msgfmt(1)                 UNIX System V(25 July 1990)                 msgfmt(1)


NAME
      msgfmt - create a message object from a message file

SYNOPSIS
      msgfmt [ -v ] filename.po ...

DESCRIPTION
      msgfmt creates a message object filename .mo file from the portable
      message file filename.po.

      The .po file contains strings extracted from source code.  .po files can
      be edited, and the messages in them can changed to accomodate any
      language supported by the system.

      The xgettext command (see xgettext(1)) can be used to create the
      default.po file.

      The msgfmt command does not modify the portable object files.

   Portable Object Files
      Each .po file contains one or more lines.  Each line contains either a
      comment or a statement.  Comments start the line with a hash mark (#) and
      end with the newline character and are ignored.

      Each directive starts on a new line and is separated from <value> by
      white space (such as one or more space or tab characters).  <value>
      consists of one or more quoted strings separated by white space or <CR>.
      The following are valid directives:
            domain domainname
            msgid message_identifier
            msgstr message_string

      The domain directive identifies all following directives until another
      domain directive is encountered as applying to the domain domainname.
      The domainname is a string up to MAXDOMAIN bytes long, and can contain
      any characters allowed in legal filenames.  Until the first domain
      directive is encountered in the file, all target strings belong to the
      default domain.  The default domain is called default.

      The msgid directive specifies the message identifier for the following
      msgstr directive.  The message_identifier string identifies a target
      string at retrieval time.  Every statement containing a msgid directive
      must be followed by a statement containing a msgstr directive.

      The msgstr directive specifies the target string associated with the
      message_identifier string declared in the immediately preceding msgid
      directive.

OPTIONS
      -v        Verbose.  List duplicate message identifiers.  Message strings
                are not redefined.



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msgfmt(1)                 UNIX System V(25 July 1990)                 msgfmt(1)


EXAMPLES
      The following command creates a named  .mo file for each domain named in
      the portable message objects  filename1.po and filename2.po.

            msgfmt filename1.po filename2.po

      Running msgfmt(1) on the following sample .po file creates two .mo files,
      named first.mo and second.mo.
            domain "first.mo"
            msgid "aao"
            msgstr "first sample message"
            domain "second.mo"
            msgid "bbo"
            msgstr "second sample message"

SEE ALSO
      xgettext(1), gettext(3).





































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