# 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, extracted comments, and file positions will be cumulated, except that if --use-first is specified, they will be taken from the first PO file to define them.

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

--lang=CATALOGNAME

set ’Language’ field in the header entry

--color

use colors and other text attributes always

--color=WHEN

use colors and other text attributes if WHEN. WHEN may be ’always’, ’never’, ’auto’, or ’html’.

--style=STYLEFILE

specify CSS style rule file for --color

-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 in the bug tracker at <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext> or by email to <bug-gettext@gnu.org>.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2001-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

## 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.