Locale::Messages(3pm) User Contributed Perl Documentation Locale::Messages(3pm)
NAME
Locale::Messages - Gettext Like Message Retrieval
SYNOPSIS
use Locale::Messages qw(:locale_h :libintl_h);
gettext $msgid;
dgettext $textdomain, $msgid;
dcgettext $textdomain, $msgid, LC_MESSAGES;
ngettext $msgid, $msgid_plural, $count;
dngettext $textdomain, $msgid, $msgid_plural, $count;
dcngettext $textdomain, $msgid, $msgid_plural, $count, LC_MESSAGES;
pgettext $msgctxt, $msgid;
dpgettext $textdomain, $msgctxt, $msgid;
dcpgettext $textdomain, $msgctxt, $msgid, LC_MESSAGES;
npgettext $msgctxt, $msgid, $msgid_plural, $count;
dnpgettext $textdomain, $msgctxt, $msgid, $msgid_plural, $count;
dcnpgettext $textdomain, $msgctxt, $msgid, $msgid_plural, $count, LC_MESSAGES;
textdomain $textdomain;
bindtextdomain $textdomain, $directory;
bind_textdomain_codeset $textdomain, $encoding;
bind_textdomain_filter $textdomain, \&filter, $data;
turn_utf_8_on ($variable);
turn_utf_8_off ($variable);
nl_putenv ('OUTPUT_CHARSET=koi8-r');
my $category = LC_CTYPE;
my $category = LC_NUMERIC;
my $category = LC_TIME;
my $category = LC_COLLATE;
my $category = LC_MONETARY;
my $category = LC_MESSAGES;
my $category = LC_ALL;
DESCRIPTION
The module Locale::Messages is a wrapper around the interface to message
translation according to the Uniforum approach that is for example used
in GNU gettext and Sun's Solaris. It is intended to allow
Locale::Messages(3) to switch between different implementations of the
lower level libraries but this is not yet implemented.
Normally you should not use this module directly, but the high level
interface Locale::TextDomain(3) that provides a much simpler interface.
This description is therefore deliberately kept brief. Please refer to
the GNU gettext documentation available at
<http://www.gnu.org/manual/gettext/> for in-depth and background
information on the topic.
The lower level module Locale::gettext_pp(3) provides the Perl
implementation of gettext() and related functions.
FUNCTIONS
The module exports by default nothing. Every function has to be
imported explicitly or via an export tag ("EXPORT TAGS").
gettext MSGID
Returns the translation for MSGID. Example:
print gettext "Hello World!\n";
If no translation can be found, the unmodified MSGID is returned, i.
e. the function can never fail, and will never mess up your original
message.
Note for Perl 5.6 and later: The returned string will always have
the UTF-8 flag off by default. See the documentation for function
bind_textdomain_filter() for a way to change this behavior.
One common mistake is this:
print gettext "Hello $name!";
Perl will interpolate the variable $name before the function will
see the string. Unless the corresponding message catalog contains a
message "Hello Tom!", "Hello Dick!" or "Hello Harry!", no
translation will be found.
Using printf() and friends has its own problems:
print sprintf (gettext ("This is the %s %s."), $color, $thing);
(The example is stupid because neither color nor thing will get
translated here ...).
In English the adjective (the color) will precede the noun, many
other languages (for example French or Italian) differ here. The
translator of the message may therefore have a hard time to find a
translation that will still work and not sound stupid in the target
language. Many C implementations of printf() allow one to change
the order of the arguments, and a French translator could then say:
"C'est le %2$s %1$s."
Perl printf() implements this feature as of version 5.8 or better.
Consequently you can only use it, if you are sure that your software
will run with Perl 5.8 or a later version.
Another disadvantage of using printf() is its cryptic syntax (maybe
not for you but translators of your software may have their own
opinion).
See the description of the function "__x()" in Locale::TextDomain(3)
for a much better way to get around this problem.
Non-ASCII message ids ...
You should note that the function (and all other similar functions
in this module) does a bytewise comparison of the MSGID for the
lookup in the translation catalog, no matter whether obscure utf-8
flags are set on it, whether the string looks like utf-8, whether
the utf8(3pm) pragma is used, or whatever other weird method past or
future perl(1) versions invent for guessing character sets of
strings.
Using other than us-ascii characters in Perl source code is a call
for trouble, a compatibility nightmare. Furthermore, GNU gettext
only lately introduced support for non-ascii character sets in
sources, and support for this feature may not be available
everywhere. If you absolutely want to use MSGIDs in non-ascii
character sets, it is wise to choose utf-8. This will minimize the
risk that perl(1) itself will mess with the strings, and it will
also be a guaranty that you can later translate your project into
arbitrary target languages.
