TRANSLATING - subversion - Git at Google


            
                                                                          -*- text -*-


            If you are contributing code or translations to the Subversion project,

            
            please read this first.


                               ===============================

            
                               Guide to translating Subversion

            
                               ===============================


            $LastChangedDate$


            * Introduction

            
            * Software version requirements

            
            * Starting a new translation

            
            * Verifying your po file

            
            * Updating existing po files

            
            * Maintenance on branches

            
            * Requirements for po and mo files

            
            * Conventions for the empty string msgid section

            
            * Translation teams

            
            * Single versus double quotes

            
            * Error message conventions


            Introduction

            
            ============


            Subversion uses gettext for its translation.  Gettext uses '.po' files

            
            to store translation information; the existing ones are kept in the

            
            subversion/po directory of the repository.

            
            [Note that the last paragraph deliberately does not say GNU gettext.]


            Please take some time to go through this document as well as the HACKING

            
            document also in this directory.


            Software version requirements

            
            =============================


            The Makefile build targets locale-gnu-* (used to maintain po files)

            
            require GNU gettext 0.12 or newer.  Note that this is not a requirement

            
            for those wanting to compile the *.po files into *.mo's.


            Starting a new translation

            
            ==========================


            Before starting a new translation please contact the subversion

            
            development mailing list to make sure you are not duplicating efforts. Also

            
            please note that the project has a strong preference for translations which

            
            are maintained by more than one person: mailing the lists with your

            
            intentions might help you find supporters.


            After that, you should perform the following steps:


            * Unix (GNU gettext)


            1) check out Subversion (see INSTALL for more information)

            
            2) run ./autogen.sh

            
            3) run ./configure

            
            4) run make locale-gnu-pot

            
              This step is currently only supported for GNU gettext Makefile based

            
              systems

            
            5) run msginit --locale LOCALE -o LOCALE.po in the

            
              subversion/po directory of your working copy. LOCALE is the ll[_LL]

            
              language and country code used to identify your locale.


            Steps (2) and (3) generate a Makefile; step (4) generates

            
            subversion/po/subversion.pot


            The Subversion project has a policy not to put names in its files, so please

            
            apply the two changes described below.  (See HACKING for a description of

            
            this convention.)


            The header in the newly generated .po file looks like this:

            
              # SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE.

            
              # Copyright (C) YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER

            
              # This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package.

            
              # FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.


            Please replace that block with the following text:

            
              # <Your language> translation for subversion package

            
              # Copyright (C) <YEAR> Collab Net.

            
              # This file is distributed under the same license as the subversion package.


            The first translation block in the .po file contains two lines like these:

            
              "Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"

            
              "Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"


            Please replace those with these two lines:

            
              "Last-Translator: Subversion Developers <dev@subversion.tigris.org>\n"

            
              "Language-Team: YOUR LANGUAGE <dev@subversion.tigris.org>\n"


            * Unix (non-GNU gettext)


              To be documented


            * Windows


              See issue #1977 in the subversion issue tracker


            For the time being, hourly updated subversion.pot files are posted at:


            http://hix.nu/subversion/trunk/subversion.pot (for trunk)

            
            http://hix.nu/subversion/1.1.x/subversion.pot (for 1.1.x)


            Verifying your po file

            
            ======================


            Before submitting to the mailing list or committing to the repository,

            
            please make sure your po file 'compiles'.  You can do this with these

            
            steps (on Makefile based systems):


            1) run './autogen.sh'

            
            2) run './configure' (with the appropriate arguments)

            
            3) run 'make locale'


            The autogen.sh step is important, since it adds new po files as

            
            dependencies of the 'locale' build target.  Note however that steps 1

            
            and 2 are only needed once after you have added a new translation.


            Updating existing po files

            
            ==========================


            The Makefile based part of the build system contains a make target to

            
            facilitate maintenance of existing po files.  To update po files on

            
            systems with GNU gettext run


                make locale-gnu-po-update


            To only update a particular language, you may use


                make locale-gnu-po-update PO=ll


            where ll is the name of the po file without the extension (i.e. PO=sv).


