Are GTK2 default translations accessible from Python

Question

When using GTK2 with Python, there are some things like 'gtk-yes', 'gtk-open' which help in getting e.g. button names translated to the according user language.

What I am searching for are more of these: especially the string 'recently used', like in the file open dialog, and strings for 'files' and 'folders'.

Finally I would like to use something like (…yes, I know Python 2 is old…)

label = "{} {}".format(GTK_STOCK_FILES, GTK_STOCK_RECENTLY_USED)
my_button.set_label(label)

to ensure that in (most) languages the label makes at least some sense to show the users that it opens recent files/folders. Unfortunately something like gtk.stock_lookup(gtk.STOCK_DIRECTORY) only returns an empty string (although it works for STOCK_OPEN), also there is nothing like that for 'files' and 'recently' I could find.

How can I find, list, and access all the GTK built-in translated strings?

as I know it may uses files .po and .mo with translations. On Linux it keeps it in folder /usr/share/locale/ — furas
– furas, Commented Oct 20 at 12:58

Jaleks · Accepted Answer · 2025-10-20 14:51:42Z

OK, looks like to find/list the GTK2 translations with Python2, the answer is the following:

import gettext
from collections import OrderedDict

# Define the domain (filename without extension)
domain = 'gtk20'

# Locale directory leading to language subdirectories
localedir = '/usr/share/locale'

# Languages to pick translation from
#languages = ['de']

# Load the translation, will be based on current user language environment, but use fallback (english) in case it does not exists
gt_trans = gettext.translation(domain, localedir=localedir, fallback=True) #, languages=languages)
# Activate it for the _() global function
gt_trans.install()
# get all translation items
all_trans = gt_trans._catalog

# ordered output of all translations
all_trans = OrderedDict(sorted(all_trans.items(), key=lambda t: t[0]))
for key, value in all_trans.items():
    print(key, value)

def search_translation(search_key = 'file'):
    # translation to search for
    search_key = search_key.lower()
    # Checking if the value contains the substring
    found = {k: v for k, v in all_trans.items() if search_key in "{}".format(k).lower()}
    # ordered output
    found = OrderedDict(sorted(found.items(), key=lambda t: t[0]))
    for k, v in found.items():
        print(k, v)

search_translation()
search_translation('Folder')

print _("_Files")
print _("Select a File")
print _("Folders")
print _("Please select a folder below")
print _("Recently Used")

For other translations, than GTK2, change the domain, and you are fine.
for testing languages use e. g. export LANGUAGE=es_ES.UTF-8 in console for (here) using spanish, before starting your program from the same console

Thanks for comments above nevertheless.

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