.\" Copyright (C) 2001 Richard Braakman
.\" Copyright (C) 2004 Alastair McKinstry
.\" Copyright (C) 2005 Lars Wirzenius
.\" Copyright (C) 2014 Marko Myllynen
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
.\"
.\" This manual page was initially written by Richard Braakman
.\" on behalf of the Debian GNU/Linux Project and anyone else
.\" who wants it. It was amended by Alastair McKinstry to
.\" explain new ISO/IEC 14652 elements, and amended further by
.\" Lars Wirzenius to document new functionality (as of GNU
.\" C library 2.3.5).
.\"
.TH localedef 1 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages 6.9.1"
.SH NAME
localedef \- compile locale definition files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.SY localedef
.RI [ options ]
.I outputpath
.YS
.SY localedef
.B \-\-add\-to\-archive
.RI [ options ]
.I compiledpath
.YS
.SY localedef
.B \-\-delete\-from\-archive
.RI [ options ]
.IR localename " ..."
.YS
.SY localedef
.B \-\-list\-archive
.RI [ options ]
.YS
.SY localedef
.B \-\-help
.YS
.SY localedef
.B \-\-usage
.YS
.SY localedef
.B \-\-version
.YS
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B localedef
program reads the indicated
.I charmap
and
.I input
files,
compiles them to a binary form quickly usable by the
locale functions in the C library
.RB ( setlocale (3),
.BR localeconv (3),
etc.),
and places the output in
.IR outputpath .
.P
The
.I outputpath
argument is interpreted as follows:
.IP \[bu] 3
If
.I outputpath
contains a slash character ('/'),
it is interpreted as the name of the
directory where the output definitions are to be stored.
In this case,
there is a separate output file for each locale category
.RI ( LC_TIME ,
.IR LC_NUMERIC ,
and so on).
.IP \[bu]
If the
.B \-\-no\-archive
option is used,
.I outputpath
is the name of a subdirectory in
.I /usr/lib/locale
where per-category compiled files are placed.
.IP \[bu]
Otherwise,
.I outputpath
is the name of a locale and the compiled locale data is added to the
archive file
.IR /usr/lib/locale/locale\-archive .
A locale archive is a memory-mapped file which contains all the
system-provided locales;
it is used by all localized programs when the environment variable
.B LOCPATH
is not set.
.P
In any case,
.B localedef
aborts if the directory in which it tries to write locale files has
not already been created.
.P
If no
.I charmapfile
is given,
the value
.I ANSI_X3.4\-1968
(for ASCII) is used by default.
If no
.I inputfile
is given,
or if it is given as a dash
(\-),
.B localedef
reads from standard input.
.SH OPTIONS
.SS Operation-selection options
A few options direct
.B localedef
to do something other than compile locale definitions.
Only one of these options should be used at a time.
.TP
.B \-\-add\-to\-archive
Add the
.I compiledpath
directories to the locale archive file.
The directories should have been created by previous runs of
.BR localedef ,
using
.BR \-\-no\-archive .
.TP
.B \-\-delete\-from\-archive
Delete the named locales from the locale archive file.
.TP
.B \-\-list\-archive
List the locales contained in the locale archive file.
.SS Other options
Some of the following options are sensible only for certain operations;
generally,
it should be self-evident which ones.
Notice that
.B \-f
and
.B \-c
are reversed from what you might expect;
that is,
.B \-f
is not the same as
.BR \-\-force .
.TP
.BI \-f " charmapfile" "\fR, \fP\-\-charmap=" charmapfile
Specify the file that defines the character set
that is used by the input file.
If
.I charmapfile
contains a slash character ('/'),
it is interpreted as the name of the character map.
Otherwise,
the file is sought in the current directory
and the default directory for character maps.
If the environment variable
.B I18NPATH
is set,
.I $I18NPATH/charmaps/
and
.I $I18NPATH/
are also searched after the current directory.
The default directory for character maps is printed by
.BR "localedef \-\-help" .
.TP
.BI \-i " inputfile" "\fR, \fP\-\-inputfile=" inputfile
Specify the locale definition file to compile.
The file is sought in the current directory
and the default directory for locale definition files.
If the environment variable
.B I18NPATH
is set,
.I $I18NPATH/locales/
and
.I $I18NPATH
are also searched after the current directory.
The default directory for locale definition files is printed by
.BR "localedef \-\-help" .
.TP
.BI \-u " repertoirefile" "\fR, \fP\-\-repertoire\-map=" repertoirefile
Read mappings from symbolic names to Unicode code points from
.IR repertoirefile .
If
.I repertoirefile
contains a slash character ('/'),
it is interpreted as the pathname of the repertoire map.
Otherwise,
the file is sought in the current directory
and the default directory for repertoire maps.
If the environment variable
.B I18NPATH
is set,
.I $I18NPATH/repertoiremaps/
and
.I $I18NPATH
are also searched after the current directory.
