1 1.1 christos <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> 2 1.1 christos <html> 3 1.1 christos <head> 4 1.1 christos <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> 5 1.1 christos <title>GNU gettext FAQ</title> 6 1.1 christos </head> 7 1.1 christos <body> 8 1.1 christos <h1 style="text-align: center;">Frequently Asked Questions<br> 9 1.1 christos for GNU gettext 10 1.1 christos </h1> 11 1.1 christos <h1 style="text-align: center;">Questions</h1> 12 1.1 christos <h3>General</h3> 13 1.1 christos <ul> 14 1.1 christos <li><a href="#general_mailinglist">Where is the mailing list?</a></li> 15 1.1 christos <li><a href="#general_source">Where is the newest gettext source?</a></li> 16 1.1 christos <li><a href="#general_announce">I want to be notified of new gettext 17 1.1 christos releases.</a></li> 18 1.1 christos </ul> 19 1.1 christos <h3>Problems building GNU gettext</h3> 20 1.1 christos <ul> 21 1.1 christos <li><a href="#building_solaris_libasprintf">On Solaris, I get a build 22 1.1 christos error text relocations remain in the <span 23 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libasprintf</span> subdirectory</a></li> 24 1.1 christos <li><a href="#building_rpath_check">During make check, some tests 25 1.1 christos named <span style="font-family: monospace;">rpath-<span 26 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">Nxyz</span></span> 27 1.1 christos fail: ld: fatal error ... -lrpathz</a></li> 28 1.1 christos <li><a href="#building_install">make install fails</a></li> 29 1.1 christos </ul> 30 1.1 christos <h3>Problems integrating GNU gettext</h3> 31 1.1 christos <ul> 32 1.1 christos <li><a href="#integrating_howto">How do I make use of <span 33 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext()</span> in my package?</a></li> 34 1.1 christos <li><a href="#integrating_undefined">I get a linker error undefined 35 1.1 christos reference to libintl_gettext</a></li> 36 1.1 christos <li><a href="#integrating_abuse_gettextize">gettextize adds multiple 37 1.1 christos references to the same directories/files 38 1.1 christos to <span style="font-family: monospace;">Makefile.am</span> and </a><span 39 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"><a href="#integrating_abuse_gettextize">configure.ac</a><br> 40 1.1 christos </span></li> 41 1.1 christos <li><a href="#integrating_noop">My program compiles and links fine, 42 1.1 christos but doesn't output translated 43 1.1 christos strings.</a><br> 44 1.1 christos </li> 45 1.1 christos </ul> 46 1.1 christos <h3>GNU gettext on Windows</h3> 47 1.1 christos <ul> 48 1.1 christos <li><a href="#windows_woe32">What does Woe32 mean?</a></li> 49 1.1 christos <li><a href="#windows_howto">How do I compile, link and run a program 50 1.1 christos that uses the gettext() 51 1.1 christos function?</a><br> 52 1.1 christos </li> 53 1.1 christos <li><a href="#windows_setenv">Setting the <span 54 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG</span> 55 1.1 christos environment variable doesn't have any effect</a></li> 56 1.1 christos </ul> 57 1.1 christos <h3>Other</h3> 58 1.1 christos <ul> 59 1.1 christos <li><a href="#newline">What does this mean: `msgid' and `msgstr' 60 1.1 christos entries do not both 61 1.1 christos end with '\n'</a></li> 62 1.1 christos <li><a href="#translit">German umlauts are displayed like ge"andert 63 1.1 christos instead of 64 1.1 christos gendert</a></li> 65 1.1 christos <li><a href="#localename">The <span style="font-family: monospace;">LANGUAGE</span> 66 1.1 christos environment variable is ignored after I set <span 67 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG=en</span></a></li> 68 1.1 christos <li><a href="#nonascii_strings">I use accented characters in my 69 1.1 christos source code. How do I tell the 70 1.1 christos C/C++ compiler in which encoding it is (like <span 71 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">xgettext</span>'s <span 72 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">--from-code</span> option)?</a></li> 73 1.1 christos </ul> 74 1.1 christos <h1 style="text-align: center;">Answers</h1> 75 1.1 christos <h3>General</h3> 76 1.1 christos <h4><a name="general_mailinglist"></a>Where is the mailing list?</h4> 77 1.1 christos Three mailing lists are available: <br> 78 1.1 christos <ul> 79 1.1 christos <li><span style="font-family: monospace;">bug-gnu-gettext (a] gnu.org</span><br> 80 1.1 christos This mailing list is for discussion of features and bugs of the GNU 81 1.1 christos gettext <span style="font-style: italic;">software</span>, including 82 1.1 christos libintl, the gettext-tools, and its autoconf macros.</li> 83 1.1 christos <li><span style="font-family: monospace;">translation-i18n (a] lists.sourceforge.net</span><br> 84 1.1 christos This mailing list is for methodology questions around 85 1.1 christos internationalization, and for discussions of translator tools, 86 1.1 christos including but not limited to GNU gettext.</li> 87 1.1 christos <li><span style="font-family: monospace;">translation (a] iro.umontreal.ca</span><br> 88 1.1 christos This is the email address of the <a 89 1.1 christos href="http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/contrib/po/HTML/">Free Translation 90 1.1 christos Project</a>, that is the project which manages the translated message 91 1.1 christos catalogs for many free software packages. Note that KDE and GNOME 92 1.1 christos packages are not part of this project; they have their own translation 93 1.1 christos projects: <a href="http://i18n.kde.org/">i18n.kde.org</a> and <a 94 1.1 christos href="http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gtp/">gtp</a>.<br> 95 1.1 christos </li> 96 1.1 christos </ul> 97 1.1 christos The <span style="font-family: monospace;">bug-gnu-gettext</span> list 98 1.1 christos is archived as part of the <a 99 1.1 christos href="http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/"><span 100 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">bug-gnu-utils</span></a> archives. <span 101 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">bug-gnu-gettext</span> cannot be 102 1.1 christos subscribed on its own; to receive its contents by mail, subscribe to <span 103 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">bug-gnu-utils</span>.<br> 104 1.1 christos <h4><a name="general_source"></a>Where is the newest gettext source?</h4> 105 1.1 christos The newest gettext release is available on <span 106 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">ftp.gnu.org</span> and its mirrors, in 107 1.1 christos <a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/">http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/</a>.<br> 108 1.1 christos <br> 109 1.1 christos Prereleases are announced on the <a 110 1.1 christos href="http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/autotools-announce"><span 111 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">autotools-announce</span> mailing list</a>. 112 1.1 christos Note that prereleases are meant for testing and not meant for use in 113 1.1 christos production environments. Please don't use the gettextize program of a 114 1.1 christos prerelease on projects which you share with other programmers via CVS.<br> 115 1.1 christos <br> 116 1.1 christos If you want to live on the bleeding edge, you can also use the 117 1.1 christos development sources. Instructions for retrieving the gettext CVS are 118 1.1 christos found <a href="http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext">here</a>. 