XGETTEXT(1)XGETTEXT(1)NAMExgettext - extract gettext call strings from C programs
SYNOPSISxgettext [-ns] [-a [-x exclude-file]] [-c comment-tag]
[-d default-domain] [-j] [-m prefix] [-M suffix]
[-p pathname] -| filename...
xgettext-h
DESCRIPTION
The xgettext utility is used to automate the creation of portable mes‐
sage files (.po). A .po file contains copies of "C" strings that are
found in ANSI C source code in filename or the standard input if `−'
is specified on the command line. The .po file can be used as input to
the msgfmt(1) utility, which produces a binary form of the message
file that can be used by application during run-time.
xgettext writes msgid strings from gettext(3C) calls in filename to the
default output file messages.po. The default output file name can be
changed by -d option. msgid strings in dgettext() calls are written to
the output file domainname.po where domainname is the first parameter
to the dgettext() call.
By default, xgettext creates a .po file in the current working direc‐
tory, and each entry is in the same order that the strings are
extracted from filenames. When the -p option is specified, the .po
file is created in the pathname directory. An existing .po file is
overwritten.
Duplicate msgids are written to the .po file as comment lines. When
the -s option is specified, the .po is sorted by the msgid string,
and all duplicated msgids are removed. All msgstr directives in the .po
file are empty unless the -m option is used.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-n
Add comment lines to the output file indicating
file name and line number in the source file where
each extracted string is encountered. These lines
appear before each msgid in the following format:
# # File: filename, line: line-number
-s
Generate output sorted by msgids with all dupli‐
cate msgids removed.
-a
Extract all strings, not just those found in get‐
text(3C), and dgettext() () calls. Only one .po
file is created.
-c comment-tag
The comment block beginning with comment-tag as
the first token of the comment block is added to
the output .po file as # delimited comments. For
multiple domains, xgettext directs comments and
messages to the prevailing text domain.
-d default-domain
Rename default output file from messages.po to
default-domain .po.
-j
Join messages with existing message files. If a
.po file does not exist, it is created. If a .po
file does exist, new messages are appended. Any
duplicate msgids are commented out in the result‐
ing .po file. Domain directives in the existing
.po file are ignored. Results not guaranteed if
the existing message file has been edited.
-m prefix
Fill in the msgstr with prefix. This is useful
for debugging purposes. To make msgstr identical
to msgid, use an empty string ("") for prefix.
-M suffix
Fill in the msgstr with suffix. This is useful
for debugging purposes.
-p pathname
Specify the directory where the output files will
be placed. This option overrides the current work‐
ing directory.
-x exclude-file
Specify a .po file that contains a list of msgids
that are not to be extracted from the input files.
The format of exclude-file is identical to the .po
file. However, only the msgid directive line in
exclude-file is used. All other lines are simply
ignored. The -x option can only be used with the
-a option.
-h
Print a help message on the standard output.
SEE ALSOmsgfmt(1), gettext(3C), attributes(5)NOTESxgettext is not able to extract cast strings, for example ANSI C casts
of literal strings to (const char *). This is unnecessary anyway, since
the prototypes in <libintl.h> already specify this type.
In messages and translation notes, lines greater than 2048 characters
are truncated to 2048 characters and a warning message is printed to
stderr.
Mar 23, 1999 XGETTEXT(1)
