1<HTML> 2<HEAD> 3<!-- This HTML file has been created by texi2html 1.52b 4 from gettext.texi on 29 December 2011 --> 5 6<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> 7<TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - 6 Creating a New PO File</TITLE> 8</HEAD> 9<BODY> 10Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_5.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_7.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_25.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>. 11<P><HR><P> 12 13 14<H1><A NAME="SEC37" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC37">6 Creating a New PO File</A></H1> 15<P> 16<A NAME="IDX231"></A> 17 18</P> 19<P> 20When starting a new translation, the translator creates a file called 21<TT>‘<VAR>LANG</VAR>.po’</TT>, as a copy of the <TT>‘<VAR>package</VAR>.pot’</TT> template 22file with modifications in the initial comments (at the beginning of the file) 23and in the header entry (the first entry, near the beginning of the file). 24 25</P> 26<P> 27The easiest way to do so is by use of the <SAMP>‘msginit’</SAMP> program. 28For example: 29 30</P> 31 32<PRE> 33$ cd <VAR>PACKAGE</VAR>-<VAR>VERSION</VAR> 34$ cd po 35$ msginit 36</PRE> 37 38<P> 39The alternative way is to do the copy and modifications by hand. 40To do so, the translator copies <TT>‘<VAR>package</VAR>.pot’</TT> to 41<TT>‘<VAR>LANG</VAR>.po’</TT>. Then she modifies the initial comments and 42the header entry of this file. 43 44</P> 45 46 47 48<H2><A NAME="SEC38" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC38">6.1 Invoking the <CODE>msginit</CODE> Program</A></H2> 49 50<P> 51<A NAME="IDX232"></A> 52<A NAME="IDX233"></A> 53 54<PRE> 55msginit [<VAR>option</VAR>] 56</PRE> 57 58<P> 59<A NAME="IDX234"></A> 60<A NAME="IDX235"></A> 61The <CODE>msginit</CODE> program creates a new PO file, initializing the meta 62information with values from the user's environment. 63 64</P> 65 66 67<H3><A NAME="SEC39" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC39">6.1.1 Input file location</A></H3> 68 69<DL COMPACT> 70 71<DT><SAMP>‘-i <VAR>inputfile</VAR>’</SAMP> 72<DD> 73<DT><SAMP>‘--input=<VAR>inputfile</VAR>’</SAMP> 74<DD> 75<A NAME="IDX236"></A> 76<A NAME="IDX237"></A> 77Input POT file. 78 79</DL> 80 81<P> 82If no <VAR>inputfile</VAR> is given, the current directory is searched for the 83POT file. If it is <SAMP>‘-’</SAMP>, standard input is read. 84 85</P> 86 87 88<H3><A NAME="SEC40" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC40">6.1.2 Output file location</A></H3> 89 90<DL COMPACT> 91 92<DT><SAMP>‘-o <VAR>file</VAR>’</SAMP> 93<DD> 94<DT><SAMP>‘--output-file=<VAR>file</VAR>’</SAMP> 95<DD> 96<A NAME="IDX238"></A> 97<A NAME="IDX239"></A> 98Write output to specified PO file. 99 100</DL> 101 102<P> 103If no output file is given, it depends on the <SAMP>‘--locale’</SAMP> option or the 104user's locale setting. If it is <SAMP>‘-’</SAMP>, the results are written to 105standard output. 106 107</P> 108 109 110<H3><A NAME="SEC41" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC41">6.1.3 Input file syntax</A></H3> 111 112<DL COMPACT> 113 114<DT><SAMP>‘-P’</SAMP> 115<DD> 116<DT><SAMP>‘--properties-input’</SAMP> 117<DD> 118<A NAME="IDX240"></A> 119<A NAME="IDX241"></A> 120Assume the input file is a Java ResourceBundle in Java <CODE>.properties</CODE> 121syntax, not in PO file syntax. 122 123<DT><SAMP>‘--stringtable-input’</SAMP> 124<DD> 125<A NAME="IDX242"></A> 126Assume the input file is a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in 127<CODE>.strings</CODE> syntax, not in PO file syntax. 128 129</DL> 130 131 132 133<H3><A NAME="SEC42" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC42">6.1.4 Output details</A></H3> 134 135<DL COMPACT> 136 137<DT><SAMP>‘-l <VAR>ll_CC</VAR>’</SAMP> 138<DD> 139<DT><SAMP>‘--locale=<VAR>ll_CC</VAR>’</SAMP> 140<DD> 141<A NAME="IDX243"></A> 142<A NAME="IDX244"></A> 143Set target locale. <VAR>ll</VAR> should be a language code, and <VAR>CC</VAR> should 144be a country code. The command <SAMP>‘locale -a’</SAMP> can be used to output a list 145of all installed locales. The default is the user's locale setting. 