119 1.1 christos Note that building from CVS requires special tools (autoconf, automake, 120 1.1 christos m4, groff, bison, etc.) and requires that you pay attention to the <span 121 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">README-alpha</span> and <span 122 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">autogen.sh</span> files in the CVS.<br> 123 1.1 christos <h4><a name="general_announce"></a>I want to be notified of new gettext 124 1.1 christos releases.</h4> 125 1.1 christos If you are interested in stable gettext releases, you can follow the <a 126 1.1 christos href="http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/info-gnu"><span 127 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">info-gnu</span> mailing list</a>. It 128 1.1 christos is also available as a newsgroup <a 129 1.1 christos href="nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.announce"><span 130 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gmane.org.fsf.announce</span></a> 131 1.1 christos through <a href="http://www.gmane.org/"><span 132 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gmane.org</span></a>.<br> 133 1.1 christos <br> 134 1.1 christos You can also periodically check the download location.<br> 135 1.1 christos <br> 136 1.1 christos If you are interested in testing prereleases as well, you can subscribe 137 1.1 christos to the <a href="http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/autotools-announce"><span 138 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">autotools-announce</span> mailing 139 1.1 christos list</a>.<br> 140 1.1 christos <h3>Problems building GNU gettext</h3> 141 1.1 christos <h4><a name="building_solaris_libasprintf"></a>On Solaris, I get a 142 1.1 christos build error text relocations remain in the <span 143 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libasprintf</span> subdirectory</h4> 144 1.1 christos libtool (or more precisely, the version of libtool that was available 145 1.1 christos at the time the gettext release waas made) doesn't support linking C++ 146 1.1 christos libraries with some versions of GCC. As a workaround, you can configure 147 1.1 christos gettext with the option <span style="font-family: monospace;">--disable-libasprintf</span>.<br> 148 1.1 christos <h4><a name="building_rpath_check"></a>During make check, some tests 149 1.1 christos named <span style="font-family: monospace;">rpath-<span 150 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">Nxyz</span></span> 151 1.1 christos fail: ld: fatal error ... -lrpathz</h4> 152 1.1 christos If only a few among the many rpath tests fail, you can probably ignore 153 1.1 christos the problem. The rpath tests are sensitive to incomplete shared library 154 1.1 christos support in the system, and to bugs in libtool that creates the shared 155 1.1 christos libraries. Some known failures are listed in <span 156 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">autoconf-lib-link/tests/rpath.README</span>.<br> 157 1.1 christos <br> 158 1.1 christos To ignore the problem, just proceed with<br> 159 1.1 christos <br> 160 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>cd gettext-tools</code><br> 161 1.1 christos <code>make check</code><br> 162 1.1 christos <code>cd ..</code><br> 163 1.1 christos </div> 164 1.1 christos <br> 165 1.1 christos <h4><a name="building_install"></a>make install fails</h4> 166 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">make install DESTDIR=<span 167 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">/some/tempdir</span></span> can fail with 168 1.1 christos an error message relating to <span style="font-family: monospace;">libgettextlib</span> 169 1.1 christos or <span style="font-family: monospace;">libgettextsrc</span>, or can 170 1.1 christos silently fail to install <span style="font-family: monospace;">libgettextsrc</span>. 171 1.1 christos On some platforms, this is due to limitations of libtool regarding <span 172 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">DESTDIR</span>. On other platforms, it 173 1.1 christos is due to the way the system handles shared libraries, and libtool 174 1.1 christos cannot work around it. Fortunately, on Linux and other glibc based 175 1.1 christos systems, <span style="font-family: monospace;">DESTDIR</span> is 176 1.1 christos supported if no different version of gettext is already installed (i.e. 177 1.1 christos it works if you uninstall the older gettext before building and 178 1.1 christos installing the newer one, or if you do a plain <span 179 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">make install</span> before <span 180 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">make install DESTDIR=<span 181 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">/some/tempdir</span></span>). On other 182 1.1 christos systems, when <span style="font-family: monospace;">DESTDIR</span> 183 1.1 christos does not work, you can still do <span style="font-family: monospace;">make 184 1.1 christos install</span> and copy the installed files to <span 185 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"><span style="font-style: italic;">/some/tempdir</span></span> 186 1.1 christos afterwards.<br> 187 1.1 christos <br> 188 1.1 christos If <span style="font-family: monospace;">make install</span> without <span 189 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">DESTDIR</span> fails, it's a bug which 190 1.1 christos you are welcome to report to the usual bug report address. 191 1.1 christos <h3>Problems integrating GNU gettext</h3> 192 1.1 christos <h4><a name="integrating_howto"></a>How do I make use of <span 193 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext()</span> in my package?</h4> 194 1.1 christos It's not as difficult as it sounds. Here's the recipe for C or C++ 195 1.1 christos based packages.<br> 196 1.1 christos <ul> 197 1.1 christos <li>Add an invocation of <span style="font-family: monospace;">AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])</span> 198 1.1 christos to the package's <span style="font-family: monospace;">configure.{ac,in}</span> 199 1.1 christos file.</li> 200 1.1 christos <li>Invoke <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize --copy</span>. 201 1.1 christos It will do most of the autoconf/automake related work for you.</li> 202 1.1 christos <li>Add the <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext.h</span> 203 1.1 christos file to the package's source directory, and include it in all source 204 1.1 christos files that contain translatable strings or do output via <span 205 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">printf</span> or <span 206 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">fprintf</span>.</li> 207 1.1 christos <li>In the source file defining the main() function of the program, 208 1.1 christos add these lines to the header<br> 209 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code><span 210 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">#include <locale.h></span><br 211 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"> 212 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">#include "gettext.h"</span></code><br> 213 1.1 christos </div> 214 1.1 christos and these lines near the beginning of the main() function:<br> 215 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code><span 216 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">setlocale (LC_ALL, "");</span><br 217 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"> 218 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">bindtextdomain (PACKAGE, 219 1.1 christos LOCALEDIR);</span><br style="font-family: monospace;"> 220 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">textdomain (PACKAGE);</span></code><br> 221 1.1 christos </div> 222 1.1 christos </li> 223 1.1 christos <li>Mark all strings that should be translated with _(), like this: <span 224 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">_("No errors found.")