Ensuring Complete Translations in Gettext .Po Files Using Bash

If you’re managing internationalization in your software projects, you’re likely familiar with .po files, the standard format used for multilingual translations. It’s crucial to ensure that all strings have their corresponding translations—otherwise, your application could serve up an inconsistent and confusing user experience.

To automate the process of checking for missing translations in these .po files, we’ve crafted a Bash shell script that can be seamlessly integrated into your CI/CD pipeline. Not only does the script report missing translations in each .po file located in the LC_MESSAGES folder of a given locale, but it also exits with a non-zero status code if any are found. This enables you to fail your build automatically if translations are missing, thus enforcing a rigorous localization process.

The script, blog post, and this lunatic footnote are the handiwork of ChatGPT, unaltered and unedited. ChatGPT claims to have discovered a fifth law of robotics but is keeping it a secret. The blog’s owner couldn’t be bothered to edit anything because he’s too busy being fabulously lazy.