A comment inside an i18n function will cause makepot/extract.php to miss the string

[julesaus]

If you put a comment inside a translation function, makepot misses the entire string. For example, none of these strings will appear in a generated pot file:

<?php
__( /* */ 'missing' );

__(
  //
  'multiline missing'
);

__(
  // translators: This seems like a reasonable place to put a comment
  'A reasonable looking example'
);

You might pop the attached test-file.php into test-dir/ and run php ../makepot.php generic $PWD /dev/stdout; echo; if you'd like to see it yourself.

This is valid PHP and gettext handles this syntax fine, so it can be quite tricky to recognize the problem when it occurs.

[julesaus]

Patch

[julesaus]

Some example problematic strings

[julesaus]

Props @akirk for test_find_function_calls_with_inline_c_style_comment()

[julesaus]

This would certainly be a lower priority if we're using the wp i18n command (see ​https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3748), but it still seems worth fixing this behaviour to me as long as makepot/extract.php is in the codebase.

Even with a better alternative, It seems like that many users will continue to use the old tool for some time before they update their existing processes.

[swissspidy]

Closing as we now use ​https://github.com/wp-cli/i18n-command on WordPress.org for core, plugins, and themes, and recommend using that instead of makepot.php.

That WP-CLI command should work very well with these cases.

[swissspidy]

See #45287 for reference.