msgid1

Msgid1 is a string used in documentation and tutorials to illustrate the msgid field in gettext translation catalogs. In GNU gettext, localization files store entries with a msgid, representing the original (source) text to be translated, and a msgstr, containing the translated rendering. If an example uses msgid1 as the content, the source string for that translation unit is literally "msgid1," and translators would provide translations in msgstr according to language.

In practice, tools such as xgettext extract msgid values from source code or templates to populate catalog files (PO files and their compiled MO counterparts). The purpose of using a simple token like "msgid1" in tutorials is to demonstrate the workflow without focusing on actual user-facing content. In real projects, developers typically use meaningful, user-facing strings as msgids to reflect what end users will see.

A catalog can contain multiple translation units, identified by their msgid values. To differentiate identical strings that have different meanings or contexts, developers may use an optional context via msgctxt or organize strings into distinct files. This helps translators choose the appropriate wording when the same text could have different translations in different situations.

Note that "msgid1" is not a standardized term in gettext; its meaning is contextual and primarily instructional. In production code, the msgid field contains the literal source text relevant to the software, and the translations are supplied in msgstr for each target language.