# Locale

Locales are used in Linux to define which language the user uses. As the locales define the character sets being used as well, setting up the correct locale is especially important if the language contains non-ASCII characters.

Locale names are defined using the following format:

    <lang>_<territory>.<codeset>[@<modifiers>]

## Enabling necessary locales

Before a locale can be used on the system, it has to be enabled first. To list all available locales, use:

    $ locale -a

To enable a locale, uncomment the name of the locale in the file `/etc/locale.gen`. This file contains all the available locales that can be used on the system. Revert the process to disable a locale. After the necessary locales are enabled, the system needs to be updated with the new locales:

    # locale-gen

To display the locales currently in use, use:

    $ locale

Tip: Though it's most likely that just one language is used on your computer, it can be helpful or even necessary to enable other locales as well. If you're running a multi-user system with users that do not speak English, their individual locale should at least be supported by your system.

### US English example

First uncomment the following locales in `/etc/locale.gen`:

    /etc/locale.gen

    en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Then update the system as root:

    # locale-gen

## Setting the locale system-wide

To define the system-wide locale used on the system, set `LANG` in `/etc/locale.conf`.

`locale.conf` contains a new-line separated list of environment variable assignments: besides `LANG`, it supports all the `LC_*` variables, with the exception of `LC_ALL`.

Tip: If the output of `locale` is to your liking during installation, you can save a little time by doing: `# locale > /etc/locale.conf` while chrooted.

    /etc/locale.conf

    LANG="en_US.UTF-8"

An advanced example configuration would be:

    /etc/locale.conf

    # Enable UTF-8 with Australian settings.
    LANG="en_AU.UTF-8"

    # Keep the default sort order (e.g. files starting with a '.'
    # should appear at the start of a directory listing.)
    LC_COLLATE="C"

    # Set the short date to YYYY-MM-DD (test with "date +%c")
    LC_TIME="en_DK.UTF-8"

You can set the default locale in `locale.conf` also using `localectl`, for example:

    # localectl set-locale LANG="de_DE.UTF-8"

See `man 1 localectl` and `man 5 locale.conf` for details.

They will take effect after rebooting the system and will be set for individual sessions at login.

## Setting fallback locales

Programs which use gettext for translations respect the `LANGUAGE` option in addition to the usual variables. This allows users to specify a list of locales that will be used in that order. If a translation for the preferred locale is unavailable, another from a similar locale will be used instead of the default. For example, an Australian user might want to fall back to British rather than US spelling:

    ~/.bashrc

    export LANGUAGE="en_AU:en_GB:en"

or system-wide:

    /etc/locale.conf

    LANG="en_AU"
    LANGUAGE="en_AU:en_GB:en"

## Setting per user locale

As we mentioned earlier, some users might want to define a different locale than the system-wide locale.

The script `/etc/profile.d/locale.sh` overrides the system-wide locale with the one found in `~/.config/locale.conf`. This file does not exist by default.

    ~/.config/locale.conf

    LANG="de_DE.UTF-8"
    LANGUAGE="de_DE.UTF-8"

## Setting collation

Collation, or sorting, is a little different. Sorting is a goofy beast and different locales do things differently. To get around potential issues, Arch used to set `LC_COLLATE="C"` in `/etc/profile`. However, this method is now deprecated. To enable this behavior, simply add the following to `/etc/locale.conf`:

    /etc/locale.conf

    LC_COLLATE="C"

Now the `ls` command will sort dotfiles first, followed by uppercase and lowercase filenames. Note that without a `LC_COLLATE` setting, locale aware apps sort by `LC_ALL` or `LANG`, but `LC_COLLATE` settings will be overridden if `LC_ALL` is set. If this is a problem, ensure that `LC_ALL` is not set by adding the following to `/etc/profile` instead:

    /etc/profile

    export LC_ALL=

Note that `LC_ALL` is the only `LC_*` variable, which cannot be set in `/etc/locale.conf`.

## Setting the first day of the week

In many countries the first day of the week is Monday. To adjust this, change or add the following lines in `/usr/share/i18n/locales/your_locale`:

    /usr/share/i18n/locales/your_locale

    LC_TIME
    [...]
    week            7;19971130;5
    first_weekday   2
    first_workday   2

And then update the system:

    # locale-gen

## Troubleshooting

### My terminal doesn't support UTF-8

Unfortunately some terminals do not support UTF-8. In this case, you have to use a different terminal. Here are some terminals that have support for UTF-8:

- vte-based terminals
- gnustep-terminal
- konsole
- mlterm
- rxvt-unicode
- xterm

#### Xterm doesn't support UTF-8

xterm only supports UTF-8, if ran as `uxterm` or `xterm -u8`.

#### Gnome-terminal or rxvt-unicode doesn't support UTF-8

You need to launch these applications from a UTF-8 locale or they will drop UTF-8 support. Enable the `en_US.UTF-8` locale (or your local UTF-8 alternative) per the instructions above and set it as the default locale, then reboot.

#### Changed everything and my GNOME is still using wrong language?

Some GUI tools use `~/.pam_environment` as a place where environment variables are defined. GNOME reads this file.

## See also

- Gentoo Linux Localization Guide
- Gentoo Wiki Archives: Locales
- ICU's interactive collation testing
- Free Standards Group Open Internationalisation Initiative
- The Single UNIX Specification definition of Locale by The Open Group
- Locale environment variables

Category:

- Internationalization