Internationalisation
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| '''THIS IS CURRENTLY A DRAFT''' = Translations in Ubuntu (from a developer perspective) = |
= Ubuntu Internationalization Guide = |
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| == Getting Started == * '''Primer''': This [[/InternationalizationPrimer|internationalization primer]] is a great place to get started. |
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| Be sure to read the TranslationLifecycle in the [[TranslatingUbuntu|translations wiki pages]] for a general overview of how translations work in Ubuntu. | ''General information on the tools and processes related to the internationalization of Ubuntu'' * [[TranslationLifecycle|Overview of the translations lifecycle]] * [[/Glossary|Glossary of i18n-related terms]] == Coding == ''Information on writing or modifying internationalized applications for Ubuntu'' * [[/Coding|Internationalization of source code]] |
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| <<Anchor(LanguagePacks)>> === Language Packs === |
''Information on packaging internationalized packages for Ubuntu'' |
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| ==== General ==== Packages in `main` and `restricted` don't contain translations (*.mo) files themselves, they are stripped during the build on the Launchpad buildds and put into `language-pack-*` packages instead. This is done in an attempt to bundle the translations you're interested in and cut down the occupied space. |
* [[/Packaging|Internationalization of packages]] |
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| Note: once a package is promoted to `main`, it only needs to be rebuilt the first time after promotion so that [[https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pkgbinarymangler|pkgbinarymangler]] can strip the translations. After this, import to Launchpad Translations and export in language packs "will just happen". | == Documentation == |
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| ==== Translations Templates ==== For `pkgstriptranslations` (in the `pkgbinarymangler` package) to do the job right, please make sure that your package in `main` or `restricted` builds a .pot during the build. It does not necessarily need to be shipped in the source or in the binary package. Generating it during the build is good enough. This can be achieved by running the following in `debian/rules`: |
''Information on how to adapt the build system to include internationalization support'' |
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| * For GNOME packages: * You should include the `gnome.mk` CDBS class, which in turn includes the `langpack.mk` one, which contains the rules necessary to build the templates. * Alternatively, if your package does not use CDBS, you should run `intltool` in `debian/rules` to extract strings and generate the template on build: {{{ cd po; intltool-update -p}}} ''If there's more than one `./po/` directory (or it has a different name), please make sure to adjust the call above.'' |
* [[/Docs|Internationalization of documentation]] |
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| * For KDE packages: * TODO |
== Build system == |
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| * For GNU packages: * TODO: check {{{ make update-po}}} |
''Information on how to adapt the build system to include internationalization support'' |
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| === Other translation files === ==== Desktop Entries ==== Translations of [[http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec|desktop entries]] (.desktop files) are also stripped out and included in language packs. Contrary to what other distros do (except currently OpenSUSE), the translations are not expected to be in the .desktop files themselves (static translations), but rather in the same .mo file of the application, from which they are then loaded at runtime. We do this in order to be able to translate them in Launchpad and to ship them in language packs, so that they can be edited and updated by Ubuntu translators. The runtime loading is done by a [[https://launchpad.net/glib/+bug/3935|patch in glib]] (or in [[http://patches.ubuntu.com/k/kdelibs/extracted/kubuntu_56_langpacks_desktop_files.diff|kdelibs]] for Kubuntu), which recognises the the '''X-GNOME-Gettext-Domain''' [[http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s08.html|additional key]] we add to all Ubuntu .desktop files and adds gettext support when loading them. Note that if the .desktop file already contains translations, these static translations will be preferred. As an example for this key in action, here's how it is done in the Transmission source package in Jaunty (from the `20_add_X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain.diff` patch): {{{ Index: transmission-1.40-2ubuntu1/gtk/transmission.desktop.in =================================================================== --- transmission-1.40-2ubuntu1.orig/gtk/transmission.desktop.in 2008-12-09 18:57:13.000000000 +0000 +++ transmission-1.40-2ubuntu1/gtk/transmission.desktop.in 2008-12-09 18:58:54.000000000 +0000 @@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ Type=Application MimeType=application/x-bittorrent; Categories=Network;FileTransfer;P2P;GTK; +X-GNOME-Gettext-Domain=transmission }}} Note, however, that if the package is using the [[http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?searchon=contents&keywords=langpack.mk&mode=exactfilename&suite=karmic&arch=any|`langpack.mk`]] CDBS class (or the `gnome.mk` class, which includes it) it will generally not be necessary to use a patch for this, as `langpack.mk` will take care of it. Also note that `X-GNOME-Gettext-Domain` used to be called `X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain` in the past. In summary, for packages in `main` we strip the translations out of the .desktop files, and gnome-panel (TODO: is this the right package?, TODO: how is this done in KDE?) has a patch to load a translation