# MSGCAT

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
AUTHOR
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

## NAME

| msgcat - combines several message catalogs

## SYNOPSIS

| msgcat [OPTION] [INPUTFILE]...

## DESCRIPTION

| Concatenates and merges the specified PO files. Find messages which are common to two or more of the specified PO files. By using the --more-than option, greater commonality may be requested before messages are printed. Conversely, the --less-than option may be used to specify less commonality before messages are printed (i.e. --less-than=2 will only print the unique messages). Translations, comments and extract comments will be cumulated, except that if --use-first is specified, they will be taken from the first PO file to define them. File positions from all PO files will be cumulated.

| Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

| Input file location:

| INPUTFILE ...

| input files

| -f, --files-from=FILE

| get list of input files from FILE

| -D, --directory=DIRECTORY

| add DIRECTORY to list for input files search

| If input file is -, standard input is read.

| Output file location:

| -o, --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 -.

| Message selection:

| -<, --less-than=NUMBER

| print messages with less than this many definitions, defaults to infinite if not set

| ->, --more-than=NUMBER

| print messages with more than this many definitions, defaults to 0 if not set

| -u, --unique

| shorthand for --less-than=2, requests that only unique messages be printed

| Input file syntax:

| -P, --properties-input

| input files are in Java .properties syntax

| --stringtable-input

| input files are in NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings syntax

| Output details:

| -t, --to-code=NAME

| encoding for output

| --use-first

| use first available translation for each message, don't merge several translations

| -e, --no-escape

| do not use C escapes in output (default)

| -E, --escape

| use C escapes in output, no extended chars

| --force-po

| write PO file even if empty

| -i, --indent

| write the .po file using indented style

| --no-location

| do not write '#: filename:line' lines

| -n, --add-location

| generate '#: filename:line' lines (default)

| --strict

| write out strict Uniforum conforming .po file

| -p, --properties-output

| write out a Java .properties file

| --stringtable-output

| write out a NeXTstep/GNUstep .strings file

| -w, --width=NUMBER

| set output page width

| --no-wrap

| do not break long message lines, longer than the output page width, into several lines

| -s, --sort-output

| generate sorted output

| -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

## AUTHOR

| Written by Bruno Haible.

## REPORTING BUGS

| Report bugs to <bug-gnu-gettext@gnu.org>.

## COPYRIGHT

| Copyright 2001-2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

## SEE ALSO

| The full documentation for msgcat is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and msgcat programs are properly installed at your site, the command

| info msgcat

| should give you access to the complete manual.