msgunfmt option <1>:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line  83)
* -D, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  26)
* -d, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  47)
* -d, ngettext option:                   ngettext Invocation. (line  20)
* -D, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  27)
* -d, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  38)
* -e, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  25)
* -E, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  32)
* -e, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  87)
* -E, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  99)
* -e, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 107)
* -e, ngettext option:                   ngettext Invocation. (line  24)
* -E, ngettext option:                   ngettext Invocation. (line  31)
* -f, autopoint option:                  autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line  27)
* -f, gettextize option:                 gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  40)
* -F, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 181)
* -f, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  30)
* -F, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 161)
* -f, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  25)
* -F, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 143)
* -F, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line 123)
* -F, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line 126)
* -f, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  91)
* -F, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 204)
* -f, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 293)
* -F, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 103)
* -f, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 111)
* -F, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 201)
* -F, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 158)
* -F, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line 140)
* -f, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  19)
* -F, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 493)
* -h, envsubst option:                   envsubst Invocation. (line  21)
* -h, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  46)
* -h, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 188)
* -h, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 168)
* -h, msgcmp option:                     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  69)
* -h, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 155)
* -h, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line 130)
* -h, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line 133)
* -h, msgexec option:                    msgexec Invocation.  (line  77)
* -h, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 211)
* -h, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 342)
* -h, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 215)
* -h, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line 135)
* -h, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 208)
* -h, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 165)
* -h, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 155)
* -h, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line 147)
* -h, ngettext option:                   ngettext Invocation. (line  47)
* -h, printf_gettext option:             printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  28)
* -h, printf_ngettext option:            printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  36)
* -h, spit option:                       spit Invocation.     (line  65)
* -h, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 614)
* -i, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 131)
* -i, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 111)
* -i, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  93)
* -i, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line  73)
* -i, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line  76)
* -i, msgexec option:                    msgexec Invocation.  (line  50)
* -i, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  30)
* -i, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 115)
* -i, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line  51)
* -i, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 150)
* -i, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line  18)
* -i, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 115)
* -i, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  90)
* -i, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 437)
* -j, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  30)
* -J, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  79)
* -j, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line  16)
* -j, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  89)
* -k, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 140)
* -K, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  83)
* -k, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 205)
* -l, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  83)
* -l, msgfmt option <1>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 106)
* -l, msgfmt option <2>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 122)
* -l, msgfmt option <3>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 146)
* -L, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 180)
* -l, msgfmt option <4>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 184)
* -l, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line  88)
* -l, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line  45)
* -l, msgunfmt option <1>:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line  62)
* -l, msgunfmt option <2>:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line  78)
* -L, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  57)
* -m, msgcmp option:                     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  35)
* -M, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  75)
* -m, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line  96)
* -m, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line  59)
* -m, spit option:                       spit Invocation.     (line  30)
* -m, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 603)
* -M, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 607)
* -n, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  36)
* -n, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 138)
* -n, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 118)
* -N, msgcmp option:                     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  39)
* -n, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 100)
* -n, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  96)
* -N, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  70)
* -N, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 107)
* -n, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  97)
* -n, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 446)
* -o, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  30)
* -o, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  46)
* -o, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  41)
* -o, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line  30)
* -o, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line  36)
* -o, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  45)
* -o, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  59)
* -o, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  30)
* -o, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line  61)
* -o, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line  51)
* -o, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line  33)
* -o, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line  93)
* -o, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  37)
* -o, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  42)
* -P, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 107)
* -p, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 153)
* -P, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  74)
* -p, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 133)
* -P, msgcmp option:                     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  57)
* -P, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  69)
* -p, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 115)
* -P, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line  49)
* -p, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line  95)
* -P, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line  46)
* -p, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line  98)
* -P, msgexec option:                    msgexec Invocation.  (line  65)
* -P, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 126)
* -p, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 176)
* -P, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 228)
* -P, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 137)
* -p, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 182)
* -P, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line  76)
* -p, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line 109)
* -P, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 119)
* -p, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 172)
* -P, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line  85)
* -p, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 130)
* -p, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 124)
* -P, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  58)
* -p, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line 112)
* -p, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  47)
* -q, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 221)
* -q, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 174)
* -r, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line  79)
* -r, msgfmt option <1>:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line 102)
* -r, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line  41)
* -r, msgunfmt option <1>:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line  58)
* -s, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 176)
* -s, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 156)
* -s, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 138)
* -s, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line 118)
* -s, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line 121)
* -s, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 199)
* -S, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 124)
* -s, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 195)
* -s, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 153)
* -s, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 147)
* -s, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line 135)
* -s, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 487)
* -t, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  86)
* -t, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line  40)
* -T, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  87)
* -t, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  70)
* -T, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 367)
* -u, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line  66)
* -u, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line  61)
* -U, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line  44)
* -u, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line  51)
* -v, envsubst option:                   envsubst Invocation. (line  15)
* -V, envsubst option:                   envsubst Invocation. (line  25)
* -V, gettext option:                    gettext Invocation.  (line  50)
* -V, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 192)
* -V, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 172)
* -V, msgcmp option:                     msgcmp Invocation.   (line  73)
* -V, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 159)
* -V, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line 134)
* -V, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line 137)
* -V, msgexec option:                    msgexec Invocation.  (line  81)
* -V, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 215)
* -V, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 346)
* -v, msgfmt option:                     msgfmt Invocation.   (line 355)
* -v, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 129)
* -V, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 219)
* -V, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line 139)
* -V, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 212)
* -v, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 216)
* -V, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 169)
* -V, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 159)
* -v, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 163)
* -V, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line 151)
* -V, ngettext option:                   ngettext Invocation. (line  51)
* -V, printf_gettext option:             printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  32)
* -V, printf_ngettext option:            printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line  40)
* -V, spit option:                       spit Invocation.     (line  69)
* -V, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 618)
* -v, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 622)
* -w, msgattrib option:                  msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line 163)
* -w, msgcat option:                     msgcat Invocation.   (line 143)
* -w, msgcomm option:                    msgcomm Invocation.  (line 125)
* -w, msgconv option:                    msgconv Invocation.  (line 105)
* -w, msgen option:                      msgen Invocation.    (line 108)
* -w, msgfilter option:                  msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 186)
* -W, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 119)
* -w, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line 192)
* -w, msginit option:                    msginit Invocation.  (line 119)
* -w, msgmerge option:                   msgmerge Invocation. (line 182)
* -w, msgpre option:                     msgpre Invocation.   (line 140)
* -w, msgunfmt option:                   msgunfmt Invocation. (line 134)
* -w, msguniq option:                    msguniq Invocation.  (line 122)
* -w, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line 474)
* -X, msggrep option:                    msggrep Invocation.  (line  95)
* -x, xgettext option:                   xgettext Invocation. (line  93)


File: gettext.info,  Node: Variable Index,  Next: PO Mode Index,  Prev: Option Index,  Up: Top

Variable Index
**************

[index]
* Menu:

