PYGETTEXT(1)

okay bestie, this is PYGETTEXT(1) from the General Commands Manual 💅🎀

🎀 NAME

pygettext is the Python version of xgettext(1). Same energy, different language ✨

🧚 SYNOPSIS

pygettext [OPTIONS] INPUTFILE ...

💅 DESCRIPTION

real talk: pygettext is deprecated 🙈 The current version of xgettext supports tons of languages, Python included, so use that one instead.

Okay so pygettext uses Python's standard tokenize module to scan your Python source code 🦋 It makes .pot files that are identical to what GNU xgettext makes for C and C++ code. Once you have those, the standard GNU tools are all yours to use 🫶

Here's a lowkey important detail 👀 pygettext only searches for _() by default, even though GNU xgettext recognizes these keywords: gettext, dgettext, dcgettext, and gettext_noop. If you want more keywords in the mix, check out the -k/--keyword flag below ✨

👑 OPTIONS

• -a, --extract-all — Extract all the strings 💖
• -d, --default-domain=NAME — Rename the default output file from messages.pot to name.pot 🌸
• -E, --escape — Swap out non-ASCII characters for octal escape sequences 🌈
• -D, --docstrings — Extract module, class, method, and function docstrings ✨ These don't need to be wrapped in _() markers, and honestly they can't be, or Python won't treat them as docstrings 🙈 (Also see the -X option.)
• -h, --help — Print the help message and exit 🍓
• -k, --keyword=WORD — Add keywords to look for, on top of the default set, which is just _ 💜

You can have multiple -k flags on the command line, so go wild 💅

• -K, --no-default-keywords — Turn off the default set of keywords (see above) 💀 Any keywords you added with -k/--keyword still get recognized ✨
• --no-location — Don't write filename/lineno location comments 🙈
• -n, --add-location — Write filename/lineno location comments that show where each extracted string lives in the source 🦋 These lines show up right before each msgid. The comment style is controlled by the -S/--style option. This one is the default, so it's giving main character 👑
• -o, --output=FILENAME — Rename the default output file from messages.pot to FILENAME 🎀 If FILENAME is -, the output gets sent to standard out 💅
• -p, --output-dir=DIR — Your output files will land in the directory DIR 🧚
• -S, --style=STYLENAME — Pick which style to use for location comments 🌸 Two styles are supported:
  • Solaris — # File: filename, line: line-number
  • GNU — #: filename:line

The style name is case insensitive, so don't stress 💖 GNU style is the default ✨

• -v, --verbose — Print the names of the files being processed as they go 👀
• -V, --version — Print the version of pygettext and exit 🔥
• -w, --width=COLUMNS — Set the width of the output to COLUMNS 🌈
• -x, --exclude-file=FILENAME — Point to a file that holds a list of strings that should NOT be extracted from your input files 🙅‍♀️ Each excluded string has to sit on its own line in that file, no sharing 💅
• -X, --no-docstrings=FILENAME — Point to a file that lists files (one per line) whose docstrings should NOT get extracted 🦋 This only matters together with the -D option above 🫶

If INPUTFILE is -, standard input gets read instead 🧠

🙈 BUGS

Okay, so pygettext tries really hard to stay compatible with GNU xgettext, option-wise and feature-wise, wherever it's possible ✨ Some options are still missing or not fully implemented though, so heads up 💀 Also, xgettext uses command line switches with option arguments in a way that's broken, so in those cases pygettext just defines extra switches of its own 🫠

🦋 AUTHOR

pygettext is written by Barry Warsaw <barry@zope.com> 👑

Joonas Paalasmaa <joonas.paalasmaa@iki.fi> put this manual page together based on "pygettext --help" 🫶💖

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bestie, you're officially a pygettext pro now 🌈💅✨

pygettext 1.4 · PYGETTEXT(1) — stay cute, stay compiling 🎀🧚💜