This example relies on YaST2 (SuSE Linux: package yast2-core). Before "make install", you need to make the locale directory writable: chmod a+w /usr/share/YaST2/locale chmod a+w /usr/share/YaST2/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES Unfortunately this directory is hardwired in YaST; there is no way to put the message catalogs elsewhere. Installation: ./autogen.sh ./configure --prefix=/some/prefix make make install Cleanup: make distclean ./autoclean.sh