146 147<DT><SAMP>‘--no-translator’</SAMP> 148<DD> 149<A NAME="IDX245"></A> 150Declares that the PO file will not have a human translator and is instead 151automatically generated. 152 153<DT><SAMP>‘-p’</SAMP> 154<DD> 155<DT><SAMP>‘--properties-output’</SAMP> 156<DD> 157<A NAME="IDX246"></A> 158<A NAME="IDX247"></A> 159Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java <CODE>.properties</CODE> syntax. Note 160that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently drops 161obsolete messages. 162 163<DT><SAMP>‘--stringtable-output’</SAMP> 164<DD> 165<A NAME="IDX248"></A> 166Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in <CODE>.strings</CODE> syntax. 167Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms. 168 169<DT><SAMP>‘-w <VAR>number</VAR>’</SAMP> 170<DD> 171<DT><SAMP>‘--width=<VAR>number</VAR>’</SAMP> 172<DD> 173<A NAME="IDX249"></A> 174<A NAME="IDX250"></A> 175Set the output page width. Long strings in the output files will be 176split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's width 177(= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given <VAR>number</VAR>. 178 179<DT><SAMP>‘--no-wrap’</SAMP> 180<DD> 181<A NAME="IDX251"></A> 182Do not break long message lines. Message lines whose width exceeds the 183output page width will not be split into several lines. Only file reference 184lines which are wider than the output page width will be split. 185 186</DL> 187 188 189 190<H3><A NAME="SEC43" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC43">6.1.5 Informative output</A></H3> 191 192<DL COMPACT> 193 194<DT><SAMP>‘-h’</SAMP> 195<DD> 196<DT><SAMP>‘--help’</SAMP> 197<DD> 198<A NAME="IDX252"></A> 199<A NAME="IDX253"></A> 200Display this help and exit. 201 202<DT><SAMP>‘-V’</SAMP> 203<DD> 204<DT><SAMP>‘--version’</SAMP> 205<DD> 206<A NAME="IDX254"></A> 207<A NAME="IDX255"></A> 208Output version information and exit. 209 210</DL> 211 212 213 214<H2><A NAME="SEC44" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC44">6.2 Filling in the Header Entry</A></H2> 215<P> 216<A NAME="IDX256"></A> 217 218</P> 219<P> 220The initial comments "SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE", "YEAR" and 221"FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR" ought to be replaced by sensible 222information. This can be done in any text editor; if Emacs is used 223and it switched to PO mode automatically (because it has recognized 224the file's suffix), you can disable it by typing <KBD>M-x fundamental-mode</KBD>. 225 226</P> 227<P> 228Modifying the header entry can already be done using PO mode: in Emacs, 229type <KBD>M-x po-mode RET</KBD> and then <KBD>RET</KBD> again to start editing the 230entry. You should fill in the following fields. 231 232</P> 233<DL COMPACT> 234 235<DT>Project-Id-Version 236<DD> 237This is the name and version of the package. Fill it in if it has not 238already been filled in by <CODE>xgettext</CODE>. 239 240<DT>Report-Msgid-Bugs-To 241<DD> 242This has already been filled in by <CODE>xgettext</CODE>. It contains an email 243address or URL where you can report bugs in the untranslated strings: 244 245 246<UL> 247<LI>Strings which are not entire sentences, see the maintainer guidelines 248 249in section <A HREF="gettext_4.html#SEC19">4.3 Preparing Translatable Strings</A>. 250<LI>Strings which use unclear terms or require additional context to be 251 252understood. 253<LI>Strings which make invalid assumptions about notation of date, time or 254 255money. 256<LI>Pluralisation problems. 257 258<LI>Incorrect English spelling. 259 260<LI>Incorrect formatting. 261 262</UL> 263 264<DT>POT-Creation-Date 265<DD> 266This has already been filled in by <CODE>xgettext</CODE>. 