* GETTEXT_LOG_UNTRANSLATED, environment variable: Prioritizing messages.
                                                              (line  22)
* GETTEXTDATADIRS, environment variable: xgettext Invocation. (line 411)
* GETTEXTDATADIRS, environment variable <1>: msgfmt Invocation.
                                                              (line 218)
* LANG, environment variable:            Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  15)
* LANG, environment variable <1>:        gettext grok.        (line  30)
* LANGUAGE, environment variable:        Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  11)
* LANGUAGE, environment variable <1>:    gettext grok.        (line  28)
* LANGUAGE, environment variable <2>:    po/Rules-*.          (line  11)
* LC_ALL, environment variable:          Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  11)
* LC_ALL, environment variable <1>:      gettext grok.        (line  28)
* LC_COLLATE, environment variable:      Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  12)
* LC_COLLATE, environment variable <1>:  gettext grok.        (line  29)
* LC_CTYPE, environment variable:        Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  12)
* LC_CTYPE, environment variable <1>:    gettext grok.        (line  29)
* LC_MESSAGES, environment variable:     Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  12)
* LC_MESSAGES, environment variable <1>: gettext grok.        (line  29)
* LC_MONETARY, environment variable:     Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  12)
* LC_MONETARY, environment variable <1>: gettext grok.        (line  29)
* LC_NUMERIC, environment variable:      Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  12)
* LC_NUMERIC, environment variable <1>:  gettext grok.        (line  29)
* LC_TIME, environment variable:         Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line  12)
* LC_TIME, environment variable <1>:     gettext grok.        (line  29)
* LINGUAS, environment variable:         Installers.          (line  17)
* MSGEXEC_LOCATION, environment variable: msgexec Invocation. (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_MSGCTXT, environment variable: msgexec Invocation.  (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_MSGID_PLURAL, environment variable: msgexec Invocation.
                                                              (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_MSGID, environment variable:   msgexec Invocation.  (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_PLURAL_FORM, environment variable: msgexec Invocation.
                                                              (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_PREV_MSGCTXT, environment variable: msgexec Invocation.
                                                              (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_PREV_MSGID_PLURAL, environment variable: msgexec Invocation.
                                                              (line  21)
* MSGEXEC_PREV_MSGID, environment variable: msgexec Invocation.
                                                              (line  21)
* MSGFILTER_LOCATION, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_MSGCTXT, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_MSGID_PLURAL, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_MSGID, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_PLURAL_FORM, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_PREV_MSGCTXT, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_PREV_MSGID_PLURAL, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* MSGFILTER_PREV_MSGID, environment variable: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  11)
* OUTPUT_CHARSET, environment variable:  Working in a Windows console.
                                                              (line   6)
* PO_STYLE, environment variable:        The --style option.  (line  10)
* TERM, environment variable:            The TERM variable.   (line   6)
* TEXTDOMAIN, environment variable:      sh.                  (line  28)
* TEXTDOMAINDIR, environment variable:   sh.                  (line  31)


File: gettext.info,  Node: PO Mode Index,  Next: Autoconf Macro Index,  Prev: Variable Index,  Up: Top

PO Mode Index
*************

[index]
* Menu:

* _, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  30)
* _, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  52)
* ,, PO Mode command:                    Marking.             (line  43)
* ?, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  44)
* ?, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  82)
* ., PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  20)
* ., PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  45)
* .emacs customizations:                 Installation.        (line  13)
* #, PO Mode command:                    Modifying Comments.  (line  24)
* #, PO Mode command <1>:                Modifying Comments.  (line  45)
* <, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  29)
* <, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  73)
* =, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  47)
* =, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  86)
* >, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  32)
* >, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  73)
* 0, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  40)
* 0, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  71)
* a, PO Mode command:                    Auxiliary.           (line  21)
* A, PO Mode command:                    Auxiliary.           (line  28)
* A, PO Mode command <1>:                Auxiliary.           (line  35)
* a, PO Mode command <1>:                Auxiliary.           (line  39)
* auxiliary PO file:                     Auxiliary.           (line  13)
* C-c C-a, PO Mode command:              Subedit.             (line  17)
* C-c C-a, PO Mode command <1>:          Subedit.             (line  34)
* C-c C-a, PO Mode command <2>:          Auxiliary.           (line  25)
* C-c C-a, PO Mode command <3>:          Auxiliary.           (line  48)
* C-c C-c, PO Mode command:              Subedit.             (line  11)
* C-c C-c, PO Mode command <1>:          Subedit.             (line  19)
* C-c C-k, PO Mode command:              Subedit.             (line  14)
* C-c C-k, PO Mode command <1>:          Subedit.             (line  26)
* C-j, PO Mode command:                  Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  26)
* C-j, PO Mode command <1>:              Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  51)
* commands:                              Main PO Commands.    (line   6)
* comment out PO file entry:             Obsolete Entries.    (line  46)
* consulting program sources:            C Sources Context.   (line   6)
* consulting translations to other languages: Auxiliary.      (line   6)
* current entry of a PO file:            Entry Positioning.   (line   6)
* cut and paste for translated strings:  Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  73)
* DEL, PO Mode command:                  Fuzzy Entries.       (line  58)
* DEL, PO Mode command <1>:              Obsolete Entries.    (line  32)
* DEL, PO Mode command <2>:              Obsolete Entries.    (line  46)
* editing comments:                      Modifying Comments.  (line   6)
* editing multiple entries:              Subedit.             (line  61)
* editing translations:                  Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line   6)
* etags, using for marking strings:      Marking.             (line  17)
* exiting PO subedit:                    Subedit.             (line  19)
* f, PO Mode command:                    Fuzzy Entries.       (line  29)
* F, PO Mode command:                    Fuzzy Entries.       (line  32)
* f, PO Mode command <1>:                Fuzzy Entries.       (line  37)
* F, PO Mode command <1>:                Fuzzy Entries.       (line  37)
* find source fragment for a PO file entry: C Sources Context.
                                                              (line  33)
* h, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  44)
* h, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  82)
* installing PO mode:                    Installation.        (line  13)
* k, PO Mode command:                    Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  32)
* k, PO Mode command <1>:                Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  39)
* k, PO Mode command <2>:                Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  30)
* k, PO Mode command <3>:                Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  73)
* K, PO Mode command:                    Modifying Comments.  (line  27)
* K, PO Mode command <1>:                Modifying Comments.  (line  59)
* LFD, PO Mode command:                  Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  26)
* LFD, PO Mode command <1>:              Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  51)
* looking at the source to aid translation: C Sources Context.
                                                              (line   6)
* M-,, PO Mode command:                  Marking.             (line  47)
* M-., PO Mode command:                  Marking.             (line  50)
* M-A, PO Mode command:                  Auxiliary.           (line  32)
* M-A, PO Mode command <1>:              Auxiliary.           (line  35)
* M-s, PO Mode command:                  C Sources Context.   (line  41)
* M-S, PO Mode command:                  C Sources Context.   (line  49)
