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12  The Maintainer's View
The maintainer of a package has many responsibilities.  One of them
is ensuring that the package will install easily on many platforms,
and that the magic we described earlier (see section
gettext_9.html#SEC156
9  The User's View
) will work
for installers and end users.
Of course, there are many possible ways by which GNU
gettext
might be integrated in a distribution, and this chapter does not cover
them in all generality.  Instead, it details one possible approach which
is especially adequate for many free software distributions following GNU
standards, or even better, Gnits standards, because GNU
gettext
is purposely for helping the internationalization of the whole GNU
project, and as many other good free packages as possible.  So, the
maintainer's view presented here presumes that the package already has
a
`configure.in´
file and uses GNU Autoconf.
Nevertheless, GNU
gettext
may surely be useful for free packages
not following GNU standards and conventions, but the maintainers of such
packages might have to show imagination and initiative in organizing
their distributions so
gettext
work for them in all situations.
There are surely many, out there.
Even if
gettext
methods are now stabilizing, slight adjustments
might be needed between successive
gettext
versions, so you
should ideally revise this chapter in subsequent releases, looking
for changes.
gettext_toc.html#TOC193
12.1  Flat or Non-Flat Directory Structures
Some free software packages are distributed as
tar
files which unpack
in a single directory, these are said to be
flat
distributions.
Other free software packages have a one level hierarchy of subdirectories, using
for example a subdirectory named
`doc/´
for the Texinfo manual and
man pages, another called
`lib/´
for holding functions meant to
replace or complement C libraries, and a subdirectory
`src/´
for
holding the proper sources for the package.  These other distributions
are said to be
non-flat
.
We cannot say much about flat distributions.  A flat
directory structure has the disadvantage of increasing the difficulty
of updating to a new version of GNU
gettext
.  Also, if you have
many PO files, this could somewhat pollute your single directory.
Also, GNU
gettext
's libintl sources consist of C sources, shell
scripts,
sed
scripts and complicated Makefile rules, which don't
fit well into an existing flat structure.  For these reasons, we
recommend to use non-flat approach in this case as well.
Maybe because GNU
gettext
itself has a non-flat structure,
we have more experience with this approach, and this is what will be
described in the remaining of this chapter.  Some maintainers might
use this as an opportunity to unflatten their package structure.
gettext_toc.html#TOC194
12.2  Prerequisite Works
There are some works which are required for using GNU
gettext
in one of your package.  These works have some kind of generality
that escape the point by point descriptions used in the remainder
of this chapter.  So, we describe them here.
Before attempting to use
gettextize
you should install some
other packages first.
Ensure that recent versions of GNU
m4
, GNU Autoconf and GNU
gettext
are already installed at your site, and if not, proceed
to do this first.  If you get to install these things, beware that
GNU
m4
must be fully installed before GNU Autoconf is even
configured
.
To further ease the task of a package maintainer the
automake
package was designed and implemented.  GNU
gettext
now uses this
tool and the
`Makefile´
s in the
`intl/´
and
`po/´
therefore know about all the goals necessary for using
automake
and
`libintl´
in one project.
Those four packages are only needed by you, as a maintainer; the
installers of your own package and end users do not really need any of
GNU
m4
, GNU Autoconf, GNU
gettext
, or GNU
automake
for successfully installing and running your package, with messages
properly translated.  But this is not completely true if you provide
internationalized shell scripts within your own package: GNU
gettext
shall then be installed at the user site if the end users
want to see the translation of shell script messages.
Your package should use Autoconf and have a
`configure.in´
or
`configure.ac´
file.
If it does not, you have to learn how.  The Autoconf documentation
is quite well written, it is a good idea that you print it and get
familiar with it.
Your C sources should have already been modified according to
instructions given earlier in this manual.  See section
gettext_3.html#SEC13
3  Preparing Program Sources
.
Your
`po/´
directory should receive all PO files submitted to you
by the translator teams, each having
`
ll
.po´
as a name.
This is not usually easy to get translation
work done before your package gets internationalized and available!
Since the cycle has to start somewhere, the easiest for the maintainer
is to start with absolutely no PO files, and wait until various
translator teams get interested in your package, and submit PO files.
It is worth adding here a few words about how the maintainer should
ideally behave with PO files submissions.  As a maintainer, your role is
to authenticate the origin of the submission as being the representative
of the appropriate translating teams of the Translation Project (forward
the submission to
`translation@iro.umontreal.ca´
in case of doubt),
to ensure that the PO file format is not severely broken and does not
prevent successful installation, and for the rest, to merely put these
PO files in
`po/´
for distribution.
As a maintainer, you do not have to take on your shoulders the
responsibility of checking if the translations are adequate or
complete, and should avoid diving into linguistic matters.  Translation
teams drive themselves and are fully responsible of their linguistic
choices for the Translation Project.  Keep in mind that translator teams are
not
driven by maintainers.  You can help by carefully redirecting all
communications and reports from users about linguistic matters to the
appropriate translation team, or explain users how to reach or join
their team.  The simplest might be to send them the
`ABOUT-NLS´
file.
Maintainers should
never ever
apply PO file bug reports
themselves, short-cutting translation teams.  If some translator has
difficulty to get some of her points through her team, it should not be
an option for her to directly negotiate translations with maintainers.
Teams ought to settle their problems themselves, if any.  If you, as
a maintainer, ever think there is a real problem with a team, please
never try to
solve
a team's problem on your own.
gettext_toc.html#TOC195
12.3  Invoking the
gettextize
Program
The
gettextize
program is an interactive tool that helps the
maintainer of a package internationalized through GNU
gettext
.
