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After preparing the sources, the programmer creates a PO template file.
This section explains how to use xgettext for this purpose.
xgettext [option] [inputfile] ...
The xgettext program extracts translatable strings from given
input files.
- `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.
- `-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.
- `-L name´
-
- `--language=name´
-
Specifies the language of the input files. The supported languages
are
C, C++, ObjectiveC, PO, Java,
YCP.
- `-C´
-
- `--c++´
-
This is a shorthand for
--language=C++.
By default the language is guessed depending on the input file name
extension.
- `-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 block with tag (or those preceding keyword lines)
in output file.
- `-a´
-
- `--extract-all´
-
Extract all strings.
- `-k keywordspec´
-
- `--keyword[=keywordspec]´
-
Additional keyword to be looked for (without keywordspec means not to
use default keywords).
If keywordspec is a C identifer 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.
The default keyword specifications, which are always looked for if not
explicitly disabled, are gettext, dgettext:2,
dcgettext:2, ngettext:1,2, dngettext:2,3,
dcngettext:2,3, and gettext_noop.
- `-T´
-
- `--trigraphs´
-
Understand ANSI C trigraphs for input.
- `--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 format 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.
- `--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.
- `-n´
-
- `--add-location´
-
Generate `#: filename:line´ lines (default).
- `--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.
- `-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.
- `-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.
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.
- `--foreign-user´
-
Omit FSF copyright in output. This can be useful for translators
outside the GNU project.
- `-m [string]´
-
- `--msgstr-prefix[=string]´
-
Use string (or "" if not specified) as prefix for msgstr entries.
- `-M [string]´
-
- `--msgstr-suffix[=string]´
-
Use string (or "" if not specified) as suffix for msgstr entries.
- `-h´
-
- `--help´
-
Display this help and exit.
- `-V´
-
- `--version´
-
Output version information and exit.
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