     msgmerge [OPTION] DEF.po REF.pot

The msgmerge program merges two Uniforum style .po files together. The DEF.po file is an existing PO file with translations which will be taken over to the newly created file as long as they still match; comments will be preserved, but extracted comments and file positions will be discarded.  The REF.pot file is the last created PO file with up-to-date source references but old translations, or a PO Template file (generally created by xgettext); any translations or comments in the file will be discarded, however dot comments and file positions will be preserved.  Where an exact match cannot be found, fuzzy matching is used to produce better results.

Input file location
-------------------

DEF.po
     Translations referring to old sources.

REF.pot
     References to the new sources.

-D DIRECTORY
--directory=DIRECTORY
     Add DIRECTORY to the list of directories.  Source files are searched relative to this list of directories.  The resulting .po file will be written relative to the current directory, though.

-C FILE
--compendium=FILE
     Specify an additional library of message translations.  See Compendium. This option may be specified more than once.

Operation mode
--------------

-U
--update
     Update DEF.po.  Do nothing if DEF.po is already up to date.

Output file location
--------------------

-o FILE
--output-file=FILE
     Write output to specified file.

The results are written to standard output if no output file is specified or if it is -.

Output file location in update mode
-----------------------------------

The result is written back to DEF.po.

--backup=CONTROL
     Make a backup of DEF.po

--suffix=SUFFIX
     Override the usual backup suffix.

The version control method may be selected via the --backup option or through the VERSION_CONTROL environment variable.  Here are the values:

none
off
     Never make backups (even if --backup is given).

numbered
t
     Make numbered backups.

existing
nil
     Make numbered backups if numbered backups for this file already exist, otherwise make simple backups.

simple
never
     Always make simple backups.

The backup suffix is ~, unless set with --suffix or the SIMPLE_BACKUP_SUFFIX environment variable.

Operation modifiers
-------------------

-m
--multi-domain
     Apply REF.pot to each of the domains in DEF.po.

-N
--no-fuzzy-matching
     Do not use fuzzy matching when an exact match is not found.  This may speed up the operation considerably.

--previous
     Keep the previous msgids of translated messages, marked with #|, when adding the fuzzy marker to such messages.

Input file syntax
-----------------

-P
--properties-input
     Assume the input files are Java ResourceBundles in Java .properties syntax, not in PO file syntax.

--stringtable-input
     Assume the input files are NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource files in .strings syntax, not in PO file syntax.

Output details
--------------

--lang=CATALOGNAME
     Specify the Language field to be used in the header entry.  See Header Entry for the meaning of this field.  Note: The Language-Team and Plural-Forms fields are left unchanged. If this option is not specified, the Language field is inferred, as best as possible, from the Language-Team field.

--color
--color=WHEN
     Specify whether or when to use colors and other text attributes. See The --color option for details.

--style=STYLE_FILE
     Specify the CSS style rule file to use for --color. See The --style option for details.

--force-po
     Always write an output file even if it contains no message.

-i
--indent
     Write the .po file using indented style.

--no-location
     Do not write #: FILENAME:LINE lines.

-n
--add-location=TYPE
     Generate #: FILENAME:LINE lines (default).

     The optional TYPE can be either full, file, or never.  If it is not given or full, it generates the lines with both file name and line number.  If it is file, the line number part is omitted.  If it is never, it completely suppresses the lines (same as --no-location).

--strict
     Write out a strict Uniforum conforming PO file.  Note that this Uniforum format should be avoided because it doesn't support the GNU extensions.

-p
--properties-output
     Write out a Java ResourceBundle in Java .properties syntax.  Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms and silently drops obsolete messages.

--stringtable-output
     Write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep localized resource file in .strings syntax. Note that this file format doesn't support plural forms.

-w NUMBER
--width=NUMBER
     Set the output page width.  Long strings in the output files will be split across multiple lines in order to ensure that each line's width (= number of screen columns) is less or equal to the given NUMBER.

--no-wrap
     Do not break long message lines.  Message lines whose width exceeds the output page width will not be split into several lines.  Only file reference lines which are wider than the output page width will be split.

-s
--sort-output
     Generate sorted output.  Note that using this option makes it much harder for the translator to understand each message's context.

-F
--sort-by-file
     Sort output by file location.

Informative output
------------------

-h
--help
     Display this help and exit.

-V
--version
     Output version information and exit.

-v
--verbose
     Increase verbosity level.

-q
--quiet
--silent
     Suppress progress indicators.