Exporting partial gettext PO files

Many translation files hosted at Launchpad.net have been imported from an upstream project. For various reasons these imported translations may be changed through the Launchpad.net web interface. In most cases these changes should be provided back to the upstream project to give them a chance to incorporate them into project's original translations. Launchpad.net helps with this by providing the possibility to export only those strings from a PO file that have been changed.

How to request the export

When you are on the web page for the PO file in question, select "Download" from the grey menu bar. You will be presented with the option to choose the file format for the download - either MO or PO format. If you choose the PO format, you will have the choice to either export the full file or just those strings that were changed since they were imported.

How partial PO files differ from full PO files

Full PO files contain full gettext header information about the file. They can be edited offline and re-imported into Launchpad.net using the upload facility.

Partial PO files do not contain the usual gettext header but only a warning about their nature. They cannot be re-imported into Launchpad.net because the import validation will reject them due to the missing header. Please use these files only to merge the translation strings into existing full PO files at the upstream project which then in turn may and should be imported into Launchpad.net again.