It is used for two purposes:
As a wizard, when a package is modified to use GNU
gettext
for
the first time.
As a migration tool, for upgrading the GNU
gettext
support in
a package from a previous to a newer version of GNU
gettext
.
This program performs the following tasks:
It copies into the package some files that are consistently and
identically needed in every package internationalized through
GNU
gettext
.
It performs as many of the tasks mentioned in the next section
section
gettext_12.html#SEC196
12.4  Files You Must Create or Alter
as can be performed automatically.
It removes obsolete files and idioms used for previous GNU
gettext
versions to the form recommended for the current GNU
gettext
version.
It prints a summary of the tasks that ought to be done manually
and could not be done automatically by
gettextize
.
It can be invoked as follows:
gettextize [
option
... ] [
directory
]
and accepts the following options:
`-c´
`--copy´
Copy the needed files instead of making symbolic links.  Using links
would allow the package to always use the latest
gettext
code
available on the system, but it might disturb some mechanism the
maintainer is used to apply to the sources.  Because running
gettextize
is easy there shouldn't be problems with using copies.
`-f´
`--force´
Force replacement of files which already exist.
`--intl´
Install the libintl sources in a subdirectory named
`intl/´
.
This libintl will be used to provide internationalization on systems
that don't have GNU libintl installed.  If this option is omitted,
the call to
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
in
`configure.in´
should read:
`AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])´
, and internationalization will not
be enabled on systems lacking GNU gettext.
`--no-changelog´
Don't update or create ChangeLog files.  By default,
gettextize
logs all changes (file additions, modifications and removals) in a
file called
`ChangeLog´
in each affected directory.
`-n´
`--dry-run´
Print modifications but don't perform them.  All actions that
gettextize
would normally execute are inhibited and instead only
listed on standard output.
`--help´
Display this help and exit.
`--version´
Output version information and exit.
If
directory
is given, this is the top level directory of a
package to prepare for using GNU
gettext
.  If not given, it
is assumed that the current directory is the top level directory of
such a package.
The program
gettextize
provides the following files.  However,
no existing file will be replaced unless the option
--force
(
-f
) is specified.
The
`ABOUT-NLS´
file is copied in the main directory of your package,
the one being at the top level.  This file gives the main indications
about how to install and use the Native Language Support features
of your program.  You might elect to use a more recent copy of this
`ABOUT-NLS´
file than the one provided through
gettextize
,
if you have one handy.  You may also fetch a more recent copy of file
`ABOUT-NLS´
from Translation Project sites, and from most GNU
archive sites.
A
`po/´
directory is created for eventually holding
all translation files, but initially only containing the file
`po/Makefile.in.in´
from the GNU
gettext
distribution
(beware the double
`.in´
in the file name) and a few auxiliary
files.  If the
`po/´
directory already exists, it will be preserved
along with the files it contains, and only
`Makefile.in.in´
and
the auxiliary files will be overwritten.
Only if
`--intl´
has been specified:
A
`intl/´
directory is created and filled with most of the files
originally in the
`intl/´
directory of the GNU
gettext
distribution.  Also, if option
--force
(
-f
) is given,
the
`intl/´
directory is emptied first.
The files
`config.rpath´
and
`mkinstalldirs´
are copied into
the directory containing configuration support files.  It is needed by
the
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
autoconf macro.
Only if the project is using GNU
automake
:
A set of
autoconf
macro files is copied into the package's
autoconf
macro repository, usually in a directory called
`m4/´
.
If your site support symbolic links,
gettextize
will not
actually copy the files into your package, but establish symbolic
links instead.  This avoids duplicating the disk space needed in
all packages.  Merely using the
`-h´
option while creating the
tar
archive of your distribution will resolve each link by an
actual copy in the distribution archive.  So, to insist, you really
should use
`-h´
option with
tar
within your
dist
goal of your main
`Makefile.in´
.
Furthermore,
gettextize
will update all
`Makefile.am´
files
in each affected directory, as well as the top level
`configure.in´
or
`configure.ac´
file.
It is interesting to understand that most new files for supporting
GNU
gettext
facilities in one package go in
`intl/´
,
`po/´
and
`m4/´
subdirectories.  One distinction between
`intl/´
and the two other directories is that
`intl/´
is
meant to be completely identical in all packages using GNU
gettext
,
while the other directories will mostly contain package dependent
files.
The
gettextize
program makes backup files for all files it
replaces or changes, and also write ChangeLog entries about these
changes.  This way, the careful maintainer can check after running
gettextize
whether its changes are acceptable to him, and
possibly adjust them.  An exception to this rule is the
`intl/´
directory, which is added or replaced or removed as a whole.
It is important to understand that
gettextize
can not do the
entire job of adapting a package for using GNU
gettext
.  The
amount of remaining work depends on whether the package uses GNU
automake
or not.  But in any case, the maintainer should still
read the section section
gettext_12.html#SEC196
12.4  Files You Must Create or Alter
after invoking
gettextize
.
It is also important to understand that
gettextize
is not part
of the GNU build system, in the sense that it should not be invoked
automatically, and not be invoked by someone who doesn't assume the
responsibilities of a package maintainer.  For the latter purpose, a
separate tool is provided, see section
gettext_12.html#SEC217
12.6.3  Invoking the
autopoint
Program
.
gettext_toc.html#TOC196
12.4  Files You Must Create or Alter
Besides files which are automatically added through
gettextize
,
there are many files needing revision for properly interacting with
GNU
gettext
.  If you are closely following GNU standards for
Makefile engineering and auto-configuration, the adaptations should
be easier to achieve.  Here is a point by point description of the
changes needed in each.
