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Stable release v32.1bitcoin/bitcoin · f0de87f04062 ↗3,020 source files · 47.5 MB stored on the server340 file guides

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bitcoin / doc / translation_strings_policy.md

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1# Translation Strings Policy
2
3This document provides guidelines for internationalization of the Bitcoin Core software.
4
5## How to translate?
6
7To mark a message as translatable
8
9- In GUI source code (under `src/qt`): use `tr("...")`
10
11- In non-GUI source code (under `src`): use `_("...")`
12
13No internationalization is used for e.g. developer scripts outside `src`.
14
15## Strings to be translated
16
17On a high level, these strings are to be translated:
18
19- GUI strings, anything that appears in a dialog or window
20
21### GUI strings
22
23Do not translate technical or extremely rare errors.
24Anything else that appears to the user in the GUI is to be translated. This includes labels, menu items, button texts, tooltips and window titles.
25This includes messages passed to the GUI through the UI interface through `InitMessage`, `ThreadSafeMessageBox` or `ShowProgress`.
26
27## General recommendations
28
29### Avoid unnecessary translation strings
30
31Try not to burden translators with translating messages that are e.g. slight variations of other messages.
32In the GUI, avoid the use of text where an icon or symbol will do.
33Make sure that placeholder texts in forms do not end up in the list of strings to be translated (use `<string notr="true">`).
34
35### Make translated strings understandable
36
37Try to write translation strings in an understandable way, for both the user and the translator. Avoid overly technical or detailed messages.
38
39### Do not translate internal errors
40
41Do not translate internal errors, log messages, or messages that appear on the RPC interface. If an error is to be shown to the user,
42use a translatable generic message, then log the detailed message to the log. E.g., "A fatal internal error occurred, see debug.log for details".
43This helps troubleshooting; if the error is the same for everyone, the likelihood is increased that it can be found using a search engine.
44
45### Avoid fragments
46
47Avoid dividing up a message into fragments. Translators see every string separately, so they may misunderstand the context if the messages are not self-contained.
48
49### Avoid HTML in translation strings
50
51There have been difficulties with the use of HTML in translation strings; translators should not be able to accidentally affect the formatting of messages.
52This may sometimes be at conflict with the recommendation in the previous section.
53
54### Plurals
55
56Plurals can be complex in some languages. A quote from the gettext documentation:
57
58    In Polish we use e.g. plik (file) this way:
59    1 plik,
60    2,3,4 pliki,
61    5-21 pliko'w,
62    22-24 pliki,
63    25-31 pliko'w
64    and so on
65
66In Qt code, use tr's third argument for optional plurality. For example:
67
68    tr("%n hour(s)","",secs/HOUR_IN_SECONDS);
69    tr("%n day(s)","",secs/DAY_IN_SECONDS);
70    tr("%n week(s)","",secs/WEEK_IN_SECONDS);
71
72This adds `<numerusform>`s to the respective `.ts` file, which can be translated separately depending on the language. In English, this is simply:
73
74    <message numerus="yes">
75        <source>%n active connection(s) to Bitcoin network</source>
76        <translation>
77            <numerusform>%n active connection to Bitcoin network</numerusform>
78            <numerusform>%n active connections to Bitcoin network</numerusform>
79        </translation>
80    </message>
81
82Where possible, try to avoid embedding numbers into the flow of the string at all. E.g.,
83
84    WARNING: check your network connection, %d blocks received in the last %d hours (%d expected)
85
86versus
87
88    WARNING: check your network connection, less blocks (%d) were received in the last %n hours than expected (%d).
89
90The second example reduces the number of pluralized words that translators have to handle from three to one, at no cost to comprehensibility of the sentence.
91
92### String freezes
93
94During a string freeze (often before a major release), no translation strings are to be added, modified or removed.
95
96This can be checked by building the `translate` target with `cmake` ([instructions](translation_process.md)), then verifying that `bitcoin_en.ts` remains unchanged.
97

A READING COMPANION

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340 guided files · 2,680 pending. Guides cover key sections, not every line.

