GETTEXT(1)

📦
version 1.0 · 13 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, ubuntu stonking

💖 GETTEXT — translate message 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the gettext page from the User Commands manual. this is the one that makes your app speak every language, no cap ✨

✨ NAME ✨

gettext — translate message

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gettext [OPTION] [[TEXTDOMAIN] MSGID]
gettext [OPTION] -s [MSGID]...

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like. The gettext program translates a natural language message into the user's language, by looking up the translation in a message catalog. that's the whole vibe. it displays the native language translation of a textual message 💅

🌸 Options and arguments 🌸

  • -d, --domain=TEXTDOMAIN — retrieve translated messages from TEXTDOMAIN. like, which catalog are we even pulling from, bestie
  • -c, --context=CONTEXT — specify context for MSGID. because sometimes the same word means different things and we need the receipts
  • -e — enable expansion of some escape sequences
  • -n — suppress trailing newline. she's being minimal, iconic
  • -E — (ignored for compatibility). yeah she does nothing, she's just here for the plot 🙈
  • [TEXTDOMAIN] MSGID — retrieve translated message corresponding to MSGID from TEXTDOMAIN

👑 Informative output 👑

  • -h, --help — display this help and exit
  • -V, --version — display version information and exit

If the TEXTDOMAIN parameter is not given, the domain is determined from the environment variable TEXTDOMAIN. If the message catalog is not found in the regular directory, another location can be specified with the environment variable TEXTDOMAINDIR. When used with the -s option the program behaves like the 'echo' command. But it does not simply copy its arguments to stdout. Instead those messages found in the selected catalog are translated. Standard search directory: /usr/share/locale

fr fr, do not sleep on this: -s looks like echo but she is NOT echo. she does not just copy your args to stdout — only the messages that actually exist in the selected catalog get translated. lowkey the most important plot twist on this whole page 🫶

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Written by Ulrich Drepper. king behaviour, honestly 👑

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Report bugs in the bug tracker at <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext> or by email to <bug-gettext@gnu.org>.

not me asking you to file the bug report properly instead of subtweeting about it 💀

Copyright © 1995-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

The full documentation for gettext is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and gettext programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info gettext

should give you access to the complete manual.

okay that's the whole page, you ate it 💅✨ this was GNU gettext-runtime 1.0, dated January 2026, straight out of the GETTEXT(1) era — go forth and translate everything, bestie, i'm obsessed with you 🎀🦋🌸

📦 where this page comes from