267 268<DT>PO-Revision-Date 269<DD> 270You don't need to fill this in. It will be filled by the PO file editor 271when you save the file. 272 273<DT>Last-Translator 274<DD> 275Fill in your name and email address (without double quotes). 276 277<DT>Language-Team 278<DD> 279Fill in the English name of the language, and the email address or 280homepage URL of the language team you are part of. 281 282Before starting a translation, it is a good idea to get in touch with 283your translation team, not only to make sure you don't do duplicated work, 284but also to coordinate difficult linguistic issues. 285 286<A NAME="IDX257"></A> 287In the Free Translation Project, each translation team has its own mailing 288list. The up-to-date list of teams can be found at the Free Translation 289Project's homepage, <A HREF="http://translationproject.org/">http://translationproject.org/</A>, in the "Teams" 290area. 291 292<DT>Content-Type 293<DD> 294<A NAME="IDX258"></A> 295<A NAME="IDX259"></A> 296Replace <SAMP>‘CHARSET’</SAMP> with the character encoding used for your language, 297in your locale, or UTF-8. This field is needed for correct operation of the 298<CODE>msgmerge</CODE> and <CODE>msgfmt</CODE> programs, as well as for users whose 299locale's character encoding differs from yours (see section <A HREF="gettext_11.html#SEC186">11.2.4 How to specify the output character set <CODE>gettext</CODE> uses</A>). 300 301<A NAME="IDX260"></A> 302You get the character encoding of your locale by running the shell command 303<SAMP>‘locale charmap’</SAMP>. If the result is <SAMP>‘C’</SAMP> or <SAMP>‘ANSI_X3.4-1968’</SAMP>, 304which is equivalent to <SAMP>‘ASCII’</SAMP> (= <SAMP>‘US-ASCII’</SAMP>), it means that your 305locale is not correctly configured. In this case, ask your translation 306team which charset to use. <SAMP>‘ASCII’</SAMP> is not usable for any language 307except Latin. 308 309<A NAME="IDX261"></A> 310Because the PO files must be portable to operating systems with less advanced 311internationalization facilities, the character encodings that can be used 312are limited to those supported by both GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> and GNU 313<CODE>libiconv</CODE>. These are: 314<CODE>ASCII</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-1</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-2</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-3</CODE>, 315<CODE>ISO-8859-4</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-5</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-6</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-7</CODE>, 316<CODE>ISO-8859-8</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-9</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-13</CODE>, <CODE>ISO-8859-14</CODE>, 317<CODE>ISO-8859-15</CODE>, 318<CODE>KOI8-R</CODE>, <CODE>KOI8-U</CODE>, <CODE>KOI8-T</CODE>, 319<CODE>CP850</CODE>, <CODE>CP866</CODE>, <CODE>CP874</CODE>, 320<CODE>CP932</CODE>, <CODE>CP949</CODE>, <CODE>CP950</CODE>, <CODE>CP1250</CODE>, <CODE>CP1251</CODE>, 321<CODE>CP1252</CODE>, <CODE>CP1253</CODE>, <CODE>CP1254</CODE>, <CODE>CP1255</CODE>, <CODE>CP1256</CODE>, 322<CODE>CP1257</CODE>, <CODE>GB2312</CODE>, <CODE>EUC-JP</CODE>, <CODE>EUC-KR</CODE>, <CODE>EUC-TW</CODE>, 323<CODE>BIG5</CODE>, <CODE>BIG5-HKSCS</CODE>, <CODE>GBK</CODE>, <CODE>GB18030</CODE>, <CODE>SHIFT_JIS</CODE>, 324<CODE>JOHAB</CODE>, <CODE>TIS-620</CODE>, <CODE>VISCII</CODE>, <CODE>GEORGIAN-PS</CODE>, <CODE>UTF-8</CODE>. 325 326<A NAME="IDX262"></A> 327In the GNU system, the following encodings are frequently used for the 328corresponding languages. 