How do I change git's display language?

[User670]

Windows 10 x64. My system's displayed language and preferred language are both Chinese, but git displays in English.

Tried googling how to change git language, and every response is based on Linux (add a env variable "LANG=[locale code]"). Somehow I decided to try adding such a variable in my Windows which didn't work.

Is it possible to change Git for Windows's display language in the console? If yes, how?

edit: if it's relevant, I'm using Windows Command Prompt, not Git Bash.

edit: git version 2.33.1.windows.1

[dscho]

edit: git version 2.33.1.windows.1

You definitely want to update.

Is it possible to change Git for Windows's display language in the console?

This is not supported by Git for Windows out of the box. The translations are built, but they are simply not included in the Git for Windows installer. I zipped them up here: git-2.40.0-l18n.zip (watch out, it's ~3MB)

If you unpack them into your installation (you need to do that in an elevated session, e.g. by pressing 🪟, typing "Git Bash", then pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter, then invoking cd / && unzip ~/Downloads/git-2.40.0-l18n.zip), you can use them by setting the environment variable LANG:

$ LANG=zh_CN git log -h
用法：git log [<选项>] [<版本范围>] [[--] <路径>...]
  或：git show [<选项>] <对象>...

    -q, --quiet           不显示差异输出
    --source              显示源
    --use-mailmap         使用邮件映射文件
    --mailmap             --use-mailmap 的别名
    --clear-decorations   清除所有之前定义的修饰过滤器
    --decorate-refs <模式>
                          只修饰与 <模式> 匹配的引用
    --decorate-refs-exclude <模式>
                          不修饰和 <模式> 匹配的引用
    --decorate[=...]      修饰选项
    -L <range:file>       跟踪 <文件> 中 <开始>,<结束> 范围内的行或函数 :<函数名> 的演变

[sixwaaaay]

Is this file "https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/files/11099746/git-2.40.0-l18n.zip" automatically generated for each release? Where should I find the latest i18n file after each update?

[dscho]

@sixwaaaay no, they are not generated automatically. I generated that one manually to determine how much need there is for it, and the first response is 9 months later ;-)

The .zip essentially contains the subset of files of the mingw-w64-git package that matches the pathspec mingw64/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/git.mo.

If you're on the latest Git for Windows version, you could extract the same set of files from https://wingit.blob.core.windows.net/x86-64/mingw-w64-x86_64-git-2.43.0.1.4b968f3ea3-1-any.pkg.tar.xz, or you could simply download the latest version's language file from https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-sdk-64/blob/3bc47ebca0afb5a5eaf1df1cdda0b59419ec30e3/mingw64/share/locale/zh_CN/LC_MESSAGES/git.mo (which assumes that you installed the latest Git for Windows version, otherwise the language file might not match the actual messages of your Git version).

[goyalyashpal]

you need to do that in an elevated session, e.g. by pressing 🪟, typing "Git Bash", then pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter
- @ dscho at #4368 (comment)

oh, that's the super/os key, it was shown as question mark on my system.
btw, the <C-S-RET> to launch elevated right from start menu is neat. thanks for sharing that.

i see that there's no hi (in-hi or India-Hindi) locale right?

[dscho]

Indeed, nobody added that language to https://github.com/git-l10n/git-po/tree/HEAD/po yet. Be sure to consult the README in that directory for further information (I don't actually know the details, myself).

[PhilipOakley]

i see that there's no hi (in-hi or India-Hindi) locale right?

Also do have read of the latest Git Rev News "Developer Spotlight: Alexander Shopov" where they interview the person doing the Bulgarian translation, showing that it's not that hard, just some steady work, to get a translation into Git. -- The fun of Open Source 😉

[goyalyashpal]

awesome. thanks for sharing it. it's definitely motivating. i will look into it.