</span>. While 225 1.1 christos doing this, try to turn the strings into good English, one entire 226 1.1 christos sentence per string, not more than one paragraph per string, and use 227 1.1 christos format strings instead of string concatenation. This is needed so that 228 1.1 christos the translators can provide accurate translations.</li> 229 1.1 christos <li>In every source file containing translatable strings, add these lines 230 1.1 christos to the header:<br> 231 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code><span 232 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">#include "gettext.h"</span><br 233 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"> 234 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">#define _(string) gettext (string)</span></code><br> 235 1.1 christos </div> 236 1.1 christos </li> 237 1.1 christos <li>In the freshly created <span style="font-family: monospace;">po/</span> 238 1.1 christos directory, set up the <span style="font-family: monospace;">POTFILES.in</span> 239 1.1 christos file, and do a <span style="font-family: monospace;">make update-po</span>. 240 1.1 christos Then distribute the generated <span style="font-family: monospace;">.pot</span> 241 1.1 christos file to your nearest translation project.</li> 242 1.1 christos <li>Shortly before a release, integrate the translators' <span 243 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">.po</span> files into the <span 244 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">po/</span> directory and do <span 245 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">make update-po</span> again.<br> 246 1.1 christos </li> 247 1.1 christos </ul> 248 1.1 christos You find detailed descriptions of how this all works in the GNU gettext 249 1.1 christos manual, chapters The Maintainer's View and Preparing Program 250 1.1 christos Sources. 251 1.1 christos <h4><a name="integrating_undefined"></a>I get a linker error undefined 252 1.1 christos reference to libintl_gettext</h4> 253 1.1 christos This error means that the program uses the <span 254 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext()</span> function after having 255 1.1 christos included the <span style="font-family: monospace;"><libintl.h></span> 256 1.1 christos file from GNU gettext (which remaps it to <span 257 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl_gettext()</span>), however at 258 1.1 christos link time a function of this name could not be linked in. (It is 259 1.1 christos expected to come from the <span style="font-family: monospace;">libintl</span> 260 1.1 christos library, installed by GNU gettext.)<br> 261 1.1 christos <br> 262 1.1 christos There are many possible reasons for this error, but in any case you 263 1.1 christos should consider the <span style="font-family: monospace;">-I</span>, <span 264 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-L</span> and <span 265 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-l</span> options passed to the 266 1.1 christos compiler. In packages using <span style="font-family: monospace;">autoconf</span> 267 1.1 christos generated configure scripts, <span style="font-family: monospace;">-I</span> 268 1.1 christos options come from the <span style="font-family: monospace;">CFLAGS</span> 269 1.1 christos and <span style="font-family: monospace;">CPPFLAGS</span> variables 270 1.1 christos (in Makefiles also <span style="font-family: monospace;">DEFS</span> 271 1.1 christos and <span style="font-family: monospace;">INCLUDES</span>), <span 272 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-L</span> options come from the <span 273 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LDFLAGS</span> variable, and <span 274 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-l</span> options come from the <span 275 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LIBS</span> variable. The first thing 276 1.1 christos you should check are the values of these variables in your environment 277 1.1 christos and in the package's <span style="font-family: monospace;">config.status</span> 278 1.1 christos autoconfiguration result.<br> 279 1.1 christos <br> 280 1.1 christos To find the cause of the error, a little analysis is needed. Does the 281 1.1 christos program's final link command contains the option -lintl?<br> 282 1.1 christos <ul> 283 1.1 christos <li>If yes:<br> 284 1.1 christos Find out where the <span style="font-family: monospace;">libintl</span> 285 1.1 christos comes from. To do this, you have to check for <span 286 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.a</span> and <span 287 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.so*</span> (<span 288 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.dylib</span> on MacOS X) in 289 1.1 christos each directory given as a -L option, as well as in the compiler's 290 1.1 christos implicit search directories. (You get these implicit search directories 291 1.1 christos for gcc by using <span style="font-family: monospace;">gcc -v</span> 292 1.1 christos instead of <span style="font-family: monospace;">gcc</span> in the 293 1.1 christos final link command line; compilers other than GCC usually look in <span 294 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">/usr/lib</span> and <span 295 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">/lib</span>.) A shell command like<br> 296 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ for d in /usr/local/lib 297 1.1 christos /usr/lib /lib; do ls -l $d/libintl.*; done</code><br> 298 1.1 christos </div> 299 1.1 christos will show where the <span style="font-family: monospace;">libintl</span> 300 1.1 christos comes from. By looking at the dates and whether each library defines <span 301 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl_gettext</span> (via <span 302 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">nm <span style="font-style: italic;">path</span>/libintl.so 303 1.1 christos | grep libintl_gettext</span>) you can now distinguish three possible 304 1.1 christos causes of the error:<br> 305 1.1 christos <ul> 306 1.1 christos <li>Some older libintl is used instead of the newer one. The fix 307 1.1 christos is to remove the old library or to reorganize your -L options.</li> 308 1.1 christos <li>The used libintl is the new one, and it doesn't contain 309 1.1 christos libintl_gettext. This would be a bug in gettext. If this is the case, 310 1.1 christos please report it to the usual bug report address.</li> 311 1.1 christos <li>The used libintl is a static library (libintl.a), there are 312 1.1 christos no uses of gettext in .o files before the -lintl but there are some 313 1.1 christos after the -lintl. In this case the fix is to move the -lintl to the 314 1.1 christos end or near the end of the link command line. The only libintl 315 1.1 christos dependency that needs to be mentioned after -lintl is -liconv.