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| author | jpayne |
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| date | Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:23:26 -0400 |
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--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/CSP2/CSP2_env/env-d9b9114564458d9d-741b3de822f2aaca6c6caa4325c4afce/share/doc/gettext/gettext_2.html Tue Mar 18 16:23:26 2025 -0400 @@ -0,0 +1,375 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<!-- Created on February, 21 2024 by texi2html 1.78a --> +<!-- +Written by: Lionel Cons <Lionel.Cons@cern.ch> (original author) + Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> + Olaf Bachmann <obachman@mathematik.uni-kl.de> + and many others. +Maintained by: Many creative people. +Send bugs and suggestions to <texi2html-bug@nongnu.org> + +--> +<head> +<title>GNU gettext utilities: 2. The User's View</title> + +<meta name="description" content="GNU gettext utilities: 2. The User's View"> +<meta name="keywords" content="GNU gettext utilities: 2. The User's View"> +<meta name="resource-type" content="document"> +<meta name="distribution" content="global"> +<meta name="Generator" content="texi2html 1.78a"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} +pre.display {font-family: serif} +pre.format {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} +pre.smalldisplay {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} +pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} +pre.smallformat {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} +pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} +span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal;} +span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal;} +ul.toc {list-style: none} +--> +</style> + + +</head> + +<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000"> + +<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0"> +<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_1.html#SEC1" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_3.html#SEC16" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_21.html#SEC389" title="Index">Index</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td> +</tr></table> + +<hr size="2"> +<a name="Users"></a> +<a name="SEC7"></a> +<h1 class="chapter"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC7">2. The User's View</a> </h1> + +<p>Nowadays, when users log into a computer, they usually find that all +their programs show messages in their native language – at least for +users of languages with an active free software community, like French or +German; to a lesser extent for languages with a smaller participation in +free software and the GNU project, like Hindi and Filipino. +</p> +<p>How does this work? How can the user influence the language that is used +by the programs? This chapter will answer it. +</p> + + +<a name="System-Installation"></a> +<a name="SEC8"></a> +<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC8">2.1 Operating System Installation</a> </h2> + +<p>The default language is often already specified during operating system +installation. When the operating system is installed, the installer +typically asks for the language used for the installation process and, +separately, for the language to use in the installed system. Some OS +installers only ask for the language once. +</p> +<p>This determines the system-wide default language for all users. But the +installers often give the possibility to install extra localizations for +additional languages. For example, the localizations of KDE (the K +Desktop Environment) and LibreOffice are often bundled separately, as one +installable package per language. +</p> +<p>At this point it is good to consider the intended use of the machine: If +it is a machine designated for personal use, additional localizations are +probably not necessary. If, however, the machine is in use in an +organization or company that has international relationships, one can +consider the needs of guest users. If you have a guest from abroad, for +a week, what could be his preferred locales? It may be worth installing +these additional localizations ahead of time, since they cost only a bit +of disk space at this point. +</p> +<p>The system-wide default language is the locale configuration that is used +when a new user account is created. But the user can have his own locale +configuration that is different from the one of the other users of the +same machine. He can specify it, typically after the first login, as +described in the next section. +</p> + +<a name="Setting-the-GUI-Locale"></a> +<a name="SEC9"></a> +<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC9">2.2 Setting the Locale Used by GUI Programs</a> </h2> + +<p>The