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ClamUI ClamUI Documentation

Translate ClamUI

ClamUI uses GNU gettext. po/clamui.pot is the generated template, po/LINGUAS is the authoritative language list, and each translation is po/<LANG>.po.

Add a language

Section titled “Add a language”
Terminal window
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install gettext


# Fedora
sudo dnf install gettext


# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S gettext


msginit --input=po/clamui.pot --output-file=po/<LANG>.po --locale=<LANG>

Add <LANG> as one line in po/LINGUAS, translate every msgstr, then test locally:

Terminal window
msgfmt po/<LANG>.po -o po/<LANG>.mo
mkdir -p locale/<LANG>/LC_MESSAGES
cp po/<LANG>.mo locale/<LANG>/LC_MESSAGES/clamui.mo
LANGUAGE=<LANG> uv run clamui

Submit po/<LANG>.po and po/LINGUAS; do not commit generated .mo files.

Update a translation

Section titled “Update a translation”

After source strings change, regenerate the template and merge your language:

Terminal window
./scripts/update-pot.sh
msgmerge --update po/<LANG>.po po/clamui.pot
./scripts/check-potfiles.sh
./scripts/check-translations.sh

Review #, fuzzy entries, empty msgstr values, and obsolete #~ entries.

Translation rules

Section titled “Translation rules”

Translate visible labels, dialogs, errors, tooltips, and descriptions. Preserve placeholders such as {count}, {name}, and %(prog)s, whitespace, newlines, and every plural msgstr[N]. Do not translate logger/developer errors, CSS names, D-Bus paths, settings keys, commands, or the name ClamUI.

Known pitfalls

Section titled “Known pitfalls”

Read the #. comments above an entry; they explain these cases where they occur.

  • Dashes: an em dash (—) separates two parts of a message. Use the dash and spacing your language normally uses, such as a spaced en dash in many European languages.
  • Ranges: an en dash (–) marks a range, as in {start_date} – {end_date} or 1–28. Write ranges the way your language does: spacing, dash, or a word like “bis” or “til”.
  • Quotation marks: source strings use ASCII '…' and "…". Use your language’s quotation marks, such as “…”, „…“ or «…». Some quoted text is not prose:
    • Commands, package names, file names and config keys: keep the text inside the quotes unchanged.
    • Labels of other buttons or menu items: use the same translation as that label. The file manager entry 'Scan with ClamUI' is not translated, so keep it in English.
  • Markup: keep tags such as <b>, <big> and <small>, and entities such as &amp;, exactly as they are. Broken markup makes the text disappear.
  • Pseudo-plurals: some older strings still use forms like file(s). Translate them naturally. New strings use ngettext and real plural forms.

When adding source strings, put the # Translators: comment on the line directly above the string literal; above a _( on its own line, xgettext drops it.

The in-app Preferences → Behavior → Language override writes language as auto or an ISO code and requires restart. The tray subprocess has its own gettext bootstrap to remain GTK-independent.

When adding source strings, follow the i18n conventions in AGENTS.md: _(), N_(), ngettext(), deferred constants, and no f-strings inside _().