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)