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.