            It is recommended that the .po update is done by using two commits; one

            
            after the "make locale-gnu-po-update", and one after the translation is

            
            done. This has two advantages:


            - gettext(1) produces lots of line number changes which makes the

            
              resulting diff hard to review by the other translators. By committing

            
              twice, all the line number changes are stored in the first commit, and

            
              the second commit contains all the actual translations with no extra

            
              garbage.

            
            - If there are several translators for a specific language (which is

            
              highly preferred by the project) you don't risk working for hours just

            
              to find that some other translator already has done the job when

            
              you're finished. You will immediately notice that someone else is

            
              working on the .po file when you try to perform the first commit,

            
              because svn will tell you that the file is outdated.


            Maintenance on branches

            
            =======================


            Editing po files in trunk is pretty straightforward, but gets a bit more

            
            complicated when those changes are going to be transferred to a release

            
            branch.  Project policy is to make no direct changes on release branches,

            
            everything that is committed to the branch should be merged from trunk.

            
            This also applies to po files.  Using 'svn merge' to do the job can lead

            
            to conflicts and fuzzy messages due to the changes in line numbers and

            
            string formatting done by gettext.


            The scheme below eliminates any complexity which exists when using 'svn

            
            merge' to do branch updates. The following rules apply:


            - Translation updates go to trunk

            
            - Messages required on the branch which ever existed on trunk

            
              get merged from trunk

            
            - There are 2 mass operations allowed on po files on branches:

            
              * 'make locale-gnu-po-update'

            
              * merging messages from trunk (see below)

            
            - The remaining few messages which never existed on trunk

            
              in any revision are translated on the branch

            
            - Message options (such as fuzzy) can be tweaked


            The above list is a complete enumeration of all operations allowed on

            
            po files on branches.


            Merging messages from trunk revision X of YY.po to your branch working

            
            copy can be done with this command:


              svn cat -r X http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/subversion/po/YY.po | \

            
                po-merge.py YY.po


            Requirements for po and mo files

            
            ================================


            On some gettext implementations we have to ensure that the mo files -

            
            whether obtained through the project or created locally - are encoded

            
            using UTF-8.  This requirement stem from the fact that Subversion uses

            
            UTF-8 internally, some implementations translate to the active locale

            
            and the fact that bind_textdomain_codeset() is not portable across

            
            implementations.


            To satisfy this requirement po files are required to be UTF-8 encoded.

            
            If the gettext implementation on the target system doesn't support

            
            bind_textdomain_codeset(), the build system will ensure that the mo

            
            file is in UTF-8 by removing the Content-Type header from the po file

            
            header.  Note that some msgfmt utilities dislike the absence of the

            
            charset designator and will generate warnings along the lines of

            
            "Won't be able to do character set conversion" because of it.  You can

            
            safely ignore these warnings.


            Conventions for the empty string msgid section

            
            ==============================================


            Some gettext implementations use a section with a msgid "" (empty

            
            string) to keep administrative data.  One of the headers suggested is

            
            the 'Last-Translator:' field.  Because the Subversion project has a

            
            policy not to name contributors in specific files, but give credit in

            
            the repository log messages, you are required not to put your name in

            
            this field.


            Since some tools require this field to consider the po file valid

            
            (i.e. Emacs PO Mode), you can put "dev@subversion.tigris.org" into

            
            this field.


            Translation teams

            
            =================


            The GNU translation project

            
            (http://www2.iro.umontreal.ca/~gnutra/po/HTML/) attempts to organise

            
            translation attempts and get translators for various packages.  Some

            
            teams have guidelines to stimulate consistency across packages.


