docs/manual/adding-packages-gettext.txt

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=== Gettext integration and interaction with packages

Many packages that support internationalization use the gettext
library. Dependencies for this library are fairly complicated and
therefore, deserve some explanation.

The 'glibc' C library integrates a full-blown implementation of
'gettext', supporting translation. Native Language Support is
therefore built-in in 'glibc'.

On the other hand, the 'uClibc' and 'musl' C libraries only provide a
stub implementation of the gettext functionality, which allows to
compile libraries and programs using gettext functions, but without
providing the translation capabilities of a full-blown gettext
implementation. With such C libraries, if real Native Language Support
is necessary, it can be provided by the +libintl+ library of the
+gettext+ package.

Due to this, and in order to make sure that Native Language Support is
properly handled, packages in Buildroot that can use NLS support
should:

1. Ensure NLS support is enabled when +BR2_SYSTEM_ENABLE_NLS=y+. This
   is done automatically for 'autotools' packages and therefore should
   only be done for packages using other package infrastructures.

1. Add +$(TARGET_NLS_DEPENDENCIES)+ to the package
   +<pkg>_DEPENDENCIES+ variable. This addition should be done
   unconditionally: the value of this variable is automatically
   adjusted by the core infrastructure to contain the relevant list of
   packages. If NLS support is disabled, this variable is empty. If
   NLS support is enabled, this variable contains +host-gettext+ so
   that tools needed to compile translation files are available on the
   host. In addition, if 'uClibc' or 'musl' are used, this variable
   also contains +gettext+ in order to get the full-blown 'gettext'
   implementation.

1. If needed, add +$(TARGET_NLS_LIBS)+ to the linker flags, so that
   the package gets linked with +libintl+. This is generally not
   needed with 'autotools' packages as they usually detect
   automatically that they should link with +libintl+. However,
   packages using other build systems, or problematic autotools-based
   packages may need this. +$(TARGET_NLS_LIBS)+ should be added
   unconditionally to the linker flags, as the core automatically
   makes it empty or defined to +-lintl+ depending on the
   configuration.

No changes should be made to the +Config.in+ file to support NLS.

Finally, certain packages need some gettext utilities on the target,
such as the +gettext+ program itself, which allows to retrieve
translated strings, from the command line. In such a case, the package
should:

* use +select BR2_PACKAGE_GETTEXT+ in their +Config.in+ file,
  indicating in a comment above that it's a runtime dependency only.

* not add any +gettext+ dependency in the +DEPENDENCIES+ variable of
  their +.mk+ file.