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       <TITLE>GNU gettext utilities - 1  Introduction</TITLE>
       </HEAD>
       <BODY>
       Go to the first, previous, <A HREF="gettext_2.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_22.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
       <P><HR><P>
       <H1><A NAME="SEC1" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC1">1  Introduction</A></H1>
       <BLOCKQUOTE>
       <P>
       This manual is still in <EM>DRAFT</EM> state.  Some sections are still
       empty, or almost.  We keep merging material from other sources
       (essentially e-mail folders) while the proper integration of this
       material is delayed.
       </BLOCKQUOTE>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX1"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX2"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX3"></A>
       In this manual, we use <EM>he</EM> when speaking of the programmer or
       maintainer, <EM>she</EM> when speaking of the translator, and <EM>they</EM>
       when speaking of the installers or end users of the translated program.
       This is only a convenience for clarifying the documentation.  It is
       <EM>absolutely</EM> not meant to imply that some roles are more appropriate
       to males or females.  Besides, as you might guess, GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
       is meant to be useful for people using computers, whatever their sex,
       race, religion or nationality!
       </P>
       <P>
       This chapter explains the goals sought in the creation
       of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> and the free Translation Project.
       Then, it explains a few broad concepts around
       Native Language Support, and positions message translation with regard
       to other aspects of national and cultural variance, as they apply to
       to programs.  It also surveys those files used to convey the
       translations.  It explains how the various tools interact in the
       initial generation of these files, and later, how the maintenance
       cycle should usually operate.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX4"></A>
       Please send suggestions and corrections to:
       </P>
       <PRE>
       Internet address:
           bug-gnu-gettext@gnu.org
       </PRE>
       <P>
       Please include the manual's edition number and update date in your messages.
       </P>
       <H2><A NAME="SEC2" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC2">1.1  The Purpose of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>
       <P>
       Usually, programs are written and documented in English, and use
       English at execution time to interact with users.  This is true
       not only of GNU software, but also of a great deal of commercial
       and free software.  Using a common language is quite handy for
       communication between developers, maintainers and users from all
       countries.  On the other hand, most people are less comfortable with
       English than with their own native language, and would prefer to
       use their mother tongue for day to day's work, as far as possible.
       Many would simply <EM>love</EM> to see their computer screen showing
       a lot less of English, and far more of their own language.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX5"></A>
       However, to many people, this dream might appear so far fetched that
       they may believe it is not even worth spending time thinking about
       it.  They have no confidence at all that the dream might ever
       become true.  Yet some have not lost hope, and have organized themselves.
       The Translation Project is a formalization of this hope into a
       workable structure, which has a good chance to get all of us nearer
       the achievement of a truly multi-lingual set of programs.
       </P>
       <P>
       GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> is an important step for the Translation Project,
       as it is an asset on which we may build many other steps.  This package
       offers to programmers, translators and even users, a well integrated
       set of tools and documentation.  Specifically, the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
       utilities are a set of tools that provides a framework within which
       other free packages may produce multi-lingual messages.  These tools
       include
       </P>
       <UL>
       <LI>
       A set of conventions about how programs should be written to support
       message catalogs.
       <LI>
       A directory and file naming organization for the message catalogs
       themselves.
       <LI>
       A runtime library supporting the retrieval of translated messages.
       <LI>
       A few stand-alone programs to massage in various ways the sets of
       translatable strings, or already translated strings.
       <LI>
       A special mode for Emacs<A NAME="DOCF1" HREF="gettext_foot.html#FOOT1">(1)</A> which helps preparing these sets
       and bringing them up to date.
       </UL>
       <P>
       GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> is designed to minimize the impact of
       internationalization on program sources, keeping this impact as small
       and hardly noticeable as possible.  Internationalization has better
       chances of succeeding if it is very light weighted, or at least,
       appear to be so, when looking at program sources.
       </P>
       <P>
       The Translation Project also uses the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> distribution
       as a vehicle for documenting its structure and methods.  This goes
       beyond the strict technicalities of documenting the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
       proper.  By so doing, translators will find in a single place, as
       far as possible, all they need to know for properly doing their
       translating work.  Also, this supplemental documentation might also
       help programmers, and even curious users, in understanding how GNU
       <CODE>gettext</CODE> is related to the remainder of the Translation
       Project, and consequently, have a glimpse at the <EM>big picture</EM>.
