This is gettext.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.0 from gettext.texi. INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU Gettext Utilities START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Gettext: (gettext). GNU gettext utilities. * gettextize: (gettext)gettextize Invocation. Prepare a package for gettext. * msgfmt: (gettext)msgfmt Invocation. Make MO files out of PO files. * msgmerge: (gettext)msgmerge Invocation. Update two PO files into one. * xgettext: (gettext)xgettext Invocation. Extract strings into a PO file. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY This file provides documentation for GNU `gettext' utilities. It also serves as a reference for the free Translation Project. Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Foundation.  File: gettext.info, Node: Organization, Next: Information Flow, Prev: Discussions, Up: Translators Organization ============ On a larger scale, the true solution would be to organize some kind of fairly precise set up in which volunteers could participate. I gave some thought to this idea lately, and realize there will be some touchy points. I thought of writing to Richard Stallman to launch such a project, but feel it might be good to shake out the ideas between ourselves first. Most probably that Linux International has some experience in the field already, or would like to orchestrate the volunteer work, maybe. Food for thought, in any case! I guess we have to setup something early, somehow, that will help many possible contributors of the same language to interlock and avoid work duplication, and further be put in contact for solving together problems particular to their tongue (in most languages, there are many difficulties peculiar to translating technical English). My Swedish contributor acknowledged these difficulties, and I'm well aware of them for French. This is surely not a technical issue, but we should manage so the effort of locale contributors be maximally useful, despite the national team layer interface between contributors and maintainers. The Translation Project needs some setup for coordinating language coordinators. Localizing evolving programs will surely become a permanent and continuous activity in the free software community, once well started. The setup should be minimally completed and tested before GNU `gettext' becomes an official reality. The e-mail address `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' has been setup for receiving offers from volunteers and general e-mail on these topics. This address reaches the Translation Project coordinator. * Menu: * Central Coordination:: Central Coordination * National Teams:: National Teams * Mailing Lists:: Mailing Lists  File: gettext.info, Node: Central Coordination, Next: National Teams, Prev: Organization, Up: Organization Central Coordination -------------------- I also think GNU will need sooner than it thinks, that someone setup a way to organize and coordinate these groups. Some kind of group of groups. My opinion is that it would be good that GNU delegates this task to a small group of collaborating volunteers, shortly. Perhaps in `gnu.announce' a list of this national committee's can be published. My role as coordinator would simply be to refer to Ulrich any German speaking volunteer interested to localization of free software packages, and maybe helping national groups to initially organize, while maintaining national registries for until national groups are ready to take over. In fact, the coordinator should ease volunteers to get in contact with one another for creating national teams, which should then select one coordinator per language, or country (regionalized language). If well done, the coordination should be useful without being an overwhelming task, the time to put delegations in place.  File: gettext.info, Node: National Teams, Next: Mailing Lists, Prev: Central Coordination, Up: Organization National Teams -------------- I suggest we look for volunteer coordinators/editors for individual languages. These people will scan contributions of translation files for various programs, for their own languages, and will ensure high and uniform standards of diction. From my current experience with other people in these days, those who provide localizations are very enthusiastic about the process, and are more interested in the localization process than in the program they localize, and want to do many programs, not just one. This seems to confirm that having a coordinator/editor for each language is a good idea. We need to choose someone who is good at writing clear and concise prose in the language in question. That is hard--we can't check it ourselves. So we need to