Re: xgettext: needs a way to set header fields in PO files

[Bruno Haible]

Santiago Vila citing Denis Barbier:

>  I am asked in 251643 to add some functionality to po-debconf so that
>  maintainers can easily change header fields in PO files.  This is IMO
>  a bad idea, maintainers should *never* modify PO files except for fixing
>  bugs and wrong translations

Maintainers should never modify PO files except by running msgmerge.
Not even to fix bugs or wrong translations. In case of blocking bugs it
is better to temporarily suspend distribution of the PO file, rather than
to interfere badly with the translator group in charge of the PO file.

>  So please either provide more options to xgettext in order to change
>  header fields (and also header comment) or update documentation to state
>  that the lack of such options means that only translators have to fill in
>  these fields.

xgettext's purpose is to create a POT (PO template) file, i.e. a file which is
language independent and doesn't incorporate comments from translators.
It has the necessary options to set the header fields that will not later be
filled in by msginit or msgmerge.

If you are manipulating PO files that contain comments from translators,
it's likely that you need to use 'msgcat' (or a combination of the tools
'msgcat', 'msgcomm', 'msgmerge', etc, 'xgettext'), rather than only xgettext.
See the gettext manual, chapter "Manipulating PO Files", for an overview of the
available tools. A trick that is sometimes useful is to combine a header entry
that you've generated with echo or printf with a list of messages from xgettext,
via msgmerge or msgcomm.

Bruno