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NAME | DESCRIPTION | FILES | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
LOCALE(5) Linux User Manual LOCALE(5)
locale - describes a locale definition file
The locale definition file 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. See locale(7) for additional details for these
categories.
Syntax
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
in double quotes which should be copied. The exceptions for this
rule are LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE where a copy statement can be
followed by locale-specific rules and selected overrides.
When defining a category from scratch, all field descriptors and
strings should be defined as Unicode code points in angle brackets,
unless otherwise stated below. For example, "€" is to be presented
as "<U20AC>", "%a" as "<U0025><U0061>", and "Monday" as
"<U0053><U0075><U006E><U0064><U0061><U0079>". Values defined as
Unicode code points must be in double quotes, plain number values are
not quoted (but LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE follow special formatting,
see the system-provided locale files for examples).
Locale category sections
The following category sections are defined by POSIX:
* LC_CTYPE
* LC_COLLATE
* LC_MESSAGES
* LC_MONETARY
* LC_NUMERIC
* LC_TIME
In addition, since version 2.2, the GNU C library supports the
following nonstandard categories:
* LC_ADDRESS
* LC_IDENTIFICATION
* LC_MEASUREMENT
* LC_NAME
* LC_PAPER
* LC_TELEPHONE
See locale(7) for a more detailed description of each category.
LC_ADDRESS
The definition starts with the string LC_ADDRESS in the first column.
The following keywords are allowed:
postal_fmt
followed by a string containing field descriptors that define
the format used for postal addresses in the locale. The
following field descriptors are recognized:
%n Person's name, possibly constructed with the LC_NAME
name_fmt keyword (since glibc 2.24).
%a Care of person, or organization.
%f Firm name.
%d Department name.
%b Building name.
%s Street or block (e.g., Japanese) name.
%h House number or designation.
%N Insert an end-of-line if the previous descriptor's value
was not an empty string; otherwise ignore.
%t Insert a space if the previous descriptor's value was not
an empty string; otherwise ignore.
%r Room number, door designation.
%e Floor number.
%C Country designation, from the country_post keyword.
%l Local township within town or city (since glibc 2.24).
%z Zip number, postal code.
%T Town, city.
%S State, province, or prefecture.
%c Country, as taken from data record.
Each field descriptor may have an 'R' after the '%' to specify
that the information is taken from a Romanized version string
of the entity.
country_name
followed by the country name in the language of the current
document (e.g., "Deutschland" for the de_DE locale).
country_post
followed by the abbreviation of the country (see
CERT_MAILCODES).
country_ab2
followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO
3166).
country_ab3
followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO
3166).
country_num
followed by the numeric country code as plain numbers (ISO
3166).
country_car
followed by the international licence plate country code.
country_isbn
followed by the ISBN code (for books).
lang_name
followed by the language name in the language of the current
document.
lang_ab
followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO
639).
lang_term
followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO
639-2/T).
lang_lib
followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language for
library use (ISO 639-2/B). Applications should in general
prefer lang_term over lang_lib.
The LC_ADDRESS definition ends with the string END LC_ADDRESS.
LC_CTYPE
The definition starts with the string LC_CTYPE in the first column.
The following keywords are allowed:
upper 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.
lower 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.
alpha 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.
digit followed by the characters classified as numeric digits. Only
the digits 0 through 9 are allowed. They are included by
default in this class.
space 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.
cntrl followed by a list of control characters. Characters also
specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, punct, graph, print,
or xdigit are not allowed.
punct followed by a list of punctuation characters. Characters also
specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, cntrl, xdigit, or the
<space> character are not allowed.
graph 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.
print 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.
xdigit 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.
blank followed by a list of characters classified as blank. The
characters <space> and <tab> are automatically included.
charclass
followed by a list of locale-specific character class names
which are then to be defined in the locale.
toupper
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.
tolower
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.
map totitle
followed by a list of mapping pairs of characters and letters
to be used in titles (headings).
class followed by a locale-specific character class definition,
starting with the class name followed by the characters
belonging to the class.
charconv
followed by a list of locale-specific character mapping names
which are then to be defined in the locale.
outdigit
followed by a list of alternate output digits for the locale.
map to_inpunct
followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate digits and
separators for input digits for the locale.
map to_outpunct
followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate separators
for output for the locale.
translit_start
marks the start of the transliteration rules section. The
section can contain the include keyword in the beginning
followed by locale-specific rules and overrides. Any rule
specified in the locale file will override any rule copied or
included from other files. In case of duplicate rule
definitions in the locale file, only the first rule is used.
