Index: chapter07/profile.xml
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--- chapter07/profile.xml	(revision 0ebe9fa45e76f5ec30311fefd864ca1f37683432)
+++ chapter07/profile.xml	(revision e1ca33a59d57fc0d767d0b6d9b23df4b8b50d76f)
@@ -1,96 +1,148 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
-<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
+<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
+  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
   <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../general.ent">
   %general-entities;
 ]>
+
 <sect1 id="ch-scripts-profile">
-<title>The Bash Shell Startup Files</title>
-<?dbhtml filename="profile.html"?>
+  <?dbhtml filename="profile.html"?>
 
-<indexterm zone="ch-scripts-profile"><primary sortas="e-/etc/profile">/etc/profile</primary></indexterm>
+  <title>The Bash Shell Startup Files</title>
 
-<para>The shell program <command>/bin/bash</command> (hereafter
-referred to as <quote>the shell</quote>) uses a collection of startup
-files to help create an environment to run in. Each file has a
-specific use and may affect login and interactive environments
-differently. The files in the <filename
-class="directory">/etc</filename> directory provide global settings.
-If an equivalent file exists in the home directory, it may override
-the global settings.</para>
+  <indexterm zone="ch-scripts-profile">
+    <primary sortas="e-/etc/profile">/etc/profile</primary>
+  </indexterm>
 
-<para>An interactive login shell is started after a successful login,
-using <command>/bin/login</command>, by reading the
-<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file. An interactive non-login shell
-is started at the command-line (e.g.,
-<prompt>[prompt]$</prompt><command>/bin/bash</command>). A
-non-interactive shell is usually present when a shell script is
-running. It is non-interactive because it is processing a script and
-not waiting for user input between commands.</para>
+  <para>The shell program <command>/bin/bash</command> (hereafter referred to
+  as <quote>the shell</quote>) uses a collection of startup files to help
+  create an environment to run in. Each file has a specific use and may affect
+  login and interactive environments differently. The files in the <filename
+  class="directory">/etc</filename> directory provide global settings. If an
+  equivalent file exists in the home directory, it may override the global
+  settings.</para>
 
-<para>For more information, see <command>info bash</command> under the
-<emphasis>Bash Startup Files and Interactive Shells</emphasis> section.</para>
+  <para>An interactive login shell is started after a successful login, using
+  <command>/bin/login</command>, by reading the <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>
+  file. An interactive non-login shell is started at the command-line (e.g.,
+  <prompt>[prompt]$</prompt><command>/bin/bash</command>). A non-interactive
+  shell is usually present when a shell script is running. It is non-interactive
+  because it is processing a script and not waiting for user input between
+  commands.</para>
 
-<para>The files <filename>/etc/profile</filename> and
-<filename>~/.bash_profile</filename> are read when the shell is
-invoked as an interactive login shell.</para>
+  <para>For more information, see <command>info bash</command> under the
+  <emphasis>Bash Startup Files and Interactive Shells</emphasis> section.</para>
 
-<para>The base <filename>/etc/profile</filename> below sets some
-environment variables necessary for native language support. Setting
-them properly results in:</para>
+  <para>The files <filename>/etc/profile</filename> and
+  <filename>~/.bash_profile</filename> are read when the shell is
+  invoked as an interactive login shell.</para>
 
-<itemizedlist>
-<listitem><para>The output of programs translated into the native
-language</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>Correct classification of characters into letters, digits and
-other classes. This is necessary for <command>bash</command> to properly accept
-non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English locales</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>The correct alphabetical sorting order for the
-country</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>Appropriate default paper size</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>Correct formatting of monetary, time, and date
-values</para></listitem>
-</itemizedlist>
+  <para>The base <filename>/etc/profile</filename> below sets some
+  environment variables necessary for native language support. Setting
+  them properly results in:</para>
 