Other character sets can theoretically work. Yet, using another
character set in the Perl source code than the one used in your
message catalogs will never work, since the lookup is done bytewise,
and all strings with non-ascii characters will not be found.
Even if you have solved all these problems, there is still one show
stopper left: The gettext runtime API lacks a possibility to specify
the character set of the source code (including the original
strings). Consequently - in absence of a hint for the input
encoding - strings without a translation are not subject to output
character set conversion. In other words: If the (non-determinable)
output character set differs from the character set used in the
source code, output can be a mixture of two character sets. There
is no point in trying to address this problem in the pure Perl
version of the gettext functions. because breaking compatibility
between the Perl and the C version is a price too high to pay.
This all boils down to: Only use ASCII characters in your
translatable strings!
dgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID
Like gettext(), but retrieves the message for the specified
TEXTDOMAIN instead of the default domain. In case you wonder what a
textdomain is, you should really read on with Locale::TextDomain(3).
dcgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID, CATEGORY
Like dgettext() but retrieves the message from the specified
CATEGORY instead of the default category "LC_MESSAGES".
ngettext MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, COUNT
Retrieves the correct translation for COUNT items. In legacy
software you will often find something like:
print "$count file(s) deleted.\n";
or
printf "$count file%s deleted.\n", $count == 1 ? '' : 's';
The first example looks awkward, the second will only work in
English and languages with similar plural rules. Before ngettext()
was introduced, the best practice for internationalized programs
was:
if ($count == 1) {
print gettext "One file deleted.\n";
} else {
printf gettext "%d files deleted.\n";
}
This is a nuisance for the programmer and often still not sufficient
for an adequate translation. Many languages have completely
different ideas on numerals. Some (French, Italian, ...) treat 0
and 1 alike, others make no distinction at all (Japanese, Korean,
Chinese, ...), others have two or more plural forms (Russian,
Latvian, Czech, Polish, ...). The solution is:
printf (ngettext ("One file deleted.\n",
"%d files deleted.\n",
$count), # argument to ngettext!
$count); # argument to printf!
In English, or if no translation can be found, the first argument
(MSGID) is picked if $count is one, the second one otherwise. For
other languages, the correct plural form (of 1, 2, 3, 4, ...) is
automatically picked, too. You don't have to know anything about
the plural rules in the target language, ngettext() will take care
of that.
This is most of the time sufficient but you will have to prove your
creativity in cases like
printf "%d file(s) deleted, and %d file(s) created.\n";
dngettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, COUNT
Like ngettext() but retrieves the translation from the specified
textdomain instead of the default domain.
dcngettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, COUNT, CATEGORY
Like dngettext() but retrieves the translation from the specified
category, instead of the default category "LC_MESSAGES".
pgettext MSGCTXT, MSGID
Returns the translation of MSGID, given the context of MSGCTXT.
Both items are used as a unique key into the message catalog.
This allows the translator to have two entries for words that may
translate to different foreign words based on their context. For
example, the word "View" may be a noun or a verb, which may be used
in a menu as File->View or View->Source.
pgettext "Verb: To View", "View\n";
pgettext "Noun: A View", "View\n";
The above will both lookup different entries in the message catalog.
A typical usage are GUI programs. Imagine a program with a main
menu and the notorious "Open" entry in the "File" menu. Now
imagine, there is another menu entry Preferences->Advanced->Policy
where you have a choice between the alternatives "Open" and
"Closed". In English, "Open" is the adequate text at both places.
In other languages, it is very likely that you need two different
translations. Therefore, you would now write:
pgettext "File|", "Open";
pgettext "Preferences|Advanced|Policy", "Open";
In English, or if no translation can be found, the second argument
(MSGID) is returned.
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
dpgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGCTXT, MSGID
Like pgettext(), but retrieves the message for the specified
TEXTDOMAIN instead of the default domain.
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
dcpgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGCTXT, MSGID, CATEGORY
Like dpgettext() but retrieves the message from the specified
CATEGORY instead of the default category "LC_MESSAGES".
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
npgettext MSGCTXT, MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, COUNT
Like ngettext() with the addition of context as in pgettext().
In English, or if no translation can be found, the second argument
(MSGID) is picked if $count is one, the third one otherwise.
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
dnpgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGCTXT, MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, COUNT
Like npgettext() but retrieves the translation from the specified
textdomain instead of the default domain.
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
dcnpgettext TEXTDOMAIN, MSGCTXT, MSGID, MSGID_PLURAL, COUNT, CATEGORY
Like dnpgettext() but retrieves the translation from the specified
category, instead of the default category "LC_MESSAGES".
