LOCALE(1P)		   POSIX Programmer's Manual		    LOCALE(1P)

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
       locale - get locale-specific information

SYNOPSIS
       locale [-a| -m]

       locale [-ck] name...

DESCRIPTION
       The locale utility shall write information  about  the  current	locale
       environment,  or	 all  public  locales, to the standard output. For the
       purposes of this section, a public locale is one provided by the imple‐
       mentation that is accessible to the application.

       When  locale  is	 invoked without any arguments, it shall summarize the
       current locale environment for each locale category  as	determined  by
       the  settings  of the environment variables defined in the Base Defini‐
       tions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Chapter 7, Locale.

       When invoked with operands,  it	shall  write  values  that  have  been
       assigned to the keywords in the locale categories, as follows:

	* Specifying  a	 keyword  name	shall select the named keyword and the
	  category containing that keyword.

	* Specifying a category name shall select the named category  and  all
	  keywords in that category.

OPTIONS
       The  locale  utility  shall  conform  to the Base Definitions volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       -a     Write information about all available public locales. The avail‐
	      able locales shall include POSIX, representing the POSIX locale.
	      The manner in which the  implementation  determines  what	 other
	      locales are available is implementation-defined.

       -c     Write  the  names	 of selected locale categories; see the STDOUT
	      section.	The -c option increases readability when more than one
	      category	is  selected  (for  example, via more than one keyword
	      name or via a category name). It is valid both with and  without
	      the -k option.

       -k     Write the names and values of selected keywords. The implementa‐
	      tion may omit values for some keywords; see  the	OPERANDS  sec‐
	      tion.

       -m     Write names of available charmaps; see the Base Definitions vol‐
	      ume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  6.1,  Portable  Character
	      Set.

OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:

       name   The name of a locale category as defined in the Base Definitions
	      volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Chapter 7, Locale, the name of a
	      keyword  in a locale category, or the reserved name charmap. The
	      named category or keyword shall be selected  for	output.	 If  a
	      single name represents both a locale category name and a keyword
	      name in the current locale, the results are unspecified.	Other‐
	      wise,  both  category and keyword names can be specified as name
	      operands, in any sequence. It is implementation-defined  whether
	      any  keyword  values are written for the categories LC_CTYPE and
	      LC_COLLATE.

STDIN
       Not used.

INPUT FILES
       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment  variables  shall  affect  the	 execution  of
       locale:

       LANG   Provide  a  default value for the internationalization variables
	      that are unset or null. (See  the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
	      IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  Section  8.2,  Internationalization Vari‐
	      ables 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_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).

       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 .

       The application shall ensure that the LANG,  LC_*,  and	NLSPATH	 envi‐
       ronment	variables specify the current locale environment to be written
       out; they shall be used if the -a option is not specified.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       If locale is invoked without any options or  operands,  the  names  and
       values  of  the	LANG  and LC_* environment variables described in this
       volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 shall be written to the standard output,
       one variable per line, with LANG first, and each line using the follow‐
       ing format.  Only those variables set in the environment and not	 over‐
       ridden by LC_ALL shall be written using this format:

	      "%s=%s\n", <variable_name>, <value>

       The  names  of  those  LC_* variables associated with locale categories
       defined in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 that are not set in  the
       environment or are overridden by LC_ALL shall be written in the follow‐
       ing format:

	      "%s=\"%s\"\n", <variable_name>, <implied value>

       The <implied value> shall be the name  of  the  locale  that  has  been
       selected	 for  that category by the implementation, based on the values
       in LANG and LC_ALL, as described in  the	 Base  Definitions  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Chapter 8, Environment Variables.

       The  <value>  and  <implied value> shown above shall be properly quoted
       for possible later reentry to the  shell.  The  <value>	shall  not  be
       quoted using double-quotes (so that it can be distinguished by the user
       from the <implied value> case, which always requires double-quotes).

       The LC_ALL variable shall be written last, using the first format shown
       above. If it is not set, it shall be written as:

	      "LC_ALL=\n"

       If any arguments are specified:

	1. If  the -a option is specified, the names of all the public locales
	   shall be written, each in the following format:

	   "%s\n", <locale name>

	2. If the -c option is specified, the names of all selected categories
	   shall be written, each in the following format:

	   "%s\n", <category name>

       If  keywords  are  also selected for writing (see following items), the
       category name output shall precede the keyword output  for  that	 cate‐
       gory.

