The Variety UI is displayed in English even when the session uses a locale
for which Variety ships a translation.  I reproduced this with German.

Steps to reproduce:

  $ env LANGUAGE=de LC_ALL=de_DE.UTF-8 /usr/bin/python3 \
      -c 'from variety.Util import _; print(_("_Next"))'
  _Next

Expected result:

  _Nächstes

Cause:

Since upstream commit 3d2778d9ffbd302fb48603ed0be5fcde085645b2,
variety/Util.py unconditionally binds the "variety" gettext domain to the
package-local directory variety/locale:

  gettext.bindtextdomain(
      "variety", localedir=importlib.resources.files("variety") / "locale"
  )

The Debian package does not install that directory.  Its compiled catalogs
are instead installed in the standard system location, for example:

  /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/variety.mo

Consequently gettext searches a nonexistent directory and silently returns
the untranslated msgids.  The catalogs themselves are valid; rebinding the
domain to /usr/share/locale returns the expected German translation.

Possible fix:

Please patch Variety to use the system locale directory when the
package-local locale directory does not exist.  Alternatively, install the
compiled catalogs under the package-local variety/locale directory expected
by the upstream code.

This affects the indicator menu as well as the rest of the gettext-based UI.
The issue appears to be specific to the new 0.9.1 packaging/layout.

The reported translation issue has been fixed upstream in commit
83b6e9bc7bc2f1b0d4306a84e49ba122537814eb:

https://github.com/varietywalls/variety/commit/83b6e9bc7bc2f1b0d4306a84e49ba122537814eb

The change makes Variety use the default system gettext locale
directory when the package-local variety/locale directory is absent.
This matches the Debian package layout described above. Please include
the upstream fix in the Debian package.

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
variety, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1148165@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
James Lu <jlu@debian.org> (supplier of updated variety package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2026 20:59:31 -0700
Source: variety
Architecture: source
Version: 0.9.2-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: James Lu <jlu@debian.org>
Changed-By: James Lu <jlu@debian.org>
Closes: 1148165
Changes:
 variety (0.9.2-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * New upstream release.
     - Fix loading translations for the tray icon (Closes: #1148165)
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