Ubuntu Manpages

locale

describes a locale definition file

The locale definition files contains all the information that the localedef(1) command needs to convert it into the binary locale database.

The definition files consist of sections which each describe a locale category in detail.

The locale definition file starts with a header that may consist of the following keywords:

<escape_char>
is followed by a character that should be used as the escape-character for the rest of the file to mark characters that should be interpreted in a special way. It defaults to the backslash (\).
<comment_char>
is followed by a character that will be used as the comment-character for the rest of the file. It defaults to the number sign (#).

The locale definition has one part for each locale category. Each part can be copied from another existing locale or can be defined from scratch. If the category should be copied, the only valid keyword in the definition is copy followed by the name of the locale which should be copied.

The definition for the LC_CTYPE category starts with the string LC_CTYPE in the first column.

There are the following keywords allowed:

followed by a list of uppercase letters. The letters A through Z are included automatically. Characters also specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
followed by a list of lowercase letters. The letters a through z are included automatically. Characters also specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
followed by a list of letters. All character specified as either upper or lower are automatically included. Characters also specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
followed by the characters classified as numeric digits. Only the digits 0 through 9 are allowed. They are included by default in this class.
followed by a list of characters defined as white-space characters. Characters also specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, graph, or xdigit are not allowed. The characters <space>, <form-feed>, <newline>, <carriage-return>, <tab>, and <vertical-tab> are automatically included.
followed by a list of control characters. Characters also specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, punct, graph, print, or xdigit are not allowed.
followed by a list of punctuation characters. Characters also specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, cntrl, xdigit, or the <space> character are not allowed.
followed by a list of printable characters, not including the <space> character. The characters defined as upper, lower, alpha, digit, xdigit, and punct are automatically included. Characters also specified as cntrl are not allowed.
followed by a list of printable characters, including the <space> character. The characters defined as upper, lower, alpha, digit, xdigit, punct, and the <space> character are automatically included. Characters also specified as cntrl are not allowed.
followed by a list of characters classified as hexadecimal digits. The decimal digits must be included followed by one or more set of six characters in ascending order. The following characters are included by default: 0 through 9, a through f, A through F.
followed by a list of characters classified as blank. The characters <space> and <tab> are automatically included.
followed by a list of mappings from lowercase to uppercase letters. Each mapping is a pair of a lowercase and an uppercase letter separated with a , and enclosed in parentheses. The members of the list are separated with semicolons.
followed by a list of mappings from uppercase to lowercase letters. If the keyword tolower is not present, the reverse of the toupper list is used.

The LC_CTYPE definition ends with the string END LC_CYTPE.

The LC_COLLATE category defines the rules for collating characters. Due to limitations of libc not all POSIX-options are implemented.

The definition starts with the string LC_COLLATE in the first column.

There are the following keywords allowed:

The order-definition starts with a line:

followed by a list of keywords out of forward, backward, or position. The order definition consists of lines that describe the order and is terminated with the keyword

For more details see the sources in /usr/lib/nls/src notably the examples POSIX, Example and Example2

The LC_COLLATE definition ends with the string END LC_COLLATE.

The definition starts with the string LC_MONETARY in the first column.

There are the following keywords allowed:

followed by the international currency symbol. This must be a 4-character string containing the international currency symbol as defined by the ISO 4217 standard (three characters) followed by a separator.
followed by the local currency symbol.
followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delimiter when formatting monetary quantities.
followed by the string that will be used as a group separator when formatting monetary quantities.
followed by a string that describes the formatting of numeric quantities.
followed by a string that is used to indicate a positive sign for monetary quantities.
followed by a string that is used to indicate a negative sign for monetary quantities.
followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used when formatting with the int_curr_symbol.
followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used when formatting with the currency_symbol.
followed by an integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol should precede the formatted monetary quantity or set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.
followed by an integer.
0
means that no space should be printed between the symbol and the value.
1
means that a space should be printed between the symbol and the value.
2
means that a space should be printed between the symbol and the sign string, if adjacent.
0
- the symbol succeeds the value.
1
- the symbol precedes the value.
An integer set to 0 if no space separates the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol from the value for a negative monetary quantity, set to 1 if a space separates the symbol from the value and set to 2 if a space separates the symbol and the sign string, if adjacent.
0
Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.
1
The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
2
The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
3
The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
4
The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
0
Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.
1
The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
2
The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
3
The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.
4
The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or the int_curr_symbol.

The LC_MONETARY definition ends with the string END LC_MONETARY.

The definition starts with the string LC_NUMERIC in the first column.

The following keywords are allowed:

followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delimiter when formatting numeric quantities.
followed by the string that will be used as a group separator when formatting numeric quantities.
followed by a string that describes the formatting of numeric quantities.

The LC_NUMERIC definition ends with the string END LC_NUMERIC.

The definition starts with the string LC_TIME in the first column.

The following keywords are allowed:

followed by a list of abbreviated weekday names. The list starts with the first day of the week as specified by week (Sunday by default).
followed by a list of weekday names. The list starts with the first day of the week as specified by week (Sunday by default).
followed by a list of abbreviated month names.
followed by a list of month names.
The appropriate representation of the am and pm strings.
The appropriate date and time format.
The appropriate date format.
The appropriate time format.
The appropriate time format when using 12h clock format.
followed by a list of three values: The number of days in a week (by default 7), a date of beginning of the week (by default corresponds to Sunday), and the minimal length of the first week in year (by default 4). Regarding the start of the week, 19971130 shall be used for Sunday and 19971201 shall be used for Monday. Thus, countries using 19971130 should have local Sunday name as the first day in the day list, while countries using 19971201 should have Monday translation as the first item in the day list.
Number of the first day from the day list to be shown in calendar applications. The default value of 1 corresponds to either Sunday or Monday depending on the value of the second week list item.
Number of the first working day from the day list.

The LC_TIME definition ends with the string END LC_TIME.

The definition starts with the string LC_MESSAGES in the first column.

The following keywords are allowed:

followed by a regular expression that describes possible yes-responses.
followed by a regular expression that describes possible no-responses.

The LC_MESSAGES definition ends with the string END LC_MESSAGES.

See the POSIX.2 standard for details.

/usr/lib/locale/ — database for the current locale setting of that category
/usr/lib/nls/charmap/* — charmap-files

POSIX.2, ISO/IEC 14652.

This manual page isn't complete.

locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), setlocale(3), charmap(5)

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