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diff --git a/po/README.md b/po/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..efd5baaf1d --- /dev/null +++ b/po/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,288 @@ +Core GIT Translations +===================== + +This directory holds the translations for the core of Git. This document +describes how you can contribute to the effort of enhancing the language +coverage and maintaining the translation. + +The localization (l10n) coordinator, Jiang Xin <worldhello.net@gmail.com>, +coordinates our localization effort in the l10 coordinator repository: + + https://github.com/git-l10n/git-po/ + +The two character language translation codes are defined by ISO_639-1, as +stated in the gettext(1) full manual, appendix A.1, Usual Language Codes. + + +Contributing to an existing translation +--------------------------------------- +As a contributor for a language XX, you should first check TEAMS file in +this directory to see whether a dedicated repository for your language XX +exists. Fork the dedicated repository and start to work if it exists. + +Sometime, contributors may find that the translations of their Git +distributions are quite different with the translations of the +corresponding version from Git official. This is because some Git +distributions (such as from Ubuntu, etc.) have their own l10n workflow. +For this case, wrong translations should be reported and fixed through +their workflows. + + +Creating a new language translation +----------------------------------- +If you are the first contributor for the language XX, please fork this +repository, prepare and/or update the translated message file po/XX.po +(described later), and ask the l10n coordinator to pull your work. + +If there are multiple contributors for the same language, please first +coordinate among yourselves and nominate the team leader for your +language, so that the l10n coordinator only needs to interact with one +person per language. + + +Translation Process Flow +------------------------ +The overall data-flow looks like this: + + +-------------------+ +------------------+ + | Git source code | ---(1)---> | L10n coordinator | + | repository | <---(4)--- | repository | + +-------------------+ +------------------+ + | ^ + (2) (3) + V | + +------------------+ + | Language Team XX | + +------------------+ + + * Translatable strings are marked in the source file. + * L10n coordinator pulls from the source (1) + * L10n coordinator updates the message template po/git.pot + * Language team pulls from L10n coordinator (2) + * Language team updates the message file po/XX.po + * L10n coordinator pulls from Language team (3) + * L10n coordinator asks the result to be pulled (4). + + +Maintaining the po/git.pot file +------------------------------- + +(This is done by the l10n coordinator). + +The po/git.pot file contains a message catalog extracted from Git's +sources. The l10n coordinator maintains it by adding new translations with +msginit(1), or update existing ones with msgmerge(1). In order to update +the Git sources to extract the messages from, the l10n coordinator is +expected to pull from the main git repository at strategic point in +history (e.g. when a major release and release candidates are tagged), +and then run "make pot" at the top-level directory. + +Language contributors use this file to prepare translations for their +language, but they are not expected to modify it. + + +Initializing a XX.po file +------------------------- + +(This is done by the language teams). + +If your language XX does not have translated message file po/XX.po yet, +you add a translation for the first time by running: + + msginit --locale=XX + +in the po/ directory, where XX is the locale, e.g. "de", "is", "pt_BR", +"zh_CN", etc. + +Then edit the automatically generated copyright info in your new XX.po +to be correct, e.g. for Icelandic: + + @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ + -# Icelandic translations for PACKAGE package. + -# Copyright (C) 2010 THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER + -# This file is distributed under the same license as the PACKAGE package. + +# Icelandic translations for Git. + +# Copyright (C) 2010 Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com> + +# This file is distributed under the same license as the Git package. + # Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason <avarab@gmail.com>, 2010. + +And change references to PACKAGE VERSION in the PO Header Entry to +just "Git": + + perl -pi -e 's/(?