A transliteration rule consist of a character to be
transliterated followed by a list of transliteration targets
separated by semicolons. The first target which can be
presented in the target character set is used, if none of them
can be used the default_missing character will be used
instead.
include
in the transliteration rules section includes a
transliteration rule file (and optionally a repertoire map
file).
default_missing
in the transliteration rules section defines the default
character to be used for transliteration where none of the
targets cannot be presented in the target character set.
translit_end
marks the end of the transliteration rules.
The LC_CTYPE definition ends with the string END LC_CTYPE.
LC_COLLATE
Note that glibc does not support all POSIX-defined options, only the
options described below are supported (as of glibc 2.23).
The definition starts with the string LC_COLLATE in the first column.
The following keywords are allowed:
coll_weight_max
followed by the number representing used collation levels.
This keyword is recognized but ignored by glibc.
collating-element
followed by the definition of a collating-element symbol
representing a multicharacter collating element.
collating-symbol
followed by the definition of a collating symbol that can be
used in collation order statements.
define followed by string to be evaluated in an ifdef string / else /
endif construct.
reorder-after
followed by a redefinition of a collation rule.
reorder-end
marks the end of the redefinition of a collation rule.
reorder-sections-after
followed by a script name to reorder listed scripts after.
reorder-sections-end
marks the end of the reordering of sections.
script followed by a declaration of a script.
symbol-equivalence
followed by a collating-symbol to be equivalent to another
defined collating-symbol.
The collation rule definition starts with a line:
order_start
followed by a list of keywords chosen from forward, backward,
or position. The order definition consists of lines that
describe the collation order and is terminated with the
keyword order_end.
The LC_COLLATE definition ends with the string END LC_COLLATE.
LC_IDENTIFICATION
The definition starts with the string LC_IDENTIFICATION in the first
column.
The values in this category are defined as plain strings.
The following keywords are allowed:
title followed by the title of the locale document (e.g., "Maori
language locale for New Zealand").
source followed by the name of the organization that maintains this
document.
address
followed by the address of the organization that maintains
this document.
contact
followed by the name of the contact person at the organization
that maintains this document.
email followed by the email address of the person or organization
that maintains this document.
tel followed by the telephone number (in international format) of
the organization that maintains this document. As of glibc
2.24, this keyword is deprecated in favor of other contact
methods.
fax followed by the fax number (in international format) of the
organization that maintains this document. As of glibc 2.24,
this keyword is deprecated in favor of other contact methods.
language
followed by the name of the language to which this document
applies.
territory
followed by the name of the country/geographic extent to which
this document applies.
audience
followed by a description of the audience for which this
document is intended.
application
followed by a description of any special application for which
this document is intended.
abbreviation
followed by the short name for provider of the source of this
document.
revision
followed by the revision number of this document.
date followed by the revision date of this document.
In addition, for each of the categories defined by the document,
there should be a line starting with the keyword category, followed
by:
* a string that identifies this locale category definition,
* a semicolon, and
* one of the LC_* identifiers.
The LC_IDENTIFICATION definition ends with the string END
LC_IDENTIFICATION.
LC_MESSAGES
The definition starts with the string LC_MESSAGES in the first
column.
The following keywords are allowed:
yesexpr
followed by a regular expression that describes possible yes-
responses.
noexpr followed by a regular expression that describes possible no-
responses.
yesstr followed by the output string corresponding to "yes".
nostr followed by the output string corresponding to "no".
The LC_MESSAGES definition ends with the string END LC_MESSAGES.
LC_MEASUREMENT
The definition starts with the string LC_MEASUREMENT in the first
column.
The following keywords are allowed:
measurement
followed by number identifying the standard used for
measurement. The following values are recognized:
1 Metric.
2 US customary measurements.
The LC_MEASUREMENT definition ends with the string END
LC_MEASUREMENT.
LC_MONETARY
The definition starts with the string LC_MONETARY in the first
column.
Values for int_curr_symbol, currency_symbol, mon_decimal_point,
mon_thousands_sep, positive_sign, and negative_sign are defined as
Unicode code points, the others as plain numbers.