immediately available programs in a user's desktop come from a group +of programs called a “desktop environment”; it usually includes the window +manager, a web browser, a text editor, and more. The most common free +desktop environments are KDE, GNOME, and Xfce. +</p> +<p>The locale used by GUI programs of the desktop environment can be specified +in a configuration screen called “control center”, “language settings” +or “country settings”. +</p> +<p>Individual GUI programs that are not part of the desktop environment can +have their locale specified either in a settings panel, or through environment +variables. +</p> +<p>For some programs, it is possible to specify the locale through environment +variables, possibly even to a different locale than the desktop's locale. +This means, instead of starting a program through a menu or from the file +system, you can start it from the command-line, after having set some +environment variables. The environment variables can be those specified +in the next section (<a href="#SEC10">Setting the Locale through Environment Variables</a>); for some versions of +KDE, however, the locale is specified through a variable <code>KDE_LANG</code>, +rather than <code>LANG</code> or <code>LC_ALL</code>. +</p> + +<a name="Setting-the-POSIX-Locale"></a> +<a name="SEC10"></a> +<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC10">2.3 Setting the Locale through Environment Variables</a> </h2> + +<p>As a user, if your language has been installed for this package, in the +simplest case, you only have to set the <code>LANG</code> environment variable +to the appropriate ‘<samp><var>ll</var>_<var>CC</var></samp>’ combination. For example, +let's suppose that you speak German and live in Germany. At the shell +prompt, merely execute +‘<samp>setenv LANG de_DE</samp>’ (in <code>csh</code>), +‘<samp>export LANG; LANG=de_DE</samp>’ (in <code>sh</code>) or +‘<samp>export LANG=de_DE</samp>’ (in <code>bash</code>). This can be done from your +‘<tt>.login</tt>’ or ‘<tt>.profile</tt>’ file, once and for all. +</p> + + +<a name="Locale-Names"></a> +<a name="SEC11"></a> +<h3 class="subsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC11">2.3.1 Locale Names</a> </h3> + +<p>A locale name usually has the form ‘<samp><var>ll</var>_<var>CC</var></samp>’. Here +‘<samp><var>ll</var></samp>’ is an ISO 639 two-letter language code, and +‘<samp><var>CC</var></samp>’ is an ISO 3166 two-letter country code. For example, +for German in Germany, <var>ll</var> is <code>de</code>, and <var>CC</var> is <code>DE</code>. +You find a list of the language codes in appendix <a href="gettext_18.html#SEC373">Language Codes</a> and +a list of the country codes in appendix <a href="gettext_19.html#SEC376">Country Codes</a>. +</p> +<p>You might think that the country code specification is redundant. But in +fact, some languages have dialects in different countries. For example, +‘<samp>de_AT</samp>’ is used for Austria, and ‘<samp>pt_BR</samp>’ for Brazil. The country +code serves to distinguish the dialects. +</p> +<p>Many locale names have an extended syntax +‘<samp><var>ll</var>_<var>CC</var>.<var>encoding</var></samp>’ that also specifies the character +encoding. These are in use because between 2000 and 2005, most users have +switched to locales in UTF-8 encoding. For example, the German locale on +glibc systems is nowadays ‘<samp>de_DE.UTF-8</samp>’. The older name ‘<samp>de_DE</samp>’ +still refers to the German locale as of 2000 that stores characters in +ISO-8859-1 encoding – a text encoding that cannot even accommodate the Euro +currency sign. +</p> +<p>Some locale names use ‘<samp><var>ll</var>_<var>CC</var>@<var>variant</var></samp>’ instead of +‘<samp><var>ll</var>_<var>CC</var></samp>’. The ‘<samp>@<var>variant</var></samp>’ can denote any kind of +characteristics that is not already implied by the language <var>ll</var> and +the country <var>CC</var>. It can denote a particular monetary unit. For example, +on glibc systems, ‘<samp>de_DE@euro</samp>’ denotes the locale that uses the Euro +currency, in contrast to the older locale ‘<samp>de_DE</samp>’ which implies the use +of the currency before 2002. It can also denote a dialect of the language, +or the script used to write text (for example, ‘<samp>sr_RS@latin</samp>’ uses the +Latin script, whereas ‘<samp>sr_RS</samp>’ uses the Cyrillic script to write Serbian), +or the orthography rules, or similar. +</p> +<p>On other systems, some variations of this scheme are used, such as +‘<samp><var>ll</var></samp>’. You can get the list of locales supported by your system +for your language by running the command ‘<samp>locale -a | grep '^<var>ll</var>'</samp>’. +</p> +<p>There is also a special locale, called ‘<samp>C</samp>’. +When it is used, it