The default directory for repertoire maps is printed by
.BR "localedef \-\-help" .
.TP
.BI \-A " aliasfile" "\fR, \fP\-\-alias\-file=" aliasfile
Use
.I aliasfile
to look up aliases for locale names.
There is no default aliases file.
.TP
.B \-\-force
.TQ
.B \-c
Write the output files even if warnings were generated about the input
file.
.TP
.B \-\-verbose
.TQ
.B \-v
Generate extra warnings about errors that are normally ignored.
.TP
.B \-\-big\-endian
Generate big-endian output.
.TP
.B \-\-little\-endian
Generate little-endian output.
.TP
.B \-\-no\-archive
Do not use the locale archive file,
instead create
.I outputpath
as a subdirectory in the same directory as the locale archive file,
and create separate output files for locale categories in it.
This is helpful to prevent system locale archive updates from overwriting
custom locales created with
.BR localedef .
.TP
.B \-\-no\-hard\-links
Do not create hard links between installed locales.
.TP
.BI \-\-no\-warnings= warnings
Comma-separated list of warnings to disable.
Supported warnings are
.I ascii
and
.IR intcurrsym .
.TP
.B \-\-posix
Conform strictly to POSIX.
Implies
.BR \-\-verbose .
This option currently has no other effect.
POSIX conformance is assumed if the environment variable
.B POSIXLY_CORRECT
is set.
.TP
.BI \-\-prefix= pathname
Set the prefix to be prepended to the full archive pathname.
By default,
the prefix is empty.
Setting the prefix to
.IR foo ,
the archive would be placed in
.IR foo/usr/lib/locale/locale\-archive .
.TP
.B \-\-quiet
Suppress all notifications and warnings,
and report only fatal errors.
.TP
.B \-\-replace
Replace a locale in the locale archive file.
Without this option,
if the locale is in the archive file already,
an error occurs.
.TP
.BI \-\-warnings= warnings
Comma-separated list of warnings to enable.
Supported warnings are
.I ascii
and
.IR intcurrsym .
.TP
.B \-\-help
.TQ
.B \-?
Print a usage summary and exit.
Also prints the default paths used by
.BR localedef .
.TP
.B \-\-usage
Print a short usage summary and exit.
.TP
.B \-\-version
.TQ
.B \-V
Print the version number,
license,
and disclaimer of warranty for
.BR localedef .
.SH EXIT STATUS
One of the following exit values can be returned by
.BR localedef :
.TP
.B 0
Command completed successfully.
.TP
.B 1
Warnings or errors occurred,
output files were written.
.TP
.B 4
Errors encountered,
no output created.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.B POSIXLY_CORRECT
The
.B \-\-posix
flag is assumed if this environment variable is set.
.TP
.B I18NPATH
A colon-separated list of search directories for files.
.SH FILES
.TP
.I /usr/share/i18n/charmaps
Usual default character map path.
.TP
.I /usr/share/i18n/locales
Usual default path for locale definition files.
.TP
.I /usr/share/i18n/repertoiremaps
Usual default repertoire map path.
.TP
.I /usr/lib/locale/locale\-archive
Usual default locale archive location.
.TP
.I /usr/lib/locale
Usual default path for compiled individual locale data files.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_ADDRESS
An output file that contains information about formatting of
addresses and geography-related items.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_COLLATE
An output file that contains information about the rules for comparing
strings.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_CTYPE
An output file that contains information about character classes.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_IDENTIFICATION
An output file that contains metadata about the locale.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_MEASUREMENT
An output file that contains information about locale measurements
(metric versus US customary).
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_MESSAGES/SYS_LC_MESSAGES
An output file that contains information about the language messages
should be printed in,
and what an affirmative or negative answer looks like.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_MONETARY
An output file that contains information about formatting of monetary
values.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_NAME
An output file that contains information about salutations for persons.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_NUMERIC
An output file that contains information about formatting of nonmonetary
numeric values.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_PAPER
An output file that contains information about settings related to
standard paper size.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_TELEPHONE
An output file that contains information about formats to be used with
telephone services.
.TP
.I outputpath/LC_TIME
An output file that contains information about formatting of data and
time values.
.SH STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2008.
.SH EXAMPLES
Compile the locale files for Finnish in the UTF\-8 character set
and add it to the default locale archive with the name
.BR fi_FI.UTF\-8 :
.P
.in +4n
.EX
localedef \-f UTF\-8 \-i fi_FI fi_FI.UTF\-8
.EE
.in
.P
The next example does the same thing,
but generates files into the
.I fi_FI.UTF\-8
directory which can then be used by programs when the environment
variable
.B LOCPATH
is set to the current directory (note that the last argument must
contain a slash):
.P
.in +4n
.EX
localedef \-f UTF\-8 \-i fi_FI ./fi_FI.UTF\-8
.EE
.in
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR locale (1),
.BR charmap (5),
.BR locale (5),
.BR repertoiremap (5),
.BR locale (7)