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6 <TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - The Maintainer's View
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17 <H1><A NAME=
"SEC67" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC67">The Maintainer's View
</A></H1>
20 The maintainer of a package has many responsibilities. One of them
21 is ensuring that the package will install easily on many platforms,
22 and that the magic we described earlier (see section
<A HREF=
"gettext_7.html#SEC35">The User's View
</A>) will work
23 for installers and end users.
27 Of course, there are many possible ways by which GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>
28 might be integrated in a distribution, and this chapter does not cover
29 them in all generality. Instead, it details one possible approach which
30 is especially adequate for many free software distributions following GNU
31 standards, or even better, Gnits standards, because GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>
32 is purposely for helping the internationalization of the whole GNU
33 project, and as many other good free packages as possible. So, the
34 maintainer's view presented here presumes that the package already has
35 a
<TT>`configure.in'
</TT> file and uses GNU Autoconf.
39 Nevertheless, GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> may surely be useful for free packages
40 not following GNU standards and conventions, but the maintainers of such
41 packages might have to show imagination and initiative in organizing
42 their distributions so
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> work for them in all situations.
43 There are surely many, out there.
47 Even if
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> methods are now stabilizing, slight adjustments
48 might be needed between successive
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> versions, so you
49 should ideally revise this chapter in subsequent releases, looking
56 <H2><A NAME=
"SEC68" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC68">Flat or Non-Flat Directory Structures
</A></H2>
59 Some free software packages are distributed as
<CODE>tar
</CODE> files which unpack
60 in a single directory, these are said to be
<STRONG>flat
</STRONG> distributions.
61 Other free software packages have a one level hierarchy of subdirectories, using
62 for example a subdirectory named
<TT>`doc/'
</TT> for the Texinfo manual and
63 man pages, another called
<TT>`lib/'
</TT> for holding functions meant to
64 replace or complement C libraries, and a subdirectory
<TT>`src/'
</TT> for
65 holding the proper sources for the package. These other distributions
66 are said to be
<STRONG>non-flat
</STRONG>.
70 For now, we cannot say much about flat distributions. A flat
71 directory structure has the disadvantage of increasing the difficulty
72 of updating to a new version of GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>. Also, if you have
73 many PO files, this could somewhat pollute your single directory.
74 In the GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> distribution, the
<TT>`misc/'
</TT> directory
75 contains a shell script named
<TT>`combine-sh'
</TT>. That script may
76 be used for combining all the C files of the
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> directory
77 into a pair of C files (one
<TT>`.c'
</TT> and one
<TT>`.h'
</TT>). Those two
78 generated files would fit more easily in a flat directory structure,
79 and you will then have to add these two files to your project.
83 Maybe because GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> itself has a non-flat structure,
84 we have more experience with this approach, and this is what will be
85 described in the remaining of this chapter. Some maintainers might
86 use this as an opportunity to unflatten their package structure.
87 Only later, once gained more experience adapting GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>
88 to flat distributions, we might add some notes about how to proceed
94 <H2><A NAME=
"SEC69" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC69">Prerequisite Works
</A></H2>
97 There are some works which are required for using GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>
98 in one of your package. These works have some kind of generality
99 that escape the point by point descriptions used in the remainder
100 of this chapter. So, we describe them here.
107 Before attempting to use you should install some other packages first.
108 Ensure that recent versions of GNU
<CODE>m4
</CODE>, GNU Autoconf and GNU
109 <CODE>gettext
</CODE> are already installed at your site, and if not, proceed
110 to do this first. If you got to install these things, beware that
111 GNU
<CODE>m4
</CODE> must be fully installed before GNU Autoconf is even
114 To further ease the task of a package maintainer the
<CODE>automake
</CODE>
115 package was designed and implemented. GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> now uses this
116 tool and the
<TT>`Makefile'
</TT>s in the
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> and
<TT>`po/'
</TT>
117 therefore know about all the goals necessary for using
<CODE>automake
</CODE>
118 and
<TT>`libintl'
</TT> in one project.
120 Those four packages are only needed to you, as a maintainer; the
121 installers of your own package and end users do not really need any of
122 GNU
<CODE>m4
</CODE>, GNU Autoconf, GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>, or GNU
<CODE>automake
</CODE>
123 for successfully installing and running your package, with messages
124 properly translated. But this is not completely true if you provide
125 internationalized shell scripts within your own package: GNU
126 <CODE>gettext
</CODE> shall then be installed at the user site if the end users
127 want to see the translation of shell script messages.