       </P>
       <H2><A NAME="SEC3" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC3">1.2  I18n, L10n, and Such</A></H2>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX6"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX7"></A>
       Two long words appear all the time when we discuss support of native
       language in programs, and these words have a precise meaning, worth
       being explained here, once and for all in this document.  The words are
       <EM>internationalization</EM> and <EM>localization</EM>.  Many people,
       tired of writing these long words over and over again, took the
       habit of writing <EM>i18n</EM> and <EM>l10n</EM> instead, quoting the first
       and last letter of each word, and replacing the run of intermediate
       letters by a number merely telling how many such letters there are.
       But in this manual, in the sake of clarity, we will patiently write
       the names in full, each time...
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX8"></A>
       By <EM>internationalization</EM>, one refers to the operation by which a
       program, or a set of programs turned into a package, is made aware of and
       able to support multiple languages.  This is a generalization process,
       by which the programs are untied from calling only English strings or
       other English specific habits, and connected to generic ways of doing
       the same, instead.  Program developers may use various techniques to
       internationalize their programs.  Some of these have been standardized.
       GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> offers one of these standards.  See section <A HREF="gettext_10.html#SEC157">10  The Programmer's View</A>.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX9"></A>
       By <EM>localization</EM>, one means the operation by which, in a set
       of programs already internationalized, one gives the program all
       needed information so that it can adapt itself to handle its input
       and output in a fashion which is correct for some native language and
       cultural habits.  This is a particularisation process, by which generic
       methods already implemented in an internationalized program are used
       in specific ways.  The programming environment puts several functions
       to the programmers disposal which allow this runtime configuration.
       The formal description of specific set of cultural habits for some
       country, together with all associated translations targeted to the
       same native language, is called the <EM>locale</EM> for this language
       or country.  Users achieve localization of programs by setting proper
       values to special environment variables, prior to executing those
       programs, identifying which locale should be used.
       </P>
       <P>
       In fact, locale message support is only one component of the cultural
       data that makes up a particular locale.  There are a whole host of
       routines and functions provided to aid programmers in developing
       internationalized software and which allow them to access the data
       stored in a particular locale.  When someone presently refers to a
       particular locale, they are obviously referring to the data stored
       within that particular locale.  Similarly, if a programmer is referring
       to "accessing the locale routines", they are referring to the
       complete suite of routines that access all of the locale's information.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX10"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX11"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX12"></A>
       One uses the expression <EM>Native Language Support</EM>, or merely NLS,
       for speaking of the overall activity or feature encompassing both
       internationalization and localization, allowing for multi-lingual
       interactions in a program.  In a nutshell, one could say that
       internationalization is the operation by which further localizations
       are made possible.
       </P>
       <P>
       Also, very roughly said, when it comes to multi-lingual messages,
       internationalization is usually taken care of by programmers, and
       localization is usually taken care of by translators.
       </P>
       <H2><A NAME="SEC4" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC4">1.3  Aspects in Native Language Support</A></H2>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX13"></A>
       For a totally multi-lingual distribution, there are many things to
       translate beyond output messages.
       </P>
       <UL>
       <LI>
       As of today, GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> offers a complete toolset for
       translating messages output by C programs.  Perl scripts and shell
       scripts will also need to be translated.  Even if there are today some hooks
       by which this can be done, these hooks are not integrated as well as they
       should be.
       <LI>
       Some programs, like <CODE>autoconf</CODE> or <CODE>bison</CODE>, are able
       to produce other programs (or scripts).  Even if the generating
       programs themselves are internationalized, the generated programs they
       produce may need internationalization on their own, and this indirect
       internationalization could be automated right from the generating
       program.  In fact, quite usually, generating and generated programs
       could be internationalized independently, as the effort needed is
       fairly orthogonal.
       <LI>
       A few programs include textual tables which might need translation
       themselves, independently of the strings contained in the program
       itself.  For example, RFC 1345 gives an English description for each
       character which the <CODE>recode</CODE> program is able to reconstruct at execution.
       Since these descriptions are extracted from the RFC by mechanical means,
       translating them properly would require a prior translation of the RFC
       itself.
       <LI>
       Almost all programs accept options, which are often worded out so to
       be descriptive for the English readers; one might want to consider
       offering translated versions for program options as well.
