---
name: "po4a-normalize"
section: "1p"
platform: "linux"
package: "po4a"
version: "0.74-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/po4a-normalize/1p"
---

# po4a-normalize(1p)

normalize a documentation file by parsing it in po4a, and writing it back

## NAME

po4a-normalize - normalize a documentation file by parsing it in po4a, and writing it back

## SYNOPSIS

**po4a-normalize** **-f** *fmt* *master.doc*

## DESCRIPTION

The po4a (PO for anything) project goal is to ease translations (and more interestingly, the maintenance of translations) using gettext tools on areas where they were not expected like documentation.

The **po4a-normalize** script is a debugging tool used to make sure that po4a don't change the document when it's not supposed to. Only use it if you're developing a new module, or if you doubt the sanity of the tools.

The generated document will be written to *po4a-normalize.output* while the generated POT file will be written to *po4a-normalize.po* by default, but  you can use the **--localized** and **--pot** options to change that.

## OPTIONS

- **-o**, **--option**

  Extra option(s) to pass to the format plugin. See the documentation of each plugin for more information about the valid options and their meanings. For  example, you could pass '-o tablecells' to the AsciiDoc parser, while the  text parser would accept '-o tabs=split'.

- **-w**, **--width**

  Column at which we should wrap the resulting file if the format supports it (default: 76). If the provided value is 0 or negative, then the resulting file will not be wraped at all. This is useful with some formats that could break when rewraped.

- **-b**, **--blank**

  Create a blank translated document. The generated translated document will be generated assuming all messages are translated by a space or new line.

  This is useful to check what parts of the document cannot be translated.

  Both **--blank** and **--capitalize** can't be specified at the same time.

- **-C**, **--capitalize**

  Create a translated document and corresponding po-file with original strings translated as their capitalized versions.

  This is useful to check what parts of the document cannot be translated and generate test data for po4a.

  Both **--blank** and **--capitalize** can't be specified at the same time.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Show a short help message.

- **--help-format**

  List the documentation formats understood by po4a.

- **-f**, **--format**

  Format of the documentation you want to handle. Use the **--help-format** option to see the list of available formats.

- **-M**, **--master-charset**

  Charset of the file containing the document to translate.

- **-l**, **--localized**

  Name of the normalized file to produce (*po4a-normalize.output* by default).

- **-p**, **--pot**

  Pot file to produce (*po4a-normalize.po* by default).

- **-V**, **--version**

  Display the version of the script and exit.

## SEE ALSO

[**po4a-gettextize**(1)](/po4a-gettextize/1.md), [**po4a-translate**(1)](/po4a-translate/1.md), [**po4a-updatepo**(1)](/po4a-updatepo/1.md), [**po4a**(7)](/po4a/7.md)

## AUTHORS

```
 Denis Barbier <barbier@linuxfr.org>
 Nicolas François <nicolas.francois@centraliens.net>
 Martin Quinson (mquinson#debian.org)
```

## COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2002-2023 by SPI, inc.

This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of GPL v2.0 or later (see the COPYING file).