This chapter explains the goals sought in the creation of GNU gettext and the free Translation Project. Then, it explains a few broad concepts around Native Language Support, and positions message translation with regard to other aspects of national and cultural variance, as they apply to programs. It also surveys those files used to convey the translations. It explains how the various tools interact in the initial generation of these files, and later, how the maintenance cycle should usually operate.
The Format of PO Files
white-space
# translator-comments
#. extracted-comments
#: reference…
#, flag…
#| msgid previous-untranslated-string
msgid untranslated-string
msgstr translated-string