docs/TRANSLATORS.md

   1 ---
   2 title: Notes for Translators
   3 category: Contributing
   4 layout: default
   5 ---
   6
   7 # Notes for Translators
   8
   9 systemd depends on the `gettext` package for multilingual support.
  10
  11 You'll find the i18n files in the `po/` directory.
  12
  13 The build system (meson/ninja) can be used to generate a template (`*.pot`),
  14 which can be used to create new translations.
  15
  16 It can also merge the template into the existing translations (`*.po`), to pick
  17 up new strings in need of translation.
  18
  19 Finally, it is able to compile the translations (to `*.gmo` files), so that
  20 they can be used by systemd software. (This step is also useful to confirm the
  21 syntax of the `*.po` files is correct.)
  22
  23 ## Creating a New Translation
  24
  25 To create a translation to a language not yet available, start by creating the
  26 initial template:
  27
  28 ```
  29 $ ninja -C build/ systemd-pot
  30 ```
  31
  32 This will generate file `po/systemd.pot` in the source tree.
  33
  34 Then simply copy it to a new <code><i>${lang_code}</i>.po</code> file, where
  35 <code><i>${lang_code}</i></code> is the two-letter code for a language
  36 (possibly followed by a two-letter uppercase country code), according to the
  37 ISO 639 standard.
  38
  39 In short:
  40
  41 <pre>
  42 $ cp po/systemd.pot po/<i>${lang_code}</i>.po
  43 </pre>
  44
  45 Then edit the new <code>po/<i>${lang_code}</i>.po</code> file (for example,
  46 using the `poedit` GUI editor.)
  47
  48 ## Updating an Existing Translation
  49
  50 Start by updating the `*.po` files from the latest template:
  51
  52 ```
  53 $ ninja -C build/ systemd-update-po
  54 ```
  55
  56 This will touch all the `*.po` files, so you'll want to pay attention when
  57 creating a git commit from this change, to only include the one translation
  58 you're actually updating.
  59
  60 Edit the `*.po` file, looking for empty translations and translations marked as
  61 "fuzzy" (which means the merger found a similar message that needs to be
  62 reviewed as it's expected not to match exactly.)
  63
  64 You can use any text editor to update the `*.po` files, but a good choice is
  65 the `poedit` editor, a graphical application specifically designed for this
  66 purpose.
  67
  68 Once you're done, create a git commit for the update of the `po/*.po` file you
  69 touched. Remember to undo the changes to the other `*.po` files (for instance,
  70 using `git checkout -- po/` after you commit the changes you do want to keep.)
  71
  72 ## Recompiling Translations
  73
  74 You can recompile the `*.po` files using the following command:
  75
  76 ```
  77 $ ninja -C build/ systemd-gmo
  78 ```
  79
  80 The resulting files will be saved in the `build/po/` directory.