LOCALEDEF
Section: POSIX Programmer's Manual (1P)
Updated: 2017
Page Index
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
localedef --- define locale environment
SYNOPSIS
localedef [-c] [-f charmap] [-i sourcefile] [-u code_set_name] name
DESCRIPTION
The
localedef
utility shall convert source definitions for locale categories into a
format usable by the functions and utilities whose operational behavior
is determined by the setting of the locale environment variables
defined in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Chapter 7,
Locale.
It is implementation-defined whether users have the capability to create
new locales, in addition to those supplied by the implementation. If
the symbolic constant POSIX2_LOCALEDEF is defined, the system supports
the creation of new locales.
On XSI-conformant systems, the symbolic constant POSIX2_LOCALEDEF
shall be defined.
The utility shall read source definitions for one or more locale
categories belonging to the same locale from the file named in the
-i
option (if specified) or from standard input.
The
name
operand identifies the target locale. The utility shall support the
creation of
public,
or generally accessible locales, as well as
private,
or restricted-access locales. Implementations may restrict the
capability to create or modify public locales to users with
appropriate privileges.
Each category source definition shall be identified by the
corresponding environment variable name and terminated by an
END
category-name
statement. The following categories shall be supported. In addition,
the input may contain source for implementation-defined categories.
- LC_CTYPE
-
Defines character classification and case conversion.
- LC_COLLATE
-
Defines collation rules.
- LC_MONETARY
-
Defines the format and symbols used in formatting of monetary
information.
- LC_NUMERIC
-
Defines the decimal delimiter, grouping, and grouping symbol for
non-monetary numeric editing.
- LC_TIME
-
Defines the format and content of date and time information.
- LC_MESSAGES
-
Defines the format and values of affirmative and negative responses.
OPTIONS
The
localedef
utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 12.2,
Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported:
- -c
-
Create permanent output even if warning messages have been issued.
- -f charmap
-
Specify the pathname of a file containing a mapping of character
symbols and collating element symbols to actual character encodings.
The format of the
charmap
is described in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 6.4, Character Set Description File.
The application shall ensure that this option is specified if symbolic
names (other than collating symbols defined in a
collating-symbol
keyword) are used. If the
-f
option is not present, an implementation-defined character mapping
shall be used.
- -i inputfile
-
The pathname of a file containing the source definitions. If this
option is not present, source definitions shall be read from standard
input. The format of the
inputfile
is described in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 7.3, Locale Definition.
- -u code_set_name
-
Specify the name of a codeset used as the target mapping of character
symbols and collating element symbols whose encoding values are defined
in terms of the ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 standard position constant values.
OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
- name
-
Identifies the locale; see the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Chapter 7, Locale
for a description of the use of this name. If the name contains one
or more
<slash>
characters,
name
shall be interpreted as a pathname where the created locale definitions
shall be stored. If
name
does not contain any
<slash>
characters, the interpretation of the name is implementation-defined
and the locale shall be public. The ability to create public locales in
this way may be restricted to users with appropriate privileges. (As a
consequence of specifying one
name,
although several categories can be processed in one execution, only
categories belonging to the same locale can be processed.)
STDIN
Unless the
-i
option is specified, the standard input shall be a text file containing
one or more locale category source definitions, as described in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 7.3,
Locale Definition.
When lines are continued using the escape character mechanism,
there is no limit to the length of the accumulated continued line.
INPUT FILES
The character set mapping file specified as the
charmap
option-argument is described in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 6.4,
Character Set Description File.
If a locale category source definition contains a
copy
statement, as defined in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Chapter 7,
Locale,
and the
copy
statement names a valid, existing locale, then
localedef
shall behave as if the source definition had contained a valid category
source definition for the named locale.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
localedef:
- LANG
-
Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are
unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables
for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine
the values of locale categories.)
- LC_ALL
-
If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the
other internationalization variables.
- LC_COLLATE
-
(This variable has no affect on
localedef;
the POSIX locale is used for this category.)
- LC_CTYPE
-
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multi-byte characters in arguments and input files). This variable has
no affect on the processing of
localedef
input data; the POSIX locale is used for this purpose, regardless of
the value of this variable.
- LC_MESSAGES
-
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and
contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
- NLSPATH
-
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The utility shall report all categories successfully processed, in an
unspecified format.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
The format of the created output is unspecified. If the
name
operand does not contain a
<slash>,
the existence of an output file for the locale is unspecified.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
When the
-u
option is used, the
code_set_name
option-argument shall be interpreted as an implementation-defined
name of a codeset to which the ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 standard position constant values shall be
converted via an implementation-defined method. Both the ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 standard
position constant values and other formats (decimal, hexadecimal, or
octal) shall be valid as encoding values within the
charmap
file. The codeset represented by the implementation-defined name can
be any codeset that is supported by the implementation.
When conflicts occur between the
charmap
specification of <code_set_name>, <mb_cur_max>, or
<mb_cur_min> and the implementation-defined interpretation of
these respective items for the codeset represented by the
-u
option-argument
code_set_name,
the result is unspecified.
When conflicts occur between the
charmap
encoding values specified for symbolic names of characters of the
portable character set and the implementation-defined assignment of
character encoding values, the result is unspecified.
If a non-printable character in the
charmap
has a width specified that is not
-1,
the result will be undefined.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
- 0
-
No errors occurred and the locales were successfully created.
- 1
-
Warnings occurred and the locales were successfully created.
- 2
-
The locale specification exceeded implementation limits or the coded
character set or sets used were not supported by the implementation,
and no locale was created.
- 3
-
The capability to create new locales is not supported by the
implementation.
- >3
-
Warnings or errors occurred and no output was created.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
If an error is detected, no permanent output shall be created.
If warnings occur, permanent output shall be created if the
-c
option was specified. The following conditions shall cause warning
messages to be issued:
- *
-
If a symbolic name not found in the
charmap
file is used for the descriptions of the
LC_CTYPE
or
LC_COLLATE
categories (for other categories, this shall be an error condition).
- *
-
If the number of operands to the
order
keyword exceeds the
{COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX}
limit.
- *
-
If optional keywords not supported by the implementation are present in
the source.
Other implementation-defined conditions may also cause warnings.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
The
charmap
definition is optional, and is contained outside the locale
definition. This allows both completely self-defined source files, and
generic sources (applicable to more than one codeset). To aid
portability, all
charmap
definitions must use the same symbolic names for the portable character
set. As explained in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 6.4,
Character Set Description File,
it is implementation-defined whether or not users or applications can
provide additional character set description files. Therefore, the
-f
option might be operable only when an implementation-defined
charmap
is named.
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
The output produced by the
localedef
utility is implementation-defined. The
name
operand is used to identify the specific locale. (As a consequence,
although several categories can be processed in one execution, only
categories belonging to the same locale can be processed.)
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
locale
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017,
Section 6.4, Character Set Description File,
Chapter 7, Locale,
Chapter 8, Environment Variables,
Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .