From: Jiang Xin <worldhello.net@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2025 02:26:10 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 2/7] strbuf: split out logic to humanise byte values
Message-ID: <CANYiYbE3Tx6B5L5rEoDue7hTYzFGxw_qA-MRpC9RSxQ7HRczaw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20251212223644.3090879-3-jltobler@gmail.com>

On Sat, Dec 13, 2025 at 6:37 AM Justin Tobler <jltobler@gmail.com> wrote:
> +               return humanise_rate ?
> +                              /* TRANSLATORS: IEC 80000-13:2008 byte/second */
> +                              xstrfmt(Q_("byte/s", "bytes/s", bytes)) :
> +                              /* TRANSLATORS: IEC 80000-13:2008 byte */
> +                              xstrfmt(Q_("byte", "bytes", bytes));

We have already defined "byte" as a 10n string without plural forms in the
file "t/helper/test-simple-ipc.c" via commit 36a7eb6876 (t0052: add simple-ipc
tests and t/helper/test-simple-ipc tool, 2021-03-22 10:29:48 +0000).

    OPT_STRING(0, "byte", &bytevalue, N_("byte"), N_("ballast character")),

The newly introduced usage of "byte" is now marked as having a plural form
(via Q_("byte", "bytes", bytes)), which causes a conflict. This results in make
pot failing with the following error:

    msgcat: msgid 'byte' is used without plural and with plural.

This happens because gettext requires that a given msgid be treated
consistently—either exclusively as a singular string or as part of a plural
construct—but not both.

To resolve this conflict, we can unmark the singular "byte" in
t/helper/test-simple-ipc.c, allowing it to reuse the translation from the
plural-form definition of "byte".

--
Jiang Xin