       If  the	-c  option is not specified, the names of the categories shall
       not be written; only the keywords, as selected by the  <name>  operand,
       shall be written.

	3. If  the  -k	option	is specified, the names and values of selected
	   keywords shall be written. If a value is non-numeric, it  shall  be
	   written in the following format:

	   "%s=\"%s\"\n", <keyword name>, <keyword value>

       If  the	keyword was charmap, the name of the charmap (if any) that was
       specified via the localedef -f option when the locale was created shall
       be written, with the word charmap as <keyword name>.

       If a value is numeric, it shall be written in one of the following for‐
       mats:

	      "%s=%d\n", <keyword name>, <keyword value>

	      "%s=%c%o\n", <keyword name>, <escape character>, <keyword value>

	      "%s=%cx%x\n", <keyword name>, <escape character>, <keyword value>

       where the <escape character> is that identified by the escape_char key‐
       word  in	 the  current  locale;	see  the  Base	Definitions  volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 7.3, Locale Definition.

       Compound keyword values (list entries) shall be separated in the output
       by semicolons. When included in keyword values, the semicolon, the dou‐
       ble-quote, the backslash, and any control character shall  be  preceded
       (escaped) with the escape character.

	4. If the -k option is not specified, selected keyword values shall be
	   written, each in the following format:

	   "%s\n", <keyword value>

       If the keyword was charmap, the name of the charmap (if any)  that  was
       specified via the localedef -f option when the locale was created shall
       be written.

	5. If the -m option  is	 specified,  then  a  list  of	all  available
	   charmaps shall be written, each in the format:

	   "%s\n", <charmap>

       where  <charmap> is in a format suitable for use as the option-argument
       to the localedef -f option.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

	0     All the requested information was found and output successfully.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       If the LANG environment variable is not set or set to an	 empty	value,
       or  one	of  the	 LC_*  environment variables is set to an unrecognized
       value, the actual locales assumed (if any)  are	implementation-defined
       as  described  in  the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       Chapter 8, Environment Variables.

       Implementations are not required to write out  the  actual  values  for
       keywords in the categories LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE ; however, they must
       write out the categories (allowing an  application  to  determine,  for
       example, which character classes are available).

EXAMPLES
       In  the	following  examples, the assumption is that locale environment
       variables are set as follows:

	      LANG=locale_x
	      LC_COLLATE=locale_y

       The command locale would result in the following output:

	      LANG=locale_x
	      LC_CTYPE="locale_x"
	      LC_COLLATE=locale_y
	      LC_TIME="locale_x"
	      LC_NUMERIC="locale_x"
	      LC_MONETARY="locale_x"
	      LC_MESSAGES="locale_x"
	      LC_ALL=

       The order of presentation of the categories is not  specified  by  this
       volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

       The command:

	      LC_ALL=POSIX locale -ck decimal_point

       would produce:

	      LC_NUMERIC
	      decimal_point="."

       The  following  command	shows  an  application	of locale to determine
       whether a user-supplied response is affirmative:

	      if printf "%s\n" "$response" | grep -Eq "$(locale yesexpr)"
	      then
		  affirmative processing goes here
	      else
		  non-affirmative processing goes here
	      fi

RATIONALE
       The output for categories LC_CTYPE and LC_COLLATE has been made	imple‐
       mentation-defined  because  there  is  a questionable value in having a
       shell script receive an entire array of characters. It is  also	diffi‐
       cult  to	 return	 a logical collation description, short of returning a
       complete localedef source.

       The -m option was included to allow applications to query for the exis‐
       tence  of  charmaps.  The output is a list of the charmaps (implementa‐
       tion-supplied and user-supplied, if any) on the system.

       The -c option was included for readability when more than one  category
       is selected (for example, via more than one keyword name or via a cate‐
       gory name). It is valid both with and without the -k option.

       The charmap keyword, which returns the name of  the  charmap  (if  any)
       that  was  used	when  the  current locale was created, was included to
       allow applications needing the information to retrieve it.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       localedef, the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section
       7.3, Locale Definition

COPYRIGHT
       Portions	 of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating	System	Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003	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 .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2003			    LOCALE(1P)

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