ask a few people to judge each others' writing and select the one who is best. I announce my prerelease to a few dozen people, and you would not believe all the discussions it generated already. I shudder to think what will happen when this will be launched, for true, officially, world wide. Who am I to arbitrate between two Czekolsovak users contradicting each other, for example? I assume that your German is not much better than my French so that I would not be able to judge about these formulations. What I would suggest is that for each language there is a group for people who maintain the PO files and judge about changes. I suspect there will be cultural differences between how such groups of people will behave. Some will have relaxed ways, reach consensus easily, and have anyone of the group relate to the maintainers, while others will fight to death, organize heavy administrations up to national standards, and use strict channels. The German team is putting out a good example. Right now, they are maybe half a dozen people revising translations of each other and discussing the linguistic issues. I do not even have all the names. Ulrich Drepper is taking care of coordinating the German team. He subscribed to all my pretest lists, so I do not even have to warn him specifically of incoming releases. I'm sure, that is a good idea to get teams for each language working on translations. That will make the translations better and more consistent. * Menu: * Sub-Cultures:: Sub-Cultures * Organizational Ideas:: Organizational Ideas  File: gettext.info, Node: Sub-Cultures, Next: Organizational Ideas, Prev: National Teams, Up: National Teams Sub-Cultures ............ Taking French for example, there are a few sub-cultures around computers which developed diverging vocabularies. Picking volunteers here and there without addressing this problem in an organized way, soon in the project, might produce a distasteful mix of internationalized programs, and possibly trigger endless quarrels among those who really care. Keeping some kind of unity in the way French localization of internationalized programs is achieved is a difficult (and delicate) job. Knowing the latin character of French people (:-), if we take this the wrong way, we could end up nowhere, or spoil a lot of energies. Maybe we should begin to address this problem seriously _before_ GNU `gettext' become officially published. And I suspect that this means soon!  File: gettext.info, Node: Organizational Ideas, Prev: Sub-Cultures, Up: National Teams Organizational Ideas .................... I expect the next big changes after the official release. Please note that I use the German translation of the short GPL message. We need to set a few good examples before the localization goes out for true in the free software community. Here are a few points to discuss: * Each group should have one FTP server (at least one master). * The files on the server should reflect the latest version (of course!) and it should also contain a RCS directory with the corresponding archives (I don't have this now). * There should also be a ChangeLog file (this is more useful than the RCS archive but can be generated automatically from the later by Emacs). * A "core group" should judge about questionable changes (for now this group consists solely by me but I ask some others occasionally; this also seems to work).  File: gettext.info, Node: Mailing Lists, Prev: National Teams, Up: Organization Mailing Lists ------------- If we get any inquiries about GNU `gettext', send them on to: `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' The `*-pretest' lists are quite useful to me, maybe the idea could be generalized to many GNU, and non-GNU packages. But each maintainer his/her way! Franc,ois, we have a mechanism in place here at `gnu.ai.mit.edu' to track teams, support mailing lists for them and log members. We have a slight preference that you use it. If this is OK with you, I can get you clued in. Things are changing! A few years ago, when Daniel Fekete and I asked for a mailing list for GNU localization, nested at the FSF, we were politely invited to organize it anywhere else, and so did we. For communicating with my pretesters, I later made a handful of mailing lists located at iro.umontreal.ca and administrated by `majordomo'. These lists have been _very_ dependable so far... I suspect that the German team will organize itself a mailing list located in Germany, and so forth for other countries. But before they organize for true, it could surely be useful to offer mailing lists located at the FSF to each national team. So yes, please explain me how I should proceed to create and handle them. We should create temporary mailing lists, one per country, to help people organize. Temporary, because once regrouped and structured, it would be fair the volunteers from country bring back _their_ list in there and manage it as they want. My feeling is that, in the long run, each team should run its own list, from within their country. There also should be some central list to which all teams could subscribe as they see fit, as long as each team is represented in it.  