</li> 316 1.1 christos </ul> 317 1.1 christos </li> 318 1.1 christos <li>If no:<br> 319 1.1 christos In this case it's likely a bug in the package you are building: The 320 1.1 christos package's Makefiles should make sure that -lintl is used where needed.<br> 321 1.1 christos Test whether libintl was found by configure. You can check this by doing<br> 322 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ grep 323 1.1 christos '\(INTLLIBS\|LIBINTL\)' config.status</code><br> 324 1.1 christos </div> 325 1.1 christos and looking whether the value of this autoconf variable is non-empty.<br> 326 1.1 christos <ul> 327 1.1 christos <li>If yes: It should be the responsibility of the Makefile to 328 1.1 christos use the value of this variable in the link command line. Does the 329 1.1 christos Makefile.in rule for linking the program use <span 330 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">@INTLLIBS@</span> or <span 331 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">@LIBINTL@</span>?<br> 332 1.1 christos <ul> 333 1.1 christos <li>If no: It's a Makefile.am/in bug.</li> 334 1.1 christos <li>If yes: Something strange is going on. You need to dig 335 1.1 christos deeper.</li> 336 1.1 christos </ul> 337 1.1 christos Note that <span style="font-family: monospace;">@INTLLIBS@</span> is 338 1.1 christos for <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext.m4</span> versions 339 1.1 christos <= 0.10.40 and <span style="font-family: monospace;">@LIBINTL@</span> 340 1.1 christos is for <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext.m4</span> 341 1.1 christos versions >= 0.11, depending on which <span 342 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext.m4</span> was used to build 343 1.1 christos the package's <span style="font-family: monospace;">configure</span> - 344 1.1 christos regardless of which gettext you have now installed.</li> 345 1.1 christos <li>If no: So libintl was not found.<br> 346 1.1 christos Take a look at the package's <span style="font-family: monospace;">configure.in/ac</span>. 347 1.1 christos Does it invoke AM_GNU_GETTEXT?<br> 348 1.1 christos <ul> 349 1.1 christos <li>If no: The gettext maintainers take no responsibilities for 350 1.1 christos lookalikes named CY_GNU_GETTEXT, AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT, AM_GNOME_GETTEXT 351 1.1 christos and similar, or for homebrewn autoconf checks. Complain to the package 352 1.1 christos maintainer.</li> 353 1.1 christos <li>If yes: It looks like the <span 354 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-I</span> and <span 355 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-L</span> options were inconsistent. 356 1.1 christos You should have a <span style="font-family: monospace;">-I<span 357 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">somedir</span>/include</span> in the <span 358 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">CFLAGS</span> or <span 359 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">CPPFLAGS</span> if and only if you 360 1.1 christos also have a <span style="font-family: monospace;">-L<span 361 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">somedir</span>/lib</span> in the <span 362 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LDFLAGS</span>. And <span 363 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"><span style="font-style: italic;">somedir</span>/include</span> 364 1.1 christos should contain a <span style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.h</span> 365 1.1 christos if and only if <span style="font-family: monospace;"><span 366 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">somedir</span>/lib</span> contains <span 367 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.{a,so}</span>.<br> 368 1.1 christos This case can also happen if you have configured a GCC < 3.2 with 369 1.1 christos the same <span style="font-family: monospace;">--prefix</span> option 370 1.1 christos as you used for GNU libiconv or GNU gettext. This is fatal, because 371 1.1 christos these versions of GCC implicitly use <span 372 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-L<span style="font-style: italic;">prefix</span>/lib</span> 373 1.1 christos but <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">not</span><br 374 1.1 christos style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> 375 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">-I<span 376 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">prefix</span>/include</span>. The 377 1.1 christos workaround is to use a different <span style="font-family: monospace;">--prefix</span> 378 1.1 christos for GCC.<br> 379 1.1 christos </li> 380 1.1 christos </ul> 381 1.1 christos </li> 382 1.1 christos </ul> 383 1.1 christos </li> 384 1.1 christos </ul> 385 1.1 christos <h4><a name="integrating_abuse_gettextize"></a>gettextize adds multiple 386 1.1 christos references to the same directories/files 387 1.1 christos to <span style="font-family: monospace;">Makefile.am</span> and <span 388 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">configure.ac</span></h4> 389 1.1 christos If <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize</span> is used on 390 1.1 christos a package, then the <span style="font-family: monospace;">po/</span>, <span 391 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">intl/</span>, <span 392 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">m4/</span> directories of the package 393 1.1 christos are removed, and then <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize</span> 394 1.1 christos is invoked on the package again, it will re-add the <span 395 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">po/</span>, <span 396 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">intl/</span>, <span 397 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">m4/</span> directories and change <span 398 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">Makefile.am</span>, <span 399 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">configure.ac</span> and <span 400 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">ChangeLog</span> accordingly. This is 401 1.1 christos normal. The second use of <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize</span> 402 1.1 christos here is an abuse of the program. <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize</span> 403 1.1 christos is a wizard intended to transform a <span style="font-style: italic;">working 404 1.1 christos source package</span> into a <span style="font-style: italic;">working 405 1.1 christos source package</span> that uses the newest version of gettext. If you 406 1.1 christos start out from a nonfunctional source package (it is nonfunctional 407 1.1 christos since you have omitted some directories), you cannot expect that <span 408 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize</span> corrects it.<br> 409 1.1 christos <br> 410 1.1 christos Often this question arises in packages that use CVS. See the section 411 1.1 christos CVS Issues / Integrating with CVS of the GNU gettext documentation. 412 1.1 christos This section mentions a program <span style="font-family: monospace;">autopoint</span> 413 1.1 christos which is designed to reconstruct those files and directories created by 414 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettextize</span> that can be 415 1.1 christos omitted from a CVS repository.<br> 416 1.1 christos <h4><a name="integrating_noop"></a>My program compiles and links fine, 417 1.1 christos but doesn't output translated 418 1.1 christos strings.