1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
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4 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
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5 | %general-entities;
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6 | ]>
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7 |
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8 | <sect1 id="ch-config-locale">
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9 | <?dbhtml filename="locale.html"?>
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10 |
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11 | <title>Configuring the System Locale</title>
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12 |
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13 | <indexterm zone="ch-config-locale">
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14 | <primary sortas="e-/etc/profile">/etc/profile</primary>
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15 | </indexterm>
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16 |
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17 | <indexterm zone="ch-config-locale" revision='systemd'>
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18 | <primary sortas="e-/etc/profile">/etc/locale.conf</primary>
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19 | </indexterm>
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20 |
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21 | <para>Some environment variables are necessary for native language
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22 | support. Setting them properly results in:</para>
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23 |
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24 | <itemizedlist>
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25 | <listitem>
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26 | <para>The output of programs being translated into your native language</para>
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27 | </listitem>
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28 | <listitem>
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29 | <para>The correct classification of characters into letters, digits and other
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30 | classes. This is necessary for <command>bash</command> to properly accept
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31 | non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English locales</para>
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32 | </listitem>
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33 | <listitem>
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34 | <para>The correct alphabetical sorting order for the country</para>
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35 | </listitem>
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36 | <listitem>
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37 | <para>The appropriate default paper size</para>
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38 | </listitem>
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39 | <listitem>
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40 | <para>The correct formatting of monetary, time, and date values</para>
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41 | </listitem>
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42 | </itemizedlist>
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43 |
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44 | <para>Replace <replaceable><ll></replaceable> below with the two-letter code
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45 | for your desired language (e.g., <literal>en</literal>) and
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46 | <replaceable><CC></replaceable> with the two-letter code for the appropriate
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47 | country (e.g., <literal>GB</literal>). <replaceable><charmap></replaceable> should
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48 | be replaced with the canonical charmap for your chosen locale. Optional
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49 | modifiers such as <literal>@euro</literal> may also be present.</para>
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50 |
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51 | <para>The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running
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52 | the following command:</para>
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53 |
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54 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>locale -a</userinput></screen>
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55 |
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56 | <para>Charmaps can have a number of aliases, e.g.,
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57 | <literal>ISO-8859-1</literal> is also referred to as
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58 | <literal>iso8859-1</literal> and <literal>iso88591</literal>.
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59 | Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly (e.g., require
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60 | that <literal>UTF-8</literal> is written as <literal>UTF-8</literal>, not
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61 | <literal>utf8</literal>), so it is the safest in most
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62 | cases to choose the canonical name for a particular locale. To determine
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63 | the canonical name, run the following command, where <replaceable><locale
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64 | name></replaceable> is the output given by <command>locale -a</command> for
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65 | your preferred locale (<literal>en_GB.iso88591</literal> in our
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66 | example).</para>
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67 |
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68 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=<replaceable><locale name></replaceable> locale charmap</userinput></screen>
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69 |
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70 | <para>For the <literal>en_GB.iso88591</literal> locale, the above command
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71 | will print:</para>
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72 |
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73 | <screen><computeroutput>ISO-8859-1</computeroutput></screen>
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74 |
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75 | <para>This results in a final locale setting of <literal>en_GB.ISO-8859-1</literal>.
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76 | It is important that the locale found using the heuristic above is tested prior
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77 | to it being added to the Bash startup files:</para>
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78 |
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79 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=<locale name> locale language
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80 | LC_ALL=<locale name> locale charmap
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81 | LC_ALL=<locale name> locale int_curr_symbol
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82 | LC_ALL=<locale name> locale int_prefix</userinput></screen>
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83 |
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84 | <para>The above commands should print the language name, the character
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85 | encoding used by the locale, the local currency, and the prefix to dial
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86 | before the telephone number in order to get into the country. If any of the
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87 | commands above fail with a message similar to the one shown below, this means
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88 | that your locale was either not installed in Chapter 8 or is not
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89 | supported by the default installation of Glibc.</para>
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90 |
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91 | <screen><computeroutput>locale: Cannot set LC_* to default locale: No such file or directory</computeroutput></screen>
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92 |
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93 | <para>If this happens, you should either install the desired locale using the
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94 | <command>localedef</command> command, or consider choosing a different locale.
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95 | Further instructions assume that there are no such error messages from
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96 | Glibc.</para>
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97 |
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98 | <para>Other packages can also function incorrectly (but may not necessarily
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99 | display any error messages) if the locale name does not meet their expectations.
