docs/TRANSLATORS.md

   1 ---
   2 title: Notes for Translators
   3 category: Contributing
   4 layout: default
   5 SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
   6 ---
   7
   8 # Notes for Translators
   9
  10 systemd depends on the `gettext` package for multilingual support.
  11
  12 You'll find the i18n files in the `po/` directory.
  13
  14 The build system (meson/ninja) can be used to generate a template (`*.pot`),
  15 which can be used to create new translations.
  16
  17 It can also merge the template into the existing translations (`*.po`), to pick
  18 up new strings in need of translation.
  19
  20 Finally, it is able to compile the translations (to `*.gmo` files), so that
  21 they can be used by systemd software. (This step is also useful to confirm the
  22 syntax of the `*.po` files is correct.)
  23
  24 ## Creating a New Translation
  25
  26 To create a translation to a language not yet available, start by creating the
  27 initial template:
  28
  29 ```
  30 $ meson compile -C build/ systemd-pot
  31 ```
  32
  33 This will generate file `po/systemd.pot` in the source tree.
  34
  35 Then simply copy it to a new <code><i>${lang_code}</i>.po</code> file, where
  36 <code><i>${lang_code}</i></code> is the two-letter code for a language
  37 (possibly followed by a two-letter uppercase country code), according to the
  38 ISO 639 standard.
  39
  40 In short:
  41
  42 <pre>
  43 $ cp po/systemd.pot po/<i>${lang_code}</i>.po
  44 </pre>
  45
  46 Then edit the new <code>po/<i>${lang_code}</i>.po</code> file (for example,
  47 using the `poedit` GUI editor.)
  48
  49 ## Updating an Existing Translation
  50
  51 Start by updating the `*.po` files from the latest template:
  52
  53 ```
  54 $ meson compile -C build/ systemd-update-po
  55 ```
  56
  57 This will touch all the `*.po` files, so you'll want to pay attention when
  58 creating a git commit from this change, to only include the one translation
  59 you're actually updating.
  60
  61 Edit the `*.po` file, looking for empty translations and translations marked as
  62 "fuzzy" (which means the merger found a similar message that needs to be
  63 reviewed as it's expected not to match exactly.)
  64
  65 You can use any text editor to update the `*.po` files, but a good choice is
  66 the `poedit` editor, a graphical application specifically designed for this
  67 purpose.
  68
  69 Once you're done, create a git commit for the update of the `po/*.po` file you
  70 touched. Remember to undo the changes to the other `*.po` files (for instance,
  71 using `git checkout -- po/` after you commit the changes you do want to keep.)
  72
  73 ## Recompiling Translations
  74
  75 You can recompile the `*.po` files using the following command:
  76
  77 ```
  78 $ meson compile -C build/ systemd-gmo
  79 ```
  80
  81 The resulting files will be saved in the `build/po/` directory.