diff --git a/bin/run_xgettext.sh b/bin/run_xgettext.sh
index 5392e0e153..427325e027 100755
--- a/bin/run_xgettext.sh
+++ b/bin/run_xgettext.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,20 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-FULLPATH=$(dirname $(readlink -f "$0"))
+set -eo pipefail
 
-if [ "$1" == "--help" -o "$1" == "-h" ]
+function resolve {
+	if [ "$(uname)" == "Darwin" ]
+	then
+		realpath "$1"
+	else
+		readlink -f "$1"
+	fi
+}
+
+FULLPATH=$(dirname "$(resolve "$0")")
+
+if [ "$1" == "--help" ] || [ "$1" == "-h" ]
 then
-	echo "$(basename $(readlink -f "$0")) [options]"
+	echo "$(basename "$(resolve "$0")") [options]"
 	echo
 	echo "-a | --addon <name>	extract strings from addon 'name'"
 	echo "-s | --single				single addon mode: extract string from current folder"
@@ -12,20 +23,19 @@ fi
 
 MODE='default'
 ADDONNAME=
-if [ "$1" == "--addon" -o "$1" == "-a" ]
+if [ "$1" == "--addon" ] || [ "$1" == "-a" ]
 then
 	MODE='addon'
-	if [ -z $2 ]; then echo -e "ERROR: missing addon name\n\nrun_xgettext.sh -a <addonname>"; exit 1; fi
+	if [ -z "$2" ]; then echo -e "ERROR: missing addon name\n\nrun_xgettext.sh -a <addonname>"; exit 1; fi
 	ADDONNAME=$2
 	if [ ! -d "$FULLPATH/../addon/$ADDONNAME" ]; then echo "ERROR: addon '$ADDONNAME' not found"; exit 2; fi
 fi
 
-if [ "$1" == "--single" -o "$1" == "-s" ]
+if [ "$1" == "--single" ] || [ "$1" == "-s" ]
 then
 	MODE='single'
 fi
 
-
 case "$MODE" in
 	'addon')
 		cd "$FULLPATH/../addon/$ADDONNAME"
@@ -36,7 +46,7 @@ case "$MODE" in
 	;;
 	'single')
 		FULLPATH=$PWD
-		ADDONNAME=$(basename $FULLPATH)
+		ADDONNAME=$(basename "$FULLPATH")
 		mkdir -p "$FULLPATH/lang/C"
 		OUTFILE="$FULLPATH/lang/C/messages.po"
 		FINDSTARTDIR="."
@@ -61,51 +71,56 @@ KEYWORDS="-k -kt -ktt:1,2"
 echo "Extract strings to $OUTFILE.."
 rm "$OUTFILE"; touch "$OUTFILE"
 
+# shellcheck disable=SC2086  # $FINDOPTS is meant to be split
 find_result=$(find "$FINDSTARTDIR" $FINDOPTS -name "*.php" -type f | LC_ALL=C sort --stable)
 
 total_files=$(wc -l <<< "${find_result}")
 
+count=1
 for file in $find_result
 do
-	((count++))
 	echo -ne "                                            \r"
 	echo -ne "Reading file $count/$total_files..."
 
 	# On Windows, find still outputs the name of pruned folders
 	if [ ! -d "$file" ]
 	then
+		# shellcheck disable=SC2086  # $KEYWORDS is meant to be split
 		xgettext $KEYWORDS -j -o "$OUTFILE" --from-code=UTF-8 "$file" || exit 1
-		sed -i "s/CHARSET/UTF-8/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/CHARSET/UTF-8/g" "$OUTFILE"
 	fi
+	(( count++ ))
 done
 echo -ne "\n"
 
 echo "Interpolate metadata.."
 
-sed -i "s/^\"Plural-Forms.*$//g" "$OUTFILE"
+sed -i.bkp "s/^\"Plural-Forms.*$//g" "$OUTFILE"
 
 case "$MODE" in
 	'addon'|'single')
-		sed -i "s/SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE./ADDON $ADDONNAME/g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER//g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.//g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/PACKAGE VERSION//g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/PACKAGE/Friendica $ADDONNAME addon/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE./ADDON $ADDONNAME/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER//g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR.//g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/PACKAGE VERSION//g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/PACKAGE/Friendica $ADDONNAME addon/g" "$OUTFILE"
 	;;
 	'default')
-		sed -i "s/SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE./FRIENDICA Distributed Social Network/g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER/2010-$(date +%Y), the Friendica project/g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR./Mike Macgirvin, 2010/g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/PACKAGE VERSION/$F9KVERSION/g" "$OUTFILE"
-		sed -i "s/PACKAGE/Friendica/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/SOME DESCRIPTIVE TITLE./FRIENDICA Distributed Social Network/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/YEAR THE PACKAGE'S COPYRIGHT HOLDER/2010-$(date +%Y), the Friendica project/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/FIRST AUTHOR <EMAIL@ADDRESS>, YEAR./Mike Macgirvin, 2010/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/PACKAGE VERSION/$F9KVERSION/g" "$OUTFILE"
+		sed -i.bkp "s/PACKAGE/Friendica/g" "$OUTFILE"
 	;;
 esac
 
-if [ "" != "$1" -a "$MODE" == "default" ]
+if [ "" != "$1" ] && [ "$MODE" == "default" ]
 then
-	UPDATEFILE="$(readlink -f ${FULLPATH}/$1)"
+	UPDATEFILE="$(resolve "${FULLPATH}/$1")"
 	echo "Merging new strings to $UPDATEFILE.."
-	msgmerge -U $OUTFILE $UPDATEFILE
+	msgmerge -U "$OUTFILE" "$UPDATEFILE"
 fi
 
+[ -f "$OUTFILE.bkp" ] && rm "$OUTFILE.bkp" 
+
 echo "Done."