disables all localization: in this locale, all programs +standardized by POSIX use English messages and an unspecified character +encoding (often US-ASCII, but sometimes also ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8, depending on +the operating system). +</p> + +<a name="Locale-Environment-Variables"></a> +<a name="SEC12"></a> +<h3 class="subsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC12">2.3.2 Locale Environment Variables</a> </h3> + +<p>A locale is composed of several <em>locale categories</em>, see <a href="gettext_1.html#SEC4">Aspects in Native Language Support</a>. +When a program looks up locale dependent values, it does this according to +the following environment variables, in priority order: +</p> +<ol> +<li><a name="IDX33"></a> +</li><li> <code>LANGUAGE</code> +<a name="IDX34"></a> +</li><li> <code>LC_ALL</code> +<a name="IDX35"></a> +<a name="IDX36"></a> +<a name="IDX37"></a> +<a name="IDX38"></a> +<a name="IDX39"></a> +<a name="IDX40"></a> +</li><li> <code>LC_xxx</code>, according to selected locale category: +<code>LC_CTYPE</code>, <code>LC_NUMERIC</code>, <code>LC_TIME</code>, <code>LC_COLLATE</code>, +<code>LC_MONETARY</code>, <code>LC_MESSAGES</code>, ... +<a name="IDX41"></a> +</li><li> <code>LANG</code> +</li></ol> + +<p>Variables whose value is set but is empty are ignored in this lookup. +</p> +<p><code>LANG</code> is the normal environment variable for specifying a locale. +As a user, you normally set this variable (unless some of the other variables +have already been set by the system, in ‘<tt>/etc/profile</tt>’ or similar +initialization files). +</p> +<p><code>LC_CTYPE</code>, <code>LC_NUMERIC</code>, <code>LC_TIME</code>, <code>LC_COLLATE</code>, +<code>LC_MONETARY</code>, <code>LC_MESSAGES</code>, and so on, are the environment +variables meant to override <code>LANG</code> and affecting a single locale +category only. For example, assume you are a Swedish user in Spain, and you +want your programs to handle numbers and dates according to Spanish +conventions, and only the messages should be in Swedish. Then you could +create a locale named ‘<samp>sv_ES</samp>’ or ‘<samp>sv_ES.UTF-8</samp>’ by use of the +<code>localedef</code> program. But it is simpler, and achieves the same effect, +to set the <code>LANG</code> variable to <code>es_ES.UTF-8</code> and the +<code>LC_MESSAGES</code> variable to <code>sv_SE.UTF-8</code>; these two locales come +already preinstalled with the operating system. +</p> +<p><code>LC_ALL</code> is an environment variable that overrides all of these. +It is typically used in scripts that run particular programs. For example, +<code>configure</code> scripts generated by GNU autoconf use <code>LC_ALL</code> to make +sure that the configuration tests don't operate in locale dependent ways. +</p> +<p>Some systems, unfortunately, set <code>LC_ALL</code> in ‘<tt>/etc/profile</tt>’ or in +similar initialization files. As a user, you therefore have to unset this +variable if you want to set <code>LANG</code> and optionally some of the other +<code>LC_xxx</code> variables. +</p> +<p>The <code>LANGUAGE</code> variable is described in the next subsection. +</p> + +<a name="The-LANGUAGE-variable"></a> +<a name="SEC13"></a> +<h3 class="subsection"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC13">2.3.3 Specifying a Priority List of Languages</a> </h3> + +<p>Not all programs have translations for all languages. By default, an +English message is shown in place of a nonexistent translation. If you +understand other languages, you can set up a priority list of languages. +This is done through a different environment variable, called +<code>LANGUAGE</code>. GNU <code>gettext</code> gives preference to <code>LANGUAGE</code> +over <code>LC_ALL</code> and <code>LANG</code> for the purpose of message handling, +but you still need to have <code>LANG</code> (or <code>LC_ALL</code>) set to the primary +language; this is required by other parts of the system libraries. +For example, some Swedish users who would rather read translations in +German than English for when Swedish is not available, set <code>LANGUAGE</code> +to ‘<samp>sv:de</samp>’ while leaving <code>LANG</code> to ‘<samp>sv_SE</samp>’. +</p> +<p>Special advice for Norwegian users: The language code for Norwegian +bokmål changed from ‘<samp>no</samp>’ to ‘<samp>nb</samp>’ recently (in 2003). +During the transition period, while some message catalogs for this language +are installed under ‘<samp>nb</samp>’ and some older ones under ‘<samp>no</samp>’, it is +recommended for Norwegian users to set <code>LANGUAGE</code> to ‘<samp>nb:no</samp>’ so that +both newer and older translations are used. +</p> +<p>In the <code>LANGUAGE</code> environment variable, but not in the other +environment