131 Your package should use Autoconf and have a
<TT>`configure.in'
</TT> file.
132 If it does not, you have to learn how. The Autoconf documentation
133 is quite well written, it is a good idea that you print it and get
138 Your C sources should have already been modified according to
139 instructions given earlier in this manual. See section
<A HREF=
"gettext_3.html#SEC13">Preparing Program Sources
</A>.
143 Your
<TT>`po/'
</TT> directory should receive all PO files submitted to you
144 by the translator teams, each having
<TT>`
<VAR>ll
</VAR>.po'
</TT> as a name.
145 This is not usually easy to get translation
146 work done before your package gets internationalized and available!
147 Since the cycle has to start somewhere, the easiest for the maintainer
148 is to start with absolutely no PO files, and wait until various
149 translator teams get interested in your package, and submit PO files.
154 It is worth adding here a few words about how the maintainer should
155 ideally behave with PO files submissions. As a maintainer, your role is
156 to authentify the origin of the submission as being the representative
157 of the appropriate translating teams of the Translation Project (forward
158 the submission to
<TT>`translation@iro.umontreal.ca'
</TT> in case of doubt),
159 to ensure that the PO file format is not severely broken and does not
160 prevent successful installation, and for the rest, to merely to put these
161 PO files in
<TT>`po/'
</TT> for distribution.
165 As a maintainer, you do not have to take on your shoulders the
166 responsibility of checking if the translations are adequate or
167 complete, and should avoid diving into linguistic matters. Translation
168 teams drive themselves and are fully responsible of their linguistic
169 choices for the Translation Project. Keep in mind that translator teams are
<EM>not
</EM>
170 driven by maintainers. You can help by carefully redirecting all
171 communications and reports from users about linguistic matters to the
172 appropriate translation team, or explain users how to reach or join
173 their team. The simplest might be to send them the
<TT>`ABOUT-NLS'
</TT> file.
177 Maintainers should
<EM>never ever
</EM> apply PO file bug reports
178 themselves, short-cutting translation teams. If some translator has
179 difficulty to get some of her points through her team, it should not be
180 an issue for her to directly negotiate translations with maintainers.
181 Teams ought to settle their problems themselves, if any. If you, as
182 a maintainer, ever think there is a real problem with a team, please
183 never try to
<EM>solve
</EM> a team's problem on your own.
188 <H2><A NAME=
"SEC70" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC70">Invoking the
<CODE>gettextize
</CODE> Program
</A></H2>
191 Some files are consistently and identically needed in every package
192 internationalized through GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>. As a matter of
193 convenience, the
<CODE>gettextize
</CODE> program puts all these files right
194 in your package. This program has the following synopsis:
199 gettextize [
<VAR>option
</VAR>... ] [
<VAR>directory
</VAR> ]
203 and accepts the following options:
208 <DT><SAMP>`-c'
</SAMP>
210 <DT><SAMP>`--copy'
</SAMP>
212 Copy the needed files instead of making symbolic links. Using links
213 would allow the package to always use the latest
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> code
214 available on the system, but it might disturb some mechanism the
215 maintainer is used to apply to the sources. Because running
216 <CODE>gettextize
</CODE> is easy there shouldn't be problems with using copies.
218 <DT><SAMP>`-f'
</SAMP>
220 <DT><SAMP>`--force'
</SAMP>
222 Force replacement of files which already exist.
224 <DT><SAMP>`-h'
</SAMP>
226 <DT><SAMP>`--help'
</SAMP>
228 Display this help and exit.
230 <DT><SAMP>`--version'
</SAMP>
232 Output version information and exit.
237 If
<VAR>directory
</VAR> is given, this is the top level directory of a
238 package to prepare for using GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>. If not given, it
239 is assumed that the current directory is the top level directory of
244 The program
<CODE>gettextize
</CODE> provides the following files. However,
245 no existing file will be replaced unless the option
<CODE>--force
</CODE>
246 (
<CODE>-f
</CODE>) is specified.
253 The
<TT>`ABOUT-NLS'
</TT> file is copied in the main directory of your package,
254 the one being at the top level. This file gives the main indications
255 about how to install and use the Native Language Support features
256 of your program. You might elect to use a more recent copy of this
257 <TT>`ABOUT-NLS'
</TT> file than the one provided through
<CODE>gettextize
</CODE>,
258 if you have one handy. You may also fetch a more recent copy of file
259 <TT>`ABOUT-NLS'
</TT> from Translation Project sites, and from most GNU
264 A
<TT>`po/'
</TT> directory is created for eventually holding
265 all translation files, but initially only containing the file
266 <TT>`po/Makefile.in.in'
</TT> from the GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> distribution.