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.17.
textdomain TEXTDOMAIN
Sets the default textdomain (initially 'messages').
bindtextdomain TEXTDOMAIN, DIRECTORY
Binds TEXTDOMAIN to DIRECTORY. Huh? An example:
bindtextdomain "my-package", "./mylocale";
Say, the selected locale (actually the selected locale for category
"LC_MESSAGES") of the program is 'fr_CH', then the message catalog
will be expected in ./mylocale/fr_CH/LC_MESSAGES/my-package.mo.
bind_textdomain_codeset TEXTDOMAIN, ENCODING
Sets the output encoding for TEXTDOMAIN to ENCODING.
bind_textdomain_filter TEXTDOMAN, CODEREF, DATA
bind_textdomain_filter TEXTDOMAN, CODEREF
By default, Locale::Messages will turn the utf-8 flag of all
returned messages off. If you want to change this behavior, you can
pass a reference to a subroutine that does different things - for
example turn the utf-8 flag on, or leave it untouched. The callback
function will be called with DATA as the first, and the possibly
translated string as the second argument. It should return the
possibly modified string.
If you want an object method to be called, pass the object itself in
the data parameter and write a wrapper function. Example:
sub wrapper {
my ($string, $obj) = @_;
$obj->filterMethod ($string);
}
my $obj = MyPackage->new;
bind_textdomain_filter ('mydomain', \&wrapper, $obj);
The function cannot fail and always returns a true value.
Attention: If you use the function for setting the utf-8 flag, it is
your responsibility to ensure that the output is really utf-8. You
should only use it, if you have set the environment variable
OUTPUT_CHARSET to "utf-8". Additionally you should call
bind_textdomain_codeset() with "utf-8" as the second argument.
Steven Haryanto has written a module Locale::TextDomain::UTF8(3pm)
that addresses the same problem.
This function has been introduced in libintl-perl 1.16 and it is not
part of the standard gettext API.
turn_utf_8_on VARIABLE
Returns VARIABLE but with the UTF-8 flag (only known in Perl >=5.6)
guaranteed to be turned on. This function does not really fit into
the module, but it is often handy nevertheless.
The flag does not mean that the string is in fact valid utf-8!
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.16.
turn_utf_8_off VARIABLE
Returns VARIABLE but with the UTF-8 flag (only known in Perl >=5.6)
guaranteed to be turned off. This function does not really fit into
the module, but it is often handy nevertheless.
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.07.
select_package PACKAGE
By default, Locale::Messages will try to load the XS version of the
gettext implementation, i. e. Locale::gettext_xs(3) and will fall
back to the pure Perl implementation Locale::gettext_pp(3). You can
override this behavior by passing the string "gettext_pp" or
"gettext_xs" to the function select_package(). Passing "gettext_pp"
here, will prefer the pure Perl implementation.
You will normally want to use that in a BEGIN block of your main
script.
The function was introduced with libintl-perl version 1.03 and is
not part of the standard gettext API.
Beginning with version 1.22 you can pass other package names than
"gettext_pp" or "gettext_xs" and use a completely different backend.
It is the caller's responsibility to make sure that the selected
package offers the same interface as the two standard packages.
One package that offers that functionality is
Locale::gettext_dumb(3pm).
nl_putenv ENVSPEC
Resembles the ANSI C putenv(3) function. The sole purpose of this
function is to work around some ideosyncrasies in the environment
processing of Windows systems. If you want to portably set or unset
environment variables, use this function instead of directly
manipulating %ENV.
The argument ENVSPEC may have three different forms.
LANGUAGE=fr_CH
This would set the environment variable "LANGUAGE" to
"fr_CH".
LANGUAGE=
Normally, this will set the environment variable "LANGUAGE"
to an empty string. Under Windows, however, the environment
variable will be deleted instead (and is no longer present
in %ENV). Since within libintl-perl empty environment
variables are useless, consider this usage as deprecated.
LANGUAGE
This will delete the environment variable LANGUAGE. If you
are familiar with the brain-damaged implementation of
putenv(3) (resp. _putenv()) in the so-called standard C
library of MS-Windows, you may suspect that this is an
invalid argument. This is not the case! Passing a variable
name not followed by an equal sign will always delete the
variable, no matter which operating system you use.
The function returns true for success, and false for failure.
Possible reasons for failure are an invalid syntax or - only under
Windows - failure to allocate space for the new environment entry
($! will be set accordingly in this case).
Why all this hassle? The 32-bit versions of MS-DOS (currently
Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/CE/.NET) maintain two distinct blocks of
environment variables per process. Which block is considered the
"correct" environment is a compile-time option of the Perl
interpreter. Unfortunately, if you have build the XS version
Locale::gettext_xs(3) under Windows, the underlying library may use
a different environment block, and changes you make to %ENV may not
be visible to the library.
The function nl_putenv() is mostly a funny way of saying
LANGUAGE=some_value
but it does its best, to pass this information to the gettext
library. Under other operating systems than Windows, it only
operates on %ENV, under Windows it will call the C library function
_putenv() (after doing some cleanup to its arguments), before
manipulating %ENV.
