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xgotext CLI Tool

xgotext is a command-line tool designed to help you extract translatable strings from your Go source code and generate or update Gettext PO files.

1. Installation

Install xgotext using go install:

go install github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext/cli/xgotext@latest

2. Usage

To extract strings from your project and create a new PO file:

xgotext -p . -o locales/en_US/default.po

Options:

  • -p <path>: The directory path to scan for Go files (default: current directory).
  • -o <output>: The output path for the generated PO file.
  • -d <domain>: The domain to extract (default: "default").
  • -k <keyword>: Add custom keywords to look for (default: Get, GetD, GetN, GetND, GetC, GetDC, GetNC, GetNDC).

3. Example Workflow

  1. Write your Go code using gotext.Get("Hello!").
  2. Run xgotext to generate the initial en_US/default.po file.
  3. Translate the PO file into other languages (e.g., es_AR/default.po).
  4. Update your translations later as your code changes by re-running xgotext with the same output path.

4. How it works

xgotext parses your Go files looking for function calls that match the default keywords or any custom ones you've specified. It then collects all unique msgid and msgctxt pairs and writes them to the specified output file, preserving any existing translations if the file already exists.