The following keywords are allowed:
int_curr_symbol
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.
currency_symbol
followed by the local currency symbol.
mon_decimal_point
followed by the string that will be used as the decimal
delimiter when formatting monetary quantities.
mon_thousands_sep
followed by the string that will be used as a group separator
when formatting monetary quantities.
mon_grouping
followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons
that describe the formatting of monetary quantities. See
grouping below for details.
positive_sign
followed by a string that is used to indicate a positive sign
for monetary quantities.
negative_sign
followed by a string that is used to indicate a negative sign
for monetary quantities.
int_frac_digits
followed by the number of fractional digits that should be
used when formatting with the int_curr_symbol.
frac_digits
followed by the number of fractional digits that should be
used when formatting with the currency_symbol.
p_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
currency_symbol for a nonnegative formatted monetary quantity:
0 the symbol succeeds the value.
1 the symbol precedes the value.
p_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
currency_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a
nonnegative formatted monetary quantity. The following values
are recognized:
0 No space separates the currency symbol and the value.
1 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a
space separates them from the value; otherwise a space
separates the currency symbol and the value.
2 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a
space separates them from the value; otherwise a space
separates the sign string and the value.
n_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
currency_symbol for a negative formatted monetary quantity.
The same values are recognized as for p_cs_precedes.
n_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
currency_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a negative
formatted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized
as for p_sep_by_space.
p_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign
should be placed for a nonnegative monetary quantity:
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.
n_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign
should be placed for a negative monetary quantity. The same
values are recognized as for p_sign_posn.
int_p_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
int_curr_symbol for a nonnegative internationally formatted
monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
p_cs_precedes.
int_n_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
int_curr_symbol for a negative internationally formatted
monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
p_cs_precedes.
int_p_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
int_curr_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a
nonnegative internationally formatted monetary quantity. The
same values are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.
int_n_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
int_curr_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a negative
internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values
are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.
int_p_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign
should be placed for a nonnegative internationally formatted
monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
p_sign_posn.
int_n_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign
should be placed for a negative internationally formatted
monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
p_sign_posn.
The LC_MONETARY definition ends with the string END LC_MONETARY.
LC_NAME
The definition starts with the string LC_NAME in the first column.
Various keywords are allowed, but only name_fmt is mandatory. Other
keywords are needed only if there is common convention to use the
corresponding salutation in this locale. The allowed keywords are as
follows:
name_fmt
followed by a string containing field descriptors that define
the format used for names in the locale. The following field
descriptors are recognized:
%f Family name(s).
%F Family names in uppercase.
%g First given name.
%G First given initial.
%l First given name with Latin letters.
%o Other shorter name.
%m Additional given name(s).
%M Initials for additional given name(s).
%p Profession.
%s Salutation, such as "Doctor".
%S Abbreviated salutation, such as "Mr." or "Dr.".
%d Salutation, using the FDCC-sets conventions.
%t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty
string, then the empty string, otherwise a space
character.
name_gen
followed by the general salutation for any gender.
name_mr
followed by the salutation for men.
name_mrs
followed by the salutation for married women.
name_miss
followed by the salutation for unmarried women.
name_ms
followed by the salutation valid for all women.
The LC_NAME definition ends with the string END LC_NAME.
LC_NUMERIC
The definition starts with the string LC_NUMERIC in the first column.
The following keywords are allowed:
decimal_point
followed by the string that will be used as the decimal
delimiter when formatting numeric quantities.
thousands_sep
followed by the string that will be used as a group separator
when formatting numeric quantities.
grouping
followed by a sequence of integers as plain numbers separated
by semicolons that describe the formatting of numeric
quantities.
Each integer specifies the number of digits in a group. The
first integer defines the size of the group immediately to the
left of the decimal delimiter. Subsequent integers define
succeeding groups to the left of the previous group. If the
last integer is not -1, then the size of the previous group
(if any) is repeatedly used for the remainder of the digits.
If the last integer is -1, then no further grouping is
performed.
The LC_NUMERIC definition ends with the string END LC_NUMERIC.
LC_PAPER
The definition starts with the string LC_PAPER in the first column.
Values in this category are defined as plain numbers.
The following keywords are allowed:
height followed by the height, in millimeters, of the standard paper
format.
width followed by the width, in millimeters, of the standard paper
format.
The LC_PAPER definition ends with the string END LC_PAPER.
LC_TELEPHONE
The definition starts with the string LC_TELEPHONE in the first
column.
The following keywords are allowed:
tel_int_fmt
followed by a string that contains field descriptors that
identify the format used to dial international numbers. The
following field descriptors are recognized:
%a Area code without nationwide prefix (the prefix is often
"00").
%A Area code including nationwide prefix.
%l Local number (within area code).
%e Extension (to local number).
