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.
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
-U, --update update def.po, do nothing if def.po already up to date
-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.
-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
-P, --properties-input input files are in Java .properties syntax
--stringtable-input input files are in NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings syntax
-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
-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
should give you access to the complete manual.
Indexes created Fri Jun 05 00:26:10 UTC 2026