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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 .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 LOCALEDEF(1POSIX)