* M-s, PO Mode command <1>:              C Sources Context.   (line  52)
* M-S, PO Mode command <1>:              C Sources Context.   (line  88)
* m, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  35)
* m, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  91)
* marking strings for translation:       Marking.             (line   6)
* moving by fuzzy entries:               Fuzzy Entries.       (line  23)
* moving by obsolete entries:            Obsolete Entries.    (line  22)
* moving by translated entries:          Translated Entries.  (line  12)
* moving by untranslated entries:        Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  18)
* moving through a PO file:              Entry Positioning.   (line  14)
* n, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  23)
* n, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  68)
* next-error, stepping through PO file validation results: Main PO Commands.
                                                              (line  98)
* normalize, PO Mode command:            Auxiliary.           (line  63)
* o, PO Mode command:                    Obsolete Entries.    (line  26)
* O, PO Mode command:                    Obsolete Entries.    (line  29)
* o, PO Mode command <1>:                Obsolete Entries.    (line  35)
* O, PO Mode command <1>:                Obsolete Entries.    (line  35)
* obsolete active entry:                 Obsolete Entries.    (line  46)
* p, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  26)
* p, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  68)
* pending subedits:                      Subedit.             (line  72)
* po-auto-edit-with-msgid, PO Mode variable: Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  56)
* po-auto-fuzzy-on-edit, PO Mode variable: Translated Entries.
                                                              (line  27)
* po-auto-select-on-unfuzzy, PO Mode variable: Fuzzy Entries. (line  42)
* po-confirm-and-quit, PO Mode command:  Main PO Commands.    (line  61)
* po-consider-as-auxiliary, PO Mode command: Auxiliary.       (line  35)
* po-consider-source-path, PO Mode command: C Sources Context.
                                                              (line  88)
* po-current-entry, PO Mode command:     Entry Positioning.   (line  45)
* po-cycle-auxiliary, PO Mode command:   Auxiliary.           (line  39)
* po-cycle-source-reference, PO Mode command: C Sources Context.
                                                              (line  52)
* po-edit-comment, PO Mode command:      Modifying Comments.  (line  45)
* po-edit-msgstr, PO Mode command:       Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  41)
* po-exchange-location, PO Mode command: Entry Positioning.   (line 105)
* po-fade-out-entry, PO Mode command:    Fuzzy Entries.       (line  58)
* po-fade-out-entry, PO Mode command <1>: Obsolete Entries.   (line  46)
* po-first-entry, PO Mode command:       Entry Positioning.   (line  73)
* po-help, PO Mode command:              Main PO Commands.    (line  82)
* po-ignore-as-auxiliary, PO Mode command: Auxiliary.         (line  35)
* po-ignore-source-path, PO Mode command: C Sources Context.  (line  88)
* po-kill-comment, PO Mode command:      Modifying Comments.  (line  59)
* po-kill-msgstr, PO Mode command:       Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  39)
* po-kill-msgstr, PO Mode command <1>:   Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  73)
* po-kill-ring-save-comment, PO Mode command: Modifying Comments.
                                                              (line  59)
* po-kill-ring-save-msgstr, PO Mode command: Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  73)
* po-last-entry, PO Mode command:        Entry Positioning.   (line  73)
* po-mark-translatable, PO Mode command: Marking.             (line  96)
* po-msgid-to-msgstr, PO Mode command:   Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  51)
* po-next-entry, PO Mode command:        Entry Positioning.   (line  68)
* po-next-fuzzy-entry, PO Mode command:  Fuzzy Entries.       (line  37)
* po-next-obsolete-entry, PO Mode command: Obsolete Entries.  (line  35)
* po-next-translated-entry, PO Mode command: Translated Entries.
                                                              (line  22)
* po-next-untranslated-entry, PO Mode command: Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  34)
* po-normalize, PO Mode command:         Normalizing.         (line  31)
* po-other-window, PO Mode command:      Main PO Commands.    (line  71)
* po-pop-location, PO Mode command:      Entry Positioning.   (line  91)
* po-previous-entry, PO Mode command:    Entry Positioning.   (line  68)
* po-previous-fuzzy-entry, PO Mode command: Fuzzy Entries.    (line  37)
* po-previous-obsolete-entry, PO Mode command: Obsolete Entries.
                                                              (line  35)
* po-previous-translated-entry, PO Mode command: Translated Entries.
                                                              (line  22)
* po-previous-untransted-entry, PO Mode command: Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  34)
* po-push-location, PO Mode command:     Entry Positioning.   (line  91)
* po-quit, PO Mode command:              Main PO Commands.    (line  61)
* po-select-auxiliary, PO Mode command:  Auxiliary.           (line  48)
* po-select-mark-and-mark, PO Mode command: Marking.          (line  96)
* po-select-source-reference, PO Mode command: C Sources Context.
                                                              (line  52)
* po-statistics, PO Mode command:        Main PO Commands.    (line  86)
* po-subedit-abort, PO Mode command:     Subedit.             (line  26)
* po-subedit-cycle-auxiliary, PO Mode command: Subedit.       (line  34)
* po-subedit-exit, PO Mode command:      Subedit.             (line  19)
* po-subedit-mode-hook, PO Mode variable: Modifying Comments. (line  56)
* po-tags-search, PO Mode command:       Marking.             (line  54)
* po-undo, PO Mode command:              Main PO Commands.    (line  52)
* po-unfuzzy, PO Mode command:           Fuzzy Entries.       (line  42)
* po-validate, PO Mode command:          Main PO Commands.    (line  91)
* po-yank-comment, PO Mode command:      Modifying Comments.  (line  59)
* po-yank-msgstr, PO Mode command:       Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  96)
* Q, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  33)
* q, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  36)
* Q, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  61)
* q, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  61)
* r, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  39)
* r, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line  91)
* RET, PO Mode command:                  Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  22)
* RET, PO Mode command <1>:              Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  41)
* s, PO Mode command:                    C Sources Context.   (line  37)
* S, PO Mode command:                    C Sources Context.   (line  45)
* s, PO Mode command <1>:                C Sources Context.   (line  52)
* S, PO Mode command <1>:                C Sources Context.   (line  88)
* starting a string translation:         Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  62)
* string normalization in entries:       Normalizing.         (line  30)
* subedit minor mode:                    Subedit.             (line   6)
* t, PO Mode command:                    Translated Entries.  (line  16)
* T, PO Mode command:                    Translated Entries.  (line  19)
* t, PO Mode command <1>:                Translated Entries.  (line  22)
* T, PO Mode command <1>:                Translated Entries.  (line  22)
* TAB, PO Mode command:                  Fuzzy Entries.       (line  35)
* TAB, PO Mode command <1>:              Fuzzy Entries.       (line  42)
* TAGS, and marking translatable strings: Marking.            (line  30)
* u, PO Mode command:                    Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  25)
* U, PO Mode command:                    Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  28)
* u, PO Mode command <1>:                Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  34)
* U, PO Mode command <1>:                Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line  34)
* use the source, Luke:                  C Sources Context.   (line   6)
* using obsolete translations to make new entries: Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line 122)
* using translation compendia:           Compendium.          (line   6)
* V, PO Mode command:                    Main PO Commands.    (line  50)
* V, PO Mode command <1>:                Main PO Commands.    (line  91)
* w, PO Mode command:                    Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  34)
* w, PO Mode command <1>:                Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  73)
* W, PO Mode command:                    Modifying Comments.  (line  31)
* W, PO Mode command <1>:                Modifying Comments.  (line  59)
* x, PO Mode command:                    Entry Positioning.   (line  42)
* x, PO Mode command <1>:                Entry Positioning.   (line 105)
* y, PO Mode command:                    Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  38)
* y, PO Mode command <1>:                Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line  96)
* Y, PO Mode command:                    Modifying Comments.  (line  35)
* Y, PO Mode command <1>:                Modifying Comments.  (line  59)


