Table of Contents

## Name

xgettext - conditionally extract strings from C programs

## Synopsis

xgettext -d [ cmnopvhP ] [ -o directory-prefix ] [ -x exclude-list ] [ filename ... ]
xgettext [ -amopvhP ] [ -x exclude-list ] [ filename ... ]

## Description

xgettext is used to automate the creation of portable message files. A portable message file contains copies of "C" strings that are found in "C" source code in filename. When the -d option is specified, xgettext places the extracted strings in the file name.po. name is either the domain specified in a dgettext call, or messages.po for strings extracted from gettext and textdomain calls. If the -d flag is not specified, xgettext places all the strings in messages.po. The portable message file can be used as input to the msgfmt(1) utility, which will produce a binary form of the message file than can be used at application run-time.

## Options

-a
  Extract ALL strings, not just those found in gettext, dgettext, and textdomain calls.
-c flag
  Comments beginning with flag filename on the first line of the comment are added to file filename as # delimited comments.
-d
  Produce duplicates. Does not sort output when writing the portable message file and will not overwrite existing output files. Places output from each domain specified in a dgettext call into a separate file named for the domain, ie. name.po
-c flag
  Comments beginning with flag filename on the first line of the comment are added to file filename as # delimited comments.
-m string
  Causes xgettext to fill in the msgstr line of the portable message files it produces. xgettext uses the corresponding msgid string extracted from the "C" file, appending string. Useful for debugging purposes.
-n
  Add # delimited line number comments to output file indicating the line number in the source file where each extracted string is encountered.
-o filename
  rename the default output file from messages.po to filename.
-p pathname
  Specify the directory where the output files will be placed. This option overrides the current working directory.
-x filename
  Specify a file that contains a list of strings that are not be extracted from the input files. Each string to be excluded must appear on a line by itself in the file filename.
-P
  include strings in pre-processor statements.
-v
  Verbose mode.
-h
  Print a help message on standard output.

## Files

messages.po
  is always created, but may be empty.

## See Also

msgfmt(1) , xstr(1) , gettext, dgettext, textdomain(3) .

Table of Contents

- Name
- Synopsis
- Description
- Options
- Files
- See Also