msginit Invocation (GNU gettext utilities)

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/.

Input file location
Output file location
Input file syntax
Output details
Informative output

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

6.1 Invoking the msginit Program