<="Project-Id-Version: )PACKAGE VERSION/Git/' XX.po + +Once you are done testing the translation (see below), commit the result +and ask the l10n coordinator to pull from you. + + +Updating a XX.po file +--------------------- + +(This is done by the language teams). + +If you are replacing translation strings in an existing XX.po file to +improve the translation, just edit the file. + +If there's an existing XX.po file for your language, but the repository +of the l10n coordinator has newer po/git.pot file, you would need to first +pull from the l10n coordinator (see the beginning of this document for its +URL), and then update the existing translation by running: + + msgmerge --add-location --backup=off -U XX.po git.pot + +in the po/ directory, where XX.po is the file you want to update. + +Once you are done testing the translation (see below), commit the result +and ask the l10n coordinator to pull from you. + + +Testing your changes +-------------------- + +(This is done by the language teams, after creating or updating XX.po file). + +Before you submit your changes go back to the top-level and do: + + make + +On systems with GNU gettext (i.e. not Solaris) this will compile your +changed PO file with `msgfmt --check`, the --check option flags many +common errors, e.g. missing printf format strings, or translated +messages that deviate from the originals in whether they begin/end +with a newline or not. + + +Marking strings for translation +------------------------------- + +(This is done by the core developers). + +Before strings can be translated they first have to be marked for +translation. + +Git uses an internationalization interface that wraps the system's +gettext library, so most of the advice in your gettext documentation +(on GNU systems `info gettext` in a terminal) applies. + +General advice: + + - Don't mark everything for translation, only strings which will be + read by humans (the porcelain interface) should be translated. + + The output from Git's plumbing utilities will primarily be read by + programs and would break scripts under non-C locales if it was + translated. Plumbing strings should not be translated, since + they're part of Git's API. + + - Adjust the strings so that they're easy to translate. Most of the + advice in `info '(gettext)Preparing Strings'` applies here. + + - If something is unclear or ambiguous you can use a "TRANSLATORS" + comment to tell the translators what to make of it. These will be + extracted by xgettext(1) and put in the po/*.po files, e.g. from + git-am.sh: + + # TRANSLATORS: Make sure to include [y], [n], [e], [v] and [a] + # in your translation. The program will only accept English + # input at this point. + gettext "Apply? [y]es/[n]o/[e]dit/[v]iew patch/[a]ccept all " + + Or in C, from builtin/revert.c: + + /* TRANSLATORS: %s will be "revert" or "cherry-pick" */ + die(_("%s: Unable to write new index file"), action_name(opts)); + +We provide wrappers for C, Shell and Perl programs. Here's how they're +used: + +C: + + - Include builtin.h at the top, it'll pull in gettext.h, which + defines the gettext interface. Consult with the list if you need to + use gettext.h directly. + + - The C interface is a subset of the normal GNU gettext + interface. We currently export these functions: + + - _() + + Mark and translate a string. E.g.: + + printf(_("HEAD is now at %s"), hex); + + - Q_() + + Mark and translate a plural string. E.g.: + + printf(Q_("%d commit", "%d commits", number_of_commits)); + + This is just a wrapper for the ngettext() function. + + - N_() + + A no-op pass-through macro for marking strings inside static + initializations, e.g.: + + static const char *reset_type_names[] = { + N_("mixed"), N_("soft"), N_("hard"), N_("merge"), N_("keep"), NULL + }; + + And then, later: + + die(_("%s reset is not allowed in a bare repository"), + _(reset_type_names[reset_type])); + + Here _() couldn't have statically determined what the translation + string will be, but since it was already marked for translation + with N_() the look-up in the message catalog will succeed. + +Shell: + + - The Git gettext shell interface is just a wrapper for + gettext.sh. Import it right after git-sh-setup like this: + + . git-sh-setup + . git-sh-i18n + + And then use the gettext or eval_gettext functions: + + # For constant interface messages: + gettext "A message for the user"; echo + + # To interpolate variables: + details="oh noes" + eval_gettext "An error occurred: \$details"; echo + + In addition we have wrappers for messages that end with a trailing + newline. I.e. you could write the above as: + + # For constant interface messages: + gettextln "A message for the user" + + # To interpolate variables: + details="oh noes" + eval_gettextln "An error occurred: \$details" + + More documentation about the interface is available in the GNU info + page: `info '(gettext)sh'`. Looking at git-am.sh (the first shell + command to be translated) for examples is also useful: + + git log --reverse -p --grep=i18n git-am.sh + +Perl: + + - The Git::I18N module provides a limited subset of the + Locale::Messages functionality, e.g.: + + use Git::I18N; + print __("Welcome to Git!\n"); + printf __("The following error occurred: %s\n"), $error; + + Run `perldoc perl/Git/I18N.pm` for more info. + + +Testing marked strings +---------------------- + +Git's tests are run under LANG=C LC_ALL=C. So the tests do not need be +changed to account for translations as they're added. |