-<para>This script also sets the <envar>INPUTRC</envar> environment variable that
-makes Bash and Readline use the <filename>/etc/inputrc</filename> file created
-earlier.</para>
+  <itemizedlist>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>The output of programs translated into the native language</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>Correct classification of characters into letters, digits and other
+      classes. This is necessary for <command>bash</command> to properly accept
+      non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English locales</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>The correct alphabetical sorting order for the country</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>Appropriate default paper size</para>
+    </listitem>
+    <listitem>
+      <para>Correct formatting of monetary, time, and date values</para>
+    </listitem>
+  </itemizedlist>
 
-<para>Replace <replaceable>[ll]</replaceable> below with the
-two-letter code for the desired language (e.g., <quote>en</quote>) and
-<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable> with the two-letter code for the
-appropriate country (e.g., <quote>GB</quote>).
-<replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable> should be replaced with the
-canonical charmap for your chosen locale.</para>
+  <para>This script also sets the <envar>INPUTRC</envar> environment variable that
+  makes Bash and Readline use the <filename>/etc/inputrc</filename> file created
+  earlier.</para>
 
-<para>The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running
-the following command:</para>
+  <para>Replace <replaceable>[ll]</replaceable> below with the two-letter code
+  for the desired language (e.g., <quote>en</quote>) and
+  <replaceable>[CC]</replaceable> with the two-letter code for the appropriate
+  country (e.g., <quote>GB</quote>). <replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable> should
+  be replaced with the canonical charmap for your chosen locale. Optional
+  modifiers such as <quote>@euro</quote> may also be present.</para>
+
+  <para>The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running
+  the following command:</para>
 
 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>locale -a</userinput></screen>
 
-<para>Locales can have a number of synonyms, e.g. <quote>ISO-8859-1</quote> is
-also referred to as <quote>iso8859-1</quote> and <quote>iso88591</quote>.
-Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly, so it is safest
-to choose the canonical name for a particular locale.  To determine the
-canonical name, run the following command, where
-<replaceable>[locale name]</replaceable> is the output given by
-<command>locale -a</command> for your preferred locale
-(<quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> in our example).</para>
+  <para>Charmaps can have a number of aliases, e.g., <quote>ISO-8859-1</quote>
+  is also referred to as <quote>iso8859-1</quote> and <quote>iso88591</quote>.
+  Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly (e.g., require
+  that <quote>UTF-8</quote> is written as <quote>UTF-8</quote>, not
+  <quote>utf8</quote>), so it is safest in most
+  cases to choose the canonical name for a particular locale. To determine
+  the canonical name, run the following command, where <replaceable>[locale
+  name]</replaceable> is the output given by <command>locale -a</command> for
+  your preferred locale (<quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> in our example).</para>
 
 <screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=<replaceable>[locale name]</replaceable> locale charmap</userinput></screen>
 
-<para>For the <quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> locale, the above command
-will print:</para>
+  <para>For the <quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> locale, the above command
+  will print:</para>
 
-<screen>ISO-8859-1</screen>
+<screen><computeroutput>ISO-8859-1</computeroutput></screen>
 
-<para>This results in a final locale setting of <quote>en_GB.ISO-8859-1</quote>.</para>
+  <para>This results in a final locale setting of <quote>en_GB.ISO-8859-1</quote>.
+  It is important that the locale found using the heuristic above is tested prior
+  to it being added to the Bash startup files:</para>
 