267 (beware the double
<SAMP>`.in'
</SAMP> in the file name). If the
<TT>`po/'
</TT>
268 directory already exists, it will be preserved along with the files
269 it contains, and only
<TT>`Makefile.in.in'
</TT> will be overwritten.
273 A
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> directory is created and filled with most of the files
274 originally in the
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> directory of the GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>
275 distribution. Also, if option
<CODE>--force
</CODE> (
<CODE>-f
</CODE>) is given,
276 the
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> directory is emptied first.
281 If your site support symbolic links,
<CODE>gettextize
</CODE> will not
282 actually copy the files into your package, but establish symbolic
283 links instead. This avoids duplicating the disk space needed in
284 all packages. Merely using the
<SAMP>`-h'
</SAMP> option while creating the
285 <CODE>tar
</CODE> archive of your distribution will resolve each link by an
286 actual copy in the distribution archive. So, to insist, you really
287 should use
<SAMP>`-h'
</SAMP> option with
<CODE>tar
</CODE> within your
<CODE>dist
</CODE>
288 goal of your main
<TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT>.
292 It is interesting to understand that most new files for supporting
293 GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> facilities in one package go in
<TT>`intl/'
</TT>
294 and
<TT>`po/'
</TT> subdirectories. One distinction between these two
295 directories is that
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> is meant to be completely identical
296 in all packages using GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>, while all newly created
297 files, which have to be different, go into
<TT>`po/'
</TT>. There is a
298 common
<TT>`Makefile.in.in'
</TT> in
<TT>`po/'
</TT>, because the
<TT>`po/'
</TT>
299 directory needs its own
<TT>`Makefile'
</TT>, and it has been designed so
300 it can be identical in all packages.
305 <H2><A NAME=
"SEC71" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC71">Files You Must Create or Alter
</A></H2>
308 Besides files which are automatically added through
<CODE>gettextize
</CODE>,
309 there are many files needing revision for properly interacting with
310 GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>. If you are closely following GNU standards for
311 Makefile engineering and auto-configuration, the adaptations should
312 be easier to achieve. Here is a point by point description of the
313 changes needed in each.
317 So, here comes a list of files, each one followed by a description of
318 all alterations it needs. Many examples are taken out from the GNU
319 <CODE>gettext
</CODE> 0.10.35 distribution itself. You may indeed
320 refer to the source code of the GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> package, as it
321 is intended to be a good example and master implementation for using
322 its own functionality.
328 <H3><A NAME=
"SEC72" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC72"><TT>`POTFILES.in'
</TT> in
<TT>`po/'
</TT></A></H3>
331 The
<TT>`po/'
</TT> directory should receive a file named
332 <TT>`POTFILES.in'
</TT>. This file tells which files, among all program
333 sources, have marked strings needing translation. Here is an example
339 # List of source files containing translatable strings.
340 # Copyright (C)
1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
342 # Common library files
347 # Package source files
354 Dashed comments and white lines are ignored. All other lines
355 list those source files containing strings marked for translation
356 (see section
<A HREF=
"gettext_3.html#SEC15">How Marks Appears in Sources
</A>), in a notation relative to the top level
357 of your whole distribution, rather than the location of the
358 <TT>`POTFILES.in'
</TT> file itself.
363 <H3><A NAME=
"SEC73" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC73"><TT>`configure.in'
</TT> at top level
</A></H3>
367 <LI>Declare the package and version.
369 This is done by a set of lines like these:
375 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PACKAGE, "$PACKAGE")
376 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VERSION, "$VERSION")
381 Of course, you replace
<SAMP>`gettext'
</SAMP> with the name of your package,
382 and
<SAMP>`
0.10.35'
</SAMP> by its version numbers, exactly as they
383 should appear in the packaged
<CODE>tar
</CODE> file name of your distribution
384 (
<TT>`gettext-
0.10.35.tar.gz'
</TT>, here).
386 <LI>Declare the available translations.