File: gettext.info, Node: Information Flow, Prev: Organization, Up: Translators Information Flow ================ There will surely be some discussion about this messages after the packages are finally released. If people now send you some proposals for better messages, how do you proceed? Jim, please note that right now, as I put forward nearly a dozen of localizable programs, I receive both the translations and the coordination concerns about them. If I put one of my things to pretest, Ulrich receives the announcement and passes it on to the German team, who make last minute revisions. Then he submits the translation files to me _as the maintainer_. For free packages I do not maintain, I would not even hear about it. This scheme could be made to work for the whole Translation Project, I think. For security reasons, maybe Ulrich (national coordinators, in fact) should update central registry kept at the Translation Project (Jim, me, or Len's recruits) once in a while. In December/January, I was aggressively ready to internationalize all of GNU, giving myself the duty of one small GNU package per week or so, taking many weeks or months for bigger packages. But it does not work this way. I first did all the things I'm responsible for. I've nothing against some missionary work on other maintainers, but I'm also loosing a lot of energy over it--same debates over again. And when the first localized packages are released we'll get a lot of responses about ugly translations :-). Surely, and we need to have beforehand a fairly good idea about how to handle the information flow between the national teams and the package maintainers. Please start saving somewhere a quick history of each PO file. I know for sure that the file format will change, allowing for comments. It would be nice that each file has a kind of log, and references for those who want to submit comments or gripes, or otherwise contribute. I sent a proposal for a fast and flexible format, but it is not receiving acceptance yet by the GNU deciders. I'll tell you when I have more information about this.  File: gettext.info, Node: Maintainers, Next: Conclusion, Prev: Translators, Up: Top 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.in' 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  File: gettext.info, Node: Flat and Non-Flat, Next: Prerequisites, Prev: Maintainers, Up: Maintainers 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 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 got 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's in the `intl/' and `po/' therefore know about all the goals necessary for using `automake' and `libintl' in one project. Those four packages are only needed to 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.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 authentify the origin of the submission as being the representative of the appropriate translating teams of the Translation Project (forward the submission to `translation@iro.umontreal.ca' 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 to 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. The simplest might be to send them the `ABOUT-NLS' file. 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 issue 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 Invoking the `gettextize' Program ================================= Some files are consistently and identically needed in every package internationalized through GNU `gettext'. As a matter of convenience, the `gettextize' program puts all these files right in your package. This program has the following synopsis: gettextize [ OPTION... ] [ DIRECTORY ] and accepts the following options: `-c' `--copy' Copy the needed files instead of making symbolic links. Using links would allow the package to always use the latest `gettext' code available on the system, but it might disturb some mechanism the maintainer is used to apply to the sources. Because running `gettextize' is easy there shouldn't be problems with using copies. `-f' `--force' Force replacement of files which already exist. `-h' `--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 gives the main indications about how to install and use the Native Language Support features of your program. You might elect to use a more recent copy of this `ABOUT-NLS' file than the one provided through `gettextize', if you have one handy. You may also fetch a more recent copy of file `ABOUT-NLS' from Translation Project sites, and from most GNU archive sites. 