Re: [gentoo-user] export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

[Kerin Millar <kerframil@fastmail.co.uk>]

On 05/08/2013 23:52, Chris Stankevitz wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Mike Gilbert <floppym@gentoo.org> wrote:
>> The handbook documents setting a system-wide default locale. You
>> generally do this by setting the LANG variable in
>> /etc/conf.d/02locale.
>>
>> http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml?part=1&chap=8#doc_chap3_sect3
>
> Mike,
>
> Thank you for your help.  I attempted to follow these instructions and
> ran into three problems.  Can you please confirm the fixes I employed
> to deal with each of these issues:
>
> 1. The handbook suggests I should modify the file /etc/env.d/02locale,
> but that file does not exist on my system.  RESOLUTION: create the
> file

Run "eselect locale", first with the "list" parameter and then the "set" 
parameter as appropriate. It's easier.

>
> 2. The handbook suggests I should add this line to
> /etc/env.d/02locale: 'LANG="de_DE.UTF-8"', but I do not speak the
> language "DE".  RESOLUTION: type instead 'LANG="en_US.UTF-8"' to match
> /etc/locale.gen

Legitimate locales are those installed with glibc. These can be shown 
with either "eselect locale list" or "locale -a".

>
> 3. The handbook suggests that I should add this line to
> /etc/env.d/02locale: 'LC_COLLATE="C"', but I do not know if they are
> again talking about the language "DE".  RESOLUTION: I assumed
> LC_COLLATE=C refers to english and added the line without
> modification.

C refers to the POSIX locale [1].

Defining LC_COLLATE is a workaround for behaviour deeemed surprising to 
those otherwise unaware of the impact of collations. For example, files 
beginning with a dot might no longer appear at the top of a directory 
listing and ranges in regular expressions may be affected, depending on 
the extent to which a given program abides by the locale. Poorly written 
shell scripts that capture from ls (assuming a given order) might also 
be affected.

If undefined, the value of LC_COLLATE is inherited from LANG. I'm not 
sure that overriding it is particularly useful nowadays but it doesn't hurt.

--Kerin

[1] 
http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap07.html#tag_07_02