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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 POSIX.1‐2008, 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
       POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       −a	 Write information about all  available	 public	 locales.  The
		 available 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 key‐
		 word 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 imple‐
		 mentation may omit values for some keywords; see the OPERANDS
		 section.

       −m	 Write	names  of available charmaps; see the Base Definitions
		 volume of POSIX.1‐2008, 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  Defini‐
		 tions	volume of POSIX.1‐2008, 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 unspeci‐
		 fied. Otherwise, both category and keyword names can be spec‐
		 ified	as  name  operands, in any sequence. It is implementa‐
		 tion-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	 vari‐
		 ables	that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol‐
		 ume of POSIX.1‐2008, 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 environ‐
       ment 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
       The LANG variable shall be written first using the format:

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

       If  LANG	 is  not  set  or  is  an empty string, the value is the empty
       string.

       If locale is invoked without any options or  operands,  the  names  and
       values  of  the	LC_* environment variables described in this volume of
       POSIX.1‐2008 shall be written to the standard output, one variable  per
       line,  and  each	 line using the following format. Only those variables
       set in the environment and not overridden 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 POSIX.1‐2008 that are not set in the environ‐
       ment or are overridden by LC_ALL shall be written in the following for‐
       mat:

	   "%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
       POSIX.1‐2008, 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
	   category.

	   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 and is	not  a
	   compound  keyword  value, it shall be written in the following for‐
	   mat:

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

	   If a value is a non-numeric compound keyword value, it shall either
	   be written in the format:

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

	   where the <keyword value> is a single string of values separated by
	   <semicolon> characters, or it shall be written in the format:

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

	   where the <keyword value> is encoded as  a  set  of	strings,  each
	   enclosed  in double-quotation-marks, separated by <semicolon> char‐
	   acters.

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

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

	       "%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
	   keyword in the current locale; see the Base Definitions  volume  of
	   POSIX.1‐2008, Section 7.3, Locale Definition.

	   Compound  keyword  values  (list entries) shall be separated in the
	   output by <semicolon> characters. When included in keyword  values,
	   the <semicolon>, <backslash>, double-quote, and any control charac‐
	   ter 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  cre‐
	   ated 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-argu‐
	   ment 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 POSIX.1‐2008, 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 POSIX.1‐2008.

       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.

       According  to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 6.1,
       Portable Character  Set,	 the  standard	requires  that	all  supported
       locales	must  have the same encoding for <period> and <slash>, because
       these two characters are used within  the  locale-independent  pathname
       resolution  sequence.  Therefore,  it  would  be	 an error if locale −a
       listed both ASCII and EBCDIC-based locales, since those	two  encodings
       do  not	share  the same representation for either <period> or <slash>.
       Any system that supports both environments would be expected to provide
       two POSIX locales, one in either codeset, where only the locales appro‐
       priate to the current environment can be visible at a time. In an  XSI-
       compliant implementation, the dd utility is the only portable means for
       performing conversions between the two character sets.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       localedef

       The Base Definitions volume  of	POSIX.1‐2008,  Section	6.1,  Portable
       Character  Set,	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, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),	The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
       cal and Electronics Engineers,  Inc  and	 The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the	2013  Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) 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.unix.org/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.ker‐
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2013			    LOCALE(1P)
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