Please note, that your %ENV is updated by nl_putenv() automatically.
The function has been introduced in libintl-perl version 1.10.
setlocale
Modifies and queries program's locale, see the documentation for
setlocale() in POSIX(3pm) instead.
On some systems, when using GNU gettext, a call from C to
setlocale() is - with the help of the C preprocessor - really a call
to libintl_setlocale(), which is in turn a wrapper around the system
setlocale(3). Failure to call libintl_setlocale() may lead to
certain malfunctions. On such systems,
Locale::Messages::setlocale() will call the wrapper
libintl_setlocale(). If you want to avoid problems, you should
therefore always call the setlocale() implementation in
Locale::Messages(3pm).
See <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Bug/Display.html?id=83980> or
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?38162>, and
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=44645> for a
discussion of the problem.
The function has been introduced in libintl-perl version 1.24.
CONSTANTS
You can (maybe) get the same constants from POSIX(3); see there for a
detailed description
LC_CTYPE
LC_NUMERIC
LC_TIME
LC_COLLATE
LC_MONETARY
LC_MESSAGES
This locale category was the reason that these constants from
POSIX(3) were included here. Even if it was present in your systems
C include file locale.h, it was not provided by POSIX(3). Perl 5.8
and later seems to export the constant if available, although it is
not documented in POSIX(3).
Locale::Messages(3) makes an attempt to guess the value of this
category for all systems, and assumes the arbitrary value 1729
otherwise.
LC_ALL
If you specify the category LC_ALL as the first argument to
POSIX::setlocale(), all locale categories will be affected at once.
EXPORT TAGS
The module does not export anything unless explicitly requested. You
can import groups of functions via two tags:
use Locale::Messages (':locale_h')
Imports the functions that are normally defined in the C include
file locale.h:
gettext()
dgettext()
dcgettext()
ngettext()
dngettext()
dcngettext()
pgettext()
dpgettext()
dcpgettext()
npgettext()
dnpgettext()
dcnpgettext()
textdomain()
bindtextdomain()
bind_textdomain_codeset()
use Locale::Messages (':libintl_h')
Imports the locale category constants:
LC_CTYPE
LC_NUMERIC
LC_TIME
LC_COLLATE
LC_MONETARY
LC_MESSAGES
LC_ALL
OTHER EXPORTS
select_package PACKAGE
USAGE
A complete example:
1: use Locale::Messages qw(:locale_h :libintl_h);
2: use POSIX qw (setlocale);
3: setlocale (LC_MESSAGES, '');
4: textdomain ('my-package');
5: bindtextdomain ('my-package' => '/usr/local/share/locale');
6:
7: print gettext ("Hello world!\n");
Step by step: Line 1 imports the necessary functions and constants. In
line 3 we set the locale for category LC_MESSAGES to the default user
settings. For C programs you will often read that LC_ALL is the best
category here but this will also change the locale for LC_NUMERIC and
many programs will not work reliably after changing that category in
Perl; choose your own poison!
In line 4 we say that all messages (translations) without an explicit
domain specification should be retrieved from the message catalog for
the domain 'my-package'. Line 5 has the effect that the message catalog
will be searched under the directory /usr/local/share/locale.
If the user has selected the locale 'fr_CH', and if the file
/usr/local/share/locale/fr_CH/LC_MESSAGES/my-package.mo exists, and if
it contains a GNU message object file with a translation for the string
"Hello world!\n", then line 7 will print the French translation (for
Switzerland CH) to STDOUT.
The documentation for GNU gettext explains how to extract translatable
strings from your Perl files and how to create message catalogs.
Another less portable example: If your system uses the GNU libc you
should be able to find various files with the name libc.mo, the message
catalog for the library itself. If you have found these files under
/usr/share/locale, then you can try the following:
use Locale::Messages qw(:locale_h :libintl_h);
use POSIX qw (setlocale);
setlocale LC_MESSAGES, "";
textdomain "libc";
# The following is actually not needed, since this is
# one of the default search directories.
bindtextdomain libc => '/usr/share/locale';
bind_textdomain_codeset libc => 'iso-8859-1';
print gettext ("No such file or directory");
See Locale::TextDomain(3) for much simpler ways.
AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 2002-2017 Guido Flohr <http://www.guido-flohr.net/>
(<mailto:guido.flohr@cantanea.com>), all rights reserved. See the
source code for details!code for details!
SEE ALSO
Locale::TextDomain(3pm), Locale::gettext_pp(3pm), Encode(3pm),
perllocale(3pm), POSIX(3pm), perl(1), gettext(1), gettext(3)
perl v5.40.0 2025-02-15 Locale::Messages(3pm)
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