Re: Unclear documentation about obsolete entries

[Bruno Haible]

Hi,

Rodrigo Tobar wrote:
> While running msgcat on some .po files that had been recently updated, 
> we received errors about diplicate msgid entries. These stemmed from two 
> msgids entries, one valid and the other obsolete. We removed the 
> obsolete entry and the error went away.
> 
> Questions:
>   * Is this a bug or a feature? It seems a bit weird that an obsolete, 
> commented entry conflicts with a valid one, but maybe this is intended 
> behaviour.

It's not a bug. It's by design. The obsolete entries are there to save
a translator's work for two situations:
  - When a changed POT file reintroduces a message that was removed before.
    In this case the obsolete entry can be directly reused.
  - When some tools are in use that help the translator produce a translated
    message, based on her prior translations (kind of a translation memory,
    like the "compendium" feature).

>   * I'm only superficially familiar with po files and their syntax, but 
> from the documentation both at [1] and [2] I couldn't find any reference 
> at the "#~ ..." syntax for obsolete entries. Only going through the 
> source code at [3] I could find out what was going on. Before that, I 
> thought I had hit a bug in gettext. Could the documentation be improved 
> in this regard?

> [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/PO-Files.html

Good point, yes. I will improve the documentation.

Bruno