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). If the `po/' directory already exists, it will be preserved along with the files it contains, and only `Makefile.in.in' will be overwritten. 3. A `intl/' directory is created and filled with most of the files originally in the `intl/' directory of the GNU `gettext' distribution. Also, if option `--force' (`-f') is given, the `intl/' directory is emptied first. 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'. It is interesting to understand that most new files for supporting GNU `gettext' facilities in one package go in `intl/' and `po/' subdirectories. One distinction between these two directories is that `intl/' is meant to be completely identical in all packages using GNU `gettext', while all newly created files, which have to be different, go into `po/'. There is a common `Makefile.in.in' in `po/', because the `po/' directory needs its own `Makefile', and it has been designed so it can be identical in all packages.  File: gettext.info, Node: Adjusting Files, Prev: gettextize Invocation, Up: Maintainers 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' 0.10.37 distribution itself. You may indeed refer to the source code of the GNU `gettext' package, as it is intended to be a good example and master implementation for using its own functionality. * Menu: * po/POTFILES.in:: `POTFILES.in' in `po/' * configure.in:: `configure.in' at top level * config.guess:: `config.guess', `config.sub' at top level * aclocal:: `aclocal.m4' at top level * acconfig:: `acconfig.h' at top level * Makefile:: `Makefile.in' at top level * src/Makefile:: `Makefile.in' in `src/'  File: gettext.info, Node: po/POTFILES.in, Next: configure.in, Prev: Adjusting Files, Up: Adjusting Files `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.  File: gettext.info, Node: configure.in, Next: config.guess, Prev: po/POTFILES.in, Up: Adjusting Files `configure.in' at top level --------------------------- 1. Declare the package and version. This is done by a set of lines like these: PACKAGE=gettext VERSION=0.10.37 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PACKAGE, "$PACKAGE") AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VERSION, "$VERSION") AC_SUBST(PACKAGE) AC_SUBST(VERSION) Of course, you replace `gettext' with the name of your package, and `0.10.37' by its version numbers, exactly as they should appear in the packaged `tar' file name of your distribution (`gettext-0.10.37.tar.gz', here). 2. Declare the available translations. This is done by defining `ALL_LINGUAS' to the white separated, quoted list of available languages, in a single line, like this: ALL_LINGUAS="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 `ALL_LINGUAS' in `configure.in', but rather by using the `LINGUAS' environment variable (*note Installers::). 3. Check for internationalization support. Here is the main `m4' macro for triggering internationalization support. Just add this line to `configure.in': AM_GNU_GETTEXT This call is purposely simple, even if it generates a lot of configure time checking and actions. 4. Have output files created. The `AC_OUTPUT' directive, at the end of your `configure.in' file, needs to be modified in two ways: AC_OUTPUT([EXISTING CONFIGURATION FILES intl/Makefile po/Makefile.in], EXISTING ADDITIONAL ACTIONS]) The modification to the first argument to `AC_OUTPUT' asks for substitution in the `intl/' and `po/' directories. 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: aclocal, Prev: configure.in, Up: Adjusting Files `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 `intl/' directory has platform dependent support for determining the locale's character encoding and therefore needs to identify the platform. You can obtain the newest version of `config.guess' and `config.sub' from `ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/config/'. 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', `mkinstalldirs' or `missing'. All you need to do, other than moving the files, is to add the following line to your `configure.in'. AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([SUBDIR])  File: gettext.info, Node: aclocal, Next: acconfig, Prev: config.guess, Up: Adjusting Files `aclocal.m4' at top level ------------------------- If you do not have an `aclocal.m4' file in your distribution, the simplest is to concatenate the files `codeset.m4', `gettext.m4', `iconv.m4', `isc-posix.m4', `lcmessage.m4', `progtest.m4' from GNU `gettext''s `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', `AM_WITH_NLS', 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. These macros check for the internationalization support functions and related informations. Hopefully, once stabilized, these macros might be integrated in the standard Autoconf set, because this piece of `m4' code will be the same for all projects using GNU `gettext'.  