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Msgcheck performs various checks on gettext files (with extension.po):

• compilation (with commandmsgfmt -c)
• for each translation:
  • number of lines in translated strings
  • whitespace at beginning/end of strings
  • trailing whitespace at end of lines inside strings
  • punctuation at end of strings
  • spelling (messages and translations).

The script requires:

• Python ≥ 3.9
• gettext (for the commandmsgfmt, used to compile PO files)
• the python modulepyenchant for spell checking (option-s).

Install a released version from the Python package index with pip:

$ pip install msgcheck

Or you can run via source distribution:

$ uv run msgcheck

Syntax:

$ msgcheck [options] files [files...]

Options:

• -h,--help: display help message and exit
• -c,--no-compile: do not check compilation of file (withmsgfmt -c)
• -f,--fuzzy: check fuzzy strings
• -n,--check-noqa: check "noqa"-commented lines (they are skipped by default)
• -l,--no-lines: do not check number of lines
• -p,--no-punct: do not check punctuation at end of strings
• -s id|str,--spelling id|str: check spelling (id = source messages,str = translations)
• -d <dicts>,--dicts <dicts>: comma-separated list of extra dictionaries to use (in addition to file language)
• -P <file>,--pwl <file>: file(s) with personal list of words used when checking spelling (this option can be given multiple times)
• -m,--only-misspelled: display only misspelled words (alias of--output-format=misspelled)
• -w,--no-whitespace: do not check whitespace at beginning/end of strings
• -W,--no-whitespace-eol: do not check whitespace at end of lines inside strings
• -e,--extract: display all translations and exit (alias of--output-format=extract)
• -i,--ignore-errors: display but ignore errors (always return 0)
• -o,--output-format: output format:
  • full: complete output
  • oneline: one line output
  • extract: display all translations (all checks except compilation are disabled in this mode)
  • misspelled: display only misspelled words
• -q,--quiet: quiet mode: only display number of errors
• -v,--version: display version and exit

The environment variableMSGCHECK_OPTIONS can be set with some default options.

The script returns exit code0 if all files checked are OK (0 errors or option--extract given) or it returnsN: number of files with errors (1 ≤ N ≤ 255).

To use msgcheck withpre-commit, add the following to your.pre-commit-config.yaml:

-repo:https://github.com/flashcode/msgcheckrev:v4.1.0# Use the latest tag or a specific commit hashhooks:    -id:msgcheckargs:[]# add optional arguments like '--fuzzy', see above

$ msgcheck fr.po======================================================================/path/to/fr.po:242: [punct] end punctuation: ":" in translation, ":" not in string:---error---erreur:======================================================================/path/to/fr.po:262: [lines] number of lines: 1 in string, 2 in translation:---Message filters:---Filtres demessages:======================================================================/path/to/fr.po:336: [whitespace] spaces at beginning: 0 in string, 1 in translation:---current value--- valeur courante======================================================================/path/to/fr.po: 3 errors (almost good!)

Copyright © 2009-2025Sébastien Helleu

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modifyit under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published bythe Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty ofMERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See theGNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public Licensealong with this program. If not, seehttps://www.gnu.org/licenses/.