from the .mo file. It basically uses that key to figure out where to get the translation from. Additional information: * [[LangpacksDesktopfiles|Original specification]] * [[LangpacksDesktopfilesKDE|Original specification for KDE]] ==== Schema files ==== ==== Policy files ==== ==== Interactive upgrade hooks ==== After certain upgrades (most notably upgrades between Ubuntu releases), there are follow-up actions which should be taken by the user. These are not logically part of the upgrade, but should be dealt with at some point after the upgrade is complete. They take the form of helper scripts that can be called by the package's `postinst` script, and can be internationalized through language packs. Here's an example showing how these can be internationalized: <<Include(InteractiveUpgradeHooks, , from="Starti18nExample", to="Endi18nExample")>> === Verifying translation uploads === This information is intended to help package maintainers to optimize their packages, so that translation related files get automatically imported into Launchpad. ==== Testing the package locally ==== To test if your package conforms to the requirements of the import script in Launchpad, please do the following: 1. [[apt://pkgbinarymangler|Install the pkgbinarymangler package]] 1. In `/etc/pkgbinarymangler/striptranslations.conf` set `enable:` to `true` 1. Optionally, install any build dependencies: `sudo apt-get build-dep $PKGNAME` 1. Build the package with `debuild -uc -us -b` 1. You will find a `<pkgname>-translations.tar.gz` tarball along with the .deb package(s) 1. Untar that tarball into a temporary directory 1. Compare if the directory structure and the .pot and .po files conform to the requirements listed below ==== Guidelines ==== If the application uses gettext, like most GTK and GNU applications do: * The filename of the template (.pot file) should be the same as what the expected translation domain is. * The actual translations (.po files) must have a filename of the format `$LANGUAGECODE.po` or `$LOCALECODE.po` (e.g. `de.po`, `pt_BR.po`, `zh_TW.po`) * All translation-related files (the .pot template and the corresponding .po templates) must end up in the same (sub-)directory. * If the application has multiple translation domains (i.e. multiple .pot files), each .pot file and their corresponding .po files should end up in a separate subdirectory (e.g. po/nautilus/nautilus.pot and po/libnautilus/libnautilus.pot) * Templates and translations for the main application or library should go into `po/`. * Templates and translations for help files should go into `help/po/`. They will be ignored by Launchpad, since we currently have no infrastructure to deal with them properly. * Templates and translations for documentation files should go into doc/po/. They will also be ignored by Launchpad for the same reason as the help translations. * If there are .po files present but no associated .pot template, please remove them from the package. They are useless without a .pot template. There might be a bug in the package or in the source code whereby the .pot file doesn't get generated, so make sure to double-check that as well. * Please check if the .pot file has any meaningful content. Empty .pot files should be removed and the package build rules be fixed. * If your package contains patches and those patches result into extra templates, like 'patches.pot', please merge those changes into the main template, as we have no use for patch .pot files. Such .pot files should not exist in the final tarball. * If the package generates multiple .pot files and later merges them into one, only the final .pot file should be present in the final tarball. The other ones are useless. * If the package creates the same .pot file in architecture-dependent subdirectories, please consider to merge them, as we can only deal with one single .pot per translation domain. * Test routines and test files should not generate any .pot template or ship any .po file. If such files are present, please remove them. * If you have multiple .po files for a language, each in a different encoding, please consider renaming the ones encoded in UTF-8 to be the main .po file for that laguage and discard the other ones. They might be interesting for Windows users, but not for Linux users, since translations get converted with `iconv` into the encoding the user is runnning anyway. And nowadays UTF-8 is the default encoding on Linux. Example: if you have `zh_TW.po` (Big5 encoding), `zh_TW.UTF-8.po` and `zh_TW.cp960.po`, please remove `zh.po` and `zh.cp960.po` and rename `zh_TW.UTF-8.po` to `zh.po`. * The `no` locale is obsolete. If you find no.po files, please look into it and find out if it's Norwegian Bokmål or Nynorsk. Usually it's Bokmål. Please rename the file to the proper language code: `nb.po` for Bokmål, `nn.po` for Nynorsk. If `nb.po` and `nn.po` are already present, remove `no.po`. * If you have an `en_US.po` file, please investigate if it really contains translations (i.e. if the source code uses en_GB or another language) and if not, you can safely discard it. ==== Glossary of i18n-related terms ==== '''Translation domain''' (domain)<<BR>> The translation domain is a unique string assigned by the programmer in the code (usually in the build system) and used by the gettext functions to locate the message catalog where translations will be loaded from. The general form to compute the catalog's location is: {{{ dir_name/locale/LC_category/domain_name.mo }}} which in Ubuntu expands to either `/usr/share/locale/$LOCALE/LC_MESSAGES/domain_name.mo` for translations not included in language packs (not in `main`) or `/usr/share/locale-langpack/$LOCALE/LC_MESSAGES/domain_name.mo` for those shipped in language packs. `$LANGUAGE` is generally the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-1|ISO 639-1 2-letter code]] (e.g. 'ca' or 'de') or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639-2|ISO 639-2 3-letter code]] (e.g. 