%c Country code.
%C Alternate carrier service code used for dialing abroad.
%t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty
string, then the empty string, otherwise a space
character.
tel_dom_fmt
followed by a string that contains field descriptors that
identify the format used to dial domestic numbers. The
recognized field descriptors are the same as for tel_int_fmt.
int_select
followed by the prefix used to call international phone
numbers.
int_prefix
followed by the prefix used from other countries to dial this
country.
The LC_TELEPHONE definition ends with the string END LC_TELEPHONE.
LC_TIME
The definition starts with the string LC_TIME in the first column.
The following keywords are allowed:
abday followed by a list of abbreviated names of the days of the
week. The list starts with the first day of the week as
specified by week (Sunday by default). See NOTES.
day followed by a list of names of the days of the week. The list
starts with the first day of the week as specified by week
(Sunday by default). See NOTES.
abmon followed by a list of abbreviated month names.
mon followed by a list of month names.
d_t_fmt
followed by the appropriate date and time format (for syntax,
see strftime(3)).
d_fmt followed by the appropriate date format (for syntax, see
strftime(3)).
t_fmt followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see
strftime(3)).
am_pm followed by the appropriate representation of the am and pm
strings. This should be left empty for locales not using
AM/PM convention.
t_fmt_ampm
followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see
strftime(3)) when using 12h clock format. This should be left
empty for locales not using AM/PM convention.
era followed by semicolon-separated strings that define how years
are counted and displayed for each era in the locale. Each
string has the following format:
direction:offset:start_date:end_date:era_name:era_format
The fields are to be defined as follows:
direction
Either + or -. + means the years closer to start_date
have lower numbers than years closer to end_date. - means
the opposite.
offset
The number of the year closest to start_date in the era,
corresponding to the %Ey descriptor (see strptime(3)).
start_date
The start of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd. Years
prior AD 1 are represented as negative numbers.
end_date
The end of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd, or one of
the two special values of -* or +*. -* means the ending
date is the beginning of time. +* means the ending date
is the end of time.
era_name
The name of the era corresponding to the %EC descriptor
(see strptime(3)).
era_format
The format of the year in the era corresponding to the %EY
descriptor (see strptime(3)).
era_d_fmt
followed by the format of the date in alternative era
notation, corresponding to the %Ex descriptor (see
strptime(3)).
era_t_fmt
followed by the format of the time in alternative era
notation, corresponding to the %EX descriptor (see
strptime(3)).
era_d_t_fmt
followed by the format of the date and time in alternative era
notation, corresponding to the %Ec descriptor (see
strptime(3)).
alt_digits
followed by the alternative digits used for date and time in
the locale.
week followed by a list of three values as plain numbers: 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. See NOTES.
first_weekday (since glibc 2.2)
followed by the number of the first day from the day list to
be shown in calendar applications. The default value of 1
(plain number) corresponds to either Sunday or Monday
depending on the value of the second week list item. See
NOTES.
first_workday (since glibc 2.2)
followed by the number of the first working day from the day
list. The default value is 2 (plain number). See NOTES.
cal_direction
followed by a plain number value that indicates the direction
for the display of calendar dates, as follows:
1 Left-right from top.
2 Top-down from left.
3 Right-left from top.
date_fmt
followed by the appropriate date representation for date(1)
(for syntax, see strftime(3)).
The LC_TIME definition ends with the string END LC_TIME.
/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
Usual default locale archive location.
/usr/share/i18n/locales
Usual default path for locale definition files.
POSIX.2.
The collective GNU C library community wisdom regarding abday, day,
week, first_weekday, and first_workday states at
https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Locales the following:
* The value of the second week list item specifies the base of the
abday and day lists.
* first_weekday specifies the offset of the first day-of-week in the
abday and day lists.
* For compatibility reasons, all glibc locales should set the value
of the second week list item to 19971130 (Sunday) and base the
abday and day lists appropriately, and set first_weekday and
first_workday to 1 or 2, depending on whether the week and work
week actually starts on Sunday or Monday for the locale.
iconv(1), locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), newlocale(3),
setlocale(3), strftime(3), strptime(3), uselocale(3), charmap(5),
charsets(7), locale(7), unicode(7), utf-8(7)
This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
latest version of this page, can be found at
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Linux 2016-07-17 LOCALE(5)
Pages that refer to this page: locale(1), localedef(1), duplocale(3), newlocale(3), printf(3), uselocale(3), charmap(5), repertoiremap(5), locale(7)