README
¶
gotext-tools
A Go library and CLI toolkit for working with Gettext .po and .mo files. This project provides cross-platform tools for extracting, merging, and compiling translation files, with a focus on Go projects.
Features
✅ Cross-platform – Written in Go, works on Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows, Darwin(MacOS), Plan9, Solaris and DragonFly. 386, amd64, arm, arm64, ppc64, ppc64le, riscv64.
✅ Go-native support – Designed with Go projects in mind.
✅ Easy to Install – Pre-built binaries available, or build from source.
CLI Tools
Located in cli/, these tools provide command-line utilities for managing .po and .mo files.
gotext-tools
It is a wrapper of all the utilities that will be mentioned below, if you don't want to install all of them one by one, or you want to save disk space, I recommend you install this one.
Usage:
gotext-tools [tool] [option]... [arg]...
msgomerge
A cross-platform alternative to msgmerge, used for updating .po files with new translations while preserving existing ones.
Usage:
msgomerge [old.po] [new.po] -o [output.po]
msgofmt
A cross-platform alternative to msgfmt, used for compiling .po files into binary .mo files.
Usage:
msgofmt [input.po] -o [output.mo]
xgotext
A Go-compatible version of xgettext for extracting translatable strings from Go source code.
Usage:
xgotext -o [output.po] [file1.go] [file2.go] ...
📌 Coming Soon: More CLI tools for advanced Gettext operations.
Library
The core library is located in pkg/ and provides structured handling of .po and .mo files.
go/parse
Extracts Gettext-compatible strings from Go source code. Useful for generating translation templates.
Example:
package main
import (
goparse"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/go/parse"
"fmt"
)
func main(){
myGolangFile := `package main
import "fmt" // Import strings are ignored!
func MyFunc(){
a := 10
"My anonymous string"
switch "a"{
case "b":
case "c":
}
}`
file,err := goparse.FromString(myGolangFile,"my-file.go")
if err != nil{
panic(err)
}
fmt.Println(file.Entries)
}
po
The main package for working with .po files. Includes:
Entry&Entries– Structured representation of translation entries.File- Sorting & Comparison – Easily organize and compare translations.
package main
import (
"os"
"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/po"
"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/po/compiler"
"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/po/parse"
)
func main(){
def,_ := parse.Mo("es.mo")
ref,_ := parse.Po("en.pot")
if def.Equal(ref){
return
}
merged := po.Merge(def.Entries,ref.Entries)
merged = merged.CleanFuzzy().CleanDuplicates()
compiler.PoToWriter(merged,os.Stdout)
}
po/compile
Compiles parsed .po files into .mo (binary) or updated .po files.
package main
import (
"os"
"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/po"
"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/po/compile"
)
func main(){
myFile := &po.File{
Name: "My File!",
Entries: po.Entries{
{
ID: "Hello World!",
Str: "Hola Mundo!",
},
{
ID: "Bye World!",
Str: "Adios Mundo!",
},
},
}
compile.PoToWriter(myFile,os.Stdout)
}
po/parse
Parsers for reading .po and .mo files into structured Go objects.
package main
import (
"github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools/v2/pkg/po/parse"
)
func main(){
myPoFile := `msgid "hello"
msgstr "hola"
#, fuzzy
msgid "world"
msgstr "mundo"`
myFile,_ := parse.PoFromString(myPoFile,"my_po_file.po")
}
Installation
From Source
git clone https://github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools
cd gotext-tools
just # Now check ./builds!
Or...
git clone https://github.com/Tom5521/gotext-tools
cd gotext-tools
just go-install app
Pre-built Binaries
Check the Releases page for pre-compiled executables.
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.
License
This project is open-source under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
Directories
¶
| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
|
internal
|
|
|
pkg
|
|
|
go/parse
Package goparse provides tools to parse and process Go source files, extracting translations and handling various configurations.
|
Package goparse provides tools to parse and process Go source files, extracting translations and handling various configurations. |
|
po/compile
The compile package contains structures and functions used to compile Mo/Po files with their respective options
|
The compile package contains structures and functions used to compile Mo/Po files with their respective options |
|
po/parse
The parse package contains structures and functions for parsing Mo/Po files with the respective options.
|
The parse package contains structures and functions for parsing Mo/Po files with the respective options. |