I have a git repository containing program source and a collection of
.po files for translating the user interface using gettext.
I'm regularly hitting problems merging multiple branches of the project
because a single .po file has been changed in multiple branches. Most of
the time the changes do not touch the same localization strings.
However, the .po files also have automatically generated content (e.g.
line numbers in comments) which makes manual merging really hard.
The git version control system can use "merge driver" which is passed
base version, modified version 1 and modified version 2 of a .po file
and the driver is supposed to emit the 3-way merged version. The intent
is to automatically generate the merged version if there are zero
conflicts. In case of conflicts (the same msgid translated in different
ways in both branches), the merge driver should keep both translations
and mark the conflicting msgid as fuzzy.
A command "msg3way" was suggested by Panos Christeas nearly 4 years ago
[1] which would have implemented the missing feature. The pull request
never got any traction for unknown reasons. Currently it seems that most
people are using hacks such as [2] and [3] which result in more or less
broken .po files.
Would it be possible to do
git pull http://members.hellug.gr/xrg/repos/gettext
this time? If not, please, explain the reasons in public.
[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/2010-11/msg00051.html
[2] https://gist.github.com/mezis/1605647
[3]
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16214067/wheres-the-3-way-git-merge-driver-for-po-gettext-files
--
Mikko