       <LI>
       Many programs read, interpret, compile, or are somewhat driven by
       input files which are texts containing keywords, identifiers, or
       replies which are inherently translatable.  For example, one may want
       <CODE>gcc</CODE> to allow diacriticized characters in identifiers or use
       translated keywords; <SAMP>`rm -i&acute;</SAMP> might accept something else than
       <SAMP>`y&acute;</SAMP> or <SAMP>`n&acute;</SAMP> for replies, etc.  Even if the program will
       eventually make most of its output in the foreign languages, one has
       to decide whether the input syntax, option values, etc., are to be
       localized or not.
       <LI>
       The manual accompanying a package, as well as all documentation files
       in the distribution, could surely be translated, too.  Translating a
       manual, with the intent of later keeping up with updates, is a major
       undertaking in itself, generally.
       </UL>
       <P>
       As we already stressed, translation is only one aspect of locales.
       Other internationalization aspects are system services and are handled
       in GNU <CODE>libc</CODE>.  There
       are many attributes that are needed to define a country's cultural
       conventions.  These attributes include beside the country's native
       language, the formatting of the date and time, the representation of
       numbers, the symbols for currency, etc.  These local <EM>rules</EM> are
       termed the country's locale.  The locale represents the knowledge
       needed to support the country's native attributes.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX14"></A>
       There are a few major areas which may vary between countries and
       hence, define what a locale must describe.  The following list helps
       putting multi-lingual messages into the proper context of other tasks
       related to locales.  See the GNU <CODE>libc</CODE> manual for details.
       </P>
       <DL COMPACT>
       <DT><EM>Characters and Codesets</EM>
       <DD>
       <A NAME="IDX15"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX16"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX17"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX18"></A>
       The codeset most commonly used through out the USA and most English
       speaking parts of the world is the ASCII codeset.  However, there are
       many characters needed by various locales that are not found within
       this codeset.  The 8-bit ISO 8859-1 code set has most of the special
       characters needed to handle the major European languages.  However, in
       many cases, the ISO 8859-1 font is not adequate: it doesn't even
       handle the major European currency.  Hence each locale
       will need to specify which codeset they need to use and will need
       to have the appropriate character handling routines to cope with
       the codeset.
       <DT><EM>Currency</EM>
       <DD>
       <A NAME="IDX19"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX20"></A>
       The symbols used vary from country to country as does the position
       used by the symbol.  Software needs to be able to transparently
       display currency figures in the native mode for each locale.
       <DT><EM>Dates</EM>
       <DD>
       <A NAME="IDX21"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX22"></A>
       The format of date varies between locales.  For example, Christmas day
       in 1994 is written as 12/25/94 in the USA and as 25/12/94 in Australia.
       Other countries might use ISO 8061 dates, etc.
       Time of the day may be noted as <VAR>hh</VAR>:<VAR>mm</VAR>, <VAR>hh</VAR>.<VAR>mm</VAR>,
       or otherwise.  Some locales require time to be specified in 24-hour
       mode rather than as AM or PM.  Further, the nature and yearly extent
       of the Daylight Saving correction vary widely between countries.
       <DT><EM>Numbers</EM>
       <DD>
       <A NAME="IDX23"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX24"></A>
       Numbers can be represented differently in different locales.
       For example, the following numbers are all written correctly for
       their respective locales:
       <PRE>
 ,345.67       English
 .345,67       German
 ,67       French
 ,2345.67       Asia
       </PRE>
       Some programs could go further and use different unit systems, like
       English units or Metric units, or even take into account variants
       about how numbers are spelled in full.
       <DT><EM>Messages</EM>
       <DD>
       <A NAME="IDX25"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX26"></A>
       The most obvious area is the language support within a locale.  This is
       where GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> provides the means for developers and users to
       easily change the language that the software uses to communicate to
       the user.
       </DL>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX27"></A>
       Components of locale outside of message handling are standardized in
       the ISO C standard and the SUSV2 specification.  GNU <CODE>libc</CODE>
       fully implements this, and most other modern systems provide a more
       or less reasonable support for at least some of the missing components.
       </P>
       <H2><A NAME="SEC5" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC5">1.4  Files Conveying Translations</A></H2>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX28"></A>
       The letters PO in <TT>`.po&acute;</TT> files means Portable Object, to
       distinguish it from <TT>`.mo&acute;</TT> files, where MO stands for Machine
       Object.  This paradigm, as well as the PO file format, is inspired
       by the NLS standard developed by Uniforum, and first implemented by
       Sun in their Solaris system.
