MSGMERGE

Section: GNU (1)
Updated: November 2007
Index Return to Main Contents
 

NAME

msgmerge - merge message catalog and template  

SYNOPSIS

msgmerge [OPTION] def.po ref.pot  

DESCRIPTION

Merges two Uniforum style .po files together. The def.po file is an existing PO file with translations which will be taken over to the newly created file as long as they still match; comments will be preserved, but extracted comments and file positions will be discarded. The ref.pot file is the last created PO file with up-to-date source references but old translations, or a PO Template file (generally created by xgettext); any translations or comments in the file will be discarded, however dot comments and file positions will be preserved. Where an exact match cannot be found, fuzzy matching is used to produce better results.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.  

Input file location:

def.po
translations referring to old sources
ref.pot
references to new sources
-D, --directory=DIRECTORY
add DIRECTORY to list for input files search
-C, --compendium=FILE
additional library of message translations, may be specified more than once
 

Operation mode:

-U, --update
update def.po, do nothing if def.po already up to date
 

Output file location:

-o, --output-file=FILE
write output to specified file

The results are written to standard output if no output file is specified or if it is -.

Output file location in update mode: The result is written back to def.po.

--backup=CONTROL
make a backup of def.po
--suffix=SUFFIX
override the usual backup suffix

The version control method may be selected via the --backup option or through the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable. Here are the values:

none, off
never make backups (even if --backup is given)
numbered, t
make numbered backups
existing, nil
numbered if numbered backups exist, simple otherwise
simple, never
always make simple backups

The backup suffix is `~', unless set with --suffix or the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable.  

Operation modifiers:

-m, --multi-domain
apply ref.pot to each of the domains in def.po
-N, --no-fuzzy-matching
do not use fuzzy matching
--previous
keep previous msgids of translated messages
 

Input file syntax:

-P, --properties-input
input files are in Java .properties syntax
--stringtable-input
input files are in NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings syntax
 

Output details:

-e, --no-escape
do not use C escapes in output (default)
-E, --escape
use C escapes in output, no extended chars
--force-po
write PO file even if empty
-i, --indent
indented output style
--no-location
suppress '#: filename:line' lines
--add-location
preserve '#: filename:line' lines (default)
--strict
strict Uniforum output style
-p, --properties-output
write out a Java .properties file
--stringtable-output
write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings file
-w, --width=NUMBER
set output page width
--no-wrap
do not break long message lines, longer than the output page width, into several lines
-s, --sort-output
generate sorted output
-F, --sort-by-file
sort output by file location
 

Informative output:

-h, --help
display this help and exit
-V, --version
output version information and exit
-v, --verbose
increase verbosity level
-q, --quiet, --silent
suppress progress indicators
 

AUTHOR

Written by Peter Miller.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <bug-gnu-gettext@gnu.org>.  

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 1995-1998, 2000-2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.  

SEE ALSO

The full documentation for msgmerge is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and msgmerge programs are properly installed at your site, the command
info msgmerge

should give you access to the complete manual.