Subject: bug#25504: icecat language packs

From: Mark H Weaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 2020 14:29:08 -0500

Hi,

zimoun <[email-masked]> writes:

> On Sat, 21 Jan 2017 at 16:12, ng0 <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> We should include the language packages icecat provides.
>>
>> I haven't looked into this too much, and I'm not familar with
>> application localization in Guix, if there are any mechanisms in
>> place for this already.
>
> This old bug #25504 is about IceCat localization in Guix.
>
>    <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/issue/25504>
>
> The package IceCat have been updated a couple of time since 2017.  Is
> this bug still relevant?

It is still relevant.  Sometime in the last year, I briefly tried to
configure Guix's IceCat package, via its built-in preferences, to use
another language for its interface elements.  It didn't work, which is
not surprising given that Guix's IceCat package doesn't attempt to build
the language packs.

> If yes, what is the next action?  If no, feel free to close it.

Hints on how to build the language packs can be found in the following
build script, although I don't know that it's been tested with IceCat
78, and possibly not even in IceCat 68:

  https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gnuzilla.git/tree/data/buildscripts/build-gnulinux.sh?id=bcfe407570cae32d00dd33a268de0e0593166f7b

In order to fix this, a new phase, or alternatively a new set of
packages, would need to be added to build the language packs.  There may
be additional complications caused by the fact that, if I recall
correctly, Firefox language packs must now be digitally signed by
Mozilla.  Those signature checks would need to be disabled for language
packs bundled with IceCat, as Guix (and Debian) already does for
extensions in system directories.

If someone would like to work on this, it would be a most welcome
contribution.

      Mark