Classic Shell Scripting

Internationalization and Localization

Writing software for an international audience is a challenging problem. The task is usually divided into two parts: internationalization (i18n for short, since that long word has 18 letters between the first and last), and localization (similarly abbreviated l10n).

Internationalization is the process of designing software so that it can be adapted for specific user communities without having to change or recompile the code. At a minimum, this means that all character strings must be wrapped in library calls that handle runtime lookup of suitable translations in message catalogs. Typically, the translations are specified in ordinary text files that accompany the software, and then are compiled by gencat or msgfmt into compact binary files organized for fast lookup. The compiled message catalogs are then installed in a system-specific directory tree, such as the GNU conventional /usr/share/locale and /usr/local/share/locale, or on commercial Unix systems, /usr/lib/nls or /usr/lib/locale. Details can be found in the manual pages for setlocale(3), catgets(3C), and gettext(3C).

Localization is the process of adapting internationalized software for use by specific user communities. This may require translating software documentation, and all text strings output by the software, and possibly changing the formats of currency, dates, numbers, times, units of measurement, and so on, in program output. The character set used for text may also have to ...