cmake/bitcoin-build-config.h.in src/consensus/amount.h src/consensus/consensus.h src/primitives/block.h src/primitives/transaction.h src/crypto/sha256.h src/util/moneystr.h src/clientversion.h src/uint256.h src/script/script.h src/policy/policy.h CMakeLists.txt README.md COPYING src/consensus/tx_check.cpp src/consensus/tx_verify.cpp src/consensus/merkle.cpp src/pow.cpp src/validation.cpp src/script/interpreter.cpp src/script/solver.cpp src/script/sign.cpp src/key_io.cpp src/net.cpp src/net_processing.cpp src/netaddress.cpp src/protocol.h src/wallet/wallet.cpp src/wallet/spend.cpp

Code page 1

src/wallet/receive.cpp

src/wallet/coinselection.cpp

src/consensus/validation.h

src/primitives/transaction.cpp

src/script/descriptor.cpp

src/bitcoin-cli.cpp

src/rpc/blockchain.cpp

src/rpc/rawtransaction.cpp

src/init.cpp

src/crypto/sha256.cpp

src/consensus/merkle.h

src/consensus/tx_check.h

src/consensus/tx_verify.h

src/policy/feerate.h

src/policy/feerate.cpp

src/primitives/transaction_identifier.h

src/chainparamsbase.h

src/chainparamsbase.cpp

src/util/moneystr.cpp

src/crypto/ripemd160.h

src/crypto/sha1.h

src/crypto/sha512.h

src/crypto/hmac_sha256.h

src/crypto/hmac_sha512.h

src/crypto/hmac_sha256.cpp

src/crypto/hmac_sha512.cpp

src/crypto/hkdf_sha256_32.h

src/crypto/hkdf_sha256_32.cpp

src/support/cleanse.h

src/support/cleanse.cpp

src/crypto/siphash.cpp

src/crypto/muhash.h

src/crypto/chacha20.h

src/crypto/poly1305.h

src/crypto/chacha20poly1305.h

src/crypto/chacha20poly1305.cpp

src/util/chaintype.cpp

src/util/obfuscation.h

src/util/byte_units.h

src/util/overflow.h

src/blockencodings.cpp

src/net_permissions.cpp

src/policy/packages.cpp

src/policy/rbf.cpp

src/policy/truc_policy.cpp

src/policy/ephemeral_policy.cpp

src/policy/settings.cpp

src/policy/policy.cpp

src/node/transaction.cpp

src/node/coin.cpp

src/rpc/client.cpp

src/rpc/external_signer.cpp

src/rpc/request.cpp

src/rpc/server_util.cpp

src/rpc/fees.cpp

src/rpc/output_script.cpp

src/rpc/rawtransaction_util.cpp

src/rpc/rawtransaction_util.h

src/rpc/register.h

src/rpc/request.h

src/rpc/server_util.h

src/rpc/protocol.h

src/rpc/server.h

src/rpc/signmessage.cpp

src/rpc/txoutproof.cpp

src/rpc/util.cpp

src/rpc/util.h

src/wallet/rpc/addresses.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/backup.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/coins.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/encrypt.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/signmessage.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/util.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/util.h

src/wallet/coincontrol.cpp

src/wallet/coincontrol.h

src/wallet/context.cpp

src/wallet/context.h

src/wallet/crypter.cpp

src/wallet/crypter.h

src/wallet/db.cpp

src/wallet/export.cpp

src/wallet/external_signer_scriptpubkeyman.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/spend.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/transactions.cpp

