Go (GNU gettext utilities)

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16.5.13 Go ¶

Three packages are available, that can be used for message localization with PO files:

• The github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext package.

  Documentation: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext

  Source code: https://github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext

• The github.com/gosexy/gettext package.

  Documentation: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/gosexy/gettext

  Source code: https://github.com/gosexy/gettext

• The github.com/snapcore/go-gettext package.

  Documentation: https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/snapcore/go-gettext

  Source code: https://github.com/canonical/go-gettext

Go programs can be classified as one of:

• Single-locale programs, that use the same locale across all threads of the program. Example: Most command-line programs.
• Multi-locale programs, that use one locale per thread. Example: Web servers.

The three different packages support these two classes of programs differently:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext package: It has two different APIs, one for the single-locale case and one for the multi-locale case.
• github.com/gosexy/gettext package: Its API supports only the single-locale case.
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext package: Its API supports the single-locale case and the multi-locale case in the same way.

Gettext support characteristics: ¶

RPMs

golang

Ubuntu packages

golang-go (which provides the go program), or gccgo (which provides a go-version command).
gccgo has better portability; for example it works on SPARC CPUs.

File extension

go

String syntax

"abc", `abc`

gettext shorthand

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gettext/ngettext functions

This depends on the API:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext API: Get, GetD, GetN, GetND
• github.com/gosexy/gettext API: Gettext, DGettext, DCGettext, NGettext, DNGettext, DCNGettext
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext API: Gettext, NGettext

Note that the ngettext-like functions need to take two argument strings that consume the same number of arguments. For example, you cannot write fmt.Sprintf(gotext.GetN("a piece", "%d pieces", n), n) because in the singular case, fmt.Sprintf would treat the unused argument as an error and produce "a piece%!(EXTRA int=1)" instead of the desired "a piece". As a workaround, you need to convert n to a string and format that string with precision zero: fmt.Sprintf(gotext.GetN("%.0sa piece", "%s pieces", n), strconv.Itoa(n))

textdomain

This depends on the API:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext API: Locale.AddDomain method or gotext.Configure function
• github.com/gosexy/gettext API: Textdomain function
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext API: TextDomain constructor

bindtextdomain

This depends on the API:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext API: gotext.NewLocale function or gotext.Configure function
• github.com/gosexy/gettext API: BindTextdomain function
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext API: TextDomain constructor

setlocale

This depends on the API:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext API: Programmer must determine the appropriate locale and pass it to the gotext.NewLocale function or gotext.Configure function.
• github.com/gosexy/gettext API: Programmer must call gettext.SetLocale(gettext.LcAll, "").
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext API: Programmer must determine the appropriate locale and pass it to the TextDomain.Locale method.

Prerequisite

This depends on the API:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext API: import ("github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext")
• github.com/gosexy/gettext API: import ("github.com/gosexy/gettext")
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext API: import ("github.com/snapcore/go-gettext")

Use or emulate GNU gettext

This depends on the API:

• github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext API: Emulate
• github.com/gosexy/gettext API: Use
• github.com/snapcore/go-gettext API: Emulate

Extractor

xgettext

Formatting with positions

fmt.Sprintf("%[2]d %[1]d", ...)

Portability

fully portable

po-mode marking

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Two examples are available in the examples directory: hello-go and hello-go-http.

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