NAME

       localectl - Control the system locale and keyboard layout settings

SYNOPSIS

       localectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}

DESCRIPTION

       localectl may be used to query and change the system locale and keyboard layout settings.
       It communicates with systemd-localed(8) to modify files such as /etc/locale.conf and
       /etc/vconsole.conf.

       The system locale controls the language settings of system services and of the UI before
       the user logs in, such as the display manager, as well as the default for users after
       login.

       The keyboard settings control the keyboard layout used on the text console and of the
       graphical UI before the user logs in, such as the display manager, as well as the default
       for users after login.

       Note that the changes performed using this tool might require the initrd to be rebuilt to
       take effect during early system boot. The initrd is not rebuilt automatically by
       localectl, this task has to be performed manually, usually using a tool like dracut(8).

       Note that systemd-firstboot(1) may be used to initialize the system locale for mounted
       (but not booted) system images.

COMMANDS

       The following commands are understood:

       status
           Show current settings of the system locale and keyboard mapping. If no command is
           specified, this is the implied default.

       set-locale LOCALE, set-locale VARIABLE=LOCALE...
           Set the system locale. This takes one locale such as "en_US.UTF-8", or takes one or
           more locale assignments such as "LANG=de_DE.utf8", "LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.utf8", and so
           on. If one locale without variable name is provided, then "LANG=" locale variable will
           be set. See locale(7) for details on the available settings and their meanings. Use
           list-locales for a list of available locales (see below).

       list-locales
           List available locales useful for configuration with set-locale.

       set-keymap MAP [TOGGLEMAP]
           Set the system keyboard mapping for the console and X11. This takes a mapping name
           (such as "de" or "us"), and possibly a second one to define a toggle keyboard mapping.
           Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting is also applied as the default
           system keyboard mapping of X11, after converting it to the closest matching X11
           keyboard mapping. Use list-keymaps for a list of available keyboard mappings (see
           below).

       list-keymaps
           List available keyboard mappings for the console, useful for configuration with
           set-keymap.

       set-x11-keymap LAYOUT [MODEL [VARIANT [OPTIONS]]]
           Set the system default keyboard mapping for X11 and the virtual console. This takes a
           keyboard mapping name (such as "de" or "us"), and possibly a model, variant, and
           options, see kbd(4) for details. Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting
           is also applied as the system console keyboard mapping, after converting it to the
           closest matching console keyboard mapping.

       list-x11-keymap-models, list-x11-keymap-layouts, list-x11-keymap-variants [LAYOUT],
       list-x11-keymap-options
           List available X11 keymap models, layouts, variants and options, useful for
           configuration with set-keymap. The command list-x11-keymap-variants optionally takes a
           layout parameter to limit the output to the variants suitable for the specific layout.

OPTIONS

       The following options are understood:

       --no-ask-password
           Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.

       --no-convert
           If set-keymap or set-x11-keymap is invoked and this option is passed, then the keymap
           will not be converted from the console to X11, or X11 to console, respectively.

       -H, --host=
           Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username and hostname
           separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may optionally be suffixed by a port ssh
           is listening on, separated by ":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which
           connects directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will use SSH to
           talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container names may be enumerated with
           machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses in brackets.

       -M, --machine=
           Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to connect to,
           optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a separating "@" character. If
           the special string ".host" is used in place of the container name, a connection to the
           local system is made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
           "--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used, the connection is
           made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used either the left hand side or the right
           hand side may be omitted (but not both) in which case the local user name and ".host"
           are implied.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

EXIT STATUS

       On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

ENVIRONMENT

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
           The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher log level, i.e. less
           important ones, will be suppressed). Either one of (in order of decreasing importance)
           emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range
           0...7. See syslog(3) for more information.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
           A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored according to priority.

           This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to the terminal,
           because journalctl(1) and other tools that display logs will color messages based on
           the log level on their own.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
           A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a timestamp.

           This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to the terminal or a
           file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display logs will attach timestamps
           based on the entry metadata on their own.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and line number in the
           source code where the message originates.

           Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal entries anyway.
           Including it directly in the message text can nevertheless be convenient when
           debugging programs.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current numerical thread ID
           (TID).

           Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal entries anyway.
           Including it directly in the message text can nevertheless be convenient when
           debugging programs.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
           The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the attached tty),
           console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with prefixes encoding the log level and
           "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log
           to the journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to kmsg
           otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target automatically, the default),
           null (disable log output).

       $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known pager implementations are tried in turn,
           including less(1) and more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
           discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable to an empty string
           or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing --no-pager.

           Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER (as well as $PAGER) will be
           silently ignored.

       $SYSTEMD_LESS
           Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").

           Users might want to change two options in particular:

           K
               This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C is pressed. To
               allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch back to the pager command prompt,
               unset this option.

               If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the pager that is invoked
               is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the executable, and needs to be handled by the
               pager.

           X
               This option instructs the pager to not send termcap initialization and
               deinitialization strings to the terminal. It is set by default to allow command
               output to remain visible in the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless,
               this prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular paged output
               cannot be scrolled with the mouse.

           See less(1) for more discussion.

       $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
           Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the invoking terminal is
           determined to be UTF-8 compatible).

       $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
           Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager is enabled; if
           false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, secure mode is enabled if
           the effective UID is not the same as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2)
           and sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set when invoking
           the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that open or create new files or start
           new subprocesses. When $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not
           known to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1) implements
           secure mode.)

           Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for example under sudo(8) or
           pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure that unintended interactive features are not
           enabled. "Secure" mode for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
           Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited environment allows
           the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER
           variables are to be honoured, $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be
           reasonable to completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.

       $SYSTEMD_COLORS
           Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities will use colors in
           their output, otherwise the output will be monochrome. Additionally, the variable can
           take one of the following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors to
           the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be specified to override the
           automatic decision based on $TERM and what the console is connected to.

       $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
           The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links should be generated in
           the output for terminal emulators supporting this. This can be specified to override
           the decision that systemd makes based on $TERM and other conditions.

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), locale(7), locale.conf(5), vconsole.conf(5), loadkeys(1), kbd(4), The XKB
       Configuration Guide[1], systemctl(1), systemd-localed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1),
       dracut(8)

NOTES

        1. The XKB Configuration Guide
           http://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/xorg-docs/input/XKB-Config.html