So, here comes a list of files, each one followed by a description of
all alterations it needs.  Many examples are taken out from the GNU
gettext
0.14.3 distribution itself, or from the GNU
hello
distribution (
http://www.franken.de/users/gnu/ke/hello
http://www.franken.de/users/gnu/ke/hello
or
http://www.gnu.franken.de/ke/hello/
http://www.gnu.franken.de/ke/hello/
)  You may indeed
refer to the source code of the GNU
gettext
and GNU
hello
packages, as they are intended to be good examples for using GNU
gettext functionality.
gettext_toc.html#TOC197
12.4.1
`POTFILES.in´
in
`po/´
The
`po/´
directory should receive a file named
`POTFILES.in´
.  This file tells which files, among all program
sources, have marked strings needing translation.  Here is an example
of such a file:
# List of source files containing translatable strings.
# Copyright (C) 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
# Common library files
lib/error.c
lib/getopt.c
lib/xmalloc.c
# Package source files
src/gettext.c
src/msgfmt.c
src/xgettext.c
Hash-marked comments and white lines are ignored.  All other lines
list those source files containing strings marked for translation
(see section
gettext_3.html#SEC16
3.3  How Marks Appear in Sources
), in a notation relative to the top level
of your whole distribution, rather than the location of the
`POTFILES.in´
file itself.
When a C file is automatically generated by a tool, like
flex
or
bison
, that doesn't introduce translatable strings by itself,
it is recommended to list in
`po/POTFILES.in´
the real source file
(ending in
`.l´
in the case of
flex
, or in
`.y´
in the
case of
bison
), not the generated C file.
gettext_toc.html#TOC198
12.4.2
`LINGUAS´
in
`po/´
The
`po/´
directory should also receive a file named
`LINGUAS´
.  This file contains the list of available translations.
It is a whitespace separated list.  Hash-marked comments and white lines
are ignored.  Here is an example file:
# Set of available languages.
de fr
This example means that German and French PO files are available, so
that these languages are currently supported by your package.  If you
want to further restrict, at installation time, the set of installed
languages, this should not be done by modifying the
`LINGUAS´
file,
but rather by using the
LINGUAS
environment variable
(see section
gettext_9.html#SEC158
9.2  Magic for Installers
).
It is recommended that you add the "languages"
`en@quot´
and
`en@boldquot´
to the
LINGUAS
file.
en@quot
is a
variant of English message catalogs (
en
) which uses real quotation
marks instead of the ugly looking asymmetric ASCII substitutes
``´
and
`'´
.
en@boldquot
is a variant of
en@quot
that
additionally outputs quoted pieces of text in a bold font, when used in
a terminal emulator which supports the VT100 escape sequences (such as
xterm
or the Linux console, but not Emacs in
M-x shell
mode).
These extra message catalogs
`en@quot´
and
`en@boldquot´
are constructed automatically, not by translators; to support them, you
need the files
`Rules-quot´
,
`quot.sed´
,
`boldquot.sed´
,
`en@quot.header´
,
`en@boldquot.header´
,
`insert-header.sin´
in the
`po/´
directory.  You can copy them from GNU gettext's
`po/´
directory; they are also installed by running
gettextize
.
gettext_toc.html#TOC199
12.4.3
`Makevars´
in
`po/´
The
`po/´
directory also has a file named
`Makevars´
.
It can be left unmodified if your package has a single message domain
and, accordingly, a single
`po/´
directory.  Only packages which
have multiple
`po/´
directories at different locations need to
adjust the three variables defined in
`Makevars´
.
`po/Makevars´
gets inserted into the
`po/Makefile´
when the
latter is created.  At the same time, all files called
`Rules-*´
in the
`po/´
directory get appended to the
`po/Makefile´
.  They present
an opportunity to add rules for special PO files to the Makefile, without
needing to mess with
`po/Makefile.in.in´
.
GNU gettext comes with a
`Rules-quot´
file, containing rules for
building catalogs
`en@quot.po´
and
`en@boldquot.po´
.  The
effect of
`en@quot.po´
is that people who set their
LANGUAGE
environment variable to
`en@quot´
will get messages with proper
looking symmetric Unicode quotation marks instead of abusing the ASCII
grave accent and the ASCII apostrophe for indicating quotations.  To
enable this catalog, simply add
en@quot
to the
`po/LINGUAS´
file.  The effect of
`en@boldquot.po´
is that people who set
LANGUAGE
to
`en@boldquot´
will get not only proper quotation
marks, but also the quoted text will be shown in a bold font on terminals
and consoles.  This catalog is useful only for command-line programs, not
GUI programs.  To enable it, similarly add
en@boldquot
to the
`po/LINGUAS´
file.
gettext_toc.html#TOC200
12.4.4
`configure.in´
at top level
`configure.in´
or
`configure.ac´
- this is the source from which
autoconf
generates the
`configure´
script.
Declare the package and version.
This is done by a set of lines like these:
PACKAGE=gettext
VERSION=0.14.3
AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PACKAGE, "$PACKAGE")
AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(VERSION, "$VERSION")
AC_SUBST(PACKAGE)
AC_SUBST(VERSION)
or, if you are using GNU
automake
, by a line like this:
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(gettext, 0.14.3)
Of course, you replace
`gettext´
with the name of your package,
and
`0.14.3´
by its version numbers, exactly as they
should appear in the packaged
tar
file name of your distribution
(
`gettext-0.14.3.tar.gz´
, here).
