Linting!

Help

$ dennis-cmd lint --help

This will list the available lint rules and codes, the variable formats and any additional options available.

Summary

Dennis can lint your translated PO files for Python formatting token issues:

$ dennis-cmd lint messages.po

This runs multiple lint rules on all the strings in the PO file generating a list of errors and a list of warnings.

Dennis can also lint your POT files and point out issues that can result in poor translations. You can lint POT files like this:

$ dennis-cmd lint messages.pot

Skipping rules string-by-string

In the extracted comment, you can tell Dennis to ignore lint rules (or all lint rules).

Ignore everything:

#. dennis-ignore: *
msgid "German makes up 10% of our visitor base"
msgstr "A német a látogatóbázisunk 10%-át teszi ki"

Ignore specific rules (comma-separated):

#. dennis-ignore: E101,E102,E103
msgid "German makes up 10% of our visitor base"
msgstr "A német a látogatóbázisunk 10%-át teszi ki"

Ignore everything, but note the beginning of the line is ignored by Dennis so you can tell localizers to ignore the ignore thing:

#. localizers--ignore this comment. dennis-ignore: *
msgid "German makes up 10% of our visitor base"
msgstr "A német a látogatóbázisunk 10%-át teszi ki"

Warnings and Errors

What’s a warning?

Warnings indicate the translated string is either outdated or a poor translation, but the string is fine in the sense that it won’t kick up an error in production.

For example, say the original string has a variable, but the translated string doesn’t use that variable.

That’s not great and probably means the translated string needs to be updated, but it won’t throw an error in production.

What’s an error?

Errors indicate problems with the translated string that will cause an error to be thrown. These should get fixed pronto.

For example, when the translated string has a Python variable that’s not in the original string. When this string is interpolated, it will kick up a Python error. That causes the software to die, users to be unhappy, tires to go flat, people to work on weekends, mass hysteria, etc. No one likes that. I don’t like that. You probably don’t like that, either.

Table of Warnings and errors

PO files

Code	Description
E101	Malformed variable missing type Only checks python-format variables. Example (Python): Error: malformed variables: %(count) msgid: "%(count)s view" msgstr: "%(count) view" >>> "%(count) view" % {"count": 5} Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ValueError: unsupported format character 'v' (0x76) at index 9 >>>
E102	Malformed variable missing right curly-brace For example {foo with missing }. Only checks python-brace-format variables. Example (Python): Error: malformed variables: {foo bar baz msgid: "{foo} bar baz" msgstr: "{foo bar baz" >>> "{foo bar baz".format(foo="some thing") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ValueError: unmatched '{' in format >>>
E103	Malformed variable missing left curly-brace For example foo} with missing {. Only checks python-brace-format variables. Example (Python): Error: malformed variables: foo} msgid: "{foo} bar baz" msgstr: "foo} bar baz" >>> "foo}".format(foo="some thing") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ValueError: Single '}' encountered in format string >>>
E104	Bad format character For example %a. Only checks python-format variables. Example (Python): Error: bad format character: %a msgid: "%s foo" msgstr: "%a FOO" >>> "%a" % (1, 2, 3) Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> ValueError: unsupported format character 'a' (0x61) at index 1 >>>
E201	Invalid variables in translated string There are formatting variable tokens in the translated string that aren’t in the original string. Example: Error: mismatched: invalid variables: {helpurl} msgid: "You can find help at {url}" msgstr: "You can find help at {helpurl}" In this example, “helpurl” won’t be in the list of variables to interpolate and this will throw a KeyError. That’s equivalent to this: >>> "You can find help at {helpurl}".format(url="http://example.com") Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> KeyError: 'helpurl' >>>
W202	Missing variables in translated string There are formatting variable tokens in the original string that aren’t in the translated string. Example: Warning: missingvars: missing variables: {url} msgid: "You can find help at {url}" msgstr: "Get help!"
E202	Missing variables in translated string For python-format positional variables (e.g. %s), it’s an error when the variable is missing from the translated string. Example: Error: missingvars: missing variables: %s msgid: "foo %s" msgstr: "FOO"
W301	String is all whitespace The translated string is all whitespace. Example: Error: blank: translated string is solely whitespace msgid: "Foo" msgstr: " "
W302	Translated string is identical to source string Example: Error: unchanged: translated string is same as source string msgid: "Foo" msgstr: "Foo"
W303	HTML is mismatched between source and translated strings Example: Error: html: different html: "<b>" vs. "<i>" msgid: "<b>Foo</b>" msgstr: "<i>Feh</i>"
W304	HTML is invalid and can’t be parsed

POT files

Code	Description
W500	Hard to read variable name There are a series of letters and numbers which are hard to distinguish from one another: o, O, 0, l, 1. It’s not uncommon for a hard-working translator to misread and use the wrong character. Example: Warning: hardtoread: hard to read variable name "l" msgid: "Title: {l}"d help at {url}" msgstr: ""
W501	One character variable name Using a one character variable name doesn’t give enough context to the translator about what’s being put in that variable. Example: Warning: onechar: one character variable name: "{t}" msgid: "{t} | {c}" msgstr: ""
W502	Multiple unnamed variables Having one unnamed variable is ok since it’s not order-dependent. However, having more than one unnamed variable means those variabes must occur in an order specified outside of the string. This creates problems with RTL languages and any other language that might need to change the order of the variables to create a translation that makes sense. Example: Warning: multiple variables with no name msgid: "%s replies to %s" msgstr: ""