variables, ‘<samp><var>ll</var>_<var>CC</var></samp>’ combinations can be +abbreviated as ‘<samp><var>ll</var></samp>’ to denote the language's main dialect. +For example, ‘<samp>de</samp>’ is equivalent to ‘<samp>de_DE</samp>’ (German as spoken in +Germany), and ‘<samp>pt</samp>’ to ‘<samp>pt_PT</samp>’ (Portuguese as spoken in Portugal) +in this context. +</p> +<p>Note: The variable <code>LANGUAGE</code> is ignored if the locale is set to +‘<samp>C</samp>’. In other words, you have to first enable localization, by setting +<code>LANG</code> (or <code>LC_ALL</code>) to a value other than ‘<samp>C</samp>’, before you can +use a language priority list through the <code>LANGUAGE</code> variable. +</p> + +<a name="Working-in-a-Windows-console"></a> +<a name="SEC14"></a> +<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC14">2.4 Obtaining good output in a Windows console</a> </h2> + +<p>On Windows, consoles such as the one started by the <code>cmd.exe</code> +program do input and output in an encoding, called “OEM code page”, +that is different from the encoding that text-mode programs usually use, +called “ANSI code page”. (Note: This problem does not exist for +Cygwin consoles; these consoles do input and output in the UTF-8 +encoding.) As a workaround, you may request that the programs produce +output in this “OEM” encoding. To do so, set the environment variable +<code>OUTPUT_CHARSET</code> to the “OEM” encoding, through a command such as +</p><table><tr><td> </td><td><pre class="smallexample">set OUTPUT_CHARSET=CP850 +</pre></td></tr></table> +<p>Note: This has an effect only on strings looked up in message catalogs; +other categories of text are usually not affected by this setting. +Note also that this environment variable also affects output sent to a +file or to a pipe; output to a file is most often expected to be in the +“ANSI” or in the UTF-8 encoding. +</p> +<p>Here are examples of the “ANSI” and “OEM” code pages: +</p> +<table> +<thead><tr><th><p> Territories </p></th><th><p> ANSI encoding </p></th><th><p> OEM encoding +</p></th></tr></thead> +<tr><td><p> Western Europe </p></td><td><p> CP1252 </p></td><td><p> CP850 +</p></td></tr> +<tr><td><p> Slavic countries (Latin 2) </p></td><td><p> CP1250 </p></td><td><p> CP852 +</p></td></tr> +<tr><td><p> Baltic countries </p></td><td><p> CP1257 </p></td><td><p> CP775 +</p></td></tr> +<tr><td><p> Russia </p></td><td><p> CP1251 </p></td><td><p> CP866 +</p></td></tr> +</table> + + +<a name="Installing-Localizations"></a> +<a name="SEC15"></a> +<h2 class="section"> <a href="gettext_toc.html#TOC15">2.5 Installing Translations for Particular Programs</a> </h2> + +<p>Languages are not equally well supported in all packages using GNU +<code>gettext</code>, and more translations are added over time. Usually, you +use the translations that are shipped with the operating system +or with particular packages that you install afterwards. But you can also +install newer localizations directly. For doing this, you will need an +understanding where each localization file is stored on the file system. +</p> +<a name="IDX42"></a> +<p>For programs that participate in the Translation Project, you can start +looking for translations here: +<a href="https://translationproject.org/team/index.html">https://translationproject.org/team/index.html</a>. +</p> +<p>For programs that are part of the KDE project, the starting point is: +<a href="https://l10n.kde.org/">https://l10n.kde.org/</a>. +</p> +<p>For programs that are part of the GNOME project, the starting point is: +<a href="https://wiki.gnome.org/TranslationProject">https://wiki.gnome.org/TranslationProject</a>. +</p> +<p>For other programs, you may check whether the program's source code package +contains some ‘<tt><var>ll</var>.po</tt>’ files; often they are kept together in a +directory called ‘<tt>po/</tt>’. Each ‘<tt><var>ll</var>.po</tt>’ file contains the +message translations for the language whose abbreviation of <var>ll</var>. +</p> + +<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0"> +<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="#SEC7" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_3.html#SEC16" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_toc.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents">Contents</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_21.html#SEC389" title="Index">Index</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="gettext_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td> +</tr></table> +<p> + <font size="-1"> + This document was generated by <em>Bruno Haible</em> on <em>February, 21 2024</em> using <a href="https://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/"><em>texi2html 1.78a</em></a>. + </font> + <br> + +</p> +</body> +</html>