Check for internationalization support.
Here is the main
m4
macro for triggering internationalization
support.  Just add this line to
`configure.in´
:
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
This call is purposely simple, even if it generates a lot of configure
time checking and actions.
If you have suppressed the
`intl/´
subdirectory by calling
gettextize
without
`--intl´
option, this call should read
AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
Have output files created.
The
AC_OUTPUT
directive, at the end of your
`configure.in´
file, needs to be modified in two ways:
AC_OUTPUT([
existing configuration files
intl/Makefile po/Makefile.in],
[
existing additional actions
])
The modification to the first argument to
AC_OUTPUT
asks
for substitution in the
`intl/´
and
`po/´
directories.
Note the
`.in´
suffix used for
`po/´
only.  This is because
the distributed file is really
`po/Makefile.in.in´
.
If you have suppressed the
`intl/´
subdirectory by calling
gettextize
without
`--intl´
option, then you don't need to
add
intl/Makefile
to the
AC_OUTPUT
line.
gettext_toc.html#TOC201
12.4.5
`config.guess´
,
`config.sub´
at top level
If you haven't suppressed the
`intl/´
subdirectory,
you need to add the GNU
`config.guess´
and
`config.sub´
files
to your distribution.  They are needed because the
`intl/´
directory
has platform dependent support for determining the locale's character
encoding and therefore needs to identify the platform.
You can obtain the newest version of
`config.guess´
and
`config.sub´
from the CVS of the
`config´
project at
`http://savannah.gnu.org/´
. The commands to fetch them are
$ wget 'http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/config.guess'
$ wget 'http://savannah.gnu.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/*checkout*/config/config/config.sub'
Less recent versions are also contained in the GNU
automake
and
GNU
libtool
packages.
Normally,
`config.guess´
and
`config.sub´
are put at the
top level of a distribution.  But it is also possible to put them in a
subdirectory, altogether with other configuration support files like
`install-sh´
,
`ltconfig´
,
`ltmain.sh´
,
`mkinstalldirs´
or
`missing´
.  All you need to do, other than
moving the files, is to add the following line to your
`configure.in´
.
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([
subdir
])
gettext_toc.html#TOC202
12.4.6
`mkinstalldirs´
at top level
If
gettextize
has not already done it, you need to add the GNU
`mkinstalldirs´
script to your distribution.  It is needed because
`mkdir -p´
is not portable enough.  You find this script in the
GNU
automake
distribution.
Normally,
`mkinstalldirs´
is put at the top level of a distribution.
But it is also possible to put it in a subdirectory, altogether with other
configuration support files like
`install-sh´
,
`ltconfig´
,
`ltmain.sh´
or
`missing´
.  All you need to do, other than
moving the files, is to add the following line to your
`configure.in´
.
AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([
subdir
])
gettext_toc.html#TOC203
12.4.7
`aclocal.m4´
at top level
If you do not have an
`aclocal.m4´
file in your distribution,
the simplest is to concatenate the files
`codeset.m4´
,
`gettext.m4´
,
`glibc2.m4´
,
`glibc21.m4´
,
`iconv.m4´
,
`intdiv0.m4´
,
`intmax.m4´
,
`inttypes.m4´
,
`inttypes_h.m4´
,
`inttypes-pri.m4´
,
`isc-posix.m4´
,
`lcmessage.m4´
,
`lib-ld.m4´
,
`lib-link.m4´
,
`lib-prefix.m4´
,
`longdouble.m4´
,
`longlong.m4´
,
`printf-posix.m4´
,
`progtest.m4´
,
`signed.m4´
,
`size_max.m4´
,
`stdint_h.m4´
,
`uintmax_t.m4´
,
`ulonglong.m4´
,
`wchar_t.m4´
,
`wint_t.m4´
,
`xsize.m4´
from GNU
gettext
's
`m4/´
directory into a single file.  If you have suppressed the
`intl/´
directory, only
`gettext.m4´
,
`iconv.m4´
,
`lib-ld.m4´
,
`lib-link.m4´
,
`lib-prefix.m4´
,
`progtest.m4´
need to be concatenated.
If you already have an
`aclocal.m4´
file, then you will have
to merge the said macro files into your
`aclocal.m4´
.  Note that if
you are upgrading from a previous release of GNU
gettext
, you
should most probably
replace
the macros (
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
,
etc.), as they usually
change a little from one release of GNU
gettext
to the next.
Their contents may vary as we get more experience with strange systems
out there.
If you are using GNU
automake
1.5 or newer, it is enough to put
these macro files into a subdirectory named
`m4/´
and add the line
ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
to your top level
`Makefile.am´
.
These macros check for the internationalization support functions
and related informations.  Hopefully, once stabilized, these macros
might be integrated in the standard Autoconf set, because this
piece of
m4
code will be the same for all projects using GNU
gettext
.
gettext_toc.html#TOC204
12.4.8
`acconfig.h´
at top level
Earlier GNU
gettext
releases required to put definitions for
ENABLE_NLS
,
HAVE_GETTEXT
and
HAVE_LC_MESSAGES
,
HAVE_STPCPY
,
PACKAGE
and
VERSION
into an
`acconfig.h´
file.  This is not needed any more; you can remove
them from your
`acconfig.h´
file unless your package uses them
independently from the
`intl/´
directory.
gettext_toc.html#TOC205
12.4.9
`config.h.in´
at top level
The include file template that holds the C macros to be defined by
configure
is usually called
`config.h.in´
and may be
maintained either manually or automatically.
