Topics

#gettext #go #golang #i18n #internationalization #l10n #language #plural-form #po-files #translated-strings #translation

Language breakdown

Go 99.5%

Python 0.5%

▸ Files click to expand

README

Gotext

GNU gettext utilities for Go.

gotext is a native Go implementation of the GNU Gettext utilities. It provides a thread-safe, flexible, and powerful way to handle internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n) in your Go applications.

📖 Read the Full Documentation

Features

Native Go implementation of Gettext (no external dependencies).
Full support for PO and MO files.
Pluralization rules support via GNU Gettext plural-form expressions.
Message context support (msgctxt).
Thread-safe for concurrent use.
Works with UTF-8 by default.
Integrated CLI tool (xgotext) for string extraction.
Serializable objects for caching.
Seamless integration with Go's text/template and html/template.

Installation

go get github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext

Getting Started

For a quick start, use the package-level API:

package main
import (     "fmt"     "github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext" )
func main() {     // Configure package: locales path, language, and domain     gotext.Configure("/path/to/locales", "en_US", "default")
// Simple translation     fmt.Println(gotext.Get("Hello, world!"))
// Translation with variables     fmt.Println(gotext.Get("Hello, %s!", "Gopher")) }

For more details, see the Getting Started Guide.

CLI Tool (xgotext)

gotext includes a command-line tool to extract translatable strings from your Go source code.

Install xgotext:

go install github.com/leonelquinteros/gotext/cli/xgotext@latest

Extract strings:

xgotext -p . -o locales/en_US/default.po

See the xgotext Documentation for full usage details.

Advanced Usage

Using Locale object

For managing multiple languages or domains independently:

l := gotext.NewLocale("/path/to/locales", "es_UY")
l.AddDomain("default")
fmt.Println(l.Get("Translate this"))

Use plural forms of translations

gotext handles complex pluralization rules defined in PO headers:

// GetN(singular, plural, quantity, args...)
fmt.Println(gotext.GetN("I have one apple.", "I have %d apples.", 5, 5))

See the Plural Forms Guide for more examples.

Using dynamic variables on translations

Supports standard fmt package syntax:

name := "John"
fmt.Println(gotext.Get("Hi, my name is %s", name))

Locales directories structure

The package expects a standard Gettext directory structure:

/path/to/locales
  /en_US
    /LC_MESSAGES
      default.po
  /es_ES
    default.po

It supports automatic language simplification (e.g., falling back from en_UK to en).

Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds!

License

gotext is released under the MIT License.

🔗 More in this category