File: gettext.info, Node: acconfig, Next: Makefile, Prev: aclocal, Up: Adjusting Files `acconfig.h' at top level ------------------------- Earlier GNU `gettext' releases required to put definitions for `ENABLE_NLS', `HAVE_GETTEXT' and `HAVE_LC_MESSAGES', `HAVE_STPCPY', `PACKAGE' and `VERSION' into an `acconfig.h' file. This is not needed any more; you can remove them from your `acconfig.h' file unless your package uses them independently from the `intl/' directory.  File: gettext.info, Node: Makefile, Next: src/Makefile, Prev: acconfig, Up: Adjusting Files `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. Add file `ABOUT-NLS' to the `DISTFILES' definition, so the file gets distributed. 3. Wherever you process subdirectories in your `Makefile.in', be sure you also process dir subdirectories `intl' and `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 intl lib src @POSUB@ Note that you must arrange for `make' to descend into the `intl' directory before descending into other directories containing code which make use of the `libintl.h' header file. For this reason, here we mention `intl' before `lib' and `src'. that you will have to adapt to your own package. 4. A delicate point is the `dist:' goal, as both `intl/Makefile' and `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)  File: gettext.info, Node: src/Makefile, Prev: Makefile, Up: Adjusting Files `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); To make LOCALEDIR known to the program, add the following lines to Makefile.in: datadir = @datadir@ localedir = $(datadir)/locale DEFS = -DLOCALEDIR=\"$(localedir)\" @DEFS@ Note that `@datadir@' defaults to `$(prefix)/share', thus `$(localedir)' defaults to `$(prefix)/share/locale'. 5. You should ensure that the final linking will use `@INTLLIBS@' as a library. An easy way to achieve this is to manage that it gets into `LIBS', like this: LIBS = @INTLLIBS@ @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 it is not enough to place the support library (say `libsupport.a') just between the `@INTLLIBS@' and `@LIBS@' in the above example. Instead one has to write this: LIBS = ../lib/libsupport.a @INTLLIBS@ ../lib/libsupport.a @LIBS@ 6. You should also ensure that directory `intl/' will be searched for C preprocessor include files in all circumstances. So, you have to manage so both `-I../intl' and `-I$(top_srcdir)/intl' will be given to the C compiler. 7. 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); \ done  File: gettext.info, Node: Conclusion, Next: Language Codes, Prev: Maintainers, Up: Top 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' * References:: Related Readings  File: gettext.info, Node: History, Next: References, Prev: Conclusion, Up: Conclusion 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, Franc,ois 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. 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 conformant 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, Franc,ois 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. Franc,ois 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.  File: gettext.info, Node: References, Prev: History, Up: Conclusion Related Readings ================ 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 Language Codes ************** The ISO 639 standard defines two character codes for many languages. All abbreviations for languages used in the Translation Project should come from this standard. `aa' Afar. `ab' Abkhazian. `ae' Avestan. `af' Afrikaans. `am' Amharic. `ar' Arabic. `as' Assamese. `ay' Aymara. `az' Azerbaijani. `ba' Bashkir. `be' Byelorussian; Belarusian. `bg' Bulgarian. `bh' Bihari. `bi' Bislama. `bn' Bengali; Bangla. `bo' Tibetan. `br' Breton. `bs' Bosnian. `ca' Catalan. `ce' Chechen. `ch' Chamorro. `co' Corsican. `cs' Czech. `cu' Church Slavic. `cv' Chuvash. `cy' Welsh. `da' Danish. `de' German. `dz' Dzongkha; Bhutani. `el' Greek. `en' English. `eo' Esperanto. `es' Spanish. `et' Estonian. `eu' Basque. `fa' Persian. `fi' Finnish. `fj' Fijian; Fiji. `fo' Faroese. `fr' French. `fy' Frisian. `ga' Irish. `gd' Scots; Gaelic. `gl' Gallegan; Galician. `gn' Guarani. `gu' Gujarati. `gv' Manx. `ha' Hausa (?). `he' Hebrew (formerly iw). `hi' Hindi. `ho' Hiri Motu. `hr' Croatian. `hu' Hungarian. `hy' Armenian. `hz' Herero. `ia' Interlingua. `id' Indonesian (formerly