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Author SHA1 Message Date
Mike Fleetwood
ddd32e838c Migrate build from intltool to gettext translation (!107)
[0] GNOME Goal: Gettext Migration
    https://wiki.gnome.org/Initiatives/GnomeGoals/GettextMigration

This goal from 2016 is to migrate away from using intltool to help
translate especially GNOME application related files, and instead use
gettext directly now that gettext can handle a lot more file formats
[1][2][3].

The GNOME Goal: Gettext Migration [0] says:
    "With gettext 0.19.8, there is really no need anymore to use
    intltool or GLib's dated gettext glue (AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT and
    glib-gettextize)."

This version or later of gettext is available in the oldest supported
distributions except for SLES 12:
    Distribution       EOL        gettext -V
    Debian 10          2022-Aug   0.19.8.1
    RHEL / CentOS 7    2024-Jun   0.19.8.1
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS   2023-Apr   0.19.8.1
    SLES 12 SP5        2024-Oct   0.19.2 [4][5]
As SLES 12 SP5 doesn't contain GParted and SLES 15 contains GParted
0.31.0 [6] loosing the ability to compile future GParted 1.5 release on
SLES 12 SP5 is acceptable.

Additionally the use of intltool and the associated GLib provided macro
AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT was the source of the remaining warnings from
autoconf 2.71 seen in Fedora 36 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS about the use of
obsolete macros:
    $ ./autogen.sh
    ...
    autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf --force
    configure.ac:59: warning: The macro `GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT' is obsolete.
    configure.ac:59: You should run autoupdate.
    aclocal.m4:426: GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT is expanded from...
>>  aclocal.m4:526: AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT is expanded from...
>>  configure.ac:59: the top level
    configure.ac:59: warning: The macro `AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
    configure.ac:59: You should run autoupdate.
    ./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2920: AC_TRY_LINK is expanded from...
    lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4:692: _AS_IF_ELSE is expanded from...
    lib/m4sugar/m4sh.m4:699: AS_IF is expanded from...
    ./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2249: AC_CACHE_VAL is expanded from...
    ./lib/autoconf/general.m4:2270: AC_CACHE_CHECK is expanded from...
    aclocal.m4:111: GLIB_LC_MESSAGES is expanded from...
    aclocal.m4:426: GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT is expanded from...
>>  aclocal.m4:526: AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT is expanded from...
>>  configure.ac:59: the top level
    configure.ac:59: warning: The macro `AC_TRY_LINK' is obsolete.
    configure.ac:59: You should run autoupdate.
    ...

Note that use of AM_GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT was deprecated in GLib 2.47.5
released 2016-01-18 [7].  Newer versions of GLib are included in the
oldest supported distributions:

    Distro             Package containing   Version
                       glib-gettext.m4
    Debian 10          libglib2.0-dev-bin   2.58.3
    RHEL / CentOS 7    glib2-devel          2.56.1
    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS   libglib2.0-dev-bin   2.56.4
    SLES 12 SP5        glib2-devel          2.48.2

Therefore perform the migration described in the GNOME wiki documents
[0][1].  This involves:
1. Replacing the macros used in configure.ac;
2. Copying Makevars.template to po/Makevars and setting
   PO_DEPENDS_ON_POT and DIST_DEPENDS_ON_UPDATE_PO to "no";
3. Replace @INTLTOOL_*@ macros in Makefile.am with rules to use gettext
   to directly translate the relevent GNOME application files;
4. Removing (_) underscore marking translation prefixes from XML tags in
   GNOME application files as gettext understands which tags of which
   files need translating.
For reference are these commits in projects GNOME-System-Monitor [8],
Reversi [9] and Evince [10] making the same transition.

At this point "./autogen.sh && make" succeeds, at least on Ubuntu which
provides the instructions gettext needs to correctly translate .policy
files by default.  These:
    /usr/share/gettext/its/polkit.its
    /usr/share/gettext/its/polkit.loc
are included in the base policykit-1 package.

[1]  Migrating from Intltool to Gettext
     https://wiki.gnome.org/MigratingFromIntltoolToGettext
[2]  Using Modern Gettext
     https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2016/07/21/using-modern-gettext/
[3]  On the killing of intltool
     https://blogs.gnome.org/mcatanzaro/2016/07/27/on-the-killing-of-intltool/
[4]  SUSE package search, SLES 12 SP5, gettext
     https://scc.suse.com/packages?name=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server&version=12.5&arch=x86_64&query=gettext&module=
[5]  SUSE Long Term Service Pack Support
     https://links.imagerelay.com/cdn/3404/ql/f3a083e9bcd34c76addd096d7f60ec00/long_term_service_pack_support_flyer.pdf
[6]  SUSE package search, SLES 15, gparted
     https://scc.suse.com/packages?name=SUSE%20Linux%20Enterprise%20Server&version=15&arch=x86_64&query=gparted&module=
[7]  Deprecate GLIB_GNU_GETTEXT macro, use upstream gettext instead
     6b577196ee
[8]  [GNOME-System-Monitor] Migrate from intltool
     9185b9c713
[9]  [Reversi] Gettext migration (bgo#793040)
     d22f560ac8
[10] [Evince] build: Migrate from Intltool to Gettext
     4fd6821324

Closes !107 - Migrate from intltool to gettext translation
2022-11-12 16:44:55 +00:00