'ast') for the particular language. As an example, when using Nautilus in a Catalan locale with Ubuntu, the gettext functions will look for the message catalogue at: {{{ /usr/share/locale-langpack/ca/LC_MESSAGES/nautilus.mo }}} The corresponding translation template should have the same translation domain in its filename, e.g. 'nautilus.pot'. The translation domain must be unique across all applications and packages. I.e. something generic like 'messages.pot' won't work. '''Translation template''' (POT file, PO template file)<<BR>> '''Translation''' (PO file)<<BR>> '''Message catalog''' (MO file)<<BR>> === Documentation === TODO: * Converting xml to PO with `xml2po` * Launchpad import === Packages not using the Gettext format === ==== Mozilla ==== ==== OpenOffice.org ==== == Coding == === Individual programming languages === === Additional documentation === * [[http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html|Gettext documentation]] * [[http://www.gnu.org/s/libc/manual/html_node/Message-catalogs-with-gettext.html| The GNU libc documentation on Gettext]] * [[http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject/DevGuidelines|GNOME l10n guidelines for developers]] and the [[http://live.gnome.org/TranslationProject|GNOME Translation Project]] * [[http://docs.python.org/library/gettext.html|Python gettext module documentation]] |
* [[/Build|Adding internationalization support to the build system]] |
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| TODO * String freeze * Translation * Translation deadline * Language pack updates |
''General overview of the Ubuntu translation process, from the translators' point of view'' * [[/TranslationProcess|Overview of the Ubuntu translation process]] |
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| === The import queue === | |
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| All translation templates (.pot files) and translations (.po) end up in the Launchpad Translations import queue before being imported into Launchpad. | ''Information related to Launchpad and internationalization, including best practices on how to handle translations of hosted projects'' * [[https://help.launchpad.net/Translations/YourProject/BestPractices|Best practices on how to set up a project for translation in Launchpad]] * [[/Launchpad|Internationalization considerations and general information on Launchpad]] * [[http://blog.launchpad.net/translations/automatic-template-generation | Automatic generation of translation templates from branch]] |
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| Some of the Ubuntu import queues: | == Recipes == |
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| * [[https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/+imports?field.filter_extension=pot&field.filter_status=NEEDS_REVIEW|Hardy]] * [[https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/intrepid/+imports?field.filter_extension=pot&field.filter_status=NEEDS_REVIEW|Intrepid]] * [[https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+imports?field.filter_extension=pot&field.filter_status=NEEDS_REVIEW|Jaunty]] * [[https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/karmic/+imports?field.filter_extension=pot&field.filter_status=NEEDS_REVIEW|Karmic]] |
''Recipes on how to perform common tasks related to internationalization'' |
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| Templates generally get approved automatically, but sometimes there is some manual work involved in approving them. The [[https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-translation-coordinator|Ubuntu Translations Coordinators Team]] manages the import queue. We've got a [[ubuntu-translation-coordinator@lists.launchpad.net|mailing list]] where issues can be discussed and we welcome the help of any community members experienced with translations. === If your project is hosted in Launchpad === == General Advice == If you want to make sure that your packages translations are set up correctly, try running: * For GNOME packages: {{{ cd po; intltool-update -m}}} and be sure to either fix the issues or report them upstream. Note: ''this is only worth trying if the package uses intltool for i18n (i.e. look for intltool.m4 in the top-level source directory)'' * For GNU packages: * For KDE packages: Sometimes empty `.po` files caused packages to build from source. == Kubuntu-specific notes == |
* [[/RecipeVerifyingTranslationUploads|Verifying translation uploads]] * [[/RecipeIntltoolCheck|Checking out translations in intltool-based packages]] * [[/RecipeAddingLPI|Adding Launchpad integration for bugs, help and translations to an application's help menu]] |
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| CategoryTranslations |
Getting Started |
Ubuntu Internationalization Guide
This document tries to outline:
- How Ubuntu deals with translations (and i18n in general) from a developer's perspective
- Which tools are interesting for developers to make sure that translations and i18n work fine
Getting Started
Primer: This internationalization primer is a great place to get started.
General information
General information on the tools and processes related to the internationalization of Ubuntu
Coding
Information on writing or modifying internationalized applications for Ubuntu
Packaging
Information on packaging internationalized packages for Ubuntu
Documentation
Information on how to adapt the build system to include internationalization support
Build system
Information on how to adapt the build system to include internationalization support
Translation process
General overview of the Ubuntu translation process, from the translators' point of view
Launchpad
Information related to Launchpad and internationalization, including best practices on how to handle translations of hosted projects
Best practices on how to set up a project for translation in Launchpad
Internationalization considerations and general information on Launchpad
Recipes
Recipes on how to perform common tasks related to internationalization
UbuntuDevelopment/Internationalisation (last edited 2010-08-18 14:21:17 by 140)