File: gettext.info,  Node: Autoconf Macro Index,  Next: Index,  Prev: PO Mode Index,  Up: Top

Autoconf Macro Index
********************

[index]
* Menu:

* AM_GNU_GETTEXT:                        AM_GNU_GETTEXT.        (line 6)
* AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED:                   AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED.   (line 6)
* AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION:                AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION.
                                                                (line 6)
* AM_ICONV:                              AM_ICONV.              (line 6)
* AM_PO_SUBDIRS:                         AM_PO_SUBDIRS.         (line 6)
* AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION:                    AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION.    (line 6)


File: gettext.info,  Node: Index,  Prev: Autoconf Macro Index,  Up: Top

General Index
*************

[index]
* Menu:

* _, a macro to mark strings for translation: Mark Keywords.  (line  45)
* _nl_msg_cat_cntr:                      gettext grok.        (line  59)
* ABOUT-NLS file:                        Installing Localizations.
                                                              (line  13)
* ABOUT-NLS file <1>:                    The original ABOUT-NLS.
                                                              (line   6)
* accumulating translations:             Creating Compendia.  (line  14)
* aclocal.m4 file:                       aclocal.             (line   6)
* adding keywords, xgettext:             xgettext Invocation. (line 209)
* ambiguities:                           Decent English style.
                                                              (line  23)
* ANSI encoding:                         Working in a Windows console.
                                                              (line   6)
* apply a filter to translations:        msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* apply command to all translations in a catalog: msgexec Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* Arabic digits:                         c-format.            (line  34)
* attribute manipulation:                msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* attribute, fuzzy:                      Fuzzy Entries.       (line   6)
* attributes of a PO file entry:         Fuzzy Entries.       (line   6)
* attributes, manipulating:              Manipulating.        (line  56)
* autoconf macros for gettext:           autoconf macros.     (line   6)
* autopoint program, usage:              autopoint Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* auxiliary PO file:                     Auxiliary.           (line  13)
* available translations:                Installing Localizations.
                                                              (line   6)
* awk:                                   gawk.                (line   6)
* awk-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line 106)
* awk, string concatenation:             No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* backup old file, and msgmerge program: msgmerge Invocation. (line  62)
* bash:                                  bash.                (line   6)
* bibliography:                          References.          (line   6)
* big picture:                           Overview.            (line   6)
* bind_textdomain_codeset:               Charset conversion.  (line  26)
* Boost format strings:                  xgettext Invocation. (line 381)
* boost-format flag:                     Sticky flags.        (line 146)
* bug report address:                    Introduction.        (line  24)
* C and C-like languages:                C.                   (line   6)
* C trigraphs:                           xgettext Invocation. (line 367)
* c-format flag:                         Sticky flags.        (line  18)
* c-format, and xgettext:                c-format Flag.       (line  47)
* C#:                                    C#.                  (line   6)
* C# mode, and msgfmt program:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line  36)
* C# mode, and msgunfmt program:         msgunfmt Invocation. (line  19)
* C# resources mode, and msgfmt program: msgfmt Invocation.   (line  40)
* C# resources mode, and msgunfmt program: msgunfmt Invocation.
                                                              (line  23)
* C#, string concatenation:              No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* C#, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* c++-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line  41)
* catalog encoding and msgexec output:   msgexec Invocation.  (line  35)
* catclose, a catgets function:          Interface to catgets.
                                                              (line  44)
* catgets, a catgets function:           Interface to catgets.
                                                              (line  25)
* catgets, X/Open specification:         catgets.             (line   6)
* catopen, a catgets function:           Interface to catgets.
                                                              (line  13)
* character encoding:                    Aspects.             (line  66)
* charset conversion at runtime:         Charset conversion.  (line   6)
* charset of PO files:                   Header Entry.        (line 103)
* check format strings:                  msgfmt Invocation.   (line 244)
* checking of translations:              Manipulating.        (line  41)
* clisp:                                 Common Lisp.         (line   6)
* clisp C sources:                       clisp C.             (line   6)
* codeset:                               Aspects.             (line  66)
* combining two PO files:                Manipulating.        (line  10)
* combining two POT files:               Combining POTs.      (line  12)
* comments in PO files:                  More Details.        (line  53)
* comments, automatic:                   PO File Entries.     (line  31)
* comments, extracted:                   PO File Entries.     (line  31)
* comments, translator:                  PO File Entries.     (line  31)
* Common Lisp:                           Common Lisp.         (line   6)
* compare PO files:                      msgcmp Invocation.   (line   8)
* comparison of interfaces:              Comparison.          (line   6)
* compatibility with X/Open msgfmt:      msgfmt Invocation.   (line 277)
* compendium:                            Compendium.          (line   6)
* compendium, creating:                  Creating Compendia.  (line   6)
* concatenate PO files:                  msgcat Invocation.   (line   8)
* concatenating PO files into a compendium: Creating Compendia.
                                                              (line  14)
* concatenation of strings:              No string concatenation.
                                                              (line   6)
* config.h.in file:                      config.h.in.         (line   6)
* context:                               Contexts.            (line   6)
* context, argument specification in xgettext: xgettext Invocation.
                                                              (line 209)
* context, in MO files:                  MO Files.            (line  71)
* context, in PO files:                  Entries with Context.
                                                              (line   6)
* control characters:                    No unusual markup.   (line   6)
* convert binary message catalog into PO file: msgunfmt Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* convert translations to a different encoding: msgconv Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* converting a package to use gettext:   Prerequisites.       (line   6)
* country codes:                         Country Codes.       (line   6)
* create new PO file:                    msginit Invocation.  (line   8)
* creating a new PO file:                Creating.            (line   6)
* creating compendia:                    Creating Compendia.  (line   6)
* csharp-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line  62)
* currency symbols:                      Aspects.             (line  79)
* D:                                     D.                   (line   6)
* d-format flag:                         Sticky flags.        (line 122)
* D, string concatenation:               No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* D, strings with embedded expressions:  No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* date format:                           Aspects.             (line  85)
* dcngettext:                            Plural forms.        (line 169)
* dcpgettext:                            Contexts.            (line  56)
* dcpgettext_expr:                       Contexts.            (line 112)
* debugging messages marked as format strings: xgettext Invocation.
                                                              (line 385)
* Desktop Entry mode, and msgfmt program: msgfmt Invocation.  (line  49)
* dialect:                               Manipulating.        (line  28)
* disabling NLS:                         lib/gettext.h.       (line   6)
* distribution tarball:                  Release Management.  (line   6)
* dngettext:                             Plural forms.        (line 162)
* dollar substitution:                   envsubst Invocation. (line   8)
* domain ambiguities:                    Ambiguities.         (line   6)
* dpgettext:                             Contexts.            (line  56)
* dpgettext_expr:                        Contexts.            (line 112)
* duplicate elimination:                 Manipulating.        (line  45)
* duplicate removal:                     msguniq Invocation.  (line   8)
* editing comments in PO files:          Modifying Comments.  (line   6)
* Editing PO Files:                      Editing.             (line   6)
* editing translations:                  Modifying Translations.
                                                              (line   6)
* elisp-format flag:                     Sticky flags.        (line  78)
* Emacs Lisp:                            Emacs Lisp.          (line   6)
* Emacs PO Mode:                         PO Mode.             (line   6)
* encoding:                              Aspects.             (line  66)
* encoding conversion:                   Manipulating.        (line  17)
* encoding conversion at runtime:        Charset conversion.  (line   6)
* encoding for your language:            Header Entry.        (line 132)
* encoding in MO files:                  MO Files.            (line  82)
* encoding list:                         Header Entry.        (line 116)
* encoding of PO files:                  Header Entry.        (line 103)
* environment variables:                 envsubst Invocation. (line   8)
* envsubst program, usage:               envsubst Invocation. (line   6)
* eval_gettext function, usage:          eval_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* eval_ngettext function, usage:         eval_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* eval_npgettext function, usage:        eval_npgettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* eval_pgettext function, usage:         eval_pgettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* evolution of packages:                 Overview.            (line 127)
* extracting parts of a PO file into a compendium: Creating Compendia.
                                                              (line  64)
* FDL, GNU Free Documentation License:   GNU FDL.             (line   6)
* fetch-po file:                         po/fetch-po.         (line   6)
* fetch-po target:                       po/fetch-po.         (line  28)
* fetch-po target <1>:                   Release Management.  (line  15)
* file format, .mo:                      MO Files.            (line   6)
