extract: keywords treated correctly as CLI args, but incorrect in pybabel.cfg

[violuke]

I think this is a bug, but it could be me doing something wrong.

Assume that the file app/data/PaymentMethods.py contains:

from django.db import models
from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _l


class PaymentMethodIntegerChoices(models.IntegerChoices):
    PAYMENT_METHOD_CASH = 1, _l("Cash")
    PAYMENT_METHOD_CARD = 2, _l("Card")
    PAYMENT_METHOD_CHEQUE = 3, _l("Cheque")
    PAYMENT_METHOD_DIRECT_DEBIT = 4, _l("Direct Debit")
    PAYMENT_METHOD_BANK_TRANSFER = 5, _l("Bank Transfer")

If I have this pybabel.cfg:

# Extraction from Python source files
[python: **.py]
encoding = utf-8
keywords = _ _l _n:1,2 _nl:1,2 _p:1c,2 _pl:1c,2 _np:1c,2,3 _npl:1c,2,3
add_comments = Translators:
width = 300

And then run this command

pybabel extract -F babel.cfg -o template.pot app/data/PaymentMethods.py

I get no translatable string in template.pot:

# Translations template for PROJECT.
# Copyright (C) 2025 ORGANIZATION
# This file is distributed under the same license as the PROJECT project.
# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, 2025.
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: PROJECT VERSION\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: EMAIL@ADDRESS\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2025-08-18 10:12+0100\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
"Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"Generated-By: Babel 2.17.0\n"

However, if I instead run:

pybabel extract -F babel.cfg -o template.pot -k _ -k _l -k _n:1,2 -k  _nl:1,2 -k _p:1c,2 -k _pl:1c,2 -k _np:1c,2,3 -k _npl:1c,2,3 app/data/PaymentMethods.py

I get the translatable strings extracted in template.pot:

# Translations template for PROJECT.
# Copyright (C) 2025 ORGANIZATION
# This file is distributed under the same license as the PROJECT project.
# FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, 2025.
#
#, fuzzy
msgid ""
msgstr ""
"Project-Id-Version: PROJECT VERSION\n"
"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: EMAIL@ADDRESS\n"
"POT-Creation-Date: 2025-08-18 10:13+0100\n"
"PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
"Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
"Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n"
"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n"
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n"
"Generated-By: Babel 2.17.0\n"

#: app/data/PaymentMethods.py:6
msgid "Cash"
msgstr ""

#: app/data/PaymentMethods.py:7
msgid "Card"
msgstr ""

#: app/data/PaymentMethods.py:8
msgid "Cheque"
msgstr ""

#: app/data/PaymentMethods.py:9
msgid "Direct Debit"
msgstr ""

#: app/data/PaymentMethods.py:10
msgid "Bank Transfer"
msgstr ""

Am I doing something wrong, or is there a bug here? I've done my best to make this a small and reproducible test case.

Thanks 🙏

[LwithD]

I think it's a bug. I was also able to reproduce it. My code is as follows:

import gettext

from babel.support import LazyProxy

def t(message: str):
    return LazyProxy(gettext, message)

t("Text")

babel.cfg

[python: **.py]
encoding = utf-8
keywords = t

After running pybabel extract -F babel.cfg -o messages.pot . I got nothing.

But when I run pybabel extract -F babel.cfg -o messages.pot -k t . I got

msgid "Text"
msgstr ""

[akx]

Yeah, this does look like a bug, but it's also a missing feature 😄

I don't think we have ever handled merging per-type keywords or add_commentses from config files? (EDIT: Ah yeah, #71, #296...)