       </P>
       <P>
       PO files are meant to be read and edited by humans, and associate each
       original, translatable string of a given package with its translation
       in a particular target language.  A single PO file is dedicated to
       a single target language.  If a package supports many languages,
       there is one such PO file per language supported, and each package
       has its own set of PO files.  These PO files are best created by
       the <CODE>xgettext</CODE> program, and later updated or refreshed through
       the <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> program.  Program <CODE>xgettext</CODE> extracts all
       marked messages from a set of C files and initializes a PO file with
       empty translations.  Program <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> takes care of adjusting
       PO files between releases of the corresponding sources, commenting
       obsolete entries, initializing new ones, and updating all source
       line references.  Files ending with <TT>`.pot&acute;</TT> are kind of base
       translation files found in distributions, in PO file format.
       </P>
       <P>
       MO files are meant to be read by programs, and are binary in nature.
       A few systems already offer tools for creating and handling MO files
       as part of the Native Language Support coming with the system, but the
       format of these MO files is often different from system to system,
       and non-portable.  The tools already provided with these systems don't
       support all the features of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>.  Therefore GNU
       <CODE>gettext</CODE> uses its own format for MO files.  Files ending with
       <TT>`.gmo&acute;</TT> are really MO files, when it is known that these files use
       the GNU format.
       </P>
       <H2><A NAME="SEC6" HREF="gettext_toc.html#TOC6">1.5  Overview of GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE></A></H2>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX29"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX30"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX31"></A>
       The following diagram summarizes the relation between the files
       handled by GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> and the tools acting on these files.
       It is followed by somewhat detailed explanations, which you should
       read while keeping an eye on the diagram.  Having a clear understanding
       of these interrelations will surely help programmers, translators
       and maintainers.
       </P>
       <PRE>
       Original C Sources ---&#62; PO mode ---&#62; Marked C Sources ---.
+                                                               |
                     .---------&#60;--- GNU gettext Library         |
       .--- make &#60;---+                                          |
       |             `---------&#60;--------------------+-----------'
       |                                            |
       |   .-----&#60;--- PACKAGE.pot &#60;--- xgettext &#60;---'   .---&#60;--- PO Compendium
       |   |                                            |             ^
       |   |                                            `---.         |
       |   `---.                                            +---&#62; PO mode ---.
       |       +----&#62; msgmerge ------&#62; LANG.po ----&#62;--------'                |
       |   .---'                                                             |
       |   |                                                                 |
       |   `-------------&#60;---------------.                                   |
       |                                 +--- New LANG.po &#60;------------------'
       |   .--- LANG.gmo &#60;--- msgfmt &#60;---'
       |   |
       |   `---&#62; install ---&#62; /.../LANG/PACKAGE.mo ---.
       |                                              +---&#62; "Hello world!"
       `-------&#62; install ---&#62; /.../bin/PROGRAM -------'
       </PRE>
       <P>
       The indication <SAMP>`PO mode&acute;</SAMP> appears in two places in this picture,
       and you may safely read it as merely meaning "hand editing", using
       any editor of your choice, really.  However, for those of you being
       the lucky users of Emacs, PO mode has been specifically created
       for providing a cozy environment for editing or modifying PO files.
       While editing a PO file, PO mode allows for the easy browsing of
       auxiliary and compendium PO files, as well as for following references into
       the set of C program sources from which PO files have been derived.
       It has a few special features, among which are the interactive marking
       of program strings as translatable, and the validation of PO files
       with easy repositioning to PO file lines showing errors.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX32"></A>
       As a programmer, the first step to bringing GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE>
       into your package is identifying, right in the C sources, those strings
       which are meant to be translatable, and those which are untranslatable.
       This tedious job can be done a little more comfortably using emacs PO
       mode, but you can use any means familiar to you for modifying your
       C sources.  Beside this some other simple, standard changes are needed to
       properly initialize the translation library.  See section <A HREF="gettext_3.html#SEC13">3  Preparing Program Sources</A>, for
       more information about all this.
