msginit

Generate Portable Object files in system locale from messages.pot

$ msginit

$ msginit [[-l|--locale]] [locale] [[-i|--input]] [path/to/messages.pot]

$ msginit [[-h|--help]]

msginit [OPTION]... INPUT.pot
msginit [OPTION]... INPUT.po

-l, --locale=LOCALE
    Specify the target locale (e.g., fr, de_DE) for the new PO file.

-i, --input=FILE
    Read input from FILE instead of the first non-option argument.

-o, --output=FILE
    Write output to FILE instead of the default LOCALE.po.

-e, --encoding=ENCODING
    Specify the output character encoding.

-p, --previous
    Use previous msgid for fuzzy matching (relevant when initializing from an existing .po).

-w, --width=NUMBER
    Wrap output messages at NUMBER columns.

--no-translator
    Do not include Last-Translator and Language-Team fields in the header.

--translator='NAME '
    Set the translator's name and email in the header.

-D, --directory=DIRECTORY
    Add DIRECTORY to the list for searching input files.

--color[=WHEN]
    Control colored output. WHEN can be always, never, or auto.

--no-color
    Equivalent to --color=never.

--style=STYLE
    Use a specific style for colored output.

-v, --verbose
    Print verbose messages during execution.

-s, --statistics
    Print statistics about the output PO file.

--strict
    Enable strict checking of PO file syntax.

--warnings=CATEGORY
    Enable warnings for a specific CATEGORY (e.g., po-file).

--error-limit=NUMBER
    Stop after NUMBER errors are encountered.

--random-seed=NUMBER
    Set random seed for reproducible fuzzy hashes.

--id-hash=ALGORITHM
    Use specified algorithm (e.g., sha1) for message IDs.

--force-po
    Always overwrite existing PO files without prompting.

--sort-output
    Sort the output entries in the PO file.

--sort-by-file
    Sort entries by file location.

--sort-by-msgid
    Sort entries by message ID (default if sorting).

--sort-by-location
    Sort entries by location within the source files.

--sort-by-linenum
    Sort entries by line number within the source files.

--reverse
    Reverse the order of the sorted output.

-c, --comment-out-fuzzy
    Comment out fuzzy entries in the output.

-U, --no-wrap
    Do not wrap output messages.

-W, --wrap
    Wrap output messages (default behavior).

--add-location
    Add location information to entries (default).

--no-location
    Do not add location information to entries.

-h, --help
    Display a help message and exit.

-V, --version
    Display version information and exit.

msginit is a utility from the GNU gettext package, used to initialize a new .po (Portable Object) file for a specific language translation. It typically takes an existing .pot (Portable Object Template) file, which contains all translatable strings extracted from source code, and creates a .po file filled with the original strings, ready for translators to add their target language equivalents.

The generated .po file includes a standard header with metadata like project name, version, translator's name, email, and the target language's character set. If an existing .po file is provided as input, msginit can initialize a new .po for a different locale based on the structure and comments of the existing one. This command is crucial for starting a translation project, ensuring the correct structure and initial content for localization efforts.

When creating a new PO file, msginit does not update the POT-Creation-Date in the generated PO header. This date will reflect the creation date of the original .pot file.

Be mindful of the --force-po option, as it will overwrite an existing PO file without prompt, potentially leading to data loss if not used carefully.

To create a new French translation file (fr.po) from a template (messages.pot):
msginit --locale=fr --input=messages.pot --output=fr.po

Alternatively, if messages.pot is the first argument:
msginit -l fr messages.pot

This creates fr.po in the current directory, pre-filled with original strings and ready for French translations.

msginit fits into the gettext workflow after source code strings have been extracted into a .pot file (using xgettext) and before translations are added by human translators. After translation, the .po files are then compiled into binary .mo files (using msgfmt) which are used by applications at runtime for displaying localized messages.

msginit is an integral part of the GNU gettext toolset, which was developed in the early 1990s to standardize and streamline the process of internationalizing software. Its inclusion greatly simplified the initial setup of translation projects by automating the creation of PO files from templates, making it a foundational component for enabling multilingual support in countless open-source and proprietary applications.

gettext(1), xgettext(1), msgmerge(1), msgfmt(1), msgcomm(1)