* file format, .po:                      PO Files.            (line   6)
* files, .po and .mo:                    Files.               (line   6)
* files, .pot:                           Overview.            (line  67)
* filter messages according to attributes: msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* find common messages:                  msgcomm Invocation.  (line   8)
* flags, sticky:                         Sticky flags.        (line   6)
* flags, workflow:                       Workflow flags.      (line   6)
* force use of fuzzy entries:            msgfmt Invocation.   (line 293)
* format strings:                        c-format Flag.       (line   6)
* formatted output in Shell:             printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* formatted output in Shell <1>:         printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* Free Pascal:                           Pascal.              (line   6)
* function attribute, __format__:        xgettext Invocation. (line 317)
* function attribute, __format_arg__:    xgettext Invocation. (line 331)
* fuzzy entries:                         Fuzzy Entries.       (line   6)
* fuzzy flag:                            Workflow flags.      (line  14)
* gawk:                                  gawk.                (line   6)
* gcc-internal-format flag:              Sticky flags.        (line 166)
* GCC-source:                            GCC-source.          (line   6)
* generate binary message catalog from PO file: msgfmt Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* generate translation catalog in English: msgen Invocation.  (line   8)
* gettext files:                         Adjusting Files.     (line   6)
* gettext installation:                  Installation.        (line   6)
* gettext interface:                     Interface to gettext.
                                                              (line   6)
* gettext program, usage:                gettext Invocation.  (line   6)
* gettext vs catgets:                    Comparison.          (line   6)
* gettext, a programmer's view:          gettext.             (line   6)
* gettext.h file:                        lib/gettext.h.       (line   6)
* gettextize program, usage:             gettextize Invocation.
                                                              (line  34)
* gfc-internal-format flag:              Sticky flags.        (line 170)
* GNOME PO file editor:                  Gtranslator.         (line   6)
* Go:                                    Go.                  (line   6)
* go-format flag:                        Sticky flags.        (line  90)
* Go, string concatenation:              No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* GPL, GNU General Public License:       GNU GPL.             (line   6)
* GUI programs:                          Contexts.            (line   6)
* Guile:                                 Scheme.              (line   6)
* guile:                                 Scheme.              (line   6)
* Guile <1>:                             Scheme.              (line  42)
* hash table, inside MO files:           MO Files.            (line  55)
* he, she, and they:                     Introduction.        (line  15)
* header entry of a PO file:             Header Entry.        (line   6)
* help option:                           Split at paragraphs. (line  14)
* history of GNU gettext:                History.             (line   6)
* i18n:                                  Concepts.            (line   6)
* importing PO files:                    Normalizing.         (line  54)
* include file libintl.h:                Overview.            (line  57)
* include file libintl.h <1>:            Importing.           (line  11)
* include file libintl.h <2>:            Comparison.          (line  33)
* include file libintl.h <3>:            lib/gettext.h.       (line  28)
* initialization:                        Triggering.          (line   6)
* initialize new PO file:                msginit Invocation.  (line   8)
* initialize translations from a compendium: Using Compendia. (line  12)
* installing gettext:                    Installation.        (line   6)
* interface to catgets:                  Interface to catgets.
                                                              (line   6)
* internationalization:                  Concepts.            (line  16)
* inttypes.h:                            No string concatenation.
                                                              (line 152)
* inttypes.h <1>:                        c-format.            (line  26)
* inttypes.h <2>:                        objc-format.         (line  10)
* ISO 3166:                              Country Codes.       (line   6)
* ISO 639:                               Language Codes.      (line   6)
* Java:                                  Java.                (line   6)
* Java mode, and msgfmt program:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line  30)
* Java mode, and msgunfmt program:       msgunfmt Invocation. (line  16)
* java-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line  53)
* java-printf-format flag:               Sticky flags.        (line  58)
* Java, string concatenation:            No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* javascript-format flag:                Sticky flags.        (line  66)
* JavaScript, string concatenation:      No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* JavaScript, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* KDE format strings:                    xgettext Invocation. (line 377)
* KDE PO file editor:                    Lokalize.            (line   6)
* kde-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line 142)
* keyboard accelerator checking:         msgfmt Invocation.   (line 281)
* l10n:                                  Concepts.            (line   6)
* language codes:                        Language Codes.      (line   6)
* language selection:                    Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line   6)
* language selection at runtime:         gettext grok.        (line  14)
* large package:                         Ambiguities.         (line   6)
* LGPL, GNU Lesser General Public License: GNU LGPL.          (line   6)
* libiconv library:                      AM_ICONV.            (line  20)
* libintl for C#:                        C#.                  (line 180)
* libintl for Java:                      Java.                (line 109)
* libintl library:                       AM_GNU_GETTEXT.      (line  43)
* LibreOffice:                           Data Formats.        (line  13)
* librep Lisp:                           librep.              (line   6)
* librep-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line  82)
* License, GNU FDL:                      GNU FDL.             (line   6)
* License, GNU GPL:                      GNU GPL.             (line   6)
* License, GNU LGPL:                     GNU LGPL.            (line   6)
* Licenses:                              Licenses.            (line   6)
* LINGUAS file:                          po/LINGUAS.          (line   6)
* link with libintl:                     Overview.            (line  62)
* Linux:                                 Aspects.             (line 128)
* Linux <1>:                             Overview.            (line  62)
* Linux <2>:                             Header Entry.        (line 129)
* Lisp:                                  Common Lisp.         (line   6)
* lisp-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line  74)
* list of translation teams, where to find: Header Entry.     (line  54)
* locale categories:                     Aspects.             (line  60)
* locale categories <1>:                 Aspects.             (line 117)
* locale category, LC_ALL:               Triggering.          (line  23)
* locale category, LC_COLLATE:           Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale category, LC_CTYPE:             Aspects.             (line  66)
* locale category, LC_CTYPE <1>:         Triggering.          (line  23)
* locale category, LC_CTYPE <2>:         Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale category, LC_MESSAGES:          Aspects.             (line 111)
* locale category, LC_MESSAGES <1>:      Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale category, LC_MONETARY:          Aspects.             (line  79)
* locale category, LC_MONETARY <1>:      Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale category, LC_NUMERIC:           Aspects.             (line  96)
* locale category, LC_NUMERIC <1>:       Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale category, LC_RESPONSES:         Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale category, LC_TIME:              Aspects.             (line  85)
* locale category, LC_TIME <1>:          Triggering.          (line  52)
* locale program:                        Header Entry.        (line 109)
* localization:                          Concepts.            (line  26)
* lookup format string translation:      printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* lookup format string translation with plural: printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* lookup message translation:            gettext Invocation.  (line   9)
* lookup message translation <1>:        eval_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* lookup message translation with context: eval_pgettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* lookup plural message translation:     ngettext Invocation. (line   8)
* lookup plural message translation <1>: eval_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* lookup plural message translation with context: eval_npgettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* lua-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line 110)
* Lua, string concatenation:             No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* Machine translation:                   Pretranslating.      (line   6)
* magic signature of MO files:           MO Files.            (line   9)
* Makefile.in.in extensions:             po/Rules-*.          (line   6)
* Makevars file:                         po/Makevars.         (line   6)
* manipulating PO files:                 Manipulating.        (line   6)
* marking Perl sources:                  Perl.                (line  97)
* marking string initializers:           Special cases.       (line   6)
* marking strings that require translation: Mark Keywords.    (line   6)
* marking strings, preparations:         Preparing Strings.   (line   6)
* marking translatable strings:          Overview.            (line  34)
* markup:                                No unusual markup.   (line   6)
* menu entries:                          Contexts.            (line   6)
* menu, keyboard accelerator support:    msgfmt Invocation.   (line 281)
* merge PO files:                        msgcat Invocation.   (line   8)
* merging two PO files:                  Manipulating.        (line  10)
* merging two POT files:                 Combining POTs.      (line  12)
* message catalog files location:        Locating Catalogs.   (line   6)
* messages:                              Aspects.             (line 111)
* migration from earlier versions of gettext: Prerequisites.  (line   6)
* mkinstalldirs file:                    mkinstalldirs.       (line   6)
* mnemonics of menu entries:             msgfmt Invocation.   (line 281)
* MO file's format:                      MO Files.            (line   6)
* modify message attributes:             msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line  59)
* Modula-2:                              Modula-2.            (line   6)
* Modula-2, string concatenation:        No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* modula2-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line 118)
