$Id: gettext.txt 1475 2007-11-07 15:11:25Z mjs $

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN .po AND .pot FILES?

Nothing, now:

  Why doesn't xgettext create it under the name domainname.pot right
  away? The answer is: for historical reasons. When xgettext was
  specified, the distinction between a PO file and PO file template
  was fuzzy, and the suffix .pot' wasn't in use at that time.
  
http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#Template

HOW DO I CREATE A .po/.pot FILE?

You probably want something like:

  find ../lib -name '*.php' -o -name '*.html' | \
  xgettext --from-code=iso-8859-1 -kt -L PHP -o messages.pot -f -
  
See

http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#Template
  
HOW DO TRANSLATE A .pot FILE?/HOW DO I CREATE A .po FILE?

Essentially, you want to rename it to LANG.po, then edit it with some
tool like Poedit.  You can also use msginit:

  msginit -l fr # defaults to reading from messages.pot, creates fr.po
  
See

http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#Creating

HOW DO I UPDATE A .pot FILE?  (I.E. AFTER NEW STRINGS HAVE BEEN ADDED
TO THE SOURCE.)

You first want to produce a new template file (can either rebuild it
completely, or use the -j option to xgettext to update the existing
one), then merge with each of the individual language files:

  msgmerge -U -v LANG.po messages.pot
  
(-U for in-place edit, -v for verbose mode.)

Check the "fuzzy" matches--it often doesn't do a very good job!  (Use
-N to disable if necessary.)
  
See

http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#Updating