xgettext warning: unterminated string in source

xgettext warning: unterminated string in source

TL;DR

Fixes the xgettext warning when a source string is unterminated and extraction skips it. Close the string literal in the source file and re-extract. Use when extraction warns about an unterminated string. Not for missing keywords.

The error

xgettext: warning: unterminated string in src/cart.js at line 118.

Fix it

Step 1: Open the reported line

sed -n '115,122p' src/cart.js

Expected: You see the string missing its closing quote.

Step 2: Close the string literal

node -e "console.log('add the missing closing quote and save the file')"

Expected: The source file parses cleanly.

Step 3: Re-run extraction

xgettext --keyword=_ --output=po/messages.pot src/cart.js

Expected: Extraction completes with no unterminated-string warning.

When to use this

• xgettext warns about an unterminated string
• A new string never appears in the POT file

When NOT to use this

• xgettext finds no strings at all, check the keyword config
• Extraction crashes, check the parser language setting

Tool and version compatibility

• GNU gettext xgettext
• C, Python, and JavaScript source extraction

Variant phrasings

warning on a template literal

Nested backticks confuse the extractor. Simplify the expression or split the string.

warning points at a generated file

Exclude generated files from extraction with an ignore pattern.

Why it happens

xgettext scans source text for string literals matching your keywords. An unterminated quote makes the rest of the file look like one long string, so the extractor warns and skips it rather than guessing where the string ends.

Edge cases

• Multiline strings need the right continuation syntax for the language
• Escaped quotes inside the string are a common false alarm
• Minified files are unreadable to xgettext; extract from source

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstpEcst_TDFDWbBwRok1ZWA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstpEcst_TDFDWbBwRok1ZWA

Thread query: xgettext warning: unterminated string in source

TL;DR: Fixes the xgettext warning when a source string is unterminated and extraction skips it. Close the string literal in the source file and re-extract. Use when extraction warns about an unterminated string. Not for missing keywords.