1779330 - Handle missing ftl files during L10n repackaging

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Build Config, enhancement)

Description

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Bug 1586984 documents an ongoing issue with localized builds. The short version is that incomplete locales are more incomplete at runtime than they need to be because one missing ftl file will cause a whole mess of strings to fallback to en-US.

Flod deals with this by periodically adding empty ftl files to the l10n-central repositories. He doesn't do that for Thunderbird strings unless someone asks though.

I'm proposing a change to l10n repackaging that would create these empty files (as part of "mach build installer-$AB_CD". No more manual intervention from the localization team is a good improvement.

Comment 1

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Attachment: Bug 1779330 - Add missing ftl files during l10n packaging. r=dandarnell

Add a new mach command to add missing Fluent files in a localized build and
hook it in as part of "mach build installers-$AB_CD". This is to prevent Fluent
from falling back to en-US strings due to a missing localized strings file, and
will remove a manual process in the localization chain.

See bug 1586984.

The output logs when files are added.

Comment 2

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/01d457f9084d
Add missing ftl files during l10n packaging. r=dandarnell

Comment 3

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Comment on attachment 9285225 [details]
Bug 1779330 - Add missing ftl files during l10n packaging. r=dandarnell

[Approval Request Comment]
Regression caused by (bug #): N/A
User impact if declined: Possible missing localized strings that should be translated
Testing completed (on c-c, etc.): been on c-c and c-c for a while with detected problems
Risk to taking this patch (and alternatives if risky):
This is my alternative to the ongoing l10n-central repo maintenance that is performed per bug 1586984. Since Thunderbird devs cannot write to the l10n-central repos to create these empty .ftl files, we have to rely on MoCo L10n team to do it. This hasn't been working out that well. This change creates the same empty .ftl files during L10n repackaging so that no changes to l10n-central repos are needed.
Uplifting this bug to c-esr102 will allow uplifting bug 574986 to c-esr102 without causing problems like bug 1786107.

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9285225 [details]
Bug 1779330 - Add missing ftl files during l10n packaging. r=dandarnell

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr102

Comment 5

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 102.2.1:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr102/rev/5e8ff50cb821