filesystem - What is the difference between the .po .mo and .pot localization files?

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I'm translating a wordpress site and need more clarity around these terms. Can anyone please lend a hand with some definitions and differences between .po .mo and .pot files with wordpress localization?

I'm translating a wordpress site and need more clarity around these terms. Can anyone please lend a hand with some definitions and differences between .po .mo and .pot files with wordpress localization?

• localization
• filesystem

Share Improve this question edited Oct 15, 2020 at 6:30 Jesse Nickles 73577 silver badges1919 bronze badges asked May 25, 2016 at 15:21 Andrew WelchAndrew Welch 1,06955 gold badges1212 silver badges2424 bronze badges

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These are not any kind of WP's own format but rather just gettext file types which WP implements.

Translate Handbook has following definitions in its Glossary:

MO files: MO, or Machine Object is a binary data file that contains object data referenced by a program. It is typically used to translate program code, and may be loaded or imported into the GNU gettext program.

PO files: PO files are the files which contain the actual translations. Each language will have its own PO file, for example, for French there would be a fr.po file, for german there would be a de.po, for American English there might be en-US.po.

POT file: POT files are the template files for PO files. They will have all the translation strings left empty. A POT file is essentially an empty PO file without the translations, with just the original strings.

The technical details of file formats can be found in gettext documentation:

• The Format of PO Files
• The Format of GNU MO Files

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