HEADS-UP! URGENT! Major problem with translations for Hardy and Intrepid.

[Milo Casagrande]

Hi,

-------- Original Message --------
> Subject: HEADS-UP! URGENT! Major problem with translations for Hardy
> and Intrepid.
> From: Arne Goetje <arne at canonical.com>
> Date: Fri, January 16, 2009 3:45 am
>
> Dear translation team leads,
> 
> we have a major problem with translations in Hardy and Intrepid which
> needs your attention NOW!
> 
> It turns out that several translated msgstrings contain format strings
> (i.e. %s, %d, etc.) where the msgid doesn't, or the number of format
> attributes in msgstr and msgid does not match.
> 
> This causes several applications to crash!
> 
> We treat this as a severe regression and security issue which needs
> urgent attention.
> 
> We have prepared a list of potentially affected files (attached) and
> need you to check all of those for this type of error and fix them
> immediately.
>
> We cannot build new langpacks with those faulty strings present in the
> database.
> 
> Please see the attached list, investigate and fix the faulty strings.
> 
> When finished, please report back which languages you have fixed.
> 
> I cannot stress this enough: this is a severe regression in stable
> releases. Please mobilize all resources to help fixing this problem.

I understand and see the urgency in this case, but this is not going to
be easy, really.

Take for example, in my case, the "kdeprint" one... there's no package
named that way in the "kdebase" super-package (and probably kde naming
is not going to help us...).

I supposed the number next to the package name was the faulty string
number, probably it is, but not in Launchpad.

Just one example: 

rosetta-hardy/it/LC_MESSAGES/inkscape.po.c-format:385:

This is string 385 in Hardy Italian translation of Inkscape:

http://tinyurl.com/9rc5g3

Counting at 3465 strings, it's not going to be easy to search for an
error which we have no idea of what is since that translation is 99.99%
identical to upstream (only 3 strings have changed for convey to GNOME
menu naming scheme and are not even c-format).

Really, this is not going to be easy if it's proved to be true for all
the packages listed.

If that number is the string number, and such in my case there's no
visible error, I really have no idea of what's going on.

Is it possible to have a more detailed explanation of what those numbers
mean or anything else that could cast some light on this issue?

Thank you.

--
Milo Casagrande <milo at casagrande.name>