329 330<A NAME="IDX263"></A> 331 332<UL> 333<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-1</CODE> for 334 335Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Cornish, Danish, Dutch, 336English, Estonian, Faroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, 337Greenlandic, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Malay, Manx, 338Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Uzbek, 339Walloon, 340<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-2</CODE> for 341 342Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, 343Slovenian, 344<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-3</CODE> for Maltese, 345 346<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-5</CODE> for Macedonian, Serbian, 347 348<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-6</CODE> for Arabic, 349 350<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-7</CODE> for Greek, 351 352<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-8</CODE> for Hebrew, 353 354<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-9</CODE> for Turkish, 355 356<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-13</CODE> for Latvian, Lithuanian, Maori, 357 358<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-14</CODE> for Welsh, 359 360<LI><CODE>ISO-8859-15</CODE> for 361 362Basque, Catalan, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Irish, 363Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Walloon, 364<LI><CODE>KOI8-R</CODE> for Russian, 365 366<LI><CODE>KOI8-U</CODE> for Ukrainian, 367 368<LI><CODE>KOI8-T</CODE> for Tajik, 369 370<LI><CODE>CP1251</CODE> for Bulgarian, Byelorussian, 371 372<LI><CODE>GB2312</CODE>, <CODE>GBK</CODE>, <CODE>GB18030</CODE> 373 374for simplified writing of Chinese, 375<LI><CODE>BIG5</CODE>, <CODE>BIG5-HKSCS</CODE> 376 377for traditional writing of Chinese, 378<LI><CODE>EUC-JP</CODE> for Japanese, 379 380<LI><CODE>EUC-KR</CODE> for Korean, 381 382<LI><CODE>TIS-620</CODE> for Thai, 383 384<LI><CODE>GEORGIAN-PS</CODE> for Georgian, 385 386<LI><CODE>UTF-8</CODE> for any language, including those listed above. 387 388</UL> 389 390<A NAME="IDX264"></A> 391<A NAME="IDX265"></A> 392When single quote characters or double quote characters are used in 393translations for your language, and your locale's encoding is one of the 394ISO-8859-* charsets, it is best if you create your PO files in UTF-8 395encoding, instead of your locale's encoding. This is because in UTF-8 396the real quote characters can be represented (single quote characters: 397U+2018, U+2019, double quote characters: U+201C, U+201D), whereas none of 398ISO-8859-* charsets has them all. Users in UTF-8 locales will see the 399real quote characters, whereas users in ISO-8859-* locales will see the 400vertical apostrophe and the vertical double quote instead (because that's 401what the character set conversion will transliterate them to). 402 403<A NAME="IDX266"></A> 404To enter such quote characters under X11, you can change your keyboard 405mapping using the <CODE>xmodmap</CODE> program. The X11 names of the quote 406characters are "leftsinglequotemark", "rightsinglequotemark", 407"leftdoublequotemark", "rightdoublequotemark", "singlelowquotemark", 408"doublelowquotemark". 409 410Note that only recent versions of GNU Emacs support the UTF-8 encoding: 411Emacs 20 with Mule-UCS, and Emacs 21. As of January 2001, XEmacs doesn't 412support the UTF-8 encoding. 413 414The character encoding name can be written in either upper or lower case. 415Usually upper case is preferred. 416 417<DT>Content-Transfer-Encoding 418<DD> 419Set this to <CODE>8bit</CODE>. 420 421<DT>Plural-Forms 422<DD> 423This field is optional. It is only needed if the PO file has plural forms. 424You can find them by searching for the <SAMP>‘msgid_plural’</SAMP> keyword. The 425format of the plural forms field is described in section <A HREF="gettext_11.html#SEC188">11.2.6 Additional functions for plural forms</A>. 426</DL> 427 428<P><HR><P> 429Go to the <A HREF="gettext_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="gettext_5.html">previous</A>, <A HREF="gettext_7.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_25.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>. 430</BODY> 431</HTML> 432