If
gettextize
has created an
`intl/´
directory, this file
must be called
`config.h.in´
and must be at the top level.  If,
however, you have suppressed the
`intl/´
directory by calling
gettextize
without
`--intl´
option, then you can choose the
name of this file and its location freely.
If it is maintained automatically, by use of the
`autoheader´
program, you need to do nothing about it.  This is the case in particular
if you are using GNU
automake
.
If it is maintained manually, and if
gettextize
has created an
`intl/´
directory, you should switch to using
`autoheader´
.
The list of C macros to be added for the sake of the
`intl/´
directory is just too long to be maintained manually; it also changes
between different versions of GNU
gettext
.
If it is maintained manually, and if on the other hand you have
suppressed the
`intl/´
directory by calling
gettextize
without
`--intl´
option, then you can get away by adding the
following lines to
`config.h.in´
:
/* Define to 1 if translation of program messages to the user's
native language is requested. */
#undef ENABLE_NLS
gettext_toc.html#TOC206
12.4.10
`Makefile.in´
at top level
Here are a few modifications you need to make to your main, top-level
`Makefile.in´
file.
Add the following lines near the beginning of your
`Makefile.in´
,
so the
`dist:´
goal will work properly (as explained further down):
PACKAGE = @PACKAGE@
VERSION = @VERSION@
Add file
`ABOUT-NLS´
to the
DISTFILES
definition, so the file gets
distributed.
Wherever you process subdirectories in your
`Makefile.in´
, be sure
you also process the subdirectories
`intl´
and
`po´
.  Special
rules in the
`Makefiles´
take care for the case where no
internationalization is wanted.
If you are using Makefiles, either generated by automake, or hand-written
so they carefully follow the GNU coding standards, the effected goals for
which the new subdirectories must be handled include
`installdirs´
,
`install´
,
`uninstall´
,
`clean´
,
`distclean´
.
Here is an example of a canonical order of processing.  In this
example, we also define
SUBDIRS
in
Makefile.in
for it
to be further used in the
`dist:´
goal.
SUBDIRS = doc intl lib src po
Note that you must arrange for
`make´
to descend into the
intl
directory before descending into other directories containing
code which make use of the
libintl.h
header file.  For this
reason, here we mention
intl
before
lib
and
src
.
A delicate point is the
`dist:´
goal, as both
`intl/Makefile´
and
`po/Makefile´
will later assume that the
proper directory has been set up from the main
`Makefile´
.  Here is
an example at what the
`dist:´
goal might look like:
distdir = $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)
dist: Makefile
rm -fr $(distdir)
mkdir $(distdir)
chmod 777 $(distdir)
for file in $(DISTFILES); do \
ln $$file $(distdir) 2>/dev/null || cp -p $$file $(distdir); \
done
for subdir in $(SUBDIRS); do \
mkdir $(distdir)/$$subdir || exit 1; \
chmod 777 $(distdir)/$$subdir; \
(cd $$subdir && $(MAKE) $@) || exit 1; \
done
tar chozf $(distdir).tar.gz $(distdir)
rm -fr $(distdir)
Note that if you are using GNU
automake
,
`Makefile.in´
is
automatically generated from
`Makefile.am´
, and all needed changes
to
`Makefile.am´
are already made by running
`gettextize´
.
gettext_toc.html#TOC207
12.4.11
`Makefile.in´
in
`src/´
Some of the modifications made in the main
`Makefile.in´
will
also be needed in the
`Makefile.in´
from your package sources,
which we assume here to be in the
`src/´
subdirectory.  Here are
all the modifications needed in
`src/Makefile.in´
:
In view of the
`dist:´
goal, you should have these lines near the
beginning of
`src/Makefile.in´
:
PACKAGE = @PACKAGE@
VERSION = @VERSION@
If not done already, you should guarantee that
top_srcdir
gets defined.  This will serve for
cpp
include files.  Just add
the line:
top_srcdir = @top_srcdir@
You might also want to define
subdir
as
`src´
, later
allowing for almost uniform
`dist:´
goals in all your
`Makefile.in´
.  At list, the
`dist:´
goal below assume that
you used:
subdir = src
The
main
function of your program will normally call
bindtextdomain
(see see section
gettext_3.html#SEC14
3.1  Triggering
gettext
Operations
), like this:
bindtextdomain (
PACKAGE
, LOCALEDIR);
textdomain (
PACKAGE
);
To make LOCALEDIR known to the program, add the following lines to
`Makefile.in´
:
datadir = @datadir@
localedir = $(datadir)/locale
DEFS = -DLOCALEDIR=\"$(localedir)\" @DEFS@
Note that
@datadir@
defaults to
`$(prefix)/share´
, thus
$(localedir)
defaults to
`$(prefix)/share/locale´
.
You should ensure that the final linking will use
@LIBINTL@
or
@LTLIBINTL@
as a library.
@LIBINTL@
is for use without
libtool
,
@LTLIBINTL@
is for use with
libtool
.  An
easy way to achieve this is to manage that it gets into
LIBS
, like
this:
LIBS = @LIBINTL@ @LIBS@
In most packages internationalized with GNU
gettext
, one will
find a directory
`lib/´
in which a library containing some helper
functions will be build.  (You need at least the few functions which the
GNU
gettext
Library itself needs.)  However some of the functions
in the
`lib/´
also give messages to the user which of course should be
translated, too.  Taking care of this, the support library (say
`libsupport.a´
) should be placed before
@LIBINTL@
and
@LIBS@
in the above example.  So one has to write this:
LIBS = ../lib/libsupport.a @LIBINTL@ @LIBS@
You should also ensure that directory
`intl/´
will be searched for
C preprocessor include files in all circumstances.  So, you have to
manage so both
`-I../intl´
and
`-I$(top_srcdir)/intl´
will
be given to the C compiler.