</h4> 419 1.1 christos There are several possible reasons. Here is a checklist that allows you 420 1.1 christos to determine the cause.<br> 421 1.1 christos <ol> 422 1.1 christos <li>Check that the environment variables LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, 423 1.1 christos LC_CTYPE, LANG, LANGUAGE together specify a valid locale and language.<br> 424 1.1 christos To check this, run the commands<br> 425 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ gettext --version</code><br> 426 1.1 christos <code>$ gettext --help</code><br> 427 1.1 christos </div> 428 1.1 christos You should see at least some output in your desired language. If not, 429 1.1 christos either<br> 430 1.1 christos <ul> 431 1.1 christos <li>You have chosen a too exotic language. <span 432 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext</span> is localized to 33 433 1.1 christos languages. Choose a less exotic language, such as Galician or 434 1.1 christos Ukrainian. Or<br> 435 1.1 christos </li> 436 1.1 christos <li>There is a problem with your environment variables. Possibly 437 1.1 christos LC_ALL points to a locale that is not installed, or LC_MESSAGES and 438 1.1 christos LC_CTYPE are inconsistent.</li> 439 1.1 christos </ul> 440 1.1 christos </li> 441 1.1 christos <li>Check that your program contains a <span 442 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">setlocale</span> call.<br> 443 1.1 christos To check this, run your program under ltrace. For example,<br> 444 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ ltrace ./myprog</code><br> 445 1.1 christos <code>...</code><br> 446 1.1 christos <code>setlocale(6, 447 1.1 christos "") 448 1.1 christos = "de_DE.UTF-8"</code><br> 449 1.1 christos </div> 450 1.1 christos If you have no ltrace, you can also do this check by running your 451 1.1 christos program under the debugger. For example,<br> 452 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ gdb ./myprog</code><br> 453 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break main</code><br> 454 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) run</code><br> 455 1.1 christos <code>Breakpoint 1, main ()</code><br> 456 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break setlocale</code><br> 457 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) continue</code><br> 458 1.1 christos <code>Breakpoint 2, setlocale ()</code><br> 459 1.1 christos <code>;; OK, the breakpoint has been hit, setlocale() is being 460 1.1 christos called.</code><br> 461 1.1 christos </div> 462 1.1 christos Either way, check that the return value of <span 463 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">setlocale()</span> is non-NULL. A NULL 464 1.1 christos return value indicates a failure. </li> 465 1.1 christos <li>Check that your program contains a <span 466 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">textdomain</span> call, a <span 467 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">bindtextdomain</span> call referring 468 1.1 christos to the same message domain, and then really calls the <span 469 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext</span>, <span 470 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">dgettext</span> or <span 471 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">dcgettext</span> function.<br> 472 1.1 christos To check this, run the program under ltrace. For example,<br> 473 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ ltrace ./myprog</code><br> 474 1.1 christos <code>...</code><br> 475 1.1 christos <code>textdomain("hello-c") 476 1.1 christos = "hello-c"</code><br> 477 1.1 christos <code>bindtextdomain("hello-c", "/opt/share"...) = "/opt/share"...</code><br> 478 1.1 christos <code>dcgettext(0, 0x08048691, 5, 0x0804a200, 0x08048689) = 479 1.1 christos 0x4001721f</code><br> 480 1.1 christos </div> 481 1.1 christos If you have no ltrace, you can also do this check by running your 482 1.1 christos program under the debugger. For example,<br> 483 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ gdb ./myprog</code><br> 484 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break main</code><br> 485 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) run</code><br> 486 1.1 christos <code>Breakpoint 1, main ()</code><br> 487 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break textdomain</code><br> 488 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break bindtextdomain</code><br> 489 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break gettext</code><br> 490 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break dgettext</code><br> 491 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) break dcgettext</code><br> 492 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) continue</code><br> 493 1.1 christos <code>Breakpoint 2, textdomain ()</code><br> 494 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) continue</code><br> 495 1.1 christos <code>Breakpoint 3, bindtextdomain ()</code><br> 496 1.1 christos <code>(gdb) continue</code><br> 497 1.1 christos <code>Breakpoint 6, dcgettext ()</code><br> 498 1.1 christos </div> 499 1.1 christos Note that here <span style="font-family: monospace;">dcgettext()</span> 500 1.1 christos is called instead of the <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext()</span> 501 1.1 christos function mentioned in the source code; this is due to an optimization 502 1.1 christos in <span style="font-family: monospace;"><libintl.h></span>.<br> 503 1.1 christos When using libintl on a non-glibc system, you have to add a prefix <span 504 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl_</span> to all the function 505 1.1 christos names mentioned here, because that's what the functions are really 506 1.1 christos named, under the hood.<br> 507 1.1 christos If <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext</span>/<span 508 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">dgettext</span>/<span 509 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">dcgettext</span> is not called at all, 510 1.1 christos the possible cause might be that some autoconf or Makefile macrology 511 1.1 christos has turned off internationalization entirely (like the <span 512 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">--disable-nls</span> configuration 513 1.1 christos option usually does).<br> 514 1.1 christos </li> 515 1.1 christos <li>Check that the <span style="font-family: monospace;">.mo</span> 516 1.1 christos file that contains the translation is really there where the program 517 1.1 christos expects it.<br> 518 1.1 christos To check this, run the program under strace and look at the <span 519 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">open()</span> calls. For example,<br> 520 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ strace ./myprog 2>&1 521 1.1 christos | grep '^open('</code><br> 522 1.1 christos <code>open("/etc/ld.so.preload", O_RDONLY) = -1 523 1.1 christos ENOENT (No such file or directory)</code><br> 524 1.1 christos <code>open("/etc/ld.so.cache", 525 1.1 christos O_RDONLY) = 5</code><br> 526 1.1 christos <code>open("/lib/libc.so.6", 527 1.1 christos O_RDONLY) = 5</code><br> 528 1.1 christos <code>open("/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) 529 1.1 christos = 5</code><br> 530 1.1 christos <code>open("/usr/share/locale/locale.alias", O_RDONLY) = 5</code><br> 531 1.1 christos <code>open("/opt/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/hello-c.mo", O_RDONLY) 532 1.1 christos = 5</code><br> 533 1.1 christos <code>...