* msgattrib program, usage:              msgattrib Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* msgcat program, usage:                 msgcat Invocation.   (line   6)
* msgcmp program, usage:                 msgcmp Invocation.   (line   6)
* msgcomm program, usage:                msgcomm Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgconv program, usage:                msgconv Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgctxt:                               Entries with Context.
                                                              (line   6)
* msgen program, usage:                  msgen Invocation.    (line   6)
* msgexec program, usage:                msgexec Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgfilter filter and catalog encoding: msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  62)
* msgfilter program, usage:              msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* msgfmt program, usage:                 msgfmt Invocation.   (line   6)
* msggrep program, usage:                msggrep Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgid:                                 PO File Entries.     (line  55)
* msgid_plural:                          Entries with Plural Forms.
                                                              (line   6)
* msginit program, usage:                msginit Invocation.  (line   6)
* msgmerge program, usage:               msgmerge Invocation. (line   6)
* msgpre program, usage:                 msgpre Invocation.   (line   6)
* msgstr:                                PO File Entries.     (line  55)
* msgunfmt program, usage:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line   6)
* msguniq program, usage:                msguniq Invocation.  (line   6)
* multi-line strings:                    Normalizing.         (line  64)
* N_, a convenience macro:               Comparison.          (line  41)
* Native Language Support:               Concepts.            (line  51)
* Natural Language Support:              Concepts.            (line  51)
* newlines in PO files:                  More Details.        (line  48)
* ngettext:                              Plural forms.        (line  82)
* ngettext program, usage:               ngettext Invocation. (line   6)
* NLS:                                   Concepts.            (line  51)
* no-awk-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line 107)
* no-boost-format flag:                  Sticky flags.        (line 147)
* no-c-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line  19)
* no-c-format, and xgettext:             c-format Flag.       (line  47)
* no-c++-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line  42)
* no-csharp-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line  63)
* no-d-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line 123)
* no-elisp-format flag:                  Sticky flags.        (line  79)
* no-gcc-internal-format flag:           Sticky flags.        (line 167)
* no-gfc-internal-format flag:           Sticky flags.        (line 171)
* no-go-format flag:                     Sticky flags.        (line  91)
* no-java-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line  54)
* no-java-printf-format flag:            Sticky flags.        (line  59)
* no-javascript-format flag:             Sticky flags.        (line  67)
* no-kde-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line 143)
* no-librep-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line  83)
* no-lisp-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line  75)
* no-lua-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line 111)
* no-modula2-format flag:                Sticky flags.        (line 119)
* no-objc-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line  38)
* no-object-pascal-format flag:          Sticky flags.        (line 115)
* no-ocaml-format flag:                  Sticky flags.        (line 127)
* no-perl-brace-format flag:             Sticky flags.        (line 159)
* no-perl-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line 155)
* no-php-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line 163)
* no-python-brace-format flag:           Sticky flags.        (line  50)
* no-python-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line  46)
* no-qt-format flag:                     Sticky flags.        (line 135)
* no-qt-plural-format flag:              Sticky flags.        (line 139)
* no-ruby-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line  95)
* no-rust-format flag:                   Sticky flags.        (line  87)
* no-scheme-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line  71)
* no-sh-format flag:                     Sticky flags.        (line  99)
* no-sh-printf-format flag:              Sticky flags.        (line 103)
* no-smalltalk-format flag:              Sticky flags.        (line 131)
* no-tcl-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line 151)
* no-wrap flag:                          Sticky flags.        (line 181)
* no-ycp-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line 176)
* nplurals, in a PO file header:         Plural forms.        (line 188)
* number format:                         Aspects.             (line  96)
* objc-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line  37)
* Object Pascal:                         Pascal.              (line   6)
* object-pascal-format flag:             Sticky flags.        (line 114)
* obsolete entries:                      Obsolete Entries.    (line   6)
* OCaml:                                 OCaml.               (line   6)
* ocaml-format flag:                     Sticky flags.        (line 126)
* OCaml, string concatenation:           No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* OEM encoding:                          Working in a Windows console.
                                                              (line   6)
* ollama:                                Installing an LLM.   (line  19)
* OpenDocument files:                    Data Formats.        (line  13)
* optimization of gettext functions:     Optimized gettext.   (line   6)
* orthography:                           Manipulating.        (line  28)
* outdigits:                             c-format.            (line  34)
* output to stdout, xgettext:            xgettext Invocation. (line  49)
* overview of gettext:                   Overview.            (line   6)
* package and version declaration in configure.ac: configure.ac.
                                                              (line   9)
* package build and installation options: Installers.         (line   6)
* package distributor's view of gettext: Installers.          (line   6)
* package installer's view of gettext:   Installers.          (line   6)
* package maintainer's view of gettext:  Maintainers.         (line   6)
* paragraphs:                            Split at paragraphs. (line   6)
* Pascal:                                Pascal.              (line   6)
* Perl:                                  Perl.                (line   6)
* Perl default keywords:                 Default Keywords.    (line   6)
* Perl long lines:                       Long Lines.          (line   6)
* Perl parentheses:                      Parentheses.         (line   6)
* Perl pitfalls:                         Perl Pitfalls.       (line   6)
* Perl quote-like expressions:           Quote-like Expressions.
                                                              (line   6)
* Perl special keywords for hash-lookups: Special Keywords.   (line   6)
* Perl unsupported string interpolation: Interpolation I.     (line   6)
* Perl valid string interpolation:       Interpolation II.    (line   6)
* perl-brace-format flag:                Sticky flags.        (line 158)
* perl-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line 154)
* Perl, string concatenation:            No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* Perl, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* pgettext:                              Contexts.            (line  33)
* pgettext_expr:                         Contexts.            (line 112)
* PHP:                                   PHP.                 (line   6)
* php-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line 162)
* PHP, string concatenation:             No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* PHP, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* Pike:                                  Pike.                (line   6)
* plural form formulas:                  Plural forms.        (line 208)
* plural forms:                          Plural forms.        (line   6)
* plural forms, in MO files:             MO Files.            (line  74)
* plural forms, in PO files:             Entries with Plural Forms.
                                                              (line   6)
* plural forms, translating:             Translating plural forms.
                                                              (line   6)
* plural, in a PO file header:           Plural forms.        (line 188)
* PO files' format:                      PO Files.            (line   6)
* PO mode (Emacs) commands:              Main PO Commands.    (line   6)
* PO template file:                      Template.            (line   6)
* po_file_check_all:                     Checking API.        (line   6)
* po_file_create:                        po_file_t API.       (line  10)
* po_file_domain_header:                 PO Header Entry API. (line  11)
* po_file_domains:                       po_file_t API.       (line  41)
* po_file_free:                          po_file_t API.       (line  36)
* po_file_read:                          po_file_t API.       (line  14)
* po_file_write:                         po_file_t API.       (line  25)
* po_flag_iterator_free:                 po_flag_iterator_t API.
                                                              (line  10)
* po_flag_next:                          po_flag_iterator_t API.
                                                              (line  13)
* po_format_list:                        Format Type API.     (line   6)
* po_format_pretty_name:                 Format Type API.     (line   9)
* po_header_field:                       PO Header Entry API. (line  17)
* po_header_set_field:                   PO Header Entry API. (line  23)
* po_message_add_filepos:                po_filepos_t API.    (line  23)
* po_message_check_all:                  Checking API.        (line  11)
* po_message_check_format:               Checking API.        (line  18)
* po_message_comments:                   po_message_t API.    (line  78)
* po_message_create:                     po_message_t API.    (line  10)
* po_message_extracted_comments:         po_message_t API.    (line  89)
* po_message_filepos:                    po_filepos_t API.    (line  13)
* po_message_get_format:                 po_message_t API.    (line 190)
* po_message_has_sticky_flag:            po_message_t API.    (line 206)
* po_message_has_workflow_flag:          po_message_t API.    (line 159)
* po_message_is_format:                  po_message_t API.    (line 185)
* po_message_is_fuzzy:                   po_message_t API.    (line 150)
* po_message_is_obsolete:                po_message_t API.    (line 141)
* po_message_is_range:                   po_message_t API.    (line 239)
* po_message_iterator:                   po_message_iterator_t API.
                                                              (line  10)
* po_message_iterator_free:              po_message_iterator_t API.
                                                              (line  17)
* po_message_msgctxt:                    po_message_t API.    (line  19)
* po_message_msgid:                      po_message_t API.    (line  30)
* po_message_msgid_plural:               po_message_t API.    (line  40)
* po_message_msgstr:                     po_message_t API.    (line  53)
* po_message_msgstr_plural:              po_message_t API.    (line  64)