Your
`dist:´
goal has to conform with others.  Here is a
reasonable definition for it:
distdir = ../$(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION)/$(subdir)
dist: Makefile $(DISTFILES)
for file in $(DISTFILES); do \
ln $$file $(distdir) 2>/dev/null || cp -p $$file $(distdir) || exit 1; \
done
Note that if you are using GNU
automake
,
`Makefile.in´
is
automatically generated from
`Makefile.am´
, and the first three
changes and the last change are not necessary.  The remaining needed
`Makefile.am´
modifications are the following:
To make LOCALEDIR known to the program, add the following to
`Makefile.am´
:
<module>_CPPFLAGS = -DLOCALEDIR=\"$(localedir)\"
for each specific module or compilation unit, or
AM_CPPFLAGS = -DLOCALEDIR=\"$(localedir)\"
for all modules and compilation units together.  Furthermore, add this
line to define
`localedir´
:
localedir = $(datadir)/locale
To ensure that the final linking will use
@LIBINTL@
or
@LTLIBINTL@
as a library, add the following to
`Makefile.am´
:
<program>_LDADD = @LIBINTL@
for each specific program, or
LDADD = @LIBINTL@
for all programs together.  Remember that when you use
libtool
to link a program, you need to use @LTLIBINTL@ instead of @LIBINTL@
for that program.
If you have an
`intl/´
directory, whose contents is created by
gettextize
, then to ensure that it will be searched for
C preprocessor include files in all circumstances, add something like
this to
`Makefile.am´
:
AM_CPPFLAGS = -I../intl -I$(top_srcdir)/intl
gettext_toc.html#TOC208
12.4.12
`gettext.h´
in
`lib/´
Internationalization of packages, as provided by GNU
gettext
, is
optional.  It can be turned off in two situations:
When the installer has specified
`./configure --disable-nls´
.  This
can be useful when small binaries are more important than features, for
example when building utilities for boot diskettes.  It can also be useful
in order to get some specific C compiler warnings about code quality with
some older versions of GCC (older than 3.0).
When the package does not include the
intl/
subdirectory, and the
libintl.h header (with its associated libintl library, if any) is not
already installed on the system, it is preferrable that the package builds
without internationalization support, rather than to give a compilation
error.
A C preprocessor macro can be used to detect these two cases.  Usually,
when
libintl.h
was found and not explicitly disabled, the
ENABLE_NLS
macro will be defined to 1 in the autoconf generated
configuration file (usually called
`config.h´
).  In the two negative
situations, however, this macro will not be defined, thus it will evaluate
to 0 in C preprocessor expressions.
`gettext.h´
is a convenience header file for conditional use of
`<libintl.h>´
, depending on the
ENABLE_NLS
macro.  If
ENABLE_NLS
is set, it includes
`<libintl.h>´
; otherwise it
defines no-op substitutes for the libintl.h functions.  We recommend
the use of
"gettext.h"
over direct use of
`<libintl.h>´
,
so that portability to older systems is guaranteed and installers can
turn off internationalization if they want to.  In the C code, you will
then write
#include "gettext.h"
instead of
#include <libintl.h>
The location of
gettext.h
is usually in a directory containing
auxiliary include files.  In many GNU packages, there is a directory
`lib/´
containing helper functions;
`gettext.h´
fits there.
In other packages, it can go into the
`src´
directory.
Do not install the
gettext.h
file in public locations.  Every
package that needs it should contain a copy of it on its own.
gettext_toc.html#TOC209
12.5  Autoconf macros for use in
`configure.in´
GNU
gettext
installs macros for use in a package's
`configure.in´
or
`configure.ac´
.
See section `Introduction' in
The Autoconf Manual
.
The primary macro is, of course,
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
.
gettext_toc.html#TOC210
12.5.1  AM_GNU_GETTEXT in
`gettext.m4´
The
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
macro tests for the presence of the GNU gettext
function family in either the C library or a separate
libintl
library (shared or static libraries are both supported) or in the package's
`intl/´
directory.  It also invokes
AM_PO_SUBDIRS
, thus preparing
the
`po/´
directories of the package for building.
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
accepts up to three optional arguments.  The general
syntax is
AM_GNU_GETTEXT([
intlsymbol
], [
needsymbol
], [
intldir
])
intlsymbol
can be
`external´
or
`no-libtool´
.  The default
(if it is not specified or empty) is
`no-libtool´
.
intlsymbol
should be
`external´
for packages with no
`intl/´
directory,
and
`no-libtool´
for packages with an
`intl/´
directory.  In
the latter case, a static library
$(top_builddir)/intl/libintl.a
will be created.
If
needsymbol
is specified and is
`need-ngettext´
, then GNU
gettext implementations (in libc or libintl) without the
ngettext()
function will be ignored.  If
needsymbol
is specified and is
`need-formatstring-macros´
, then GNU gettext implementations that don't
support the ISO C 99
`<inttypes.h>´
formatstring macros will be ignored.
Only one
needsymbol
can be specified.  To specify more than one
requirement, just specify the strongest one among them.  The hierarchy among
the various alternatives is as follows:
`need-formatstring-macros´
implies
`need-ngettext´
.
intldir
is used to find the intl libraries.  If empty, the value
`$(top_builddir)/intl/´
is used.