</code><br> 534 1.1 christos </div> 535 1.1 christos A nonnegative <span style="font-family: monospace;">open()</span> 536 1.1 christos return value means that the file has been found.<br> 537 1.1 christos If you have no strace, you can also guess the <span 538 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">.mo</span> file's location: it is<br> 539 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span 540 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"><span style="font-style: italic;">localedir</span>/<span 541 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">lang</span>/LC_MESSAGES/<span 542 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">domain</span>.mo</span><br> 543 1.1 christos </div> 544 1.1 christos where <span style="font-style: italic;">domain</span> is the argument 545 1.1 christos passed to <span style="font-family: monospace;">textdomain()</span>, <span 546 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">localedir</span> is the second argument 547 1.1 christos passed to <span style="font-family: monospace;">bindtextdomain()</span>, 548 1.1 christos and <span style="font-style: italic;">lang</span> is the language (<span 549 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">LL</span>) or language and territory (<span 550 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">LL</span>_<span style="font-style: italic;">CC</span>), 551 1.1 christos depending on the environment variables checked in step 1.</li> 552 1.1 christos <li>Check that the .mo file contains a translation for the string 553 1.1 christos that is being asked for.<br> 554 1.1 christos To do this, you need to convert the .mo file back to PO file format, 555 1.1 christos through the command<br> 556 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ msgunfmt </code><span 557 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"><span style="font-style: italic;">localedir</span>/<span 558 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">lang</span>/LC_MESSAGES/<span 559 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">domain</span>.mo</span><br> 560 1.1 christos <code></code></div> 561 1.1 christos and look for an <span style="font-family: monospace;">msgid</span> 562 1.1 christos that matches the given string.<br> 563 1.1 christos </li> 564 1.1 christos </ol> 565 1.1 christos <h3>GNU gettext on Windows</h3> 566 1.1 christos <h4><a name="windows_woe32"></a>What does Woe32 mean?</h4> 567 1.1 christos Woe32 denotes the Windows 32-bit operating systems for x86: Windows 568 1.1 christos NT/2000/XP and Windows 95/98/ME. Microsoft uses the term Win32 to 569 1.1 christos denote these; this is a psychological trick in order to make everyone 570 1.1 christos believe that these OSes are a win for the user. However, for most 571 1.1 christos users and developers, they are a source of woes, which is why I call 572 1.1 christos them Woe32.<br> 573 1.1 christos <h4><a name="windows_howto"></a>How do I compile, link and run a 574 1.1 christos program that uses the gettext() 575 1.1 christos function?</h4> 576 1.1 christos When you use RedHat's cygwin environment, it's as on Unix:<br> 577 1.1 christos <ul> 578 1.1 christos <li>You need to add an <span style="font-family: monospace;">-I</span> 579 1.1 christos option to the compilation command line, so that the compiler finds the <span 580 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.h</span> include file, and</li> 581 1.1 christos <li>You need to add an <span style="font-family: monospace;">-L</span> 582 1.1 christos option to the link command line, so that the linker finds the <span 583 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl</span> library.</li> 584 1.1 christos </ul> 585 1.1 christos When you use the Mingw environment (either from within cygwin, with <span 586 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">CC="gcc -mno-cygwin"</span>, or from 587 1.1 christos MSYS, with <span style="font-family: monospace;">CC="gcc"</span>), I 588 1.1 christos don't know the details.<br> 589 1.1 christos <br> 590 1.1 christos When you use the Microsoft Visual C/C++ (MSVC) compiler, you will 591 1.1 christos likely use the precompiled Woe32 binaries. For running a program that 592 1.1 christos uses gettext(), one needs the <span style="font-family: monospace;">.bin.woe32.zip</span> 593 1.1 christos packages of <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext-runtime</span> 594 1.1 christos and <span style="font-family: monospace;">libiconv</span>. As a 595 1.1 christos developer, you'll also need the <span style="font-family: monospace;">xgettext</span> 596 1.1 christos and <span style="font-family: monospace;">msgfmt</span> programs that 597 1.1 christos are contained in the <span style="font-family: monospace;">.bin.woe32.zip</span> 598 1.1 christos package of <span style="font-family: monospace;">gettext-tools</span>. 599 1.1 christos Then<br> 600 1.1 christos <ul> 601 1.1 christos <li>You need to add an <span style="font-family: monospace;">-MD</span> 602 1.1 christos option to all compilation and link command lines. MSVC has six 603 1.1 christos different, mutually incompatible, compilation models (<span 604 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-ML</span>, <span 605 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MT</span>, <span 606 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MD</span>, <span 607 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MLd</span>, <span 608 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MTd</span>, <span 609 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MDd</span>); the default is <span 610 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-ML</span>. <span 611 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">intl.dll</span> uses the <span 612 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MD</span> model, therefore the rest 613 1.1 christos of the program must use <span style="font-family: monospace;">-MD</span> 614 1.1 christos as well.<br> 615 1.1 christos </li> 616 1.1 christos <li>You need to add an <span style="font-family: monospace;">-I</span> 617 1.1 christos option to the compilation command line, so that the compiler finds the <span 618 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">libintl.h</span> include file.<br> 619 1.1 christos </li> 620 1.1 christos <li>You need to add an <span style="font-family: monospace;">-L</span> 621 1.1 christos option to the link command line, so that the linker finds the <span 622 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">intl.lib</span> library.</li> 623 1.1 christos <li>You need to copy the <span style="font-family: monospace;">intl.dll</span> 624 1.1 christos and <span style="font-family: monospace;">iconv.dll</span> to the 625 1.1 christos directory where your <span style="font-family: monospace;">.exe</span> 626 1.1 christos files are created, so that they will be found at runtime.<br> 627 1.1 christos </li> 628 1.1 christos </ul> 629 1.1 christos <h4><a name="windows_setenv"></a>Setting the <span 630 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG</span> 631 1.1 christos environment variable doesn't have any effect</h4> 632 1.1 christos If neither LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES nor LANGUAGES is set, it's the LANG 633 1.1 christos environment variable which determines the language into which gettext() 634 1.1 christos translates the messages.