XGETTEXT(1) User Commands XGETTEXT(1)

NAME

xgettext - extract gettext call strings from C programs

SYNOPSIS

xgettext [-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
message 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
directory, 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
duplicate msgids removed.


-a
Extract all strings, not just those found in
gettext(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
resulting .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 working 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 ALSO

msgfmt(1), gettext(3C), attributes(7)

NOTES

xgettext 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.

March 23, 1999 XGETTEXT(1)