GNU gettext utilities: INSTALL Matters
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17.2.1 INSTALL Matters
Some packages are localizable when properly installed; the programs they contain can be made to speak your own native language. Most such packages use GNU gettext
. Other packages have their own ways to internationalization, predating GNU gettext
.
By default, this package will be installed to allow translation of messages. It will automatically detect whether the system already provides the GNU gettext
functions. Installers may use special options at configuration time for changing the default behaviour. The command:
./configure --disable-nls
will totally disable translation of messages.
When you already have GNU gettext
installed on your system and run configure without an option for your new package, configure
will probably detect the previously built and installed libintl
library and will decide to use it. If not, you may have to to use the ‘--with-libintl-prefix
’ option to tell configure
where to look for it.
Internationalized packages usually have many po/ll.po
files, where ll
gives an ISO 639 /@w two-letter code identifying the language. Unless translations have been forbidden at configure
time by using the ‘--disable-nls
’ switch, all available translations are installed together with the package. However, the environment variable LINGUAS
may be set, prior to configuration, to limit the installed set. LINGUAS
should then contain a space separated list of two-letter codes, stating which languages are allowed.