<br> 635 1.1 christos <br> 636 1.1 christos You can test your program by setting the LANG environment variable from 637 1.1 christos outside the program. In a Windows command interpreter:<br> 638 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>set LANG=de_DE</code><br> 639 1.1 christos <code>.\myprog.exe</code><br> 640 1.1 christos </div> 641 1.1 christos Or in a Cygwin shell:<br> 642 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>$ env LANG=de_DE ./myprog.exe</code><br> 643 1.1 christos </div> 644 1.1 christos <br> 645 1.1 christos If this test fails, look at the question My program compiles and links 646 1.1 christos fine, but doesn't output translated 647 1.1 christos strings. above.<br> 648 1.1 christos <br> 649 1.1 christos If this test succeeds, the problem is related in the way you set the 650 1.1 christos environment variable. Here is a checklist:<br> 651 1.1 christos <ul> 652 1.1 christos <li>Check that you are using the <span 653 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">-MD</span> option in all compilation 654 1.1 christos and link command lines. Otherwise you might end up calling the <span 655 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">putenv()</span> function from 656 1.1 christos Microsoft's <span style="font-family: monospace;">libc.lib</span>, 657 1.1 christos whereas <span style="font-family: monospace;">intl.dll</span> is using 658 1.1 christos the <span style="font-family: monospace;">getenv()</span> function 659 1.1 christos from Mictosoft's <span style="font-family: monospace;">msvcrt.lib</span>.</li> 660 1.1 christos <li>Check that you set the environment variable using <span 661 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">both</span> <span 662 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">SetEnvironmentVariable()</span> and <span 663 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">putenv()</span>. A convenient way to 664 1.1 christos do so, and to deal with the fact that some Unix systems have <span 665 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">setenv()</span> and some don't, is the 666 1.1 christos following function.<br> 667 1.1 christos <br> 668 1.1 christos <div style="margin-left: 40px;"><code>#include <string.h></code><br> 669 1.1 christos <code>#include <stdlib.h></code><br> 670 1.1 christos <code>#if defined _WIN32</code><br> 671 1.1 christos <code># include <windows.h></code><br> 672 1.1 christos <code>#endif</code><br> 673 1.1 christos <code></code><br> 674 1.1 christos <code>int my_setenv (const char * name, const char * value) {</code><br> 675 1.1 christos <code> size_t namelen = strlen(name);</code><br> 676 1.1 christos <code> size_t valuelen = (value==NULL ? 0 : strlen(value));</code><br> 677 1.1 christos <code>#if defined _WIN32</code><br> 678 1.1 christos <code> /* On Woe32, each process has two copies of the 679 1.1 christos environment variables,</code><br> 680 1.1 christos <code> one managed by the OS and one 681 1.1 christos managed by the C library. We set</code><br> 682 1.1 christos <code> the value in both locations, so that 683 1.1 christos other software that looks in</code><br> 684 1.1 christos <code> one place or the other is guaranteed 685 1.1 christos to see the value. Even if it's</code><br> 686 1.1 christos <code> a bit slow. See also</code><br> 687 1.1 christos <code> <<a 688 1.1 christos href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.mingw.user/8272">http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.mingw.user/8272</a>></code><br> 689 1.1 christos <code> <<a 690 1.1 christos href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.mingw.user/8273">http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.mingw.user/8273</a>></code><br> 691 1.1 christos <code> <<a 692 1.1 christos href="http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/1999-04/msg00478.html">http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/1999-04/msg00478.html</a>> 693 1.1 christos */</code><br> 694 1.1 christos <code> if (!SetEnvironmentVariableA(name,value))</code><br> 695 1.1 christos <code> return -1; </code><br> 696 1.1 christos <code>#endif</code><br> 697 1.1 christos <code>#if defined(HAVE_PUTENV)</code><br> 698 1.1 christos <code> char* buffer = (char*)malloc(namelen+1+valuelen+1);</code><br> 699 1.1 christos <code> if (!buffer)</code><br> 700 1.1 christos <code> return -1; /* no need to set errno = 701 1.1 christos ENOMEM */</code><br> 702 1.1 christos <code> memcpy(buffer,name,namelen);</code><br> 703 1.1 christos <code> if (value != NULL) {</code><br> 704 1.1 christos <code> buffer[namelen] = '=';</code><br> 705 1.1 christos <code> memcpy(buffer+namelen+1,value,valuelen);</code><br> 706 1.1 christos <code> buffer[namelen+1+valuelen] = 0;</code><br> 707 1.1 christos <code> } else</code><br> 708 1.1 christos <code> buffer[namelen] = 0;</code><br> 709 1.1 christos <code> return putenv(buffer);</code><br> 710 1.1 christos <code>#elif defined(HAVE_SETENV)</code><br> 711 1.1 christos <code> return setenv(name,value,1);</code><br> 712 1.1 christos <code>#else</code><br> 713 1.1 christos <code> /* Uh oh, neither putenv() nor setenv() ... */</code><br> 714 1.1 christos <code> return -1;</code><br> 715 1.1 christos <code>#endif</code><br> 716 1.1 christos <code>}</code><br> 717 1.1 christos <code></code></div> 718 1.1 christos <br> 719 1.1 christos </li> 720 1.1 christos </ul> 721 1.1 christos <h3>Other</h3> 722 1.1 christos <h4><a name="newline"></a>What does this mean: `msgid' and `msgstr' 723 1.1 christos entries do not both end 724 1.1 christos with '\n'</h4> 725 1.1 christos It means that when the original string ends in a newline, your 726 1.1 christos translation must also end in a newline. And if the original string does 727 1.1 christos not end in a newline, then your translation should likewise not have a 728 1.1 christos newline at the end.<br> 729 1.1 christos <h4><a name="translit"></a>German umlauts are displayed like 730 1.1 christos ge"andert instead of gendert</h4> 731 1.1 christos This symptom occurs when the <span style="font-family: monospace;">LC_CTYPE</span> 732 1.1 christos facet of the locale is not set; then gettext() doesn't know which 733 1.1 christos character set to use, and converts all messages to ASCII, as far as 734 1.1 christos possible.<br> 735 1.1 christos <br> 736 1.1 christos If the program is doing<br> 737 1.1 christos <code><br> 738 1.1 christos setlocale (LC_MESSAGES, "");<br> 739 1.1 christos <br> 740 1.1 christos </code>then change it to<br> 741 1.1 christos <code><br> 742 1.1 christos setlocale (LC_CTYPE, "");<br> 743 1.1 christos setlocale (LC_MESSAGES, "");<br> 744 1.1 christos </code><br> 745 1.1 christos or do both of these in a single call:<br> 746 1.1 christos <code><br> 747 1.1 christos setlocale (LC_ALL, "");<br> 748 1.1 christos </code><br> 749 1.1 christos If the program is already doing<br> 750 1.1 christos <code><br> 751 1.1 christos setlocale (LC_ALL, "");<br> 752 1.1 christos </code><br> 753 1.1 christos then the symptom can still occur if the user has not set <span 754 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG</span>, but instead has set <span 755 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LC_MESSAGES</span> to a valid locale 756 1.1 christos and has set <span style="font-family: monospace;">LC_CTYPE</span> to 757 1.1 christos nothing or an invalid locale. The fix for the user is then to set <span 758 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG</span> instead of <span 759 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LC_MESSAGES</span>.