in). `ie' Interlingue. `ik' Inupiak. `is' Icelandic. `it' Italian. `iu' Inuktitut. `ja' Japanese. `jw' Javanese. `ka' Georgian. `ki' Kikuyu. `kj' Kuanyama. `kk' Kazakh. `kl' Kalaallisut; Greenlandic. `km' Khmer; Cambodian. `kn' Kannada. `ko' Korean. `ks' Kashmiri. `ku' Kurdish. `kv' Komi. `kw' Cornish. `ky' Kirghiz. `la' Latin. `lb' Letzeburgesch. `ln' Lingala. `lo' Lao; Laotian. `lt' Lithuanian. `lv' Latvian; Lettish. `mg' Malagasy. `mh' Marshall. `mi' Maori. `mk' Macedonian. `ml' Malayalam. `mn' Mongolian. `mo' Moldavian. `mr' Marathi. `ms' Malay. `mt' Maltese. `my' Burmese. `na' Nauru. `nb' Norwegian Bokmaal. `nd' Ndebele, North. `ne' Nepali. `ng' Ndonga. `nl' Dutch. `nn' Norwegian Nynorsk. `no' Norwegian. `nr' Ndebele, South. `nv' Navajo. `ny' Chichewa; Nyanja. `oc' Occitan; Provenc,al. `om' (Afan) Oromo. `or' Oriya. `os' Ossetian; Ossetic. `pa' Panjabi; Punjabi. `pi' Pali. `pl' Polish. `ps' Pashto, Pushto. `pt' Portuguese. `qu' Quechua. `rm' Rhaeto-Romance. `rn' Rundi; Kirundi. `ro' Romanian. `ru' Russian. `rw' Kinyarwanda. `sa' Sanskrit. `sc' Sardinian. `sd' Sindhi. `se' Northern Sami. `sg' Sango; Sangro. `si' Sinhalese. `sk' Slovak. `sl' Slovenian. `sm' Samoan. `sn' Shona. `so' Somali. `sq' Albanian. `sr' Serbian. `ss' Swati; Siswati. `st' Sesotho; Sotho, Southern. `su' Sundanese. `sv' Swedish. `sw' Swahili. `ta' Tamil. `te' Telugu. `tg' Tajik. `th' Thai. `ti' Tigrinya. `tk' Turkmen. `tl' Tagalog. `tn' Tswana; Setswana. `to' Tonga (?). `tr' Turkish. `ts' Tsonga. `tt' Tatar. `tw' Twi. `ty' Tahitian. `ug' Uighur. `uk' Ukrainian. `ur' Urdu. `uz' Uzbek. `vi' Vietnamese. `vo' Volapu"k; Volapuk. `wo' Wolof. `xh' Xhosa. `yi' Yiddish (formerly ji). `yo' Yoruba. `za' Zhuang. `zh' Chinese. `zu' Zulu.  File: gettext.info, Node: Country Codes, Prev: Language Codes, Up: Top 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. `AN' Netherlands Antilles. `AO' Angola. `AQ' Antarctica. `AR' Argentina. `AS' Samoa (American). `AT' Austria. `AU' Australia. `AW' Aruba. `AZ' Azerbaijan. `BA' Bosnia and Herzegovina. `BB' Barbados. `BD' Bangladesh. `BE' Belgium. `BF' Burkina Faso. `BG' Bulgaria. `BH' Bahrain. `BI' Burundi. `BJ' Benin. `BM' Bermuda. `BN' Brunei. `BO' Bolivia. `BR' Brazil. `BS' Bahamas. `BT' Bhutan. `BV' Bouvet Island. `BW' Botswana. `BY' Belarus. `BZ' Belize. `CA' Canada. `CC' Cocos (Keeling) Islands. `CD' Congo (Dem. Rep.). `CF' Central African Rep.. `CG' Congo (Rep.). `CH' Switzerland. `CI' Cote d'Ivoire. `CK' Cook Islands. `CL' Chile. `CM' Cameroon. `CN' China. `CO' Colombia. `CR' Costa Rica. `CU' Cuba. `CV' Cape Verde. `CX' Christmas Island. `CY' Cyprus. `CZ' Czech Republic. `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. `FM' Micronesia. `FO' Faeroe Islands. `FR' France. `GA' Gabon. `GB' Britain (UK). `GD' Grenada. `GE' Georgia. `GF' French Guiana. `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. `IN' India. `IO' British Indian Ocean Territory. `IQ' Iraq. `IR' Iran. `IS' Iceland. `IT' Italy. `JM' Jamaica. `JO' Jordan. `JP' Japan. `KE' Kenya. `KG' Kyrgyzstan. `KH' Cambodia. `KI' Kiribati. `KM' Comoros. `KN' St Kitts and Nevis. `KP' Korea (North). `KR' Korea (South). `KW' Kuwait. `KY' Cayman Islands. `KZ' Kazakhstan. `LA' Laos. `LB' Lebanon. `LC' St Lucia. `LI' Liechtenstein. `LK' Sri Lanka. `LR' Liberia. `LS' Lesotho. `LT' Lithuania. `LU' Luxembourg. `LV' Latvia. `LY' Libya. `MA' Morocco. `MC' Monaco. `MD' Moldova. `MG' Madagascar. `MH' Marshall Islands. `MK' Macedonia. `ML' Mali. `MM' Myanmar (Burma). `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. `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' St Pierre and Miquelon. `PN' Pitcairn. `PR' Puerto Rico. `PS' Palestine. `PT' Portugal. `PW' Palau. `PY' Paraguay. `QA' Qatar. `RE' Reunion. `RO' Romania. `RU' Russia. `RW' Rwanda. `SA' Saudi Arabia. `SB' Solomon Islands. `SC' Seychelles. `SD' Sudan. `SE' Sweden. `SG' Singapore. `SH' St Helena. `SI' Slovenia. `SJ' Svalbard and Jan Mayen. `SK' Slovakia. `SL' Sierra Leone. `SM' San Marino. `SN' Senegal. `SO' Somalia. `SR' Suriname. `ST' Sao Tome and Principe. `SV' El Salvador. `SY' Syria. `SZ' Swaziland. `TC' Turks and Caicos Is. `TD' Chad. `TF' French Southern and Antarctic Lands. `TG' Togo. `TH' Thailand. `TJ' Tajikistan. `TK' Tokelau. `TM' Turkmenistan. `TN' Tunisia. `TO' Tonga. `TP' East Timor. `TR' Turkey. `TT' Trinidad and Tobago. `TV' Tuvalu. `TW' Taiwan. `TZ' Tanzania. `UA' Ukraine. `UG' Uganda. `UM' US minor outlying islands. `US' United States. `UY' Uruguay. `UZ' Uzbekistan. `VA' Vatican City. `VC' St Vincent. `VE' Venezuela. `VG' Virgin Islands (UK). `VI' Virgin Islands (US). `VN' Vietnam. `VU' Vanuatu. `WF' Wallis and Futuna. `WS' Samoa (Western). `YE' Yemen. `YT' Mayotte. `YU' Yugoslavia. `ZA' South Africa. `ZM' Zambia. `ZW' Zimbabwe.