* po_message_prev_msgctxt:               po_message_t API.    (line 101)
* po_message_prev_msgid:                 po_message_t API.    (line 114)
* po_message_prev_msgid_plural:          po_message_t API.    (line 126)
* po_message_remove_filepos:             po_filepos_t API.    (line  18)
* po_message_set_comments:               po_message_t API.    (line  83)
* po_message_set_extracted_comments:     po_message_t API.    (line  95)
* po_message_set_format:                 po_message_t API.    (line 198)
* po_message_set_fuzzy:                  po_message_t API.    (line 154)
* po_message_set_msgctxt:                po_message_t API.    (line  24)
* po_message_set_msgid:                  po_message_t API.    (line  34)
* po_message_set_msgid_plural:           po_message_t API.    (line  46)
* po_message_set_msgstr:                 po_message_t API.    (line  58)
* po_message_set_msgstr_plural:          po_message_t API.    (line  70)
* po_message_set_obsolete:               po_message_t API.    (line 145)
* po_message_set_prev_msgctxt:           po_message_t API.    (line 107)
* po_message_set_prev_msgid:             po_message_t API.    (line 119)
* po_message_set_prev_msgid_plural:      po_message_t API.    (line 133)
* po_message_set_range:                  po_message_t API.    (line 245)
* po_message_set_sticky_flag:            po_message_t API.    (line 214)
* po_message_set_workflow_flag:          po_message_t API.    (line 167)
* po_message_sticky_flags_iterator:      po_message_t API.    (line 228)
* po_message_workflow_flags_iterator:    po_message_t API.    (line 176)
* po_next_message:                       po_message_iterator_t API.
                                                              (line  22)
* po-fetch program, usage:               po-fetch Invocation. (line   6)
* Pology:                                Other tools.         (line   9)
* portability problems with sed:         msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line  73)
* POTFILES.in file:                      po/POTFILES.in.      (line   6)
* preparing for translating a PO file:   Creating.            (line   6)
* preparing programs for translation:    Sources.             (line   6)
* preparing rules for XML translation:   Preparing ITS Rules. (line   6)
* preparing shell scripts for translation: Preparing for gettext.sh.
                                                              (line   6)
* preparing shell scripts for translation <1>: Preparing for printf.
                                                              (line   6)
* preparing shell scripts for translation <2>: Preparing for printf_gettext.
                                                              (line   6)
* pretranslate a message catalog:        msgpre Invocation.   (line   8)
* Pretranslating PO Files:               Pretranslating.      (line   6)
* printf_gettext program, usage:         printf_gettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* printf_ngettext program, usage:        printf_ngettext Invocation.
                                                              (line   6)
* problems with catgets interface:       Problems with catgets.
                                                              (line   6)
* programming languages:                 Language Implementors.
                                                              (line   6)
* Python:                                Python.              (line   6)
* python-brace-format flag:              Sticky flags.        (line  49)
* python-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line  45)
* Python, string concatenation:          No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* Python, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* Qt format strings:                     xgettext Invocation. (line 373)
* Qt mode, and msgfmt program:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line  46)
* qt-format flag:                        Sticky flags.        (line 134)
* qt-plural-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line 138)
* query a Large Language Model:          spit Invocation.     (line   8)
* quotation marks:                       Header Entry.        (line 162)
* quotation marks <1>:                   po/Rules-*.          (line  11)
* quote characters, use in PO files:     Header Entry.        (line 162)
* range: flag:                           Entries with Plural Forms.
                                                              (line  37)
* recode-sr-latin program:               msgfilter Invocation.
                                                              (line 101)
* related reading:                       References.          (line   6)
* release:                               Release Management.  (line   6)
* RSJ:                                   RST.                 (line   6)
* RST:                                   RST.                 (line   6)
* Ruby:                                  Ruby.                (line   6)
* ruby-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line  94)
* Ruby, string concatenation:            No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* Ruby, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* Rust:                                  Rust.                (line   6)
* rust-format flag:                      Sticky flags.        (line  86)
* Scheme:                                Scheme.              (line   6)
* Scheme <1>:                            Scheme.              (line  42)
* scheme-format flag:                    Sticky flags.        (line  70)
* scripting languages:                   Language Implementors.
                                                              (line   6)
* search messages in a catalog:          msggrep Invocation.  (line   8)
* selecting message language:            Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line   6)
* sentence end markers, xgettext:        xgettext Invocation. (line 183)
* sentences:                             Entire sentences.    (line   6)
* setting up gettext at build time:      Installers.          (line   6)
* setting up gettext at run time:        Locale Environment Variables.
                                                              (line   6)
* several domains:                       Ambiguities.         (line   6)
* sex:                                   Introduction.        (line  15)
* sh-format flag:                        Sticky flags.        (line  98)
* sh-printf-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line 102)
* she, he, and they:                     Introduction.        (line  15)
* shell format string:                   envsubst Invocation. (line   8)
* shell scripts:                         sh.                  (line   6)
* Shell, string concatenation:           No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* Shell, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* Smalltalk:                             Smalltalk.           (line   6)
* smalltalk-format flag:                 Sticky flags.        (line 130)
* Smalltalk, string concatenation:       No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* sorting msgcat output:                 msgcat Invocation.   (line 156)
* sorting msgmerge output:               msgmerge Invocation. (line 195)
* sorting msgunfmt output:               msgunfmt Invocation. (line 147)
* sorting output of xgettext:            xgettext Invocation. (line 487)
* specifying plural form in a PO file:   Plural forms.        (line 188)
* spit program, usage:                   spit Invocation.     (line   6)
* standard output, and msgcat:           msgcat Invocation.   (line  48)
* standard output, and msgmerge program: msgmerge Invocation. (line  53)
* sticky flags:                          Sticky flags.        (line   6)
* string concatenation:                  No string concatenation.
                                                              (line   6)
* string normalization in entries:       Normalizing.         (line   6)
* style:                                 Decent English style.
                                                              (line   6)
* supported languages, msgfmt:           msgfmt Invocation.   (line 180)
* supported languages, xgettext:         xgettext Invocation. (line  57)
* supported syntax checks, xgettext:     xgettext Invocation. (line 128)
* Tcl:                                   Tcl.                 (line   6)
* Tcl mode, and msgfmt program:          msgfmt Invocation.   (line  43)
* Tcl mode, and msgunfmt program:        msgunfmt Invocation. (line  26)
* tcl-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line 150)
* Tcl, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* template PO file:                      Overview.            (line  67)
* testing .po files for equivalence:     xgettext Invocation. (line 500)
* Tk's scripting language:               Tcl.                 (line   6)
* translate through a Large Language Model: msgpre Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* translate through a Large Language Model <1>: spit Invocation.
                                                              (line   8)
* Translate Toolkit:                     Other tools.         (line  24)
* Translate Toolkit <1>:                 Data Formats.        (line  25)
* translated entries:                    Translated Entries.  (line   6)
* translating menu entries:              Contexts.            (line   6)
* translation aspects:                   Aspects.             (line   6)
* Translation Matrix:                    Installing Localizations.
                                                              (line   6)
* Translation Project:                   Why.                 (line  17)
* translation project:                   Interfacing with the Translators.
                                                              (line   9)
* turning off NLS support:               lib/gettext.h.       (line   6)
* tutorial of gettext usage:             Overview.            (line   6)
* TypeScript, string concatenation:      No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* TypeScript, strings with embedded expressions: No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  79)
* unify duplicate translations:          msguniq Invocation.  (line   8)
* untranslated entries:                  Untranslated Entries.
                                                              (line   6)
* update translations from a compendium: Using Compendia.     (line  20)
* update-po target:                      Release Management.  (line  27)
* upgrading to new versions of gettext:  Prerequisites.       (line   6)
* Vala, string concatenation:            No string concatenation.
                                                              (line  29)
* version control for backup files, msgmerge: msgmerge Invocation.
                                                              (line  67)
* weblate:                               Web based localization.
                                                              (line   6)
* Windows:                               Working in a Windows console.
                                                              (line   6)
* workflow flags:                        Workflow flags.      (line   6)
* wxWidgets library:                     wxWidgets.           (line   6)
* xargs, and output from msgexec:        msgexec Invocation.  (line  14)
* xerror:                                Error Handling.      (line  15)
* xerror2:                               Error Handling.      (line  37)
* xgettext program, usage:               xgettext Invocation. (line   6)
* XML mode, and msgfmt program:          msgfmt Invocation.   (line  52)
* xmodmap program, and typing quotation marks: Header Entry.  (line 174)
* YaST2 scripting language:              YCP.                 (line   6)
* YCP:                                   YCP.                 (line   6)
* ycp-format flag:                       Sticky flags.        (line 175)



