5.1.7 Output details

‘--color’

‘--color=when’

Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes. See The --color option for details.

‘--style=style_file’

Specify the CSS style rule file to use for --color. See The --style option for details.

‘--force-po’

Always write an output file even if no message is defined.

‘-i’

‘--indent’

Write the .po file using indented style.

‘--no-location’

Do not write ‘#: filename:line’ lines. Note that using this option makes it harder for technically skilled translators to understand each message’s context.

‘-n’

‘--add-location=type’

Generate ‘#: filename:line’ lines (default).

The optional type can be either ‘full’, ‘file’, or ‘never’. If it is not given or ‘full’, it generates the lines with both file name and line number. If it is ‘file’, the line number part is omitted. If it is ‘never’, it completely suppresses the lines (same as --no-location).

‘--strict’

Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file. Note that this Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn’t support the GNU extensions.

‘--properties-output’

Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java .properties syntax. Note that this file format doesn’t support plural forms and silently drops obsolete messages.

‘--stringtable-output’

Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in .strings syntax. Note that this file format doesn’t support plural forms.

‘-w number’

‘--width=number’

Set the output page width. Long strings in the output files will be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line’s width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given number.

‘--no-wrap’

Do not break long message lines. Message lines whose width exceeds the output page width will not be split into several lines. Only file reference lines which are wider than the output page width will be split.

‘-s’

‘--sort-output’

Generate sorted output. Note that using this option makes it much harder for the translator to understand each message’s context.

‘-F’

‘--sort-by-file’

Sort output by file location.

‘--omit-header’

Don’t write header with ‘msgid ""’ entry.

This is useful for testing purposes because it eliminates a source of variance for generated .gmo files. With --omit-header, two invocations of xgettext on the same files with the same options at different times are guaranteed to produce the same results.

Note that using this option will lead to an error if the resulting file would not entirely be in ASCII.

‘--copyright-holder=string’

Set the copyright holder in the output. string should be the copyright holder of the surrounding package. (Note that the msgstr strings, extracted from the package’s sources, belong to the copyright holder of the package.) Translators are expected to transfer or disclaim the copyright for their translations, so that package maintainers can distribute them without legal risk. If string is empty, the output files are marked as being in the public domain; in this case, the translators are expected to disclaim their copyright, again so that package maintainers can distribute them without legal risk.

The default value for string is the Free Software Foundation, Inc., simply because xgettext was first used in the GNU project.

‘--foreign-user’

Omit FSF copyright in output. This option is equivalent to ‘--copyright-holder=''’. It can be useful for packages outside the GNU project that want their translations to be in the public domain.

‘--package-name=package’

Set the package name in the header of the output.

‘--package-version=version’

Set the package version in the header of the output. This option has an effect only if the ‘--package-name’ option is also used.

‘--msgid-bugs-address=email@address’

Set the reporting address for msgid bugs. This is the email address or URL to which the translators shall report bugs in the untranslated strings:

• - Strings which are not entire sentences, see the maintainer guidelines in Preparing Translatable Strings.
• - Strings which use unclear terms or require additional context to be understood.
• - Strings which make invalid assumptions about notation of date, time or money.
• - Pluralisation problems.
• - Incorrect English spelling.
• - Incorrect formatting.

It can be your email address, or a mailing list address where translators can write to without being subscribed, or the URL of a web page through which the translators can contact you.

The default value is empty, which means that translators will be clueless! Don’t forget to specify this option.

‘-m[string]’

‘--msgstr-prefix[=string]’

Use string (or "" if not specified) as prefix for msgstr values.

‘-M[string]’

‘--msgstr-suffix[=string]’

Use string (or "" if not specified) as suffix for msgstr values.

This document was generated on June 7, 2014 using texi2html 5.0.