388 This is done by defining
<CODE>ALL_LINGUAS
</CODE> to the white separated,
389 quoted list of available languages, in a single line, like this:
396 This example means that German and French PO files are available, so
397 that these languages are currently supported by your package. If you
398 want to further restrict, at installation time, the set of installed
399 languages, this should not be done by modifying
<CODE>ALL_LINGUAS
</CODE> in
400 <TT>`configure.in'
</TT>, but rather by using the
<CODE>LINGUAS
</CODE> environment
401 variable (see section
<A HREF=
"gettext_7.html#SEC37">Magic for Installers
</A>).
403 <LI>Check for internationalization support.
405 Here is the main
<CODE>m4
</CODE> macro for triggering internationalization
406 support. Just add this line to
<TT>`configure.in'
</TT>:
413 This call is purposely simple, even if it generates a lot of configure
414 time checking and actions.
416 <LI>Have output files created.
418 The
<CODE>AC_OUTPUT
</CODE> directive, at the end of your
<TT>`configure.in'
</TT>
419 file, needs to be modified in two ways:
423 AC_OUTPUT([
<VAR>existing configuration files
</VAR> intl/Makefile po/Makefile.in],
424 <VAR>existing additional actions
</VAR>])
427 The modification to the first argument to
<CODE>AC_OUTPUT
</CODE> asks
428 for substitution in the
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> and
<TT>`po/'
</TT> directories.
429 Note the
<SAMP>`.in'
</SAMP> suffix used for
<TT>`po/'
</TT> only. This is because
430 the distributed file is really
<TT>`po/Makefile.in.in'
</TT>.
436 <H3><A NAME=
"SEC74" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC74"><TT>`aclocal.m4'
</TT> at top level
</A></H3>
439 If you do not have an
<TT>`aclocal.m4'
</TT> file in your distribution,
440 the simplest is taking a copy of
<TT>`aclocal.m4'
</TT> from
441 GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>. But to be precise, you only need macros
442 <CODE>AM_LC_MESSAGES
</CODE>,
<CODE>AM_WITH_NLS
</CODE> and
<CODE>AM_GNU_GETTEXT
</CODE>,
443 and
<CODE>AM_PATH_PROG_WITH_TEST
</CODE>, which is called by
<CODE>AM_WITH_NLS
</CODE>,
444 so you may use an editor and remove macros you do not need.
448 If you already have an
<TT>`aclocal.m4'
</TT> file, then you will have
449 to merge the said macros into your
<TT>`aclocal.m4'
</TT>. Note that if
450 you are upgrading from a previous release of GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>, you
451 should most probably
<EM>replace
</EM> the said macros, as they usually
452 change a little from one release of GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> to the next.
453 Their contents may vary as we get more experience with strange systems
458 These macros check for the internationalization support functions
459 and related informations. Hopefully, once stabilized, these macros
460 might be integrated in the standard Autoconf set, because this
461 piece of
<CODE>m4
</CODE> code will be the same for all projects using GNU
462 <CODE>gettext
</CODE>.
467 <H3><A NAME=
"SEC75" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC75"><TT>`acconfig.h'
</TT> at top level
</A></H3>
470 If you do not have an
<TT>`acconfig.h'
</TT> file in your distribution, the
471 simplest is use take a copy of
<TT>`acconfig.h'
</TT> from GNU
472 <CODE>gettext
</CODE>. But to be precise, you only need the lines and comments
473 for
<CODE>ENABLE_NLS
</CODE>,
<CODE>HAVE_CATGETS
</CODE>,
<CODE>HAVE_GETTEXT
</CODE> and
474 <CODE>HAVE_LC_MESSAGES
</CODE>,
<CODE>HAVE_STPCPY
</CODE>,
<CODE>PACKAGE
</CODE> and
475 <CODE>VERSION
</CODE>, so you may use an editor and remove everything else. If
476 you already have an
<TT>`acconfig.h'
</TT> file, then you should merge the
477 said definitions into your
<TT>`acconfig.h'
</TT>.
482 <H3><A NAME=
"SEC76" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC76"><TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT> at top level
</A></H3>
485 Here are a few modifications you need to make to your main, top-level
486 <TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT> file.
493 Add the following lines near the beginning of your
<TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT>,
494 so the
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal will work properly (as explained further down):
504 Add file
<TT>`ABOUT-NLS'
</TT> to the
<CODE>DISTFILES
</CODE> definition, so the file gets
509 Wherever you process subdirectories in your
<TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT>, be sure
510 you also process dir subdirectories
<SAMP>`intl'
</SAMP> and
<SAMP>`po'
</SAMP>. Special
511 rules in the
<TT>`Makefiles'
</TT> take care for the case where no
512 internationalization is wanted.