Tag Table:
Node: Top3209
Node: Introduction22019
Node: Why23734
Ref: Why-Footnote-126967
Node: Concepts27123
Node: Aspects30572
Node: Files37170
Node: Overview39118
Node: Users50142
Node: System Installation51130
Node: Setting the GUI Locale52806
Node: Setting the POSIX Locale54194
Node: Locale Names55179
Node: Locale Environment Variables58047
Node: The LANGUAGE variable60388
Node: Working in a Windows console62986
Node: Installing Localizations64621
Node: PO Files65909
Node: PO File Entries66666
Node: Workflow flags70711
Node: Sticky flags71716
Node: Entries with Context77225
Node: Entries with Plural Forms78070
Node: More Details79543
Ref: More Details-Footnote-183269
Node: PO File Format Evolution83404
Node: Sources85715
Node: Importing87019
Node: Triggering87707
Node: Preparing Strings91110
Node: Decent English style92192
Node: Entire sentences93047
Node: Split at paragraphs95933
Node: No string concatenation96994
Node: No embedded URLs104646
Node: No custom format directives105476
Node: No unusual markup107256
Node: Mark Keywords108711
Node: Marking113587
Node: Translator advice121548
Node: c-format Flag123460
Node: Special cases127660
Node: Bug Report Address130444
Node: Names132413
Node: Libraries136712
Node: Template140097
Node: xgettext Invocation140918
Node: Combining POTs167180
Node: Creating169189
Node: msginit Invocation170710
Node: Header Entry175407
Node: Updating184804
Node: msgmerge Invocation185030
Node: Pretranslating191872
Node: Installing an LLM192619
Node: msgpre Invocation195212
Node: spit Invocation201052
Node: Editing203944
Node: Web based localization204915
Node: Lokalize206620
Node: Gtranslator206967
Node: Poedit207319
Node: OmegaT207642
Node: Virtaal208341
Node: PO Mode208862
Node: Installation210509
Node: Main PO Commands212509
Node: Entry Positioning217781
Node: Normalizing223426
Node: Translated Entries227983
Node: Fuzzy Entries229392
Node: Untranslated Entries232703
Node: Obsolete Entries234706
Node: Modifying Translations238009
Node: Modifying Comments246151
Node: Subedit250698
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Node: Auxiliary259943
Node: Vim263267
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Node: Creating Compendia264547
Node: Using Compendia267076
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Node: msgconv Invocation277499
Node: msggrep Invocation281492
Node: msgfilter Invocation288919
Node: msguniq Invocation297263
Node: msgcomm Invocation302005
Node: msgcmp Invocation307034
Node: msgattrib Invocation309285
Node: msgen Invocation315024
Node: msgexec Invocation319433
Node: Colorizing322747
Node: The --color option323929
Node: The TERM variable325797
Node: The --style option327351
Node: Style rules328729
Node: Customizing less335731
Node: Other tools337188
Node: libgettextpo338210
Node: Error Handling341488
Node: po_file_t API343473
Node: po_message_iterator_t API345689
Node: po_message_t API346912
Node: PO Header Entry API359210
Node: po_filepos_t API360443
Node: Format Type API361599
Node: po_flag_iterator_t API362188
Node: Checking API362935
Node: Binaries364165
Node: msgfmt Invocation364517
Node: msgunfmt Invocation376791
Node: MO Files381465
Node: Programmers390472
Node: catgets391672
Node: Interface to catgets393078
Node: Problems with catgets395129
Node: gettext396051
Node: Interface to gettext397574
Node: Ambiguities399924
Node: Locating Catalogs402989
Ref: Locating Catalogs-Footnote-1404253
Ref: Locating Catalogs-Footnote-2404483
Node: Charset conversion404636
Node: Contexts407154
Node: Plural forms412756
Ref: Plural forms-Footnote-1430085
Node: Optimized gettext430453
Node: Comparison431804
Node: Using libintl.a436169
Node: gettext grok436624
Node: Temp Programmers439327
Node: Temp Implementations439859
Node: Temp catgets441246
Node: Temp WSI442967
Node: Temp Notes445022
Node: Translators445536
Node: Organization446018
Node: Responsibilities447123
Node: Dialects449347
Node: Translating plural forms451108
Node: Prioritizing messages454533
Node: Maintainers458910
Node: Flat and Non-Flat460914
Node: Prerequisites462428
Node: gettextize Invocation466579
Node: Adjusting Files473238
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Node: po/fetch-po476354
Node: po/LINGUAS477899
Node: po/Makevars479833
Node: po/Rules-*480822
Node: configure.ac482377
Node: config.guess484178
Node: mkinstalldirs485552
Node: aclocal485899
Node: config.h.in488097
Node: Makefile488866
Node: src/Makefile491157
Node: lib/gettext.h495388
Node: autoconf macros497653
Node: AM_GNU_GETTEXT498743
Node: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION502961
Node: AM_GNU_GETTEXT_NEED503440
Node: AM_PO_SUBDIRS504356
Node: AM_XGETTEXT_OPTION505188
Node: AM_ICONV506099
Node: Interfacing with the Translators508476
Node: Version Control Issues510035
Node: Distributed Development510962
Node: Files under Version Control512964
Node: PO Template File under Version Control?516453
Node: Translations under Version Control?517064
Node: autopoint Invocation519681
Node: po-fetch Invocation522076
Node: Release Management523400
Node: Installers524344
Node: Programming Languages526312
Node: Language Implementors527087
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Node: Translators for other Languages533645
Node: c-format535866
Node: objc-format537979
Node: c++-format538481
Node: python-format539045
Node: java-format539822
Node: csharp-format540737
Node: javascript-format541124
Node: scheme-format541917
Node: lisp-format542195
Node: elisp-format542555
Node: librep-format543051
Node: rust-format543454
Node: go-format544759
Node: ruby-format545044
Node: sh-format545816
Node: awk-format548244
Node: lua-format548559
Node: object-pascal-format548900
Node: modula2-format549291
Node: d-format550353
Node: ocaml-format550663
Node: smalltalk-format551201
Node: qt-format551732
Node: qt-plural-format552175
Node: kde-format552534
Node: kde-kuit-format552966
Node: boost-format553608
Node: tcl-format554201
Node: perl-format554505
Node: php-format555300
Node: gcc-internal-format555676
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Node: C561523
Node: Python563302
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Node: JavaScript582259
Node: TypeScript583441
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Node: Common Lisp586017
Node: clisp C586893
Node: Emacs Lisp587676
Node: librep588482
Node: Rust589292
Node: Go591598
Node: Ruby596652
Node: sh597589
Node: sh - Three approaches599861
Node: The gettext.sh approach600451
Node: The printf approach602165
Node: The printf_gettext approach603949
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Node: Preparing for printf608620
Node: Preparing for printf_gettext611918
Node: gettext Invocation615176
Node: ngettext Invocation617644
Node: printf_gettext Invocation619698
Node: printf_ngettext Invocation622830
Node: envsubst Invocation626210
Node: eval_gettext Invocation627700
Node: eval_ngettext Invocation628169
Node: eval_pgettext Invocation628724
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Node: bash629850
Node: gawk631889
Node: Lua633018
Node: Pascal634353
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Node: D636749
Node: OCaml638466
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Node: Vala641162
Node: wxWidgets642125
Node: Tcl643147
Node: Perl644663
Node: General Problems648076
Node: Default Keywords653726
Node: Special Keywords655597
Node: Quote-like Expressions657155
Node: Interpolation I659472
Node: Interpolation II663432
Node: Parentheses665825
Node: Long Lines667350
Node: Perl Pitfalls669217
Node: PHP673515
Node: Pike674537
Node: GCC-source675275
Node: YCP676120
Node: Data Formats676909
Node: Internationalizable Data678334
Node: POT679034
Node: RST679309
Node: Glade679819
Node: GSettings680288
Node: AppData680640
Node: Preparing ITS Rules681249
Node: ITS Rules681585
Node: Locating Rules686711
Ref: Locating Rules-Footnote-1689810
Node: Localized Data690142
Node: Editable Message Catalogs690626
Node: PO691230
Node: Java .properties691411
Node: GNUstep .strings691617
Node: Compiled Message Catalogs691827
Node: MO692457
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Node: C# Satellite Assembly693036
Node: C# Resource693316
Node: Tcl message catalog693582
Node: Qt message catalog693909
Node: Desktop Entry694192
Node: Icons694859
Node: XML696443
Node: Conclusion696668
Node: History697229
Node: The original ABOUT-NLS701611
Node: INSTALL Matters703033
Node: Using This Package705003
Node: Translating Teams708273
Node: Available Packages709788
Node: Using gettext in own code781396
Node: References782521
Node: Language Codes784233
Node: Usual Language Codes784748
Node: Rare Language Codes789788
Node: Country Codes791638
Node: Licenses798794
Node: GNU GPL800650
Node: GNU LGPL819794
Node: GNU FDL847823
Node: Program Index872928
Node: Option Index875840
Node: Variable Index934867
Node: PO Mode Index939955
Node: Autoconf Macro Index956653
Node: Index957318

End Tag Table


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