I don't have a need for this, but I can't
get it to work and it's frustrating! Please
tell me what I'm doing wrong! I am using
Fedora Linux with Bash and gettext:
$ gettext --version
gettext (GNU gettext-runtime) 0.16.1

Suppose I have this script as i18n_greet.sh:

#!/bin/sh
printf "Enter your name: "
read NAME
printf "Hello, $NAME!\n"
# End of Script

To internationalize it, say to support French as well
as English, I have transformed it to this:

#!/bin/sh
export TEXTDOMAINDIR=~/locale # normally /usr/share/locale is used
export TEXTDOMAIN=i18n_greet
.. gettext.sh
printf "$(gettext -n 'Enter your name: ')"
read NAME
printf "$(eval_gettext 'Hello, $NAME!')"
# End of Script

That works for English. To make it work for French as well,
I generate a French PO file (i18n_greet.fr.po) with:
$ umask 022
$ xgettext -d i18n_greet.fr -L Shell i18n_greet.sh

And this template PO file is edited to produce:

# French .po file for i18n_greet.sh script.
# Copyright (C) 2007
# This file is distributed under the same license as the i18n_greet.sh package.
# Author: Wayne <nospam@all.4me.invalid>, 2007
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: i18n_greet.sh-1.0\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: Wayne <nospam@all.4me.invalid>\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2007-11-01 11:02-0400\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 2007-11-01 11:02-0400\n"
"Last-Translator: Wayne <nospam@all.4me.invalid>\n"
"Language-Team: French <LL@li.org>\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: i18n_greet.sh:10
msgid "Enter your name: "
msgstr "Entrez votre nom"

#: i18n_greet.sh:11
#, sh-format
msgid "Hello, $NAME!"
msgstr "Salut, $NAME!"


Now compile this PO file to an MO file:

$ umask 022
$ msgfmt -o i18n_greet.mo i18n_greet.fr.po
$ mkdir ~/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
$ mv i18n_greet.mo ~/fr/LC_MESSAGES/

(Note that the directories and the files have
the proper permissions, so the file can be found
and read.)

That should be it. But, even if I set (and export)
LANG and/or LC_ALL to 'fr', it comes out in English.

I read someplace there is a POSIX alternative to the
Gnu gettext / PO / MO system "gencat"?). If I need
To use that, can anyone point out an example
"hello, world" script?

Thanks!

-Wayne

2007-11-01, 14:58(-04), Wayne:
[...]
> #!/bin/sh
> export TEXTDOMAINDIR=~/locale # normally /usr/share/locale is used
> export TEXTDOMAIN=i18n_greet
[...]
> $ msgfmt -o i18n_greet.mo i18n_greet.fr.po
> $ mkdir ~/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
> $ mv i18n_greet.mo ~/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
[...]

Shouldn't it be

mkdir -p ~/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
mv i18n_greet.mo ~/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/

Have you tried strace?

--
Stéphane

Stephane CHAZELAS wrote:
> 2007-11-01, 14:58(-04), Wayne:
> [...]
>> #!/bin/sh
>> export TEXTDOMAINDIR=~/locale # normally /usr/share/locale is used
>> export TEXTDOMAIN=i18n_greet
> [...]
>> $ msgfmt -o i18n_greet.mo i18n_greet.fr.po
>> $ mkdir ~/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
>> $ mv i18n_greet.mo ~/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
> [...]
>
> Shouldn't it be
>
> mkdir -p ~/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
> mv i18n_greet.mo ~/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/

Yeah, that was just a typo in the email, I did that right (I just
checked).

> Have you tried strace?

Just now, but none of the 800+ lines of output refer to ~/locale/...
I don't see any obvious problems in there, but I'm not sure what
to look for.

-Wayne

2007-11-01, 14:58(-04), Wayne:
[...]
> That should be it. But, even if I set (and export)
> LANG and/or LC_ALL to 'fr', it comes out in English.
[...]

Does "fr" appear in the list returned by "locale -a".

You may need to use fr_FR or fr_FR.iso885915@euro...

--
Stéphane

Stephane CHAZELAS wrote:
> 2007-11-01, 14:58(-04), Wayne:
> [...]
>> That should be it. But, even if I set (and export)
>> LANG and/or LC_ALL to 'fr', it comes out in English.
> [...]
>
> Does "fr" appear in the list returned by "locale -a".
>
> You may need to use fr_FR or fr_FR.iso885915@euro...
>
That did it! locale -a | grep fr shows "french" and "fr_FR"
but not "fr". Making that change fixed it. Thanks for the
.

For anyone who cares, here's the script and the PO file.
the comments in the script show how to set this up.

-Wayne

=================~/bin/i18n_greet.sh===============
#!/bin/sh

# Internationalized version of script.
#
# To get I18N for this script, use the Gnu (not POSIX) system:
# Create a template PO file "i18n_greet.po" with:
# xgettext -d i18n_greet -L Shell i18n_greet.sh
# Customize that file. Now make (translated) copies for
# each language:
# cp i18n_greet.po i18n_greet.lang.po; vi $_
# ...
# where lang is fr_FR, en_US, ... Note that 'lang' must be one of
# the systems supported locales returned by: locale -a
# Now create if needed a place for the locale files, such as:
# umask 022; mkdir -p ~/locale/lang/LC_MESSAGES/
# Next compile the .po files:
# msgfmt -o ~/locale/lang/LC_MESSAGES/i18n_greet.mo i18n_greet.lang.po
# ...
# Be sure the files are readable!
#
# Finally try it out: LANG=fr_FR i18n_greet.sh
#
# $Id: i18n_greet.sh,v 1.2 2007/11/01 16:08:40 wayne Exp $

# Since several programs in one package may share the same catalog
# of strings, the strings are looked-up by TEXTDOMAIN and language,
# rather than by program-name and language. We need to set
# TEXTDOMAIN, and tell gettext where to find the language-specific
# .mo files:
export TEXTDOMAINDIR=~/locale # normally /usr/share/locale is used
export TEXTDOMAIN=i18n_greet

# Source the gettext.sh script, provides some shell functions:
.. gettext.sh

printf "$(gettext 'Enter your name: ')"
read NAME
printf "$(eval_gettext 'Hello, $NAME!')\n"

=================~/bin/i18n_greet.sh===============

===~/locale/fr_FR/LC_MESSAGES/i18n_greet.fr_FR.po==

# .po template for i18n_greet.sh script.
# Copyright (C) 2007
# This file is distributed under the same license as the i18n_greet.sh package.
# Author: Wayne <nospam@all.4me.invalid>, 2007
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: i18n_greet.sh-1.0\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: Wayne <nospam@all.4me.invalid>\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2007-11-01 11:02-0400\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: 2007-11-01 11:02-0400\n"
"Last-Translator: Wayne <nospam@all.4me.invalid>\n"
"Language-Team: Français\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"

#: i18n_greet.sh:10
msgid "Enter your name: "
msgstr "Entrez votre nom: "

#: i18n_greet.sh:11
#, sh-format
msgid "Hello, $NAME!"
msgstr "Salut, $NAME!"

===~/locale/fr_FR/LC_MESSAGES/i18n_greet.fr_FR.po==