            Single versus double quotes

            
            ===========================


            The project has standardised the use of quotes.  Some translation teams

            
            have done the same.  If there is no translation team for your locale or

            
            they did not standardise quoting, please follow the project guidelines per

            
            HACKING.  If they did: follow them :-)


            Error message conventions

            
            =========================


            Since translators will generally see all error messages in the code, it's

            
            important to know that there is a special section in HACKING about this

            
            category of strings.  Here the same applies as does for the quotes: Adhere

            
            to them on all points for which there is no explicit policy set out by the

            
            translation team for your language.


            vim: set tw=72 ts=2 sw=2 sts=2 et fo-=2w fo+=n js :
	-- text --

	If you are contributing code or translations to the Subversion project,
	please read this first.

	===============================
	Guide to translating Subversion
	===============================

	$LastChangedDate$

	* Introduction
	* Software version requirements
	* Starting a new translation
	* Verifying your po file
	* Updating existing po files
	* Maintenance on branches
	* Requirements for po and mo files
	* Conventions for the empty string msgid section
	* Translation teams
	* Single versus double quotes
	* Error message conventions



	Introduction
	============

	Subversion uses gettext for its translation. Gettext uses '.po' files
	to store translation information; the existing ones are kept in the
	subversion/po directory of the repository.
	[Note that the last paragraph deliberately does not say GNU gettext.]

	Please take some time to go through this document as well as the HACKING
	document also in this directory.



	Software version requirements
	=============================

	The Makefile build targets locale-gnu-* (used to maintain po files)
	require GNU gettext 0.12 or newer. Note that this is not a requirement
	for those wanting to compile the .po files into .mo's.



	Starting a new translation
	==========================

	Before starting a new translation please contact the subversion
	development mailing list to make sure you are not duplicating efforts. Also
	please note that the project has a strong preference for translations which
	are maintained by more than one person: mailing the lists with your
	intentions might help you find supporters.

	After that, you should perform the following steps:

	* Unix (GNU gettext)

	1) check out Subversion (see INSTALL for more information)
	2) run ./autogen.sh
	3) run ./configure
	4) run make locale-gnu-pot
	This step is currently only supported for GNU gettext Makefile based
	systems
	5) run msginit --locale LOCALE -o LOCALE.po in the
	subversion/po directory of your working copy. LOCALE is the ll[_LL]
	language and country code used to identify your locale.

	Steps (2) and (3) generate a Makefile; step (4) generates
	subversion/po/subversion.pot

	The Subversion project has a policy not to put names in its files, so please
	apply the two changes described below. (See HACKING for a description of
	this convention.)


	The header in the newly generated .po file looks like this:
	# SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE.
	# Copyright (C) YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER
	# This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package.
	# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.

	Please replace that block with the following text:
	# <Your language> translation for subversion package
	# Copyright (C) <YEAR> Collab Net.
	# This file is distributed under the same license as the subversion package.

	The first translation block in the .po file contains two lines like these:
	"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
	"Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"

	Please replace those with these two lines:
	"Last-Translator: Subversion Developers <dev@subversion.tigris.org>\n"
	"Language-Team: YOUR LANGUAGE <dev@subversion.tigris.org>\n"


	* Unix (non-GNU gettext)

	To be documented

	* Windows

	See issue #1977 in the subversion issue tracker

	For the time being, hourly updated subversion.pot files are posted at:

	http://hix.nu/subversion/trunk/subversion.pot (for trunk)
	http://hix.nu/subversion/1.1.x/subversion.pot (for 1.1.x)



	Verifying your po file
	======================

	Before submitting to the mailing list or committing to the repository,
	please make sure your po file 'compiles'. You can do this with these
	steps (on Makefile based systems):

	1) run './autogen.sh'
	2) run './configure' (with the appropriate arguments)
	3) run 'make locale'

	The autogen.sh step is important, since it adds new po files as
	dependencies of the 'locale' build target. Note however that steps 1
	and 2 are only needed once after you have added a new translation.



	Updating existing po files
	==========================

	The Makefile based part of the build system contains a make target to
	facilitate maintenance of existing po files. To update po files on
	systems with GNU gettext run

	make locale-gnu-po-update

	To only update a particular language, you may use

	make locale-gnu-po-update PO=ll

	where ll is the name of the po file without the extension (i.e. PO=sv).

