Can hatch help me handling GNU gettext po/mo files?

[buhtz]

My apologize for asking such a broad question. I just need a hint and some tips to decide if I am on the right track.

I wouldn't call me experienced with Python Packaging but do a lot of research also developing some example projects usable as a tutorial. Because I want to keep it simple I do use setuptools only and never tried something else.

But maybe now I am at a point where it is time to try something else. I heard about hatch as a quit modern but standard (PEP) conform build backend.

Can hatch help to handle the packaging of Python applications using GNU gettext (see this example)? It means compiling po into mo files (e.g. via msgfmt on the shell) and installing (using pip install) the mo files at the right place?

In your docs I found Custom build hooks. Might that be the right track?

[ofek]

Yes definitely! Examples:

• https://github.com/jupyterlab/jupyterlab-translate/blob/4b00bb829de079d965d91f4141a24a638431d56b/jupyterlab_translate/plugin.py#L20
• https://github.com/wtforms/wtforms/blob/e22b0863023f44ddc96ff5b11d78dc26f52a012f/hatch_build.py#L4
• https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest-html/blob/cfd32d08488e2c6fb72f0617db94ab41d3fca8d0/scripts/npm.py#L7
• https://github.com/ipython/ipyparallel/blob/44dab1c2216f091c0d6f7e5f64adb00c97671a4d/hatch_build.py#L9
• https://github.com/googlefonts/fontra/blob/042cef76c56c4cb2f3c041d8fca07129968b14e4/scripts/rollup_build_hook.py#L8

[ofek]

• https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/config/build/#build-hooks
• https://hatch.pypa.io/latest/plugins/build-hook/custom/#options

The path is known because that is the default value

[buhtz]

Ah! I integrated that into my tutorial.
https://codeberg.org/buhtz/tech-demo-python-packaging/src/branch/main/03b_i18n_hatch

I just need to update the README.md file a bit.

[buhtz]

But do I need to have this line in my pyproject.toml?

[tool.hatch.build.hooks.custom]

Without the hatch_build.py file is not executed via installation.

Please see my demo project as an example.

[ofek]

Yes.

[buhtz]

Mhm... So I just need this "empty" section to make the default value work? From a users perspective that doesn't make much sense.
I am not expert. From my point of view an existing hatch_build.py should always be executed by hatch because it is default no matter if that empty section exists or not.

If there are good reasons against this behavior, then the default value should be removed because an empty section itself makes not much sense and feels wired.