514 If you are using Makefiles, either generated by automake, or hand-written
515 so they carefully follow the GNU coding standards, the effected goals for
516 which the new subdirectories must be handled include
<SAMP>`installdirs'
</SAMP>,
517 <SAMP>`install'
</SAMP>,
<SAMP>`uninstall'
</SAMP>,
<SAMP>`clean'
</SAMP>,
<SAMP>`distclean'
</SAMP>.
519 Here is an example of a canonical order of processing. In this
520 example, we also define
<CODE>SUBDIRS
</CODE> in
<CODE>Makefile.in
</CODE> for it
521 to be further used in the
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal.
525 SUBDIRS = doc lib @INTLSUB@ src @POSUB@
528 that you will have to adapt to your own package.
532 A delicate point is the
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal, as both
533 <TT>`intl/Makefile'
</TT> and
<TT>`po/Makefile'
</TT> will later assume that the
534 proper directory has been set up from the main
<TT>`Makefile'
</TT>. Here is
535 an example at what the
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal might look like:
539 distdir = $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)
544 for file in $(DISTFILES); do \
545 ln $$file $(distdir)
2>/dev/null || cp -p $$file $(distdir); \
547 for subdir in $(SUBDIRS); do \
548 mkdir $(distdir)/$$subdir || exit
1; \
549 chmod
777 $(distdir)/$$subdir; \
550 (cd $$subdir
&& $(MAKE) $@) || exit
1; \
552 tar chozf $(distdir).tar.gz $(distdir)
560 <H3><A NAME=
"SEC77" HREF=
"gettext_toc.html#TOC77"><TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT> in
<TT>`src/'
</TT></A></H3>
563 Some of the modifications made in the main
<TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT> will
564 also be needed in the
<TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT> from your package sources,
565 which we assume here to be in the
<TT>`src/'
</TT> subdirectory. Here are
566 all the modifications needed in
<TT>`src/Makefile.in'
</TT>:
573 In view of the
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal, you should have these lines near the
574 beginning of
<TT>`src/Makefile.in'
</TT>:
584 If not done already, you should guarantee that
<CODE>top_srcdir
</CODE>
585 gets defined. This will serve for
<CODE>cpp
</CODE> include files. Just add
590 top_srcdir = @top_srcdir@
595 You might also want to define
<CODE>subdir
</CODE> as
<SAMP>`src'
</SAMP>, later
596 allowing for almost uniform
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goals in all your
597 <TT>`Makefile.in'
</TT>. At list, the
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal below assume that
607 You should ensure that the final linking will use
<CODE>@INTLLIBS@
</CODE> as
608 a library. An easy way to achieve this is to manage that it gets into
609 <CODE>LIBS
</CODE>, like this:
613 LIBS = @INTLLIBS@ @LIBS@
616 In most packages internationalized with GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE>, one will
617 find a directory
<TT>`lib/'
</TT> in which a library containing some helper
618 functions will be build. (You need at least the few functions which the
619 GNU
<CODE>gettext
</CODE> Library itself needs.) However some of the functions
620 in the
<TT>`lib/'
</TT> also give messages to the user which of course should be
621 translated, too. Taking care of this it is not enough to place the support
622 library (say
<TT>`libsupport.a'
</TT>) just between the
<CODE>@INTLLIBS@
</CODE>
623 and
<CODE>@LIBS@
</CODE> in the above example. Instead one has to write this:
627 LIBS = ../lib/libsupport.a @INTLLIBS@ ../lib/libsupport.a @LIBS@
632 You should also ensure that directory
<TT>`intl/'
</TT> will be searched for
633 C preprocessor include files in all circumstances. So, you have to
634 manage so both
<SAMP>`-I../intl'
</SAMP> and
<SAMP>`-I$(top_srcdir)/intl'
</SAMP> will
635 be given to the C compiler.
639 Your
<SAMP>`dist:'
</SAMP> goal has to conform with others. Here is a
640 reasonable definition for it:
644 distdir = ../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)/$(subdir)
645 dist: Makefile $(DISTFILES)
646 for file in $(DISTFILES); do \
647 ln $$file $(distdir)
2>/dev/null || cp -p $$file $(distdir); \
654 <p>Go to the
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</A>,
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