Re: xgettext and the comments at the top of the .pot file

[Bruno Haible]

Phil Edwards writes:

> > > is there any way to tell xgettext to /not/ regenerate the comments at the
> > > top of the foo.pot file?
> > 
> > Yes. It's the --omit-header option.
> 
> That has the effect of removing it entirely; not what we want.

This is fixed since gettext-0.11, more than a year ago.

> > The header of the POT file is meant as a template that is filled out
> > by the translator, either by running "msginit" or manually. See the
> > gettext manual, section "Creating a New PO File". The package
> > maintainers don't need to fiddle with it.
> 
> Except that xgettext keeps thowing out the information that translators
> aren't supposed to touch, like the pieces that go in place of "SOME
> DESCRIPTIVE TITLE", "FIRST AUTHOR", "Project-Id-Version:", and so on.

These strings are meant to be filled in by the translators, not the
package maintainer. (See the gettext manual, node "Creating".)

The package maintainer's responsibility is only to produce the POT
file by providing the right arguments to xgettext, to send it to the
place where translators can pick it up, and to integrate the PO files
from the translators into the package.

Bruno