The
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
macro determines whether GNU gettext is
available and should be used.  If so, it sets the
USE_NLS
variable
to
`yes´
; it defines
ENABLE_NLS
to 1 in the autoconf
generated configuration file (usually called
`config.h´
); it sets
the variables
LIBINTL
and
LTLIBINTL
to the linker options
for use in a Makefile (
LIBINTL
for use without libtool,
LTLIBINTL
for use with libtool); it adds an
`-I´
option to
CPPFLAGS
if necessary.  In the negative case, it sets
USE_NLS
to
`no´
; it sets
LIBINTL
and
LTLIBINTL
to empty and doesn't change
CPPFLAGS
.
The complexities that
AM_GNU_GETTEXT
deals with are the following:
Some operating systems have
gettext
in the C library, for example
glibc.  Some have it in a separate library
libintl
.  GNU
libintl
might have been installed as part of the GNU
gettext
package.
GNU
libintl
, if installed, is not necessarily already in the search
path (
CPPFLAGS
for the include file search path,
LDFLAGS
for
the library search path).
Except for glibc, the operating system's native
gettext
cannot
exploit the GNU mo files, doesn't have the necessary locale dependency
features, and cannot convert messages from the catalog's text encoding
to the user's locale encoding.
GNU
libintl
, if installed, is not necessarily already in the
run time library search path.  To avoid the need for setting an environment
variable like
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
, the macro adds the appropriate
run time search path options to the
LIBINTL
and
LTLIBINTL
variables.  This works on most systems, but not on some operating systems
with limited shared library support, like SCO.
GNU
libintl
relies on POSIX/XSI
iconv
.  The macro checks for
linker options needed to use iconv and appends them to the
LIBINTL
and
LTLIBINTL
variables.
gettext_toc.html#TOC211
12.5.2  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION in
`gettext.m4´
The
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION
macro declares the version number of
the GNU gettext infrastructure that is used by the package.
The use of this macro is optional; only the
autopoint
program makes
use of it (see section
gettext_12.html#SEC214
12.6  Integrating with CVS
).
gettext_toc.html#TOC212
12.5.3  AM_PO_SUBDIRS in
`po.m4´
The
AM_PO_SUBDIRS
macro prepares the
`po/´
directories of the
package for building.  This macro should be used in internationalized
programs written in other programming languages than C, C++, Objective C,
for example
sh
,
Python
,
Lisp
.  See section
gettext_13.html#SEC221
13  Other Programming Languages
for a list of programming languages that support localization
through PO files.
The
AM_PO_SUBDIRS
macro determines whether internationalization
should be used.  If so, it sets the
USE_NLS
variable to
`yes´
,
otherwise to
`no´
.  It also determines the right values for Makefile
variables in each
`po/´
directory.
gettext_toc.html#TOC213
12.5.4  AM_ICONV in
`iconv.m4´
The
AM_ICONV
macro tests for the presence of the POSIX/XSI
iconv
function family in either the C library or a separate
libiconv
library.  If found, it sets the
am_cv_func_iconv
variable to
`yes´
; it defines
HAVE_ICONV
to 1 in the autoconf
generated configuration file (usually called
`config.h´
); it defines
ICONV_CONST
to
`const´
or to empty, depending on whether the
second argument of
iconv()
is of type
`const char **´
or
`char **´
; it sets the variables
LIBICONV
and
LTLIBICONV
to the linker options for use in a Makefile
(
LIBICONV
for use without libtool,
LTLIBICONV
for use with
libtool); it adds an
`-I´
option to
CPPFLAGS
if
necessary.  If not found, it sets
LIBICONV
and
LTLIBICONV
to
empty and doesn't change
CPPFLAGS
.
The complexities that
AM_ICONV
deals with are the following:
Some operating systems have
iconv
in the C library, for example
glibc.  Some have it in a separate library
libiconv
, for example
OSF/1 or FreeBSD.  Regardless of the operating system, GNU
libiconv
might have been installed.  In that case, it should be used instead of the
operating system's native
iconv
.
GNU
libiconv
, if installed, is not necessarily already in the search
path (
CPPFLAGS
for the include file search path,
LDFLAGS
for
the library search path).
GNU
libiconv
is binary incompatible with some operating system's
native
iconv
, for example on FreeBSD.  Use of an
`iconv.h´
and
`libiconv.so´
that don't fit together would produce program
crashes.
GNU
libiconv
, if installed, is not necessarily already in the
run time library search path.  To avoid the need for setting an environment
variable like
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
, the macro adds the appropriate
run time search path options to the
LIBICONV
variable.  This works
on most systems, but not on some operating systems with limited shared
library support, like SCO.
`iconv.m4´
is distributed with the GNU gettext package because
`gettext.m4´
relies on it.
gettext_toc.html#TOC214
12.6  Integrating with CVS
Many projects use CVS for distributed development, version control and
source backup.  This section gives some advice how to manage the uses
of
cvs
,
gettextize
,
autopoint
and
autoconf
.
gettext_toc.html#TOC215
12.6.1  Avoiding version mismatch in distributed development
In a project development with multiple developers, using CVS, there
should be a single developer who occasionally - when there is desire to
upgrade to a new
gettext
version - runs
gettextize
and
performs the changes listed in section
gettext_12.html#SEC196
12.4  Files You Must Create or Alter
, and then commits
his changes to the CVS.
