diff --git a/build_tools/fish_xgettext.fish b/build_tools/fish_xgettext.fish
index 771f25647..a3e728226 100755
--- a/build_tools/fish_xgettext.fish
+++ b/build_tools/fish_xgettext.fish
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 # works around that - based on share/functions/funced.fish.
 set -q TMPDIR
 or set -l TMPDIR /tmp
-set -l tmpdir (mktemp -d $TMPDIR/fish.XXXXXX)
+set tmpdir (mktemp -d $TMPDIR/fish.XXXXXX)
 or exit 1
 
 # This is a gigantic crime.
@@ -36,29 +36,23 @@ for str in $strs
     echo 'msgstr ""'
 end >messages.pot
 
+function extract_fish_script_messages --argument-names name regex;
+    mkdir -p $tmpdir/$name/share/completions $tmpdir/$name/share/functions
+    for f in share/config.fish share/completions/*.fish share/functions/*.fish
+        string replace --filter --regex $regex '$1' <$f | string unescape \
+            | string replace --all '"' '\\"' | string replace -r '(.*)' 'N_ "$1"' >$tmpdir/$name/$f
+    end
+end
+
 # This regex handles descriptions for `complete` and `function` statements. These messages are not
 # particularly important to translate. Hence the "implicit" label.
 set -l implicit_regex '(?:^| +)(?:complete|function).*? (?:-d|--description) (([\'"]).+?(?<!\\\\)\\2).*'
+extract_fish_script_messages implicit $implicit_regex
 
 # This regex handles explicit requests to translate a message. These are more important to translate
 # than messages which should be implicitly translated.
 set -l explicit_regex '.*\( *_ (([\'"]).+?(?<!\\\\)\\2) *\).*'
-
-mkdir -p $tmpdir/implicit/share/completions $tmpdir/implicit/share/functions
-mkdir -p $tmpdir/explicit/share/completions $tmpdir/explicit/share/functions
-
-for f in share/config.fish share/completions/*.fish share/functions/*.fish
-    # Extract explicit attempts to translate a message. That is, those that are of the form
-    # `(_ "message")`.
-    string replace --filter --regex $explicit_regex '$1' <$f | string unescape \
-        | string replace --all '"' '\\"' | string replace -r '(.*)' 'N_ "$1"' >$tmpdir/explicit/$f
-
-    # Handle `complete` / `function` description messages. The `| fish` is subtle. It basically
-    # avoids the need to use `source` with a command substitution that could affect the current
-    # shell.
-    string replace --filter --regex $implicit_regex '$1' <$f | string unescape \
-        | string replace --all '"' '\\"' | string replace -r '(.*)' 'N_ "$1"' >$tmpdir/implicit/$f
-end
+extract_fish_script_messages explicit $explicit_regex
 
 xgettext -j -k -kN_ -LShell --from-code=UTF-8 -cDescription --no-wrap -o messages.pot $tmpdir/{ex,im}plicit/share/*/*.fish