xgettext(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | AUTHOR | REPORTING BUGS | COPYRIGHT | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

XGETTEXT(1)                   User Commands                  XGETTEXT(1)

NAME         top

       xgettext - extract gettext strings from source

SYNOPSIS         top

       xgettext [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]...

DESCRIPTION         top

       Extract translatable strings from given input files.

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

   Input file location:
       INPUTFILE ...
              input files

       -f, --files-from=FILE
              get list of input files from FILE

       -D, --directory=DIRECTORY
              add DIRECTORY to list for input files search

       If input file is -, standard input is read.

   Output file location:
       -d, --default-domain=NAME
              use NAME.po for output (instead of messages.po)

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

       -p, --output-dir=DIR
              output files will be placed in directory DIR

       If output file is -, output is written to standard output.

   Choice of input file language:
       -L, --language=NAME
              recognise the specified language (C, C++, ObjectiveC, PO,
              Shell, Python, Lisp, EmacsLisp, librep, Scheme, Smalltalk,
              Java, JavaProperties, C#, awk, YCP, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Ruby,
              GCC-source, NXStringTable, RST, RSJ, Glade, Lua,
              JavaScript, Vala, Desktop)

       -C, --c++
              shorthand for --language=C++

       By default the language is guessed depending on the input file
       name extension.

   Input file interpretation:
       --from-code=NAME
              encoding of input files (except for Python, Tcl, Glade)

       By default the input files are assumed to be in ASCII.

   Operation mode:
       -j, --join-existing
              join messages with existing file

       -x, --exclude-file=FILE.po
              entries from FILE.po are not extracted

       -cTAG, --add-comments=TAG
              place comment blocks starting with TAG and preceding
              keyword lines in output file

       -c, --add-comments
              place all comment blocks preceding keyword lines in output
              file

       --check=NAME
              perform syntax check on messages (ellipsis-unicode,
              space-ellipsis,

              quote-unicode, bullet-unicode)

       --sentence-end=TYPE
              type describing the end of sentence (single-space, which
              is the default,

              or double-space)

   Language specific options:
       -a, --extract-all
              extract all strings (only languages C, C++, ObjectiveC,
              Shell, Python, Lisp, EmacsLisp, librep, Scheme, Java, C#,
              awk, Tcl, Perl, PHP, GCC-source, Glade, Lua, JavaScript,
              Vala)

       -kWORD, --keyword=WORD
              look for WORD as an additional keyword

       -k, --keyword
              do not to use default keywords (only languages C, C++,
              ObjectiveC, Shell, Python, Lisp, EmacsLisp, librep,
              Scheme, Java, C#, awk, Tcl, Perl, PHP, GCC-source, Glade,
              Lua, JavaScript, Vala, Desktop)

       --flag=WORD:ARG:FLAG
              additional flag for strings inside the argument number ARG
              of keyword WORD

       (only languages C, C++, ObjectiveC, Shell,
              Python, Lisp, EmacsLisp, librep, Scheme, Java, C#, awk,
              YCP, Tcl, Perl, PHP, GCC-source, Lua, JavaScript, Vala)

       -T, --trigraphs
              understand ANSI C trigraphs for input (only languages C,
              C++, ObjectiveC)

       --its=FILE
              apply ITS rules from FILE (only XML based languages)

       --qt   recognize Qt format strings (only language C++)

       --kde  recognize KDE 4 format strings (only language C++)

       --boost
              recognize Boost format strings (only language C++)

       --debug
              more detailed formatstring recognition result

   Output details:
       --color
              use colors and other text attributes always

       --color=WHEN
              use colors and other text attributes if WHEN.  WHEN may be
              'always', 'never', 'auto', or 'html'.

       --style=STYLEFILE
              specify CSS style rule file for --color

       -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
              write the .po file using indented style

       --no-location
              do not write '#: filename:line' lines

       -n, --add-location
              generate '#: filename:line' lines (default)

       --strict
              write out strict Uniforum conforming .po file

       --properties-output
              write out a Java .properties file

       --stringtable-output
              write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings file

       --itstool
              write out itstool comments

       -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 (deprecated)

       -F, --sort-by-file
              sort output by file location

       --omit-header
              don't write header with 'msgid ""' entry

       --copyright-holder=STRING
              set copyright holder in output

       --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 this help and exit

       -V, --version
              output version information and exit

       -v, --verbose
              increase verbosity level

AUTHOR         top

       Written by Ulrich Drepper.

REPORTING BUGS         top

       Report bugs in the bug tracker at
       <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext> or by email to
       <[email protected]>.

COPYRIGHT         top

       Copyright © 1995-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.  License
       GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
       <https://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         top

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

              info xgettext

       should give you access to the complete manual.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the gettext (message translation) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http:https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨http:https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext/⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the tarball gettext-0.22.4.tar.gz fetched from
       ⟨https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/⟩ on 2023-12-22.  If you
       discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
       or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for
       the page, or you have corrections or improvements to the
       information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original
       manual page), send a mail to [email protected]

GNU gettext-tools 0.22.2     September 2023                  XGETTEXT(1)