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Debian Installation Manual - notes for translation
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--------------------------------------------------
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Note: if you happen to modify this file, please don't forget to
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update the trailing changelog
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Where is the manual kept?
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=========================
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The manual is kept in a Subversion repository on svn.debian.org
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as part of the Debian Installer (d-i) project.
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The manual and its translations can be found in ./installer/doc/manual.
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How to join the translation effort for an existing translation
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==============================================================
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Try to find out who is working on the translation and contact them.
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Alternatively you can send a mail to the mailing list for your language
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(debian-l10n-<language>@lists.debian.org), if one exists or to the mailing
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list for the debian installer project: debian-boot@lists.debian.org.
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You should also coordinate with current translators on which parts to
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translate and how to submit your translations.
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How to start a new translation
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==============================
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Starting a translation for a new language without write access to the d-i SVN
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repository really is not practical. See the section on getting SVN access below;
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you will also have to get a local working copy of the manual as described there.
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1. Create a new directory structure for your translation
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--------------------------------------------------------
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Use the following commands to create a copy of the English documents as a
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base for your translation. This also ensures that your translation will be
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complete and can be build. A text that has not be translated yet, will be
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- change directory to: installer/doc/manual/
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(where <lang> is the ISO code for your language: xx or xx_XX)
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- find <lang> -name .svn | xargs rm -Rf
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(this removes all .svn subdirectories)
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2. Convert revision comments
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----------------------------
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This enables you to track changes is the original English documents.
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see 'Keeping your translation up to date' below for an explanation.
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- change directory to: installer/doc/manual/
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- ./scripts/rev-update <lang>
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3. Commit the changes to SVN
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----------------------------
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- change directory to: installer/doc/manual/
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- svn ci -m "Manual: creating new translation for <lang>"
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One more change is needed to get your translation build automatically:
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<lang> needs to be added to the 'languages' variable in build/build.sh.
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However, this is only usefull after you have translated your first couple
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of chapters. Please send a request to the debian-boot mail list for your
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The default encoding for all .xml files is UTF-8. If you want to keep your
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translation in UTF-8 encoding, you should use an editor that supports UTF-8
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and make sure that UTF-8 encoding is selected when you open a .xml document.
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If it is easier for you to work using another encoding, you will have to
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specify which encoding you use in the first line of each translated document.
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For example, to use ISO-8859-1 encoding (for most Western European languages),
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add the following line at the top of each .xml file:
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
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The use of HTML codes (like è) is possible but not advised.
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Note: If you do not specify the correct encoding, your translation will fail
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Note: You should _not_ change the encoding of the following documents:
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- administrativa/contributors.xml
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Suggested translation order:
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- ./preface.xml, ./bookinfo.xml
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- ./using-d-i/modules/*.xml
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- ./boot-new/modules/*.xml
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Note that currently (may 10, 2004) it look like there will be a fairly major
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reorganization of parts of the manual in the next month(s).
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Keeping your translation up to date
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===================================
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There are two perl scripts to help you keep track of changes in the original
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English text of the manual. These scripts make use of special revision
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comments that should be included in each file.
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An original English file contains something like:
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<!-- retain these comments for translator revision tracking -->
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<!-- $Id: preface.xml 12756 2004-04-06 22:23:56Z some-user $ -->
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The second line is important. It contains the filename, the revision number,
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the date and time the last revision was committed, the user that committed
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the last revision. The string '$Id:' is necessary for SVN to automatically
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update this line each time the file is committed.
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A document in a directory containing a translation should contain either:
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<!-- original version: 12756 -->
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<!-- original version: 12756 untranslated -->
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When you translate a document, you should of course remove the word
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'untranslated' from this comment.
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The scripts will do several things:
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- show which translated files have a different revision number from the
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original English files
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- show what changes have been made in the original English file
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- help you update revision comments
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- help you keep track of which files have not yet been translated
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You can find both scripts in the root directory for the manual. Both
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scripts should be run from this directory.
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The procedure below can be used for relatively simple changes. If there
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have been major reorganizations in the English documents, you may have to
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do additional checks to find out exactly what changes have been made.
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Use 'svn st -u' before you start this procedure to check the status of
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1. Update your local working copy from SVN
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------------------------------------------
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- change directory to: installer/doc/manual/
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2. Copy new files (if any)
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--------------------------
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If there are any new files (marked 'A' in the output from 'svn up'),
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copy them to the directory for your translation and then:
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- ./scripts/rev-update <lang>
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This will change the revision comment in the copied file to:
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<!-- original version: ##### untranslated -->
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You will also have to run 'svn add' for the new documents.