       </P>
       <P>
       For newly written software the strings of course can and should be
       marked while writing it.  The <CODE>gettext</CODE> approach makes this
       very easy.  Simply put the following lines at the beginning of each file
       or in a central header file:
       </P>
       <PRE>
       #define _(String) (String)
       #define N_(String) String
       #define textdomain(Domain)
       #define bindtextdomain(Package, Directory)
       </PRE>
       <P>
       Doing this allows you to prepare the sources for internationalization.
       Later when you feel ready for the step to use the <CODE>gettext</CODE> library
       simply replace these definitions by the following:
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX33"></A>
       <PRE>
       #include &#60;libintl.h&#62;
       #define _(String) gettext (String)
       #define gettext_noop(String) String
       #define N_(String) gettext_noop (String)
       </PRE>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX34"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX35"></A>
       and link against <TT>`libintl.a&acute;</TT> or <TT>`libintl.so&acute;</TT>.  Note that on
       GNU systems, you don't need to link with <CODE>libintl</CODE> because the
       <CODE>gettext</CODE> library functions are already contained in GNU libc.
       That is all you have to change.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX36"></A>
       <A NAME="IDX37"></A>
       Once the C sources have been modified, the <CODE>xgettext</CODE> program
       is used to find and extract all translatable strings, and create a
       PO template file out of all these.  This <TT>`<VAR>package</VAR>.pot&acute;</TT> file
       contains all original program strings.  It has sets of pointers to
       exactly where in C sources each string is used.  All translations
       are set to empty.  The letter <CODE>t</CODE> in <TT>`.pot&acute;</TT> marks this as
       a Template PO file, not yet oriented towards any particular language.
       See section <A HREF="gettext_4.html#SEC22">4.1  Invoking the <CODE>xgettext</CODE> Program</A>, for more details about how one calls the
       <CODE>xgettext</CODE> program.  If you are <EM>really</EM> lazy, you might
       be interested at working a lot more right away, and preparing the
       whole distribution setup (see section <A HREF="gettext_12.html#SEC189">12  The Maintainer's View</A>).  By doing so, you
       spare yourself typing the <CODE>xgettext</CODE> command, as <CODE>make</CODE>
       should now generate the proper things automatically for you!
       </P>
       <P>
       The first time through, there is no <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT> yet, so the
       <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> step may be skipped and replaced by a mere copy of
       <TT>`<VAR>package</VAR>.pot&acute;</TT> to <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT>, where <VAR>lang</VAR>
       represents the target language.  See section <A HREF="gettext_5.html#SEC31">5  Creating a New PO File</A> for details.
       </P>
       <P>
       Then comes the initial translation of messages.  Translation in
       itself is a whole matter, still exclusively meant for humans,
       and whose complexity far overwhelms the level of this manual.
       Nevertheless, a few hints are given in some other chapter of this
       manual (see section <A HREF="gettext_11.html#SEC177">11  The Translator's View</A>).  You will also find there indications
       about how to contact translating teams, or becoming part of them,
       for sharing your translating concerns with others who target the same
       native language.
       </P>
       <P>
       While adding the translated messages into the <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT>
       PO file, if you do not have Emacs handy, you are on your own
       for ensuring that your efforts fully respect the PO file format, and quoting
       conventions (see section <A HREF="gettext_2.html#SEC9">2.2  The Format of PO Files</A>).  This is surely not an impossible task,
       as this is the way many people have handled PO files already for Uniforum or
       Solaris.  On the other hand, by using PO mode in Emacs, most details
       of PO file format are taken care of for you, but you have to acquire
       some familiarity with PO mode itself.  Besides main PO mode commands
       (see section <A HREF="gettext_2.html#SEC10">2.3  Main PO mode Commands</A>), you should know how to move between entries
       (see section <A HREF="gettext_2.html#SEC11">2.4  Entry Positioning</A>), and how to handle untranslated entries
       (see section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC51">6.4  Untranslated Entries</A>).
       </P>
       <P>
       If some common translations have already been saved into a compendium
       PO file, translators may use PO mode for initializing untranslated
       entries from the compendium, and also save selected translations into
       the compendium, updating it (see section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC58">6.11  Using Translation Compendia</A>).  Compendium files
       are meant to be exchanged between members of a given translation team.
