User Commands                                         xgettext(1)

NAME
     xgettext - extract gettext call strings from C programs

SYNOPSIS
     xgettext [-ns] [ -a [-x exclude-file]]  [-c comment-tag]  [-
     d default-domain] [-j] [-m prefix] [-M suffix] [-p pathname]
     -| filename...

     xgettext  -h

DESCRIPTION
     The xgettext utility is used to  automate  the  creation  of
     portable  message files (.po). A .po file contains copies of
     "C" strings that  are  found  in   ANSI  C  source  code  in
     filename  or  the standard input if  `-' is specified on the
     command line. The  .po file can be  used  as  input  to  the
     msgfmt(1)  utility, which produces a binary form of the mes-
     sage file that can be  used by application during run-time.

     xgettext writes msgid  strings  from  gettext(3C)  calls  in
     filename to the default output file messages.po. The default
     output file name can be changed by  -d option. msgid strings
     in   dgettext()   calls  are  written  to  the  output  file
     domainname.po where domainname is the first parameter to the
     dgettext() call.

     By default, xgettext creates a   .po  file  in  the  current
     working  directory, and each entry is in the same order that
     the strings are extracted from filenames. When the -p option
     is  specified,  the   .po  file  is created in the  pathname
     directory. An existing .po file is overwritten.

     Duplicate  msgids are written to the  .po  file  as  comment
     lines.  When the  -s option is specified, the  .po is sorted
     by the msgid string, and all duplicated msgids are  removed.
     All   msgstr directives in the .po file are empty unless the
     -m option is used.

OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     -n    Add comment lines to the output file  indicating  file
           name  and  line  number  in the source file where each
           extracted string is encountered.  These  lines  appear
           before each msgid in the following format:

           # # File: filename, line: line-number

     -s    Generate output sorted by  msgids with  all  duplicate

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User Commands                                         xgettext(1)

           msgids removed.

     -a    Extract  all  strings,  not  just   those   found   in
           gettext(3C),  and  dgettext()  () calls. Only one  .po
           file is created.

     -c comment-tag
           The comment block beginning with  comment-tag  as  the
           first  token of the comment block is added to the out-
           put .po file as  # delimited  comments.  For  multiple
           domains, xgettext directs comments and messages to the
           prevailing text domain.

     -d default-domain
           Rename  default  output  file  from   messages.po   to
           default-domain .po.

     -j    Join messages with existing message files.  If  a  .po
           file  does  not  exist,  it is created.  If a .po file
           does exist, new messages are appended.  Any  duplicate
           msgids  are  commented  out in the resulting .po file.
           Domain  directives  in  the  existing  .po  file   are
           ignored.  Results  not guaranteed if the existing mes-
           sage file has been edited.

     -m prefix
           Fill in the msgstr with  prefix. This  is  useful  for
           debugging purposes. To make msgstr identical to msgid,
           use an empty string  ("") for prefix.

     -M suffix
           Fill in the msgstr with  suffix. This  is  useful  for
           debugging purposes.

     -p pathname
           Specify the directory where the output files  will  be
           placed.  This  option  overrides  the  current working
           directory.

     -x exclude-file
           Specify a  .po file that contains  a  list  of  msgids
           that are not to be extracted from the input files. The
           format of exclude-file is identical to the  .po  file.
           However, only the msgid directive line in exclude-file
           is used. All other lines are simply ignored.   The  -x
           option can only be used with the -a option.

     -h    Print a help message on the standard output.

ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

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User Commands                                         xgettext(1)

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWloc                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO
     msgfmt(1), gettext(3C), attributes(5)

NOTES
     xgettext is not able to extract cast  strings,  for  example
     ANSI  C  casts of literal strings to (const char *). This is
     unnecessary anyway,  since  the  prototypes  in  <libintl.h>
     already specify this type.

     In messages and translation notes, lines greater  than  2048
     characters  are  truncated  to 2048 characters and a warning
     message is printed to stderr.

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