src/wallet/rpc/wallet.cpp

src/wallet/feebumper.cpp

src/wallet/feebumper.h

src/index/base.h

src/index/base.cpp

src/index/txindex.h

src/index/txindex.cpp

src/index/txindex_key.h

src/index/txospenderindex.h

src/index/txospenderindex.cpp

src/index/blockfilterindex.h

src/index/blockfilterindex.cpp

src/index/coinstatsindex.h

src/index/coinstatsindex.cpp

src/index/db_key.h

src/index/disktxpos.h

src/kernel/chain.cpp

src/kernel/chain.h

src/kernel/checks.cpp

src/kernel/checks.h

src/kernel/context.cpp

src/kernel/context.h

src/kernel/cs_main.cpp

src/kernel/cs_main.h

src/kernel/disconnected_transactions.cpp

src/kernel/disconnected_transactions.h

src/kernel/mempool_removal_reason.cpp

src/kernel/mempool_removal_reason.h

src/kernel/coinstats.cpp

src/kernel/coinstats.h

src/kernel/chainparams.cpp

src/kernel/chainparams.h

src/wallet/sqlite.cpp

src/wallet/sqlite.h

src/wallet/transaction.cpp

src/wallet/transaction.h

src/wallet/dump.cpp

src/wallet/dump.h

src/wallet/init.cpp

src/wallet/walletutil.cpp

src/wallet/walletutil.h

src/wallet/wallettool.cpp

src/wallet/wallettool.h

src/wallet/export.h

src/wallet/migrate.cpp

src/wallet/migrate.h

src/wallet/db.h

src/wallet/walletdb.cpp

src/wallet/interfaces.cpp

src/wallet/scriptpubkeyman.cpp

src/wallet/scriptpubkeyman.h

src/kernel/bitcoinkernel.cpp

src/kernel/bitcoinkernel.h

src/kernel/bitcoinkernel_wrapper.h

src/node/chainstate.cpp

src/node/chainstate.h

src/node/blockstorage.cpp

src/node/blockstorage.h

src/node/mempool_persist.cpp

src/node/mempool_persist.h

src/node/utxo_snapshot.cpp

src/node/utxo_snapshot.h

src/node/kernel_notifications.cpp

src/node/kernel_notifications.h

src/node/blockmanager_args.cpp

src/kernel/blockmanager_opts.h

src/util/expected.cpp

src/policy/settings.h

src/util/types.h

src/kernel/messagestartchars.h

src/kernel/warning.h

src/util/exception.h

src/common/license_info.h

src/node/coins_view_args.h

src/node/database_args.h

src/util/batchpriority.h

src/util/ui_change_type.h

src/node/coins_view_args.cpp

src/node/peerman_args.h

src/util/serfloat.h

src/node/blockmanager_args.h

src/node/database_args.cpp

src/util/overloaded.h

src/interfaces/types.h

src/node/chainstatemanager_args.h

src/node/minisketchwrapper.h

src/util/macros.h

src/util/syserror.h

src/common/run_command.h

src/util/bytevectorhash.cpp

src/node/mempool_persist_args.cpp

src/util/exec.h

src/util/rbf.h

src/crypto/hex_base.h

src/node/mempool_persist_args.h

src/interfaces/echo.h

src/util/any.h

src/util/batchpriority.cpp

src/util/threadnames.h

src/node/coin.h

src/node/mempool_args.h

src/util/asmap.h

src/util/bytevectorhash.h

src/node/context.cpp

src/util/insert.h

src/util/readwritefile.h

src/node/peerman_args.cpp

src/node/interface_ui.cpp

src/interfaces/handler.h

src/node/mining_args.h

src/util/hasher.cpp

src/common/init.h

src/kernel/mempool_limits.h

src/common/system.h

src/crypto/sha3.h

src/util/threadinterrupt.cpp

src/node/protocol_version.h

src/util/exception.cpp

src/common/messages.h

src/node/connection_types.cpp

src/util/bip32.h

src/common/license_info.cpp

src/util/stdmutex.h

src/common/run_command.cpp

src/util/check.cpp

src/util/golombrice.h

src/node/types.h

src/node/timeoffsets.h

src/util/readwritefile.cpp

src/util/fastrange.h

src/util/signalinterrupt.h

src/util/task_runner.h

src/util/syserror.cpp

src/common/interfaces.cpp

src/common/types.h

src/util/threadinterrupt.h

src/kernel/chainstatemanager_opts.h

src/node/psbt.h

src/policy/ephemeral_policy.h

src/util/trace.h

src/common/url.cpp

src/kernel/mempool_options.h

src/util/serfloat.cpp

src/kernel/notifications_interface.h

src/node/timeoffsets.cpp

src/node/warnings.cpp

src/util/hash_type.h

src/crypto/hex_base.cpp

src/node/eviction.h

src/util/tokenbucket.h

src/crypto/aes.h

src/common/pcp.h

src/util/feefrac.cpp

src/node/transaction.h

src/util/threadnames.cpp

src/common/signmessage.h

src/util/exec.cpp

src/util/signalinterrupt.cpp

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