oracular (3) Locale::XGettext.3pm.gz
NAME
Locale::XGettext - Extract Strings To PO Files
SYNOPSIS
use base 'Locale::XGettext';
DESCRIPTION
Locale::XGettext is the base class for various string extractors. These string extractors can be used as
standalone programs on the command-line or as a module as a part of other software.
See <https://github.com/gflohr/Locale-XGettext> for an overall picture of the software.
USAGE
This section describes the usage of extractors based on this library. See "SUBCLASSING" and the sections
following it for the API documentation!
xgettext-LANG [OPTIONS] [INPUTFILE]...
LANG will be replaced by an identifier for the language that a specific extractor was written for, for
example "xgettext-txt" for plain text files or "xgettext-tt2" for templates for the Template Toolkit
version 2 (see Template).
By default, string extractors based on this module extract strings from one or more INPUTFILES and write
the output to a file "messages.po" if any strings had been found.
OPTIONS
The command line options are mostly compatible to xgettext from GNU Gettext
<https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/xgettext-Invocation.html>.
INPUT FILE LOCATION
INPUTFILE...
All non-option arguments are interpreted as input files containing strings to be extracted. If the
input file is "-", standard input is read.
-f FILE
--files-from=FILE
Read the names of the input files from FILE instead of getting them from the command line.
Note! Unlike xgettext from GNU Gettext, extractors based on Locale::XGettext accept this option
multiple times, so that you can read the list of input files from multiple files.
-D DIRECTORY
--directory=DIRECTORY
Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories. Source files are searched relative to this list of
directories. The resulting .po file will be written relative to the current directory, though.
OUTPUT FILE LOCATION
-d NAME
--default-domain=NAME
Use NAME.po for output (instead of messages.po).
-o FILE
--output=FILE
Write output to specified FILE (instead of NAME.po or messages.po).
-p DIR
--output-dir=DIR
Output files will be placed in directory DIR.
If the output file is - or /dev/stdout, the output is written to standard output.
INPUT FILE INTERPRETATION
--from-code=NAME
Specifies the encoding of the input files. This option is needed only if some untranslated message
strings or their corresponding comments contain non-ASCII characters.
By default the input files are assumed to be in ASCII.
Note! Some extractors have a fixed input set, UTF-8 most of the times.
OPERATION MODE
-j
--join-existing
Join messages with existing files. This is a shortcut for adding the output file to the list of
input files. The output file is read, and then all messages from other input files are added.
For obvious reasons, you cannot use this option if output is written to standard output.
-x FILE.po
--exclude-file=FILE.po
PO entries that are present in FILE.po are not extracted.
-c TAG
--add-comments=TAG
Place comment blocks starting with TAG in the output if they precede a keyword line.
-c
--add-comments
Place all comment blocks that precede a keyword line in the output.
LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC-OPTIONS
-a
--extract-all
Extract all strings, not just the ones marked with keywords.
Not all extractors support this option!
-k WORD
--keyword=WORD
Use WORD as an additional keyword.
Not all extractors support this option!
-k
--keyword
Do not use default keywords! If you define your own keywords, you use usually give the option
'--keyword' first without an argument to reset the keyword list to empty, and then you give a
'--keyword' option for everyt keyword wanted.
Not all extractors support this option!
--flag=WORD:ARG:FLAG
Original explanation from GNU gettext:
Specifies additional flags for strings occurring as part of the argth argument of the function
word. The possible flags are the possible format string indicators, such as Xc-formatX, and their
negations, such as Xno-c-formatX, possibly prefixed with Xpass-X.
The meaning of --flag=function:arg:lang-format is that in language lang, the specified function
expects as argth argument a format string. (For those of you familiar with GCC function
attributes, --flag=function:arg:c-format is roughly equivalent to the declaration X__attribute__
((__format__ (__printf__, arg, ...)))X attached to function in a C source file.) For example, if
you use the XerrorX function from GNU libc, you can specify its behaviour through
--flag=error:3:c-format. The effect of this specification is that xgettext will mark as format
strings all gettext invocations that occur as argth argument of function. This is useful when
such strings contain no format string directives: together with the checks done by Xmsgfmt -cX it
will ensure that translators cannot accidentally use format string directives that would lead to
a crash at runtime.
The meaning of --flag=function:arg:pass-lang-format is that in language lang, if the function
call occurs in a position that must yield a format string, then its argth argument must yield a
format string of the same type as well. (If you know GCC function attributes, the
--flag=function:arg:pass-c-format option is roughly equivalent to the declaration X__attribute__
((__format_arg__ (arg)))X attached to function in a C source file.) For example, if you use the
X_X shortcut for the gettext function, you should use --flag=_:1:pass-c-format. The effect of
this specification is that xgettext will propagate a format string requirement for a _("string")
call to its first argument, the literal "string", and thus mark it as a format string. This is
useful when such strings contain no format string directives: together with the checks done by
Xmsgfmt -cX it will ensure that translators cannot accidentally use format string directives that
would lead to a crash at runtime.