It is highly recommended that all developers on a project use the same
version of GNU
gettext
in the package.  In other words, if a
developer runs
gettextize
, he should go the whole way, make the
necessary remaining changes and commit his changes to the CVS.
Otherwise the following damages will likely occur:
Apparent version mismatch between developers.  Since some
gettext
specific portions in
`configure.in´
,
`configure.ac´
and
Makefile.am
,
Makefile.in
files depend on the
gettext
version, the use of infrastructure files belonging to different
gettext
versions can easily lead to build errors.
Hidden version mismatch.  Such version mismatch can also lead to
malfunctioning of the package, that may be undiscovered by the developers.
The worst case of hidden version mismatch is that internationalization
of the package doesn't work at all.
Release risks.  All developers implicitly perform constant testing on
a package.  This is important in the days and weeks before a release.
If the guy who makes the release tar files uses a different version
of GNU
gettext
than the other developers, the distribution will
be less well tested than if all had been using the same
gettext
version.  For example, it is possible that a platform specific bug goes
undiscovered due to this constellation.
gettext_toc.html#TOC216
12.6.2  Files to put under CVS version control
There are basically three ways to deal with generated files in the
context of a CVS repository, such as
`configure´
generated from
`configure.in´
,
parser
.c
generated from
parser
.y
, or
po/Makefile.in.in
autoinstalled by
gettextize
or
autopoint
.
All generated files are always committed into the repository.
All generated files are committed into the repository occasionally,
for example each time a release is made.
Generated files are never committed into the repository.
Each of these three approaches has different advantages and drawbacks.
The advantage is that anyone can check out the CVS at any moment and
gets a working build.  The drawbacks are:  1a. It requires some frequent
"cvs commit" actions by the maintainers.  1b. The repository grows in size
quite fast.
The advantage is that anyone can check out the CVS, and the usual
"./configure; make" will work.  The drawbacks are:  2a. The one who
checks out the repository needs tools like GNU
automake
,
GNU
autoconf
, GNU
m4
installed in his PATH; sometimes
he even needs particular versions of them.  2b. When a release is made
and a commit is made on the generated files, the other developers get
conflicts on the generated files after doing "cvs update".  Although
these conflicts are easy to resolve, they are annoying.
The advantage is less work for the maintainers.  The drawback is that
anyone who checks out the CVS not only needs tools like GNU
automake
,
GNU
autoconf
, GNU
m4
installed in his PATH, but also that
he needs to perform a package specific pre-build step before being able
to "./configure; make".
For the first and second approach, all files modified or brought in
by the occasional
gettextize
invocation and update should be
committed into the CVS.
For the third approach, the maintainer can omit from the CVS repository
all the files that
gettextize
mentions as "copy".  Instead, he
adds to the
`configure.in´
or
`configure.ac´
a line of the
form
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.14.3)
and adds to the package's pre-build script an invocation of
`autopoint´
.  For everyone who checks out the CVS, this
autopoint
invocation will copy into the right place the
gettext
infrastructure files that have been omitted from the CVS.
The version number used as argument to
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION
is
the version of the
gettext
infrastructure that the package wants
to use.  It is also the minimum version number of the
`autopoint´
program.  So, if you write
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.11.5)
then the
developers can have any version >= 0.11.5 installed; the package will work
with the 0.11.5 infrastructure in all developers' builds.  When the
maintainer then runs gettextize from, say, version 0.12.1 on the package,
the occurrence of
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.11.5)
will be changed
into
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.12.1)
, and all other developers that
use the CVS will henceforth need to have GNU
gettext
0.12.1 or newer
installed.
gettext_toc.html#TOC217
12.6.3  Invoking the
autopoint
Program
autopoint [
option
]...
The
autopoint
program copies standard gettext infrastructure files
into a source package.  It extracts from a macro call of the form
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(
version
)
, found in the package's
`configure.in´
or
`configure.ac´
file, the gettext version
used by the package, and copies the infrastructure files belonging to
this version into the package.
gettext_toc.html#TOC218
12.6.3.1  Options
`-f´
`--force´
Force overwriting of files that already exist.
`-n´
`--dry-run´
Print modifications but don't perform them.  All file copying actions that
autopoint
would normally execute are inhibited and instead only
listed on standard output.
gettext_toc.html#TOC219
12.6.3.2  Informative output
`--help´
Display this help and exit.
`--version´
Output version information and exit.
autopoint
supports the GNU
gettext
versions from 0.10.35 to
the current one, 0.14.3.  In order to apply
autopoint
to
a package using a
gettext
version newer than 0.14.3, you
need to install this same version of GNU
gettext
at least.
In packages using GNU
automake
, an invocation of
autopoint
should be followed by invocations of
aclocal
and then
autoconf
and
autoheader
.  The reason is that
autopoint
installs some
autoconf macro files, which are used by
aclocal
to create
`aclocal.m4´
, and the latter is used by
autoconf
to create the
package's
`configure´
script and by
autoheader
to create the
package's
`config.h.in´
include file template.
The name
`autopoint´
is an abbreviation of
`auto-po-intl-m4´
;
the tool copies or updates mostly files in the
`po´
,
`intl´
,
`m4´
directories.
gettext_toc.html#TOC220
12.7  Creating a Distribution Tarball
In projects that use GNU
automake
, the usual commands for creating
a distribution tarball,
`make dist´
or
`make distcheck´
,
automatically update the PO files as needed.
If GNU
automake
is not used, the maintainer needs to perform this
update before making a release:
$ ./configure
$ (cd po; make update-po)
$ make distclean
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