msgfmt(1) — Linux manual page

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

MSGFMT(1)                     User Commands                    MSGFMT(1)

NAME         top

       msgfmt - compile message catalog to binary format

SYNOPSIS         top

       msgfmt [OPTION] filename.po ...

DESCRIPTION         top

       Generate binary message catalog from textual translation
       description.

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

   Input file location:
       filename.po ...
              input files

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

       If input file is -, standard input is read.

   Operation mode:
       -j, --java
              Java mode: generate a Java ResourceBundle class

       --java2
              like --java, and assume Java2 (JDK 1.2 or higher)

       --csharp
              C# mode: generate a .NET .dll file

       --csharp-resources
              C# resources mode: generate a .NET .resources file

       --tcl  Tcl mode: generate a tcl/msgcat .msg file

       --qt   Qt mode: generate a Qt .qm file

       --desktop
              Desktop Entry mode: generate a .desktop file

       --xml  XML mode: generate XML file

   Output file location:
       -o, --output-file=FILE
              write output to specified file

       --strict
              enable strict Uniforum mode

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

   Output file location in Java mode:
       -r, --resource=RESOURCE
              resource name

       -l, --locale=LOCALE
              locale name, either language or language_COUNTRY

       --source
              produce a .java file, instead of a .class file

       -d DIRECTORY
              base directory of classes directory hierarchy

       The class name is determined by appending the locale name to the
       resource name, separated with an underscore.  The -d option is
       mandatory.  The class is written under the specified directory.

   Output file location in C# mode:
       -r, --resource=RESOURCE
              resource name

       -l, --locale=LOCALE
              locale name, either language or language_COUNTRY

       -d DIRECTORY
              base directory for locale dependent .dll files

       The -l and -d options are mandatory.  The .dll file is written in
       a subdirectory of the specified directory whose name depends on
       the locale.

   Output file location in Tcl mode:
       -l, --locale=LOCALE
              locale name, either language or language_COUNTRY

       -d DIRECTORY
              base directory of .msg message catalogs

       The -l and -d options are mandatory.  The .msg file is written in
       the specified directory.

   Desktop Entry mode options:
       -l, --locale=LOCALE
              locale name, either language or language_COUNTRY

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

       --template=TEMPLATE
              a .desktop file used as a template

       -d DIRECTORY
              base directory of .po files

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

       -k, --keyword
              do not to use default keywords

       The -l, -o, and --template options are mandatory.  If -D is
       specified, input files are read from the directory instead of the
       command line arguments.

   XML mode options:
       -l, --locale=LOCALE
              locale name, either language or language_COUNTRY

       -L, --language=NAME
              recognise the specified XML language

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

       --template=TEMPLATE
              an XML file used as a template

       -d DIRECTORY
              base directory of .po files

       The -l, -o, and --template options are mandatory.  If -D is
       specified, input files are read from the directory instead of the
       command line arguments.

   Input file syntax:
       -P, --properties-input
              input files are in Java .properties syntax

       --stringtable-input
              input files are in NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings syntax

   Input file interpretation:
       -c, --check
              perform all the checks implied by --check-format,
              --check-header, --check-domain

       --check-format
              check language dependent format strings

       --check-header
              verify presence and contents of the header entry

       --check-domain
              check for conflicts between domain directives and the
              --output-file option

       -C, --check-compatibility
              check that GNU msgfmt behaves like X/Open msgfmt

       --check-accelerators[=CHAR]
              check presence of keyboard accelerators for menu items

       -f, --use-fuzzy
              use fuzzy entries in output

   Output details:
       --no-convert
              don't convert the messages to UTF-8 encoding

       --no-redundancy
              don't pre-expand ISO C 99 <inttypes.h> format string
              directive macros

       -a, --alignment=NUMBER
              align strings to NUMBER bytes (default: 1)

       --endianness=BYTEORDER
              write out 32-bit numbers in the given byte order (big or
              little, default depends on platform)

       --no-hash
              binary file will not include the hash table

   Informative output:
       -h, --help
              display this help and exit

       -V, --version
              output version information and exit

       --statistics
              print statistics about translations

       -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
       <bug-gettext@gnu.org>.

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 msgfmt is maintained as a Texinfo
       manual.  If the info and msgfmt programs are properly installed
       at your site, the command

              info msgfmt

       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://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext/⟩.  This page was
       obtained from the tarball gettext-0.22.5.tar.gz fetched from
       ⟨https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/⟩ on 2024-06-14.  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 man-pages@man7.org

GNU gettext-tools 0.22.5      February 2024                    MSGFMT(1)

Pages that refer to this page: gettext(3)