I18N Testing: gettext Source Code Testing

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The purpose of these tests is to verify that strings that should be processed with gettext have been. Not every string needs to be processed in this way, since some strings will not be sent to the user and other strings should not be translated.

What the Tests Do and Do Not Check

Certain lines of code--lines that, in most cases, should not be translated--are skipped. Other lines that should not be translated must be judged on a case-by-case basis. Filters or other means can be used to omit these lines from results files. You can analyze the results file and make decisions. In any case, the scripts are customizable.

The scripts do not flag these strings with a potential error if gettext is not present:

• NOGETTEXT or NOI18N - this means that the line should not have gettext
• Commented lines if comment all on same line or multiple lines
• only formatting strings such as "%s%4d%lxn" or strings with non alphanumerics or strings with just "n".
• getopt statements
• Simple file mode "r+" "rw"
• #include
• #pragma ident
• a blank string like " "
• "..", /"." ,"../" ,"./" that relate to directory paths

The items in this next list are usually not translated; a filtering program run after the test script could rule these out if desired.

• names of devices like /dev/xxx
• directory paths
• filenames
• exec and spawn arguments
• certain strcmp, strcat arguments
• certain sprintf arguments if building a string that will not be translated
• environment variables
• words in resource lists that will not be translated
• library routines, system calls, UNIX, and shell commands
• routines that pass strings that are not to be translated
• any messages not sent to the user
• strings that have just special characters such as : or - that will not be translated
• many #defined strings

Samples and Scripts

NOTE: Please remember that these are sample scripts and tools that may need customization for the syntax, naming conventions, and locations of the your product's message files. Many of the scripts are working versions that change dynamically to reflect changes in developing products; they may contain comments and alternate lines.

• This is the actual test (perl script).
• This is an example of a script that calls the test - modify this for your environment. Include all necessary source code locations and file suffixes.
• This is a sample of a results file after having run the test on a group of files - note that each line indicates a potential error; as stated above it may not be an actual error. Lines with no errors noted means that no potential errors were found in that file.
• Here is a sample filter that can be used to post process the results. Modify it for your environment to include strings that are not messaged with gettext that are not meant to be.