-<para>Once the proper locale settings have been determined, create the
-<filename>/etc/profile</filename> file:</para>
+<screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=[locale name] locale country
+LC_ALL=[locale name] locale language
+LC_ALL=[locale name] locale charmap
+LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_curr_symbol
+LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_prefix</userinput></screen>
+
+  <para>The above commands should print the country and language names, the
+  character encoding used by the locale, the local currency and the prefix to dial
+  before the telephone number in order to get into the country. If any of the
+  commands above fail with a message similar to the one shown below, this means
+  that your locale was either not installed in Chapter 6 or is not supported by
+  the default installation of Glibc.</para>
+
+<screen><computeroutput>locale: Cannot set LC_* to default locale: No such file or directory</computeroutput></screen>
+
+  <para>If this happens, you should either install the desired locale using the
+  <command>localedef</command> command, or consider choosing a different locale.
+  Further instructions assume that there are no such error messages from
+  Glibc.</para>
+
+  <!-- FIXME: the xlib example will became obsolete real soon -->
+  <para>Some packages beyond LFS may also lack support for your chosen locale. One
+  example is the X library (part of the X Window System), which outputs the
+  following error message:</para>
+
+<screen><computeroutput>Warning: locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C</computeroutput></screen>
+
+  <para>Sometimes it is possible to fix this by removing the charmap part of the
+  locale specification, as long as that does not change the character map that
+  Glibc associates with the locale (this can be checked by running the
+  <command>locale charmap</command> command in both locales).  For example, one
+  would have to change &quot;de_DE.ISO-8859-15@euro&quot; to
+  &quot;de_DE@euro&quot; in order to get this locale recognized by Xlib.</para>
+
+  <para>Other packages can also function incorrectly (but may not necessarily
+  display any error messages) if the locale name does not meet their expectations.
+  In those cases, investigating how other Linux distributions support your locale
+  might provide some useful information.</para>
+
+  <para>Once the proper locale settings have been determined, create the
+  <filename>/etc/profile</filename> file:</para>
 
 <screen><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/profile &lt;&lt; "EOF"
 <literal># Begin /etc/profile
 
-export LANG=<replaceable>[ll]</replaceable>_<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable>.<replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable>
+export LANG=<replaceable>[ll]</replaceable>_<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable>.<replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable><replaceable>[@modifiers]</replaceable>
 export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
 
@@ -98,17 +150,26 @@
 EOF</userinput></screen>
 
-<note><para>The <quote>C</quote> (default) and <quote>en_US</quote>
-(the recommended one for United States English users) locales are
-different.</para></note>
+  <para>The <quote>C</quote> (default) and <quote>en_US</quote> (the recommended
+  one for United States English users) locales are different. <quote>C</quote>
+  uses the US-ASCII 7-bit character set, and treats bytes with the high bit set
+  as invalid characters. That's why, e.g., the <command>ls</command> command
+  substitutes them with question marks in that locale. Also, an attempt to send
+  mail with such characters from Mutt or Pine results in non-RFC-conforming
+  messages being sent (the charset in the outgoing mail is indicated as <quote>unknown
+  8-bit</quote>). So you can use the <quote>C</quote> locale only if you are sure that
+  you will never need 8-bit characters.</para>
 
-<para>Setting the keyboard layout, screen font, and 
-locale-related environment variables are the only internationalization
-steps needed to support locales that use ordinary single-byte
-encodings and left-to-right writing direction. More complex cases
-(including UTF-8 based locales) require additional steps and
-additional patches because many applications tend to not work properly
-under such conditions.  These steps and patches are not included in
-the LFS book and such locales are not yet supported by LFS.</para>
+  <para>UTF-8 based locales are not supported well by many programs. E.g., the
+  <command>watch</command> program displays only ASCII characters in UTF-8
+  locales and has no such restriction in traditional 8-bit locales like en_US.
+  Without patches and/or installing software beyond BLFS, in UTF-8 based locales
+  you will not be able to do such basic tasks as printing plain-text files from
+  the command line, recording Windows-readable CDs with filenames containing
+  non-ASCII characters, viewing ID3v1 tags in MP3 files and so on. Work is in
+  progress to document and, if possible, fix such problems, see
+  <ulink url="&blfs-root;view/svn/introduction/locale-issues.html"/>.
+  It is, however, safe to use UTF-8 based locales if you are going to use only
+  KDE or GNOME and never open the terminal.</para>
+  <!-- All abovementioned problems except "watch" have a known fix beyond BLFS -->
 
 </sect1>
-