	It is recommended that the .po update is done by using two commits; one
	after the "make locale-gnu-po-update", and one after the translation is
	done. This has two advantages:

	- gettext(1) produces lots of line number changes which makes the
	resulting diff hard to review by the other translators. By committing
	twice, all the line number changes are stored in the first commit, and
	the second commit contains all the actual translations with no extra
	garbage.
	- If there are several translators for a specific language (which is
	highly preferred by the project) you don't risk working for hours just
	to find that some other translator already has done the job when
	you're finished. You will immediately notice that someone else is
	working on the .po file when you try to perform the first commit,
	because svn will tell you that the file is outdated.


	Maintenance on branches
	=======================

	Editing po files in trunk is pretty straightforward, but gets a bit more
	complicated when those changes are going to be transferred to a release
	branch. Project policy is to make no direct changes on release branches,
	everything that is committed to the branch should be merged from trunk.
	This also applies to po files. Using 'svn merge' to do the job can lead
	to conflicts and fuzzy messages due to the changes in line numbers and
	string formatting done by gettext.

	The scheme below eliminates any complexity which exists when using 'svn
	merge' to do branch updates. The following rules apply:

	- Translation updates go to trunk
	- Messages required on the branch which ever existed on trunk
	get merged from trunk
	- There are 2 mass operations allowed on po files on branches:
	* 'make locale-gnu-po-update'
	* merging messages from trunk (see below)
	- The remaining few messages which never existed on trunk
	in any revision are translated on the branch
	- Message options (such as fuzzy) can be tweaked

	The above list is a complete enumeration of all operations allowed on
	po files on branches.

	Merging messages from trunk revision X of YY.po to your branch working
	copy can be done with this command:

	svn cat -r X http://svn.collab.net/repos/svn/trunk/subversion/po/YY.po \| \
	po-merge.py YY.po



	Requirements for po and mo files
	================================

	On some gettext implementations we have to ensure that the mo files -
	whether obtained through the project or created locally - are encoded
	using UTF-8. This requirement stem from the fact that Subversion uses
	UTF-8 internally, some implementations translate to the active locale
	and the fact that bind_textdomain_codeset() is not portable across
	implementations.

	To satisfy this requirement po files are required to be UTF-8 encoded.
	If the gettext implementation on the target system doesn't support
	bind_textdomain_codeset(), the build system will ensure that the mo
	file is in UTF-8 by removing the Content-Type header from the po file
	header. Note that some msgfmt utilities dislike the absence of the
	charset designator and will generate warnings along the lines of
	"Won't be able to do character set conversion" because of it. You can
	safely ignore these warnings.



	Conventions for the empty string msgid section
	==============================================

	Some gettext implementations use a section with a msgid "" (empty
	string) to keep administrative data. One of the headers suggested is
	the 'Last-Translator:' field. Because the Subversion project has a
	policy not to name contributors in specific files, but give credit in
	the repository log messages, you are required not to put your name in
	this field.

	Since some tools require this field to consider the po file valid
	(i.e. Emacs PO Mode), you can put "dev@subversion.tigris.org" into
	this field.



	Translation teams
	=================

	The GNU translation project
	(http://www2.iro.umontreal.ca/~gnutra/po/HTML/) attempts to organise
	translation attempts and get translators for various packages. Some
	teams have guidelines to stimulate consistency across packages.



	Single versus double quotes
	===========================

	The project has standardised the use of quotes. Some translation teams
	have done the same. If there is no translation team for your locale or
	they did not standardise quoting, please follow the project guidelines per
	HACKING. If they did: follow them :-)



	Error message conventions
	=========================

	Since translators will generally see all error messages in the code, it's
	important to know that there is a special section in HACKING about this
	category of strings. Here the same applies as does for the quotes: Adhere
	to them on all points for which there is no explicit policy set out by the
	translation team for your language.

	vim: set tw=72 ts=2 sw=2 sts=2 et fo-=2w fo+=n js :