Public bug reported: VIM has recently added support for validating gnome desktop files and this is reporting errors due to invalid UTF-8 sequences produced by msgfmt.
Steps to reproduce: 1. Checkout rev 1253704 from the VIM git repo on GitHub - https://github.com/vim/vim 2. Run ./configure in the repo to set up the build environment. 2. Change to the po directory in the repo - cd src/po 3. Process and validate the gvim desktop file using the Makefile - $ make gvim.desktop msgfmt --desktop -d . --template gvim.desktop.in -o tmp_gvim.desktop rm -f LINGUAS if command -v desktop-file-validate; then desktop-file-validate tmp_gvim.desktop; fi /usr/bin/desktop-file-validate tmp_gvim.desktop: warning: file contains lines that are not UTF-8 encoded. There is no guarantee the validator will correctly work. [Invalid UTF-8] tmp_gvim.desktop: error: value "\xe0\xac\xaa\xe0\xac\xbe\xe0\xac\xa0\xe0\xad\x8d\xe0\xac\xaf \xe0\xac\xab\xe0\xac\xbe\xe0\xac\x87\xe0\xac\xb2\xe0\xac\x97\xe0\xad\x81\xe0\xac\xa1\xe0\xac\xbc\xe0\xac\xbf\xe0\xac\x95\xe0\xad\x81 \xe0\xac\xb8\xe0\xac\xae\xe0\xad\x8d\xe0\xac\xaa\xe0\xac\xbe\xe0\xac\xa6\xe0\xac\xa8 \xe0\xac\x95\xe0\xac\xb0\xe0\xac\xa8\xe0\xad\x8d\xe0\xac\xa4\xe0\xad" for locale string key "Comment[or]" in group "Desktop Entry" contains invalid UTF-8 characters, locale string values should be encoded in UTF-8 Makefile:176: recipe for target 'gvim.desktop' failed make: *** [gvim.desktop] Error 1 The template file has valid UTF-8 sequences so no errors are expected. The error is correct as the generated desktop file has a truncated 3 byte UTF-8 sequence at the end of the line as reported. The problem is msgfmt is emitting an invalid UTF-8 sequence for this one line. This is happening on an up to date 16.04 LTS - $ apt list gettext desktop-file-utils Listing... Done desktop-file-utils/xenial-updates,now 0.22-1ubuntu5.2 i386 [installed] gettext/xenial-updates,xenial-security,now 0.19.7-2ubuntu3.1 i386 [installed] There has been some discussion of this issue on the VIM developers mailing list - https://groups.google.com/d/msg/vim_dev/yYGCsJJPlA0/i1PNO_46AgAJ A candidate patch for the issue from upstream for the gettext package has been identified - https://groups.google.com/d/msg/vim_dev/yYGCsJJPlA0/6yAEzO9LAgAJ ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04 Package: gettext 0.19.7-2ubuntu3.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-51.55~16.04.1-generic 4.15.18 Uname: Linux 4.15.0-51-generic i686 ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.18 Architecture: i386 CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Fri Jun 7 10:30:31 2019 InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-02-05 (121 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release i386 (20180731) SourcePackage: gettext UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) ** Affects: gettext (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Tags: apport-bug i386 xenial -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1831988 Title: msgfmt produces invalid UTF-8 sequences for desktop files To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gettext/+bug/1831988/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs