6.11.1.1 Concatenate PO Files

To concatenate several valid PO files into one compendium file you can use `msgcomm' or `msgcat' (the latter preferred):

msgcat -o compendium.po file1.po file2.po

By default, msgcat will accumulate divergent translations for the same string. Those occurences will be marked as fuzzy and highly visible decorated; calling msgcat on `file1.po':

#: src/hello.c:200 #, c-format msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n" msgstr "Comunicar `bugs' a <%s>.\n"

and `file2.po':

#: src/bye.c:100 #, c-format msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n" msgstr "Comunicar \"bugs\" a <%s>.\n"

will result in:

#: src/hello.c:200 src/bye.c:100 #, fuzzy, c-format msgid "Report bugs to <%s>.\n" msgstr "" "#-#-#-#-# file1.po #-#-#-#-#\n" "Comunicar `bugs' a <%s>.\n" "#-#-#-#-# file2.po #-#-#-#-#\n" "Comunicar \"bugs\" a <%s>.\n"

The translator will have to resolve this "conflict" manually; she has to decide whether the first or the second version is appropriate (or provide a new translation), to delete the "marker lines", and finally to remove the fuzzy mark.

If the translator knows in advance the first found translation of a message is always the best translation she can make use to the `--use-first' switch:

msgcat --use-first -o compendium.po file1.po file2.po

A good compendium file must not contain fuzzy or untranslated entries. If input files are "dirty" you must preprocess the input files or postprocess the result using `msgattrib --translated --no-fuzzy'.