Upstream

Revision 15 as of 2010-02-18 15:30:44

Contents

Introduction
As an upstream
1. How is Ubuntu translated
2. How to get Ubuntu translations
As an Ubuntu translator
Community resources

Introduction

This wiki space is aimed at both Upstream projects and Ubuntu translators to share the knowledge on translations, maintain a good relationship and an efficient workflow we both can benefit from.

It is important for us to make our large contributor base of translators aware of the upstream translation projects Ubuntu is based on, and let them know how they can contribute back and collaborate with the original projects with their translations.

As an upstream

How is Ubuntu translated

Ubuntu is translated in Launchpad. Translations from the upstream projects are imported and reused in Ubuntu. In addition to that, we offer a unified online translation interface which allows completing and fixing translations throughout a distro's lifecycle. This includes both the original strings and those added or modified in Ubuntu through patches. In order to achieve this we provide translation updates post-release through language packs.

You'll find more detailed info on the translations lifecycle page.

The Ubuntu translators, organized in several translation teams make all this possible. We put a lot of consideration on the quality of translations, and we offer extensive documentation on guidelines, best practices and policies to encourage the teams to work effectively and collaborate with upstream. In addition to this, we've made it a policy to not allow Open teams to translate Ubuntu, so that upstream translations are not modified for no good reason.

We also made it a policy to prefer upstream translations unless explicitly overriden.

That said, we acknowledge the fact that there might be duplication of work for those translation teams which do not work closely with upstream, along with the fact that translations are not sent back automatically. It is for this reason that the Launchpad team is actively working towards a better upstream integration, starting with more frequent syncs from upstream and direct import from code branches.

How to get Ubuntu translations

We encourage Ubuntu translators to contribute back through their translation teams. There are many Ubuntu translators who are also involved in a number of upstream translation projects, so you might find that someone has done a translation in Launchpad, has exported it and committed or sent it to your project already.

That is naturally the ideal case, but there are many other translators which might not possess the technical knowledge to do this, or might not be involved in a particular upstream project. In these cases, you as a developer or maintainer can export the translations from Launchpad and integrate them into your project.

You can always find the translations for the latest release of Ubuntu at https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu, where you'll be able to export your software's translations by navigating to a location such as

https://translations.launchpad.net/ubuntu/<ubuntu-release>/+source/<yourapp>/+pots/<yourapp-template>/+export

Note that you'll need a Launchpad account with a valid e-mail for that, as the export will be sent to you as a link. You can either create one or ask the Ubuntu maintainer for your software to request the export.

There you'll be able to get an export of translations for all languages at once, but you can always download single PO files or even only the strings changed or completed in Launchpad. If you look at the translation statistics of your software, you'll see they are color coded to help differentiating upstream from downstream translations. This might help you decide whether you want to request a full export or simply download the individual translations only present in Launchpad.

As an Ubuntu translator

What is upstream?

When we talk about upstream we refer to the original projects from which Ubuntu imports code and translations. In Ubuntu's aim to offer the best-of-breed applications, we provide an operating system in which we integrate the best applications the free software world has to offer. Many of these applications exist as separate projects independently of Ubuntu, and we collaborate with them to include them in the OS. So in an analogy to water flow, these original projects are what we call the Upstream for Ubuntu as their features and improvements flow downstream to Ubuntu.

In the particular case of translations, they are imported too, so that we can reuse the great work other translators have already done upstream. You'll recognise upstream translations in Launchpad by being marked in green color in the statistics.

Why is it necessary to contribute back to upstream?

Work in progress

General contribution guidelines