MSGINIT(1)

📦
version 1.0 · 11 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

✨ MSGINIT ✨

okay bestie, welcome to msginit, a lil tool from the User Commands corner of your manual, and honestly? it's giving catalog creator energy 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

msginit — initialize a message catalog 🎀

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

msginit [OPTION]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

It makes a brand-new PO file for you, and it fills in all that meta info by peeking at your environment. main character behavior fr fr ✨

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. (yes queen, that goes for every single one of them, no exceptions, periodt.)

🍓 Input file location

  • -i, --input=INPUTFILE — the input POT file, that's the one you're feeding in 💌

ngl, if you don't hand it an input file, it goes snooping around the current directory looking for a POT file. and if it's -? then it just reads from standard input, easy peasy 🫶

🧚 Output file location

  • -o, --output-file=FILE — write the output to this specific PO file, your choice, your rules 👑

so like, if you don't give an output file, it all depends on the --locale option or on whatever locale your environment is set to. and heads up: if that output file already exists, it gets merged with the input file, as if through 'msgmerge'. and if it's -? results go straight to standard output 💫

🌈 Input file syntax

  • -P, --properties-input — the input file is in Java .properties syntax ☕
  • --stringtable-input — the input file is in NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings syntax 🍎

🎀 Output details

  • -l, --locale=LL_CC[.ENCODING] — set the target locale 🌍
  • --no-translator — assume the PO file is automatically generated (no human translator, just vibes) 🤖
  • --color — use colors and other text attributes always 🌈
  • --color=WHEN — use colors and other text attributes if WHEN. WHEN may be 'always', 'never', 'auto', or 'html' 🎨
  • --style=STYLEFILE — specify a CSS style rule file for --color 💅
  • -p, --properties-output — write out a Java .properties file ☕
  • --stringtable-output — write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings file 🍎
  • -w, --width=NUMBER — set the output page width 📏
  • --no-wrap — do not break long message lines, longer than the output page width, into several lines. keep them long, keep them iconic 🚫

⭐ Informative output

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

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Bruno Haible. 💜

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

found a bug? bestie, report it in the bug tracker at <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext> or by email to <bug-gettext@gnu.org>. they wanna hear from you fr fr 📬

Copyright © 2001-2026 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 msginit is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and msginit programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info msginit

should give you access to the complete manual. iykyk 📖✨

okay that's the whole page bestie, no cap. this was GNU gettext-tools 1.0, from January 2026 — go forth and initialize those catalogs, you absolute icon 🎀💖🦋

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