msgfmt: cannot locate ITS rules when building gnome desktop

Question

Here is the output of jhbuild build:

*** Building accountsservice *** [36/246]
ninja -j24 
[2/7] Generating data/org.freedesktop.accounts.policy with a custom command
FAILED: data/org.freedesktop.accounts.policy 
/home/build/jhbuild/install/bin/meson --internal msgfmthelper --msgfmt=/home/build/jhbuild/install/bin/msgfmt ../../../../jhbuild/checkout/accountsservice/data/org.freedesktop.accounts.policy.in data/org.freedesktop.accounts.policy xml /home/build/jhbuild/checkout/accountsservice/po
/home/build/jhbuild/install/bin/msgfmt: cannot locate ITS rules for ../../../../jhbuild/checkout/accountsservice/data/org.freedesktop.accounts.policy.in
[3/7] Compiling C object src/libaccountsservice/libaccountsservice.so.0.0.0.p/meson-generated_.._act-user-enum-types.c.o
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.
*** Error during phase build of accountsservice: ########## Error running ninja -j24  *** [36/246]

I stuck here... Any idea would be appreciate.

similar issue but solution not working(install appstream or other libappstream*): https://askubuntu.com/questions/1273027/debian-package-builds-in-my-computer-but-fails-to-build-in-launchpad-and-pbuild

system: debian 11.6.0 bullseye

purpose: install latest gnome desktop environment on debian stable.

Answer 1

/home/build/jhbuild/install/bin/msgfmt

Apparently you're not using gettext from the system, but a version built from JHBuild itself. I would recommend using the system one, so it can pick the .its file from system appstream too. A harder alternative could be to build appstream with JHBuild too.