Update translation docs

This is done in accordance with the recent changes to our translation pipeline.
This commit is contained in:
Daniel Rainer
2025-05-15 22:35:05 +02:00
parent cb31887941
commit 329d190fbf

View File

@@ -286,14 +286,57 @@ Contributing Translations
Fish uses the GNU gettext library to translate messages from English to
other languages.
Creating and updating translations requires the Gettext tools, including
``xgettext``, ``msgfmt`` and ``msgmerge``. Translation sources are
Translation sources are
stored in the ``po`` directory, named ``LANG.po``, where ``LANG`` is the
two letter ISO 639-1 language code of the target language (eg ``de`` for
German).
two letter ISO 639-1 language code of the target language (e.g. ``de`` for
German). A region specifier can also be used (e.g. ``pt_BR`` for Brazilian Portuguese).
To create a new translation, run ``build_tools/update_translations.fish po/LANG.po``.
If you add/remove/change a translatable strings, run ``build_tools/update_translations.fish`` to propagate this to all translation files (``po/*.po`).
Adding translations for a new language
--------------------------------------
Creating new translations requires the Gettext tools.
More specifically, you will need ``msguniq`` and ``msgmerge`` for creating translations for a new
language.
In addition, the ``cargo-expand`` tool is required.
If you have ``cargo`` installed, run::
cargo install --locked --version 1.0.106 cargo-expand
to install ``cargo-expand`` (Note that other versions might not work correctly with our scripts).
To create a new translation, run::
build_tools/update_translations.fish po/LANG.po
By default, this also creates ``mo`` files, which contain the information from the ``po`` files in a
binary format.
Fish needs these files to for actually translating at runtime.
They are not tracked in version control, but they can help translators check if their translations
show up correctly.
If you build fish locally (``cargo build``), and then run the resulting binary,
it will make use of the ``mo`` files generated by the script.
Use the ``LANG`` environment variable to tell fish which language to use, e.g.::
LANG=pt_BR.utf8 target/debug/fish
If you do not care about the ``mo`` files you can pass the ``--no-mo`` flag to the
``update_translations.fish`` script.
Modifying existing translations
-------------------------------
If you want to work on translations for a language which already has a corresponding ``po`` file, it
is sufficient to edit this file. No other changes are necessary.
To see your translations in action you can run::
build_tools/update_translations.fish --only-mo po/LANG.po
to update the binary ``mo`` used by fish. Check the information for adding new languages for a
description on how you can get fish to use these files.
Running this script requires a fish executable and the gettext ``msgfmt`` tool.
Editing PO files
----------------
Many tools are available for editing translation files, including
command-line and graphical user interface programs. For simple use, you can use your text editor.
@@ -301,9 +344,10 @@ command-line and graphical user interface programs. For simple use, you can use
Open up the po file, for example ``po/sv.po``, and you'll see something like::
msgid "%ls: No suitable job\n"
msgstr ""
msgstr ""
The ``msgid`` here is the "name" of the string to translate, typically the english string to translate. The second line (``msgstr``) is where your translation goes.
The ``msgid`` here is the "name" of the string to translate, typically the English string to translate.
The second line (``msgstr``) is where your translation goes.
For example::
@@ -316,11 +360,17 @@ Also any escaped characters, like that ``\n`` newline at the end, should be kept
Our tests run ``msgfmt --check-format /path/to/file``, so they would catch mismatched placeholders - otherwise fish would crash at runtime when the string is about to be used.
Be cautious about blindly updating an existing translation file. Trivial
changes to an existing message (eg changing the punctuation) will cause
existing translations to be removed, since the tools do literal string
matching. Therefore, in general, you need to carefully review any
recommended deletions.
Be cautious about blindly updating an existing translation file.
``msgid`` strings should never be updated manually, only by running the appropriate script.
Modifications to strings in source files
----------------------------------------
If a string changes in the sources, the old translations will no longer work.
They will be preserved in the ``po`` files, but commented-out (starting with ``#~``).
If you add/remove/change a translatable strings in a source file,
run ``build_tools/update_translations.fish`` to propagate this to all translation files (``po/*.po``).
This is only relevant for developers modifying the source files of fish or fish scripts.
Setting Code Up For Translations
--------------------------------