Note that Locale::XGettext ignores the prefix pass- and therefore most extractors based on
Locale::XGettext will also ignore it.
Individual extractors may define more language-specific options.
Output Details
--force-po
Write PO file even if empty. Normally, empty PO files are not written, and existing output files are
not overwritten if they would be empty.
--no-location
Do not write '#: filename:line' lines into the output PO files.
-n
--add-location
Generate '#: filename:line' lines in the output PO files. This is the default.
-s
--sort-output
Sort output entries alphanumerically.
-F
--sort-by-file
Sort output entries by source file location.
--omit-header
Do not write header with meta information. The meta information is normally included as the
"translation" for the empty string.
If you want to hava a translation for an empty string you should also consider using message
contexts.
--copyright-holder=STRING
Set the copyright holder to STRING in the output PO file.
--foreign-user
Omit FSF copyright in output for foreign user.
--package-name=PACKAGE
Set package name in output
--package-version=VERSION
Set package version in output.
--msgid-bugs-address=EMAIL@ADDRESS
Set report address for msgid bugs.
-m[STRING]
--msgstr-prefix[=STRING]
Use STRING or "" as prefix for msgstr values.
-M[STRING]
--msgstr-suffix[=STRING]
Use STRING or "" as suffix for msgstr values.
INFORMATIVE OUTPUT
-h
--help
Display short help and exit.
-V
--version
Output version information and exit.
SUBCLASSING
Writing a complete extractor script in Perl with Locale::XGettext is as simple as:
#! /usr/bin/env perl
use Locale::Messages qw(setlocale LC_MESSAGES);
use Locale::TextDomain qw(YOURTEXTDOMAIN);
use Locale::XGettext::YOURSUBCLASS;
Locale::Messages::setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");
Locale::XGettext::YOURSUBCLASS->newFromArgv(\@ARGV)->run->output;
Writing the extractor class is also trivial:
package Locale::XGettext::YOURSUBCLASS;
use base 'Locale::XGettext';
sub readFile {
my ($self, $filename) = @_;
foreach my $found (search_for_strings_in $filename) {
$self->addEntry({
msgid => $found->{string},
# More possible fields following, see
# addEntry() below!
}, $found->{possible_comment});
}
# The return value is actually ignored.
return $self;
}
All the heavy lifting happens in the method readFile() that you have to implement yourself. All other
methods are optional.
See the section "METHODS" below for information on how to additionally modify the behavior your
extractor.
CONSTRUCTORS
new $OPTIONS, @FILES
OPTIONS is a hash reference containing the above command-line options but with every hyphen replaced
by an underscore. You should normally not use this constructor!
newFromArgv $ARGV
ARGV is a reference to a an array of command-line arguments that is passed verbatim to
Getopt::Long::GetOptionsFromArray. After processing all options and arguments, the constructor new()
above is then invoked with the cooked command-line arguments.
This is the constructor that you should normally use in custom extractors that you write.
METHODS
Locale::XGettext is an abstract base class. All public methods may be overridden by subclassed
extractors.
readFile FILENAME
You have to implement this method yourself. In it, read FILENAME, extract all relevant entries, and
call addEntry() for each entry found.
The method is not invoked for filenames ending in ".po" or ".pot"! For those files, readPO() is
invoked instead.
This method is the only one that you have to implement!
addEntry ENTRY[, COMMENT]
You should invoke this method for every entry found.
COMMENT is an optional comment that you may have extracted along with the message. Note that
addEntry() checks whether this comment should make it into the output. Therefore, just pass any
comment that you have found preceding the keyword.
ENTRY should be a reference to a hash with these possible keys:
msgid The entry's message id.
msgid_plural
A possible plural form.
msgctxt A possible message context.
reference
A source reference in the form "FILENAME: LINENO".
flags Set a flag for this entry, for example "perl-brace-format" or "no-perl-brace-format". You
can comma-separate multiple flags.
keyword The keyword that triggered the entry. If you set this property and the keyword definition
contained an automatic comment, the comment will be added. You can try this out like this:
xgettext-my.pl --keyword=greet:1,'"Hello, world!"'
If you set keyword to "greet", the comment "Hello, world" will be added. Note that the
"double quotes" are part of the command-line argument!
Likewise, if "--flag" was specified on the command-line or the extractor ships with default
flags, entries matching the flag definition will automatically have this flag.
You can try this out with:
xgettext-my.pl --keyword="greet:1" --flag=greet:1:hello-format
Now all PO entries for the keyword "greet" will have the flag "hello-format"
fuzzy True if the entry is fuzzy. There is no reason to use this in string extractors because they
typically product .pot files without translations.
automatic
Sets an automatic comment, not recommended. Rather set the keyword (see above) and let
Locale::XGettext set the comment as appropriate.