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100 | In those cases, investigating how other Linux distributions support your locale
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101 | might provide some useful information.</para>
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102 |
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103 | <para revision='systemd'>Once the proper locale settings have been
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104 | determined, create the <filename>/etc/locale.conf</filename> file:</para>
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105 |
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106 | <screen revision='systemd'><userinput>cat > /etc/locale.conf << "EOF"
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107 | <literal>LANG=<replaceable><ll>_<CC>.<charmap><@modifiers></replaceable></literal>
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108 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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109 |
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110 | <para>The shell program <command>/bin/bash</command> (here after referred
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111 | as <quote>the shell</quote>) uses a collection of startup files to help
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112 | create the environment to run in. Each file has a specific use and may
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113 | affect login and interactive environments differently. The files in the
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114 | <filename class="directory">/etc</filename> directory provide global
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115 | settings. If equivalent files exist in the home directory, they
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116 | may override the global settings.</para>
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117 |
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118 | <para>An interactive login shell is started after a successful login,
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119 | using <command>/bin/login</command>, by reading the
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120 | <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file. An interactive non-login shell is
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121 | started at the command-line (e.g.
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122 | <prompt>[prompt]$</prompt><command>/bin/bash</command>). A
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123 | non-interactive shell is usually present when a shell script is running.
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124 | It is non-interactive because it is processing a script and not waiting
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125 | for user input between commands.</para>
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126 |
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127 | <para><phrase revision='systemd'>The login shells are often unaffected by
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128 | the settings in <filename>/etc/locale.conf</filename>. </phrase>Create the
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129 | <filename>/etc/profile</filename>
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130 | <phrase revision='sysv'>once the proper locale settings have been
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131 | determined to set the desired locale</phrase><phrase
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132 | revision='systemd'>to read the locale settings from
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133 | <filename>/etc/locale.conf</filename> and export them</phrase>,
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134 | but set the <literal>C.UTF-8</literal> locale instead if running in the Linux
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135 | console (to prevent programs from outputting characters that the Linux
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136 | console is unable to render):</para>
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137 |
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138 | <screen revision="systemd"><userinput>cat > /etc/profile << "EOF"
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139 | <literal># Begin /etc/profile
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140 |
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141 | for i in $(locale); do
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142 | unset ${i%=*}
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143 | done
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144 |
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145 | if [[ "$TERM" = linux ]]; then
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146 | export LANG=C.UTF-8
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147 | else
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148 | source /etc/locale.conf
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149 |
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150 | for i in $(locale); do
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151 | key=${i%=*}
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152 | if [[ -v $key ]]; then
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153 | export $key
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154 | fi
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155 | done
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156 | fi
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157 |
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158 | # End /etc/profile</literal>
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159 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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160 |
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161 | <screen revision="sysv"><userinput>cat > /etc/profile << "EOF"
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162 | <literal># Begin /etc/profile
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163 |
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164 | for i in $(locale); do
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165 | unset ${i%=*}
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166 | done
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167 |
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168 | if [[ "$TERM" = linux ]]; then
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169 | export LANG=C.UTF-8
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170 | else
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171 | export LANG=<replaceable><ll>_<CC>.<charmap><@modifiers></replaceable>
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172 | fi
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173 |
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174 | # End /etc/profile</literal>
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175 | EOF</userinput></screen>
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176 |
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177 | <para revision='systemd'>Note that you can modify <filename>/etc/locale.conf</filename> with the
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178 | systemd <command>localectl</command> utility. To use
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179 | <command>localectl</command> for the example above, run:</para>
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180 |
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181 | <screen revision='systemd' role="nodump"><userinput>localectl set-locale LANG="<replaceable><ll>_<CC>.<charmap><@modifiers></replaceable>"</userinput></screen>
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182 |
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183 | <para revision='systemd'>You can also specify other language specific
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184 | environment variables such as <envar>LANG</envar>,
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185 | <envar>LC_CTYPE</envar>, <envar>LC_NUMERIC</envar> or any other
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186 | environment variable from <command>locale</command> output. Just separate
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187 | them with a space. An example where <envar>LANG</envar> is set as
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188 | en_US.UTF-8 but <envar>LC_CTYPE</envar> is set as just en_US is:</para>
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189 |
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190 | <screen revision='systemd' role="nodump"><userinput>localectl set-locale LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LC_CTYPE="en_US"</userinput></screen>
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191 |
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192 | <note revision='systemd'><para>Please note that the
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193 | <command>localectl</command> command doesn't work in the chroot
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194 | environment. It can only be used after the LFS system is booted with
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195 | systemd.</para></note>
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196 |
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197 | <para>The <literal>C</literal> (default) and <literal>en_US</literal>
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198 | (the recommended one for United States English users) locales are
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199 | different. <literal>C</literal>
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200 | uses the US-ASCII 7-bit character set, and treats bytes with the high bit set
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201 | as invalid characters. That's why, e.g., the <command>ls</command> command
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202 | substitutes them with question marks in that locale. Also, an attempt to send
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203 | mail with such characters from Mutt or Pine results in non-RFC-conforming
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204 | messages being sent (the charset in the outgoing mail is indicated as
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205 | <computeroutput>unknown 8-bit</computeroutput>). It's suggested that you
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206 | use the <literal>C</literal> locale only
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207 | if you are certain that you will never need 8-bit characters.</para>
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208 |
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209 | </sect1>
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