l10n-lint 1.15.0

Linter for localization files (.po, .ts)

l10n-lint

🔍 Linter for localization files (.po, .ts) — CLI and GTK interfaces

Check your translation files for common issues like missing translations, fuzzy entries, placeholder mismatches, and more.

Version: 1.14.9 (CLI) / 1.2.9 (GTK)

Features

Core checks

• Missing translations – Find empty msgstr entries
• Fuzzy entries – Flag translations needing review
• Placeholder mismatches – Detect %s, {0}, %1 inconsistencies
• Duplicate entries – Find repeated msgid entries

Typography & formatting

• Inconsistent punctuation – Missing or mismatched ending punctuation
• Inconsistent capitalization – First letter case mismatch
• Whitespace issues – Trailing spaces, double spaces
• Mixed quotes – Inconsistent quote styles (" vs " vs „)

Technical

• HTML tag mismatch – <b>, <a href> tags don't match
• Escaped chars mismatch – \n, \t, \\ inconsistencies
• Keyboard accelerators – Missing or mismatched & shortcuts
• Numeric mismatch – Numbers from source missing in translation

Quality

• Untranslated words – Common English words left in translation
• Repeated words – "and and", "the the"
• Source equals translation – Possibly forgotten to translate
• Suspicious length – Translation too short or too long

Additional features

• GitHub support – Lint repos directly without cloning
• Localized output – Available in 45+ languages
• CI mode – Exit code only with --check
• Quiet mode – Summary only with -q

GTK Interface (l10n-lint-gtk)

Modern GTK4/libadwaita graphical interface with:

• 🎛️ Lint rule preferences – Enable/disable individual checks
• 📋 File metadata panel – Language, translator, revision date, project info
• 📊 Statistics – Entries, translated, untranslated, fuzzy counts
• 🔍 Filter & search – By severity, rule type, or text
• 🖱️ Drag & drop – Drop files to lint automatically
• 📤 Export reports – HTML, JSON, or plain text
• ⌨️ Keyboard shortcuts – Ctrl+O, Ctrl+Return, Ctrl+E
• 🌍 Localized – 45+ languages

Installation

Debian/Ubuntu (APT)

# Add GPG key
curl -fsSL https://yeager.github.io/debian-repo/yeager.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/yeager.gpg

# Add repository
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/yeager.gpg] https://yeager.github.io/debian-repo stable main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yeager.list

# Install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install l10n-lint        # CLI only
sudo apt install l10n-lint-gtk    # GTK interface (includes CLI)

Fedora/RHEL (DNF)

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/yeager.repo << 'EOF'
[yeager]
name=Yeager's Translation Tools
baseurl=https://yeager.github.io/rpm-repo
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
EOF
sudo dnf install l10n-lint

From source

git clone https://github.com/yeager/l10n-lint.git
cd l10n-lint
chmod +x l10n_lint.py l10n_lint_gtk.py

# CLI
ln -s $(pwd)/l10n_lint.py ~/.local/bin/l10n-lint

# GTK (requires: python3-gi, gir1.2-gtk-4.0, gir1.2-adw-1)
ln -s $(pwd)/l10n_lint_gtk.py ~/.local/bin/l10n-lint-gtk

Usage

CLI

# Lint a directory
l10n-lint ./translations/

# Lint a single file
l10n-lint messages.po

# GitHub repository
l10n-lint --github owner/repo

# JSON output
l10n-lint --format json ./translations/

# GitHub Actions annotations
l10n-lint --format github --strict ./translations/

GTK

l10n-lint-gtk                    # Launch GUI
l10n-lint-gtk messages.po        # Open file directly

Or drag and drop files onto the window!

Options

Option	Description
--github, -g	GitHub repository (owner/repo or URL)
--path, -p	Path filter for GitHub repos
--format, -f	Output format: text, json, github
--max-length	Max translation length (default: 500)
--no-recursive	Don't search subdirectories
--strict	Treat warnings as errors
-q, --quiet	Summary only

Supported formats

Format	Extension	Description
gettext	.po	GNU gettext translation files
Qt	.ts	Qt Linguist translation files

Lint rules

Rule	Severity	Description
missing-translation	❌ Error	Empty msgstr / unfinished translation
fuzzy	⚠️ Warning	Translation flagged as fuzzy
placeholder	❌ Error	Placeholder mismatch (%s, {0}, etc.)
duplicate	⚠️ Warning	Duplicate msgid entry
length	⚠️ Warning	Translation length ratio too high
punctuation	ℹ️ Info	Ending punctuation mismatch
capitalization	ℹ️ Info	Initial letter case mismatch
whitespace	⚠️ Warning	Leading/trailing whitespace issues
html-tags	❌ Error	HTML tags don't match
escapes	❌ Error	Escape sequences mismatch
accelerators	⚠️ Warning	Keyboard accelerator issues
numerics	ℹ️ Info	Numbers not preserved
untranslated	ℹ️ Info	English words in translation
repeated-words	ℹ️ Info	Duplicated words
source-equals-translation	ℹ️ Info	Translation same as source

Examples

CI/CD Integration

# GitHub Actions
- name: Lint translations
  run: |
    pip install l10n-lint
    l10n-lint --format github --strict ./translations/

Find specific issues

# Missing translations only
l10n-lint ./po/ | grep missing-translation

# JSON for scripting
l10n-lint --format json ./po/ | jq '.issues[] | select(.severity == "error")'

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	No errors (warnings allowed)
1	Errors found (or warnings with --strict)

Requirements

CLI:

• Python 3.8+
• No external dependencies (stdlib only)

GTK:

• Python 3.8+
• GTK 4.0, libadwaita 1.0
• PyGObject (python3-gi)

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Author

Daniel Nylander (@yeager)

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Part of Yeager's Translation Tools