Translation: to update the pot file run: xgettext -L PHP -n --package-name=edoko --msgid-bugs-address=arun@nubati.net *php */*php mv messages.po po/messages.pot To start a new translation use something like (here shown to create de.po): cd po msginit -i messages.pot -o de.po To update a po file run: cd po msgmerge de.po messages.pot Start editing and then after updating a po run: msgconv -t ISO-8859-1 de.po > de.po.new && mv de.po.new de.po msgfmt -cv -o de.mo de.po mv de.mo ../locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/edoko.mo