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3. Check for other changes
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--------------------------
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- ./scripts/doc-check <lang>
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If changes are listed for documents that are marked 'untranslated', you
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can copy the new English version to the directory for your translation
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- ./scripts/cp-untrans <lang>
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(this script also runs rev-update automatically).
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If changes are listed for documents that are not marked 'untranslated',
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you can create a diff to find out what the changes are by running:
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- ./scripts/doc-check -d <lang>
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4. Update your translations
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---------------------------
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Edit your translations to reflect the changes in the English documents.
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!! Don't forget to also update the revision number in the revision comment
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after you updated a translation. The revision number should be the same
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as the revision number in the new version of the English document.
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You should run './scripts/doc-check <lang>' again after you finish all updates
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and before you commit your changes to SVN; there should be no output.
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Other uses of the scripts
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-------------------------
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- doc-check -s <lang>: show which documents are marked untranslated
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- rev-update -u <lang>: automatically update revision numbers in the directory
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containing your translation to the revision numbers in the original English
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documents (use only after you have made sure there are no changes in content)
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How to remain consistent with the installer
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===========================================
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It is important that your translation of the manual remains consistent with
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the translation of Debian Installer and packages for your languages.
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Probably the best way to do this, is to run the installer in 'expert' mode,
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both in English and your own language.
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As strings and their translations in the installer may change, you may have
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to perform an installation once in a while to check if there have been
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important changes (the main burden to check for changes in strings falls on
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the maintainers of the English original, but is you spot inconsistencies,
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please report them to the debian-boot list).
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You can also use the xx(_XX).po files for packages (including d-i) to see
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how strings have been translated. For more information on these files,
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please refer to the translations.txt file in the parent directory of the
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directory where this file is.
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You can also try contacting the translator for a package or the maillist
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for your language (debian-l10n-<language>@lists.debian.org) to try to clear
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questions about translations.
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How to test your work
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=====================
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When you have finished your translation, always re-read your file at
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least once to correct all meaning-, spelling-, grammar-, typo-, etc-
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You can also try to build the manual (create HTML pages) for a specific
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architecture for your language.
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See ./build/README for more information on building the manual.
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How to get write access to the SVN repository
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=============================================
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1) Installing subversion
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------------------------
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You need to install subversion on your system. For Debian unstable users,
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just do "apt-get install svn".
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Others may use backports from www.backports.org. Please add this entry to
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your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
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deb http://www.backports.org/debian stable subversion
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Or use Adam Conrad's backports:
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deb http://people.debian.org/~adconrad woody subversion
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2) Getting write access to the subversion repository
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----------------------------------------------------
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If you are not a Debian Developer, you first need to create a guest account
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on http://alioth.debian.org/, than ask on debian-boot@lists.debian.org
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for somebody to add your guest account to the debian-installer project.
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3) Using subversion to get files
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--------------------------------
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Once your account is allowed to write to the project, you can retrieve the
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full project using this:
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svn co svn+ssh://<username>@svn.d-i.alioth.debian.org/svn/d-i/trunk debian-installer
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If you only want to work on the manual, you can retrieve the relevant part
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of the repository using:
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svn co svn+ssh://<username>@svn.d-i.alioth.debian.org/svn/d-i/trunk/installer/doc
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4) Commit your changed translation files to SVN
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-----------------------------------------------
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After you have finished editing your translation, use
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svn commit -m "Your comment about this commit"
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to commit your changes to the SVN repository.
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Note: it's possible, to do an anonymous checkout from the svn
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(use svn co svn://svn.d-i.alioth.debian.org/d-i/trunk/installer/doc/manual).
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However, from this local copy you aren't able to commit, it's readonly.
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Use the commands listed under 3), if you plan to do commits in the future.
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You can find a good manual for SVN at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.
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If you need further assistance, feel free to ask for help on
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debian-boot (for debian-installer related stuff) or debian-i18n (for
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l10n related questions) Debian mailing lists.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This guide is supposed to be be a first start for translators. There
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are probably errors. Please fix it if you find errors.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Updated svn checkout info to refer to new server (costa)
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2004/10/26 Holger Wansing
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- Added a chapter about how to commit + fixed the Link to the svnbook.
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- Update in line with changes in SVN (moved files/directories)
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2004/09/04 Guillem Jover
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- Refer to Adam Conrad's subversion backport instead.
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- Added paragraph on updating translations
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2005/07/28 Cristian Rigamonti
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- Added cp-untrans, fixed svn command and some typos