DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / potool / potool.1.en
POTOOL(1) General Commands Manual POTOOL(1)

potool - program for manipulating gettext po files

potool FILENAME1 [ FILENAME2 ] [-f f|nf|t|nt|nth|o|no] [-n ctxt|id|str|cmt|ucmt|pcmt|scmt|dcmt|tr|linf]... [-s] [-p] [-c]

potool -h

potool works in two (so far) modes. The first mode requires providing one file name, and works as a filter. In the second mode, the program replaces the translations in FILENAME1 with the translations from FILENAME2. (So FILENAME1 is the base po file, while FILENAME2 is our working copy.)

Determines which po file entries should be retained. In the second mode, the filters are applied only to FILENAME2 (the working copy). Existing filters are:
t - translated entries
nt - untranslated entries
nth - untranslated entries and the header
f - fuzzy entries
nf - entries that are not fuzzy
o - obsolete entries
no - non-obsolete entries
It is possible to stack filters, by specifying multiple -f options.
Determines which po file entries parts should not be retained. Any number of -n options is allowed. Valid parameters are:
ctxt - don't write 'ctxt' parts
id - don't write 'id' parts
str - don't write 'str' parts
tr - don't write translations
ucmt - don't write user's comments
pcmt - don't write the comments regarding position in source files
scmt - don't write special comments ('#, fuzzy, c-format, ...')
dcmt - don't write reserved comments (usually starting with a dot)
cmt - don't write any comments
linf - change source line numbers to '1'.

The last parameter is useful when you need to compare two po or pot files using diff(1) as it usually returns lots of unimportant line number changes otherwise.

Don't display the entries themselves, only their count.
causes potool to keep the formatting of the file intact. Without this option, all strings will be re-wrapped in the output at newlines or word boundaries to fit in 80 columns.
Overwrite all msgstrs with their msgids.
Display short usage help.

displays the number of translated entries. See also postats(1).
Deletes all translations - so you can start from scratch! :-)
displays firstly the translated and then the non-translated entries from file x.po (reverse order is not recommended because of the first "header" entry). The output contains all information from x.po, with the difference that untranslated entries are located together in a single place.
lets you easily add new translations, without looking at the already translated entries

The last two examples are implemented as the potooledit(1) program.

By default, the program re-wraps lines in all strings in the output. See the -p option.

potooledit(1), postats(1), msgmerge(1), msgfmt(1).

Potool was written by Zbigniew Chyla and is now being maintained by Marcin Owsiany <porridge@debian.org>.

September 15, 2012