MSG2PO

A set of tools to convert Fallout 1/2 MSG and WeiDU TRA into GNU gettext PO and back, used in BGforge Hive. Ask questions here.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Configuration
• Commands
  • poify
  • unpoify
  • file2po
  • po2file
  • file2msgstr
  • dir2msgstr
  • msgmerge-female
  • resave-po
  • lowercase
  • unfuzzy
  • bgforge-config
• GitHub Action
• Changelog

Installation

pipx install msg2po

Also install Gettext tools, and make sure they are in PATH.

Configuration

Create a .bgforge.yml file in your project root to configure the tool:

translation:
  encoding: cp1252      # source encoding (cp1252 default, cp1251/ru, cp1250/pl, cp1258/vi)
  tra_dir: "."          # translation root directory
  src_lang: "english"   # source language (used for poify)
  extract_format: ""    # "" (default), "sfall" for Fallout
  no_female: false      # skip female translations
  extract_fuzzy: false  # include fuzzy entries

Commands

poify

Converts game translation files (MSG, SVE, TXT, TRA) from a source language directory into a single .pot (PO Template) file.

poify [DIR] [-e ENC] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

poify ./english -e cp1252

This scans the ./english directory for all translation files and creates ./po/english.pot.

unpoify

Extracts translated files from PO files back into the game's directory structure. Used after translation is done in Weblate/PO editor.

unpoify [DIR] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

unpoify ./po

This reads PO files from ./po and extracts translations back into language-specific directories (e.g., ./french/).

file2po

Converts a single game translation file (MSG, SVE, TXT, TRA) into a PO file. Useful for extracting from individual files.

file2po INPUT_SOURCE OUTPUT_PO [-e ENC] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

file2po ./english/dialog.msg ./output.pot -e cp1252

po2file

Converts PO entries back into a single game translation file. The reverse of file2po.

po2file INPUT_FILE OUTPUT_FILE [-e ENC] [--path PATH] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

po2file ./french.po ./french/dialog.msg -e cp1252

file2msgstr

Loads translations from a game translation file into the msgstr fields of an existing PO file. Useful for reloading edited translations.

file2msgstr INPUT_FILE OUTPUT_FILE [-e ENC] [--path PATH] [--overwrite] [--same] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

file2msgstr ./french/dialog.msg ./french.po --overwrite

dir2msgstr

Batch loads translations from all files in a directory into corresponding PO files. Reverse of unpoify - used when translators edit files directly instead of PO.

dir2msgstr [--auto] [-s SRC_DIR] [-o OUTPUT_FILE] [--ext EXT] [--same] [--overwrite] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

dir2msgstr --auto

Or manually:

dir2msgstr -s ./french -o ./french.po --ext msg --overwrite

msgmerge-female

Updates PO files from a POT template using GNU gettext's msgmerge, with special handling to keep female translations. Requires Gettext tools in PATH.

msgmerge-female [PO POT] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Single file:

msgmerge-female french.po english.pot

Batch (uses .bgforge.yml config):

msgmerge-female

resave-po

Resaves a PO file using the polib API to correct formatting. Useful for normalizing PO file structure.

resave-po INPUT_FILE [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

resave-po ./french.po

lowercase

Recursively renames files and directories to lowercase. Useful for preparing case-insensitive file systems.

lowercase DIR [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

lowercase ./french

Note: Excludes .git, .svn, .hg, .github directories, .po files, and README.md.

unfuzzy

Removes fuzzy flags from PO entries where the previous msgid matches the current msgid after applying string replacements. Used to reduce diff noise after source language spelling changes.

Create unfuzzy.yml with replacements:

- ["Nuka Cola", "Nuka-Cola"]
- ["nuka cola", "Nuka-Cola"]

unfuzzy INPUT_FILE [-w] [-v] [-q] [-t]

Example:

unfuzzy ./french.po -w

bgforge-config

Reads values from .bgforge.yml configuration. Primarily used by GitHub Actions.

bgforge-config STANZA KEY

Example:

bgforge-config translation encoding

GitHub Action

A GitHub Action is available for automatic processing. See docs/action.md for details.