NAME

       locale-gen - compile a list of locale definition files

SYNOPSIS

       locale-gen [options] [locale] [language] ...

DESCRIPTION

       Compiled  locale  files take about 50MB of disk space, and most users only need few locales.  In order to
       save disk space, compiled locale files are not distributed in the locales package, but  selected  locales
       are automatically generated when this package is installed by running the locale-gen program.

       If  a  list  of  languages and/or locales is specified as arguments, then locale-gen only generates these
       particular locales and adds the new ones to /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local.  Otherwise  it  generates
       all supported locales.

       Locale  data files can be stored either in a single archive file, /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive, or in a
       deep tree where individual files are stored under  /usr/lib/locale/<locale_name>/LC_*.   But  unlike  the
       locales  package,  compiled  locale  definitions are not removed when running locale-gen, and locales are
       compiled again only if locale source files have changed.

OPTIONS

       These options override settings found in /etc/belocs/locale-gen.conf.

       --help Display an help message and exit.

       --purge
              Remove all existing locales before processing.

       --no-purge
              Do not remove existing locales before processing.

       --archive
              When this option is set, locale data  are  stored  in  a  single  archive  /usr/lib/locale/locale-
              archive.

       --no-archive
              When this option is set, locale data are stored in /usr/lib/locale/<locale_name>/LC_* files.  This
              is the default.

       --aliases=FILE
              Locale aliases are read from FILE.

FILES

       /var/lib/locales/supported.d/*
              List all locales to generate.  File format is similar to /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED.

       /etc/belocs/locale-gen.conf
              Customize how compiled locale files are stored onto disk.

       /usr/lib/locale/<locale_name>/LC_*
              Compiled locale data.

       /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
              Generated archive containing compiled locale data, if --archive flag is set.

       /var/lib/belocs
              Directory used to keep track of changes in locale source files.

SEE ALSO

       localedef(1), locale(1), locale-gen.conf(5).

AUTHOR

       The  locale-gen  program  was originally written by Debian GNU libc maintainers, and has been improved by
       Denis Barbier <barbier@debian.org> for  the  belocs-locales-bin  package.   This  manual  page  has  been
       rewritten from scratch to document the current behavior.

Debian GNU/Linux                                   March 2005                                      LOCALE-GEN(8)