1LOCALECTL(1) localectl LOCALECTL(1)
2
6 localectl - Control the system locale and keyboard layout settings
7
9 localectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
10
12 localectl may be used to query and change the system locale and
13 keyboard layout settings. It communicates with systemd-localed(8) to
14 modify files such as /etc/locale.conf and /etc/vconsole.conf.
15 The system locale controls the language settings of system services and
17 of the UI before the user logs in, such as the display manager, as well
18 as the default for users after login.
19 The keyboard settings control the keyboard layout used on the text
21 console and of the graphical UI before the user logs in, such as the
22 display manager, as well as the default for users after login.
23 Note that the changes performed using this tool might require the
25 initrd to be rebuilt to take effect during early system boot. The
26 initrd is not rebuilt automatically by localectl, this task has to be
27 performed manually, usually using a tool like dracut(8).
28 Note that systemd-firstboot(1) may be used to initialize the system
30 locale for mounted (but not booted) system images.
31
33 The following commands are understood:
34 status
36 Show current settings of the system locale and keyboard mapping. If
37 no command is specified, this is the implied default.
38 set-locale LOCALE, set-locale VARIABLE=LOCALE...
40 Set the system locale. This takes one locale such as "en_US.UTF-8",
41 or takes one or more locale assignments such as "LANG=de_DE.utf8",
42 "LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.utf8", and so on. If one locale without variable
43 name is provided, then "LANG=" locale variable will be set. See
44 locale(7) for details on the available settings and their meanings.
45 Use list-locales for a list of available locales (see below).
46 list-locales
48 List available locales useful for configuration with set-locale.
49 set-keymap MAP [TOGGLEMAP]
51 Set the system keyboard mapping for the console and X11. This takes
52 a mapping name (such as "de" or "us"), and possibly a second one to
53 define a toggle keyboard mapping. Unless --no-convert is passed,
54 the selected setting is also applied as the default system keyboard
55 mapping of X11, after converting it to the closest matching X11
56 keyboard mapping. Use list-keymaps for a list of available keyboard
57 mappings (see below).
58 list-keymaps
60 List available keyboard mappings for the console, useful for
61 configuration with set-keymap.
62 set-x11-keymap LAYOUT [MODEL [VARIANT [OPTIONS]]]
64 Set the system default keyboard mapping for X11 and the virtual
65 console. This takes a keyboard mapping name (such as "de" or "us"),
66 and possibly a model, variant, and options, see kbd(4) for details.
67 Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting is also applied
68 as the system console keyboard mapping, after converting it to the
69 closest matching console keyboard mapping.
70 list-x11-keymap-models, list-x11-keymap-layouts,
72 list-x11-keymap-variants [LAYOUT], list-x11-keymap-options
73 List available X11 keymap models, layouts, variants and options,
74 useful for configuration with set-keymap. The command
75 list-x11-keymap-variants optionally takes a layout parameter to
76 limit the output to the variants suitable for the specific layout.
77
79 The following options are understood:
80 --no-ask-password
82 Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
83 --no-convert
85 If set-keymap or set-x11-keymap is invoked and this option is
86 passed, then the keymap will not be converted from the console to
87 X11, or X11 to console, respectively.
88 -H, --host=
90 Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
91 and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
92 optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by
93 ":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which connects
94 directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will
95 use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container
96 names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses
97 in brackets.
98 -M, --machine=
100 Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
101 connect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a
102 separating "@" character. If the special string ".host" is used in
103 place of the container name, a connection to the local system is
104 made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
105 "--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used,
106 the connection is made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used
107 either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted
108 (but not both) in which case the local user name and ".host" are
109 implied.
110 -h, --help
112 Print a short help text and exit.
113 --version
115 Print a short version string and exit.
116 --no-pager
118 Do not pipe output into a pager.
119
121 On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
122
124 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
125 The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
126 log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Either
127 one of (in order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err,
128 warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See
129 syslog(3) for more information.
130 $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
132 A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
133 according to priority.
134 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
136 the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
137 logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.
138 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
140 A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
141 timestamp.
142 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
144 the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
145 display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
146 their own.
147 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
149 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
150 line number in the source code where the message originates.
151 Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
153 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
154 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
155 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
157 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current
158 numerical thread ID (TID).
159 Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal
161 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
162 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
163 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
165 The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
166 attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
167 prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
168 (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
169 journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
170 kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
171 automatically, the default), null (disable log output).
172 $SYSTEMD_PAGER
174 Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If
175 neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known
176 pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and
177 more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
178 discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable
179 to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing
180 --no-pager.
181 Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER (as well
183 as $PAGER) will be silently ignored.
184 $SYSTEMD_LESS
186 Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
187 Users might want to change two options in particular:
189 K
191 This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
192 is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch
193 back to the pager command prompt, unset this option.
194 If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
196 pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
197 executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.
198 X
200 This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
201 initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
202 is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
203 the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
204 prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
205 paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.
206 See less(1) for more discussion.
208 $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
210 Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
211 invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
212 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
214 Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager
215 is enabled; if false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set
216 at all, secure mode is enabled if the effective UID is not the same
217 as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
218 sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set
219 when invoking the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that
220 open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
221 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known
222 to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1)
223 implements secure mode.)
224 Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
226 example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure
227 that unintended interactive features are not enabled. "Secure" mode
228 for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
229 Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
230 environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that
231 if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be honoured,
232 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be reasonable to
233 completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.
234 $SYSTEMD_COLORS
236 Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
237 will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
238 monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the
239 following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors
240 to the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be
241 specified to override the automatic decision based on $TERM and
242 what the console is connected to.
243 $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
245 The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links
246 should be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting
247 this. This can be specified to override the decision that systemd
248 makes based on $TERM and other conditions.
249
251 systemd(1), locale(7), locale.conf(5), vconsole.conf(5), loadkeys(1),
252 kbd(4), The XKB Configuration Guide[1], systemctl(1), systemd-
253 localed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1), dracut(8)
254
256 1. The XKB Configuration Guide
257 http://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/xorg-docs/input/XKB-Config.html
258systemd 253 LOCALECTL(1)