Invoking the msgfmt Program

Usage: msgfmt [option] filename.po ...

`-a number'

`--alignment=number'

Align strings to number bytes (default: 1).

`-h'

`--help'

Display this help and exit.

`-I list'

`--input-path=list'

List of directories searched for input files.

`--no-hash'

Binary file will not include the hash table.

`-o file'

`--output-file=file'

Specify output file name as file.

`-v'

`--verbose'

Detect and diagnose input file anomalies which might represent translation errors. The msgid and msgstr strings are studied and compared. It is considered abnormal that one string starts or ends with a newline while the other does not. Also, both strings should have the same number of `%' format specifiers, with matching types. For example, the check will diagnose using `%.*s' against `%s', or `%d' against `%s', or `%d' against `%x'. It can even handle positional parameters.

`-V'

`--version'

Output version information and exit.

If input file is `-', standard input is read. If output file is `-', output is written to standard output.

The search patch for msgfmt is `/usr/local/share/nls/src/', by default. It represents the path to additional directories where other PO files can be found. This feature could be used for some PO files for standard libraries, in case we would like to spare translating their strings over and over again. The `-x' option could then exclude these strings from the generation.

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