Instead of a hash you can currently also pass a Locale::PO object. This may no longer be supported
in the future. Do not use!
keywords
Return a hash reference with all keyword definitions as Locale::XGettext::Util::Keyword objects.
keywordOptionStrings
Return a reference to an array with all keyword definitions as option strings suitable for the
command-line option "--keyword".
flags
Return an array reference with all flag definitions as Locale::XGettext::Util::Flag objects.
flagOptionStrings
Return a reference to an array with all flag definitions as option strings suitable for the command-
line option "--flag".
options
Get all command-line options as a hash reference.
option OPTION
Get the value for command line option OPTION.
setOption OPTION, VALUE
Set the value for command line option OPTION to VALUE.
languageSpecificOptions
The default representation returns nothing.
Your own implementation can return an reference to an array of arrays, each of them containing one
option specification consisting of four items:
• The option specification for Getopt::Long(3pm), for example "f|filename=s" for an option
expecting a mandatory string argument.
• The name of the option. This is what gets passed to option() above. It should generally be
the long option name with hyphens converted to underscores.
• The option description for the usage information, for example "-f, --files=STRING" for
options taking arguments or something like " --verbose" for long-only options. This is
printed in the left column, when you invoke your extractor with "--help".
• The description of this option. This is printed in the right column, when you invoke your
extractor with "--help".
printLanguageSpecificOptions
Prints all language-specific options to standard output, calls languageSpecificOptions() internally.
This is used for the output for the option "--help".
fileInformation
Returns nothing by default. You can return a string describing the expected input format, when
invoked with "--help".
versionInformation
Returns nothing by default. You can return a string that is printed, when invoked with "--version".
bugTrackingAddress
Returns nothing by default. You can return a string describing the bug tracking address, when
invoked with "--help".
canExtractAll
Returns false by default. Return a truthy value if your extractor supports the option
"--extract-all".
canKeywords
Returns true by default. Return a false value if your extractor does not support the option
"--keyword".
canFlags
Returns true by default. Return a false value if your extractor does not support the option
"--flag".
needInputFiles
Returns true by default. Return a false value if your extractor does not support input from files.
In this case you should implement readFromNonFiles().
programName
Return the name of the program for usage and help information. Defaults to just $0 but you can
return another value here.
run Runs the extractor once. The default implementation scans all input sources for translatable strings
and collects them.
output
Print the output as a PO file to the specified output location.
extractFromNonFiles
This method is invoked after all input files have been processed. The default implementation does
nothing. You may use the method for extracting strings from additional sources like a database.
resolveFilename FILENAME
Given an input filename FILENAME the method returns the absolute location of the file. The default
implementation honors the option "-D, --directory".
defaultKeywords
Returns a reference to an empty array.
Subclasses may return a reference to an array with default keyword definitions for the specific
language. The default keywords (actually just a subset for it) for the language C would look like
this (expressed in JSON):
[
"gettext:1",
"ngettext:1,2",
"pgettext:1c,2",
"npgettext:1c,2,3"
]
See above the description of the command-line option "--keyword" for more information about the
meaning of these strings.
defaultFlags
Returns a reference to an empty array.
Subclasses may return a reference to an array with default flag specifications for the specific
language. An example may look like this (expressed in JSON):
[
"gettextx:1:perl-brace-format",
"ngettextx:1:perl-brace-format",
"ngettextx:2:perl-brace-format",
]
We assume that "gettextx()" and "gettextx() are keywords for the language in question. The above
default flag definition would mean that in all invocations of the function "gettextx()", the 1st
argument would get the flag "perl-brace-format". In all invocations of "ngettextx()", the 1st and
2nd argument would get the flag "perl-brace-format".
You can prefix the format with "no-" which tells the GNU gettext tools that the particular never uses
that format.
You can additionally prefix the format with "pass-" but this is ignored by Locale::XGettext. If you
want to implemnt the GNU xgettext behavior for the "pass-" prefix, you have to implement it yourself
in your extractor.
recodeEntry ENTRY
Gets invoked for every PO entry but after it has been promoted to a Locale::PO(3pm) object. The
implementation of this method is likely to be changed in the future.
Do not use!
readPO FILENAME
Reads FILENAME as .po or .pot file. There is no reason why you should override or invoke this
method.
po Returns a list of PO entries represented by hash references. Do not use or override this method!
printLanguageSpecificUsage
Prints the help for language-specific options. Override it, if you are not happy with the
formatting.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2016-2017 Guido Flohr <guido.flohr@cantanea.com>, all rights reserved.
SEE ALSO
Getopt::Long, xgettext(1), perl