1DEBCONF-GETTEXTIZE(1) po-debconf DEBCONF-GETTEXTIZE(1)
2
6 debconf-gettextize - extract translations of debconf templates into PO
7 files
8
10 debconf-gettextize [-v] [-h] [--podir=DIR] [--choices] [--merge] master
11 [master ...]
12
14 The /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.templates files read by debconf contain
15 English text and translations in the same file. But in source
16 packages, translations are managed in separate files to help
17 translators. In the initial implementation, a master templates file
18 contained only English text, and templates.xx files contained both
19 original and translated strings for the language xx. The debconf-
20 mergetemplate program was merging master and translated templates
21 files.
22 The new implementation with "po-debconf" is based on "gettext".
24 Maintainers mark translatable fields by prepending them with an
25 underscore, English strings are automatically extracted into a POT
26 file, translators work on normal PO files, and po2debconf generates a
27 merged templates file with the same structure.
28 The debconf-gettextize program was initially designed to help migrating
30 to the new implementation.
31 • It reads a list of master files and their associated translations,
33 and generates po/*.po files for each language containing translated
34 strings.
35 • Each input file receives an ".old" suffix, and a new master file
37 overwrites the old one; it is identical to the previous master file
38 except that an underscore is prepended to translatable fields.
39 Developers can then choose which fields translators have to work on
40 and which ones are skipped because their values are not locale-
41 dependent.
42 • A po/POTFILES.in file is also created, it contains the list of
44 templates files debconf-updatepo has to process.
45 Typically the debconf-gettextize program must be run only once when
47 transforming from the first implementation to the "po-debconf" format,
48 but it can also be used afterwards to transform a "_Choices" field into
49 "__Choices" (or vice-versa) without losing translations, when using the
50 "--merge" flag (alongside with "--choices" or not). The desired
51 template containing the "_Choices" or "__Choices" fields to modify has
52 to be copied into a temporary template file, which is passed to
53 debconf-gettextize as an argument. Then the following steps are
54 performed:
55 1. po2debconf is run on this template file to generate a translated
57 templates file.
58 2. This translated templates file is processed as described above and
60 PO files are generated.
61 3. Newly created PO files are merged with existing ones.
63 When PO files are merged, "_Choices" fields have to be replaced by
65 "__Choices" (or vice-versa) in the original templates file before
66 running debconf-updatepo, otherwise new translations will be fuzzy.
67
69 -h, --help
70 Display a usage summary for the program and exit.
71 -v, --verbose
73 Process in verbose mode.
74 --podir=DIR
76 Set directory for PO files. Default is to search for PO files in
77 the po subdirectory below the location of the first master file.
78 --choices
80 By default, debconf-gettextize replaces "Choices" fields by
81 "_Choices". With this flag, "__Choices" fields are written
82 instead.
83 --merge
85 When this flag is set, the strings are merged with existing PO
86 files. The templates files and po/POTFILES.in are not modified.
87
89 The "Default" field is special when template type is "Select" or
90 "Multiselect", because a value has to be chosen amongst the English
91 list of choices, even for localized values. Normally this field must
92 not be changed, but in rare circumstances localized values are
93 meaningful (e.g. to choose the default language of an application). In
94 order to let translators know that this localized "Default" field is
95 special, you must by convention call it "_DefaultChoice" instead of
96 "_Default".
97
99 debconf-updatepo(1), po2debconf(1), debconf-devel(7), po-debconf(7).
100
102 Denis Barbier <barbier@linuxfr.org>
103 Martin Quinson <martin.quinson@ens-lyon.fr>
104 2022-07-22 DEBCONF-GETTEXTIZE(1)