<br> 760 1.1 christos <h4><a name="localename"></a>The <span style="font-family: monospace;">LANGUAGE</span> 761 1.1 christos environment variable is ignored after I set <span 762 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG=en</span></h4> 763 1.1 christos This is because en is a language name, but not a valid locale name. 764 1.1 christos The <span style="font-family: monospace;">ABOUT-NLS</span> file 765 1.1 christos says:<br> 766 1.1 christos <blockquote> 767 1.1 christos In the <span style="font-family: monospace;">LANGUAGE</span> 768 1.1 christos environment variable, but not in the <span 769 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">LANG</span> environment variable, <span 770 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">LL</span>_<span style="font-style: italic;">CC</span><span 771 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;"> </span>combinations can be 772 1.1 christos abbreviated as <span style="font-style: italic;">LL</span> to 773 1.1 christos denote the language's main dialect.</blockquote> 774 1.1 christos Why is <span style="font-family: monospace;">LANG=en</span> not 775 1.1 christos allowed? Because <span style="font-family: monospace;">LANG</span> is 776 1.1 christos a setting for the entire locale, including monetary information, and 777 1.1 christos this depends on the country: en_GB, en_AU, en_ZA all have different 778 1.1 christos currencies.<br> 779 1.1 christos <h4><a name="nonascii_strings"></a>I use accented characters in my 780 1.1 christos source code. How do I tell the 781 1.1 christos C/C++ compiler in which encoding it is (like <span 782 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">xgettext</span>'s <span 783 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">--from-code</span> option)?</h4> 784 1.1 christos Short answer: If you want your program to be useful to other people, 785 1.1 christos then <span style="font-style: italic;">don't use accented characters</span> 786 1.1 christos (or other non-ASCII characters) in string literals <span 787 1.1 christos style="font-style: italic;">in the source code</span>. Instead, use 788 1.1 christos only ASCII for string literals, and use <span 789 1.1 christos style="font-family: monospace;">gettext()</span> to retrieve their 790 1.1 christos display-ready form.<br> 791 1.1 christos <br> 792 1.1 christos Long explanation:<br> 793 1.1 christos The reason is that the ISO C standard specifies that the character set 794 1.1 christos at compilation time can be different from the character set at 795 1.1 christos execution time.<br> 796 1.1 christos The character encoding at compilation time is the one which determines 797 1.1 christos how the source files are interpreted and also how string literals are 798 1.1 christos stored in the compiled code. This character encoding is generally 799 1.1 christos unspecified; for recent versions of GCC, it depends on the LC_CTYPE 800 1.1 christos locale in effect during the compilation process.<br> 801 1.1 christos The character encoding at execution time is the one which determines 802 1.1 christos how standard functions like <span style="font-family: monospace;">isprint()</span>, 803 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">wcwidth()</span> etc. work and 804 1.1 christos how strings written to standard output should be encoded. This 805 1.1 christos character encoding is specified by POSIX to depend on the LC_CTYPE 806 1.1 christos locale in effect when the program is executed; see also the description 807 1.1 christos in the <span style="font-family: monospace;">ABOUT-NLS</span> file.<br> 808 1.1 christos Strings in the compiled code are not magically converted between the 809 1.1 christos time the program is compiled and the time it is run.<br> 810 1.1 christos <br> 811 1.1 christos Therefore what could you do to get accented characters to work?<br> 812 1.1 christos <br> 813 1.1 christos Can you ensure that the execution character set is the same as the 814 1.1 christos compilation character set? Even if your program is to be used only in a 815 1.1 christos single country, this is not realistically possible. For example, in 816 1.1 christos Germany there are currently three character encodings in use: UTF-8, 817 1.1 christos ISO-8859-15 and ISO-8859-1. Therefore you would have to explicitly 818 1.1 christos convert the accented strings from the compilation character set to the 819 1.1 christos execution character set at runtime, for example through iconv().<br> 820 1.1 christos <br> 821 1.1 christos Can you ensure that the compilation character set is the one in which 822 1.1 christos your source files are stored? This is not realistically possible 823 1.1 christos either: For compilers other than GCC, there is no way to specify the 824 1.1 christos compilation character set. So let's assume for a moment that everyone 825 1.1 christos uses GCC; then you will specify the LC_CTYPE or LC_ALL environment 826 1.1 christos variable in the Makefile. But for this you have to assume that everyone 827 1.1 christos has a locale in a given encoding. Be it UTF-8 or ISO-8859-1 - this is 828 1.1 christos not realistic. People often have no locale installed besides the one 829 1.1 christos they use.<br> 830 1.1 christos <br> 831 1.1 christos Use of wide strings <span style="font-family: monospace;">L"..."</span> 832 1.1 christos doesn't help solving the problem, because on systems like FreeBSD or 833 1.1 christos Solaris, the way how wide string literals are stored in compiled code 834 1.1 christos depends on the compilation character set, just as it does for 835 1.1 christos narrow strings <span style="font-family: monospace;">"..."</span>. 836 1.1 christos Moreover, wide strings have problems of their own.<br> 837 1.1 christos <br> 838 1.1 christos Use of ISO C 99 Unicode escapes "\u<span style="font-style: italic;">xxxx</span>" 839 1.1 christos doesn't help either because these characters are converted to the 840 1.1 christos compilation character set at compile time; so again, since you can't 841 1.1 christos guarantee that the compilation character set is not ASCII, you're 842 1.1 christos risking compilation errors just as if the real character had been used 843 1.1 christos in the source instead of the Unicode escape.<br> 844 1.1 christos <br> 845 1.1 christos So, in summary, there is no way to make accented characters in string 846 1.1 christos literals work in C/C++.<br> 847 1.1 christos <br> 848 1.1 christos You might then wonder what <span style="font-family: monospace;">xgettext</span>'s 849 1.1 christos <span style="font-family: monospace;">--from-code</span> option is good 850 1.1 christos for. The answer is<br> 851 1.1 christos <ol> 852 1.1 christos <li>For the comments in C/C++ source code. The compiler ignores them.<br> 853 1.1 christos </li> 854 1.1 christos <li>For other programming languages like Java, for which the compiler 855 1.1 christos converts all string literals to UTF-8.</li> 856 1.1 christos </ol> 857 1.1 christos <br> 858 1.1 christos <hr style="width: 100%; height: 2px;"> 859 1.1 christos <address>GNU gettext FAQ<br> 860 1.1 christos Bruno Haible <<a href="mailto:bruno (a] clisp.org">bruno (a] clisp.org</a>></address> 861 1.1 christos <p>Last modified: 24 February 2004 862 1.1 christos </p> 863 1.1 christos </body> 864 1.1 christos </html> 865
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