<sect1 id="scripts-bash-locale">
<title>Standardizing Localization Tasks</title>
<para>
The <function>locale</function> functionality is the
interface the <command>centos-art.sh</command> script provides
to standardize localization tasks inside the working copy.
</para>
<screen>centos-art locale [OPTIONS] [DIRECTORY]</screen>
<para>
The <varname>DIRECTORY</varname> parameter specifies the
directory path, inside the working copy of &TCAR;, where the
files you want to process are stored in. This paramter can be
provided more than once in order to process more than one
directory path in a single command execution. When this
parameter is not provided, the current directory path where
the command was called from is used instead.
</para>
<para>
The <function>locale</function> functionality accepts the
following options:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--quiet</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Supress all output messages except error messages. When this
option is passed, all confirmation requests are supressed and
a possitive answer is assumed for them, just as if the
<option>--answer-yes</option> option would have been provided.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--answer-yes</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Assume <emphasis>yes</emphasis> to all confirmation requests.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--filter="REGEX"</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Reduce the list of files to process inside
<varname>DIRECTORY</varname> using <varname>REGEX</varname> as
pattern. You can use this option to control the amount of
files you want to locale. The deeper you go into the
directory structure the more specific you'll be about the
files you want to locale. When you cannot go deeper into the
directory structure through <varname>DIRECTORY</varname>
specification, use this option to reduce the list of files
therein.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--dont-commit-changes</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
Supress all commit and update actions realized over files,
before and after the actions themselves had took place over
files in the working copy.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--update</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option updates both POT and PO files related to source
files. Use this option everytime you change translatable
strings inside the source files.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--edit</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option edits the portable object related to source files.
When you provide this option, your default text editor is used
to open the portable object you, as translator, need to change
in order to keep source file messages consistent with their
localized versions. In the very specific case of shell
scripts localization, this option takes care of updating the
machine object (MO) file the shell script requires to
displayed translation messages correctly when it is executed.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--delete</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option unlocalizes source files. When you provide this
option, the localization directory related to source files is
removed from the working copy in conjunction with all portable
objects and machine objects inside it.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--dont-create-mo</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>
This option suppresses machine objects creation when shell
scripts are localized.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
The localization process is very tied to the source files we
want to provide localized messages for. Inside the working
copy of &TCAR; it is possible to localize XML-based files
(e.g., SVG and Docbook) and programs written in most popular
programming languages (e.g., C, C++, C#, Shell Scripts,
Python, Java, GNU awk, PHP, etc.).
</para>
<para>
The localization process initiates by retriving translatable
strings from source files. When source files are XML-based
files, the only requisite to retrive translatable strings
correctly is that they be well-formed. Beyond that, the
<command>xml2po</command> command takes care of everything
else. When source files are Shell script files, it is
necessary that you previously define what strings inside the
script are considered as translatable strings in order for
<command>xgettext</command> command to retrive them correctly.
To define translatable strings inside shell scripts, you need
to use either <command>gettext</command>,
<command>ngettext</command>, <command>eval_gettext</command>
or <command>eval_ngettext</command> command as it is following
described:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Use the <command>gettext</command> command to display the
native language translation of a textual message.
</para>
<screen>MESSAGE="`gettext "There is no entry to create."`"</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use the <command>ngettext</command> command to display the
native language translation of a textual message whose
grammatical form depends on a number.
</para>
<screen>MESSAGE="`ngettext "The following entry will be created" \
"The following entries will be created" \
$COUNT`:"</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use the <command>eval_gettext</command> command to display the
native language translation of a textual message, performing
dollar-substitution on the result. Note that only shell
variables mentioned in the message will be dollar-substituted
in the result.
</para>
<screen>MESSAGE="`eval_gettext "The location \\\"\\\$LOCATION\\\" is not valid."`"</screen>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use the <command>eval_ngettext</command> command to display
the native language translation of a textual message whose
grammatical form depends on a number, performing
dollar-substitution on the result. Note that only shell
variables mentioned in messages will be dollar-substituted in
the result.
</para>
<screen>MESSAGE="`eval_ngettext "The following entry will be created in \\\$LOCATION" \
"The following entries will be created in \\\$LOCATION" \
$COUNT`:"</screen>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
Once translatable strings are retrived, a portable object
template (POT) file is created for storing them. Later, the
POT file is used to create a portable object (PO). The
portable object is the place where localization itself takes
place, it is the file translators edit to localize messages.
When translatable strings change inside source files, it is
necessary that you update these POT and PO files in order to
keep consistency between source file messages and their
localized versions.
</para>
<para>
Inside source files, translatable strings are always written
in English language. In order to localize translatable strings
from English language to another language, you need to be sure
the <envar>LANG</envar> environment variable has been already
set to the locale code you want to localize message for or see
them printed out before running the
<function>locale</function> functionality of
<command>centos-art.sh</command> script. Localizing English
language to itself is not supported.
</para>
<para>
To have a list of all locale codes you can have localized
messages for, run the following command: <command>locale -a |
less</command>.
</para>
</sect1>