       </P>
       <P>
       Programs, or packages of programs, are dynamic in nature: users write
       bug reports and suggestion for improvements, maintainers react by
       modifying programs in various ways.  The fact that a package has
       already been internationalized should not make maintainers shy
       of adding new strings, or modifying strings already translated.
       They just do their job the best they can.  For the Translation
       Project to work smoothly, it is important that maintainers do not
       carry translation concerns on their already loaded shoulders, and that
       translators be kept as free as possible of programming concerns.
       </P>
       <P>
       The only concern maintainers should have is carefully marking new
       strings as translatable, when they should be, and do not otherwise
       worry about them being translated, as this will come in proper time.
       Consequently, when programs and their strings are adjusted in various
       ways by maintainers, and for matters usually unrelated to translation,
       <CODE>xgettext</CODE> would construct <TT>`<VAR>package</VAR>.pot&acute;</TT> files which are
       evolving over time, so the translations carried by <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT>
       are slowly fading out of date.
       </P>
       <P>
       <A NAME="IDX38"></A>
       It is important for translators (and even maintainers) to understand
       that package translation is a continuous process in the lifetime of a
       package, and not something which is done once and for all at the start.
       After an initial burst of translation activity for a given package,
       interventions are needed once in a while, because here and there,
       translated entries become obsolete, and new untranslated entries
       appear, needing translation.
       </P>
       <P>
       The <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> program has the purpose of refreshing an already
       existing <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT> file, by comparing it with a newer
       <TT>`<VAR>package</VAR>.pot&acute;</TT> template file, extracted by <CODE>xgettext</CODE>
       out of recent C sources.  The refreshing operation adjusts all
       references to C source locations for strings, since these strings
       move as programs are modified.  Also, <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> comments out as
       obsolete, in <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT>, those already translated entries
       which are no longer used in the program sources (see section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC52">6.5  Obsolete Entries</A>).  It finally discovers new strings and inserts them in
       the resulting PO file as untranslated entries (see section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC51">6.4  Untranslated Entries</A>).  See section <A HREF="gettext_6.html#SEC40">6.1  Invoking the <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> Program</A>, for more information about what
       <CODE>msgmerge</CODE> really does.
       </P>
       <P>
       Whatever route or means taken, the goal is to obtain an updated
       <TT>`<VAR>lang</VAR>.po&acute;</TT> file offering translations for all strings.
       </P>
       <P>
       The temporal mobility, or fluidity of PO files, is an integral part of
       the translation game, and should be well understood, and accepted.
       People resisting it will have a hard time participating in the
       Translation Project, or will give a hard time to other participants!  In
       particular, maintainers should relax and include all available official
       PO files in their distributions, even if these have not recently been
       updated, without exerting pressure on the translator teams to get the
       job done.  The pressure should rather come
       from the community of users speaking a particular language, and
       maintainers should consider themselves fairly relieved of any concern
       about the adequacy of translation files.  On the other hand, translators
       should reasonably try updating the PO files they are responsible for,
       while the package is undergoing pretest, prior to an official
       distribution.
       </P>
       <P>
       Once the PO file is complete and dependable, the <CODE>msgfmt</CODE> program
       is used for turning the PO file into a machine-oriented format, which
       may yield efficient retrieval of translations by the programs of the
       package, whenever needed at runtime (see section <A HREF="gettext_8.html#SEC152">8.3  The Format of GNU MO Files</A>).  See section <A HREF="gettext_8.html#SEC134">8.1  Invoking the <CODE>msgfmt</CODE> Program</A>, for more information about all modes of execution
       for the <CODE>msgfmt</CODE> program.
       </P>
       <P>
       Finally, the modified and marked C sources are compiled and linked
       with the GNU <CODE>gettext</CODE> library, usually through the operation of
       <CODE>make</CODE>, given a suitable <TT>`Makefile&acute;</TT> exists for the project,
       and the resulting executable is installed somewhere users will find it.
       The MO files themselves should also be properly installed.  Given the
       appropriate environment variables are set (see section <A HREF="gettext_9.html#SEC156">9.3  Magic for End Users</A>), the
       program should localize itself automatically, whenever it executes.
       </P>
       <P>
       The remainder of this manual has the purpose of explaining in depth the various
       steps outlined above.
       </P>
       <P><HR><P>
       Go to the first, previous, <A HREF="gettext_2.html">next</A>, <A HREF="gettext_22.html">last</A> section, <A HREF="gettext_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
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