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NAME

       newlocale, freelocale - create, modify, and free a locale object

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <locale.h>

       locale_t newlocale(int category_mask, const char *locale,
                          locale_t base);
       void freelocale(locale_t locobj);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       newlocale(), freelocale():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 700
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       The  newlocale()  function  creates  a  new locale object, or modifies an existing object,
       returning a reference to the new or modified object as the function result.   Whether  the
       call  creates  a  new  object or modifies an existing object is determined by the value of
       base:

       •  If base is (locale_t) 0, a new object is created.

       •  If base refers to valid existing locale object (i.e., an object returned by a  previous
          call to newlocale() or duplocale(3)), then that object is modified by the call.  If the
          call is successful, the contents of base are unspecified  (in  particular,  the  object
          referred  to  by  base  may be freed, and a new object created).  Therefore, the caller
          should ensure that it stops using base before  the  call  to  newlocale(),  and  should
          subsequently  refer  to  the modified object via the reference returned as the function
          result.  If the call fails, the contents of base remain valid and unchanged.

       If base is the special locale  object  LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE  (see  duplocale(3)),  or  is  not
       (locale_t) 0 and is not a valid locale object handle, the behavior is undefined.

       The  category_mask argument is a bit mask that specifies the locale categories that are to
       be set in a newly created locale object or modified in an existing object.   The  mask  is
       constructed   by   a   bitwise   OR   of  the  constants  LC_ADDRESS_MASK,  LC_CTYPE_MASK,
       LC_COLLATE_MASK,    LC_IDENTIFICATION_MASK,     LC_MEASUREMENT_MASK,     LC_MESSAGES_MASK,
       LC_MONETARY_MASK,  LC_NUMERIC_MASK,  LC_NAME_MASK,  LC_PAPER_MASK,  LC_TELEPHONE_MASK, and
       LC_TIME_MASK.   Alternatively,  the  mask  can  be  specified  as  LC_ALL_MASK,  which  is
       equivalent to ORing all of the preceding constants.

       For  each category specified in category_mask, the locale data from locale will be used in
       the object returned by newlocale().  If a new locale object is being created, data for all
       categories not specified in category_mask is taken from the default ("POSIX") locale.

       The following preset values of locale are defined for all categories that can be specified
       in category_mask:

       "POSIX"
              A minimal locale environment for C language programs.

       "C"    Equivalent to "POSIX".

       ""     An implementation-defined native environment corresponding to  the  values  of  the
              LC_* and LANG environment variables (see locale(7)).

   freelocale()
       The  freelocale()  function  deallocates  the  resources  associated with locobj, a locale
       object previously returned by a  call  to  newlocale()  or  duplocale(3).   If  locobj  is
       LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE or is not valid locale object handle, the results are undefined.

       Once a locale object has been freed, the program should make no further use of it.

RETURN VALUE

       On  success,  newlocale()  returns  a  handle  that  can be used in calls to duplocale(3),
       freelocale(), and other functions that take a locale_t argument.   On  error,  newlocale()
       returns (locale_t) 0, and sets errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       EINVAL One or more bits in category_mask do not correspond to a valid locale category.

       EINVAL locale is NULL.

       ENOENT locale is not a string pointer referring to a valid locale.

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to create a locale object.

VERSIONS

       The newlocale() and freelocale() functions first appeared in glibc 2.3.

STANDARDS

       POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES

       Each locale object created by newlocale() should be deallocated using freelocale().

EXAMPLES

       The  program  below  takes  up to two command-line arguments, which each identify locales.
       The first argument is required, and is used to set the LC_NUMERIC  category  in  a  locale
       object  created using newlocale().  The second command-line argument is optional; if it is
       present, it is used to set the LC_TIME category of the locale object.

       Having created and initialized the locale  object,  the  program  then  applies  it  using
       uselocale(3), and then tests the effect of the locale changes by:

       (1)  Displaying  a  floating-point  number  with  a  fractional part.  This output will be
            affected  by  the  LC_NUMERIC  setting.   In  many  European-language  locales,   the
            fractional  part  of  the  number  is  separated from the integer part using a comma,
            rather than a period.

       (2)  Displaying the date.  The format and language of the output will be affected  by  the
            LC_TIME setting.

       The following shell sessions show some example runs of this program.

       Set the LC_NUMERIC category to fr_FR (French):

           $ ./a.out fr_FR
           123456,789
           Fri Mar  7 00:25:08 2014

       Set  the  LC_NUMERIC  category  to  fr_FR  (French),  and  the  LC_TIME  category to it_IT
       (Italian):

           $ ./a.out fr_FR it_IT
           123456,789
           ven 07 mar 2014 00:26:01 CET

       Specify the LC_TIME setting as an empty string, which causes the value to  be  taken  from
       environment variable settings (which, here, specify mi_NZ, New Zealand Māori):

           $ LC_ALL=mi_NZ ./a.out fr_FR ""
           123456,789
           Te Paraire, te 07 o Poutū-te-rangi, 2014 00:38:44 CET

   Program source
       #define _XOPEN_SOURCE 700
       #include <locale.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <time.h>

       #define errExit(msg)    do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \
                               } while (0)

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           char buf[100];
           time_t t;
           size_t s;
           struct tm *tm;
           locale_t loc, nloc;

           if (argc < 2) {
               fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s locale1 [locale2]\n", argv[0]);
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           /* Create a new locale object, taking the LC_NUMERIC settings
              from the locale specified in argv[1]. */

           loc = newlocale(LC_NUMERIC_MASK, argv[1], (locale_t) 0);
           if (loc == (locale_t) 0)
               errExit("newlocale");

           /* If a second command-line argument was specified, modify the
              locale object to take the LC_TIME settings from the locale
              specified in argv[2]. We assign the result of this newlocale()
              call to 'nloc' rather than 'loc', since in some cases, we might
              want to preserve 'loc' if this call fails. */

           if (argc > 2) {
               nloc = newlocale(LC_TIME_MASK, argv[2], loc);
               if (nloc == (locale_t) 0)
                   errExit("newlocale");
               loc = nloc;
           }

           /* Apply the newly created locale to this thread. */

           uselocale(loc);

           /* Test effect of LC_NUMERIC. */

           printf("%8.3f\n", 123456.789);

           /* Test effect of LC_TIME. */

           t = time(NULL);
           tm = localtime(&t);
           if (tm == NULL)
               errExit("time");

           s = strftime(buf, sizeof(buf), "%c", tm);
           if (s == 0)
               errExit("strftime");

           printf("%s\n", buf);

           /* Free the locale object. */

           uselocale(LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE);    /* So 'loc' is no longer in use */
           freelocale(loc);

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       locale(1), duplocale(3), setlocale(3), uselocale(3), locale(5), locale(7)