1LOCALE(5) Linux User Manual LOCALE(5)
2
6 locale - describes a locale definition file
7
9 The locale definition file contains all the information that the
10 localedef(1) command needs to convert it into the binary locale data‐
11 base.
12 The definition files consist of sections which each describe a locale
14 category in detail. See locale(7) for additional details for these
15 categories.
16 Syntax
18 The locale definition file starts with a header that may consist of the
19 following keywords:
20 escape_char
22 is followed by a character that should be used as the escape-
23 character for the rest of the file to mark characters that
24 should be interpreted in a special way. It defaults to the
25 backslash (\).
26 comment_char
28 is followed by a character that will be used as the comment-
29 character for the rest of the file. It defaults to the number
30 sign (#).
31 The locale definition has one part for each locale category. Each part
33 can be copied from another existing locale or can be defined from
34 scratch. If the category should be copied, the only valid keyword in
35 the definition is copy followed by the name of the locale in double
36 quotes which should be copied. The exceptions for this rule are
37 LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE where a copy statement can be followed by
38 locale-specific rules and selected overrides.
39 When defining a locale or a category from scratch, an existing system-
41 provided locale definition file should be used as a reference to follow
42 common glibc conventions.
43 Locale category sections
45 The following category sections are defined by POSIX:
46 * LC_CTYPE
48 * LC_COLLATE
50 * LC_MESSAGES
52 * LC_MONETARY
54 * LC_NUMERIC
56 * LC_TIME
58 In addition, since version 2.2, the GNU C library supports the follow‐
60 ing nonstandard categories:
61 * LC_ADDRESS
63 * LC_IDENTIFICATION
65 * LC_MEASUREMENT
67 * LC_NAME
69 * LC_PAPER
71 * LC_TELEPHONE
73 See locale(7) for a more detailed description of each category.
75 LC_ADDRESS
77 The definition starts with the string LC_ADDRESS in the first column.
78 The following keywords are allowed:
80 postal_fmt
82 followed by a string containing field descriptors that define
83 the format used for postal addresses in the locale. The follow‐
84 ing field descriptors are recognized:
85 %n Person's name, possibly constructed with the LC_NAME
87 name_fmt keyword (since glibc 2.24).
88 %a Care of person, or organization.
90 %f Firm name.
92 %d Department name.
94 %b Building name.
96 %s Street or block (e.g., Japanese) name.
98 %h House number or designation.
100 %N Insert an end-of-line if the previous descriptor's value was
102 not an empty string; otherwise ignore.
103 %t Insert a space if the previous descriptor's value was not an
105 empty string; otherwise ignore.
106 %r Room number, door designation.
108 %e Floor number.
110 %C Country designation, from the country_post keyword.
112 %l Local township within town or city (since glibc 2.24).
114 %z Zip number, postal code.
116 %T Town, city.
118 %S State, province, or prefecture.
120 %c Country, as taken from data record.
122 Each field descriptor may have an 'R' after the '%' to specify
124 that the information is taken from a Romanized version string of
125 the entity.
126 country_name
128 followed by the country name in the language of the current doc‐
129 ument (e.g., "Deutschland" for the de_DE locale).
130 country_post
132 followed by the abbreviation of the country (see CERT_MAIL‐
133 CODES).
134 country_ab2
136 followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO
137 3166).
138 country_ab3
140 followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO
141 3166).
142 country_num
144 followed by the numeric country code (ISO 3166).
145 country_car
147 followed by the international licence plate country code.
148 country_isbn
150 followed by the ISBN code (for books).
151 lang_name
153 followed by the language name in the language of the current
154 document.
155 lang_ab
157 followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO
158 639).
159 lang_term
161 followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO
162 639-2/T).
163 lang_lib
165 followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language for
166 library use (ISO 639-2/B). Applications should in general pre‐
167 fer lang_term over lang_lib.
168 The LC_ADDRESS definition ends with the string END LC_ADDRESS.
170 LC_CTYPE
172 The definition starts with the string LC_CTYPE in the first column.
173 The following keywords are allowed:
175 upper followed by a list of uppercase letters. The letters A through
177 Z are included automatically. Characters also specified as
178 cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
179 lower followed by a list of lowercase letters. The letters a through
181 z are included automatically. Characters also specified as
182 cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
183 alpha followed by a list of letters. All character specified as
185 either upper or lower are automatically included. Characters
186 also specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
187 digit followed by the characters classified as numeric digits. Only
189 the digits 0 through 9 are allowed. They are included by
190 default in this class.
191 space followed by a list of characters defined as white-space charac‐
193 ters. Characters also specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit,
194 graph, or xdigit are not allowed. The characters <space>,
195 <form-feed>, <newline>, <carriage-return>, <tab>, and <vertical-
196 tab> are automatically included.
197 cntrl followed by a list of control characters. Characters also spec‐
199 ified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, punct, graph, print, or
200 xdigit are not allowed.
201 punct followed by a list of punctuation characters. Characters also
203 specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, cntrl, xdigit, or the
204 <space> character are not allowed.
205 graph followed by a list of printable characters, not including the
207 <space> character. The characters defined as upper, lower,
208 alpha, digit, xdigit, and punct are automatically included.
209 Characters also specified as cntrl are not allowed.
210 print followed by a list of printable characters, including the
212 <space> character. The characters defined as upper, lower,
213 alpha, digit, xdigit, punct, and the <space> character are auto‐
214 matically included. Characters also specified as cntrl are not
215 allowed.
216 xdigit followed by a list of characters classified as hexadecimal dig‐
218 its. The decimal digits must be included followed by one or
219 more set of six characters in ascending order. The following
220 characters are included by default: 0 through 9, a through f, A
221 through F.
222 blank followed by a list of characters classified as blank. The char‐
224 acters <space> and <tab> are automatically included.
225 charclass
227 followed by a list of locale-specific character class names
228 which are then to be defined in the locale.
229 toupper
231 followed by a list of mappings from lowercase to uppercase let‐
232 ters. Each mapping is a pair of a lowercase and an uppercase
233 letter separated with a , and enclosed in parentheses.
234 tolower
236 followed by a list of mappings from uppercase to lowercase let‐
237 ters. If the keyword tolower is not present, the reverse of the
238 toupper list is used.
239 map totitle
241 followed by a list of mapping pairs of characters and letters to
242 be used in titles (headings).
243 class followed by a locale-specific character class definition, start‐
245 ing with the class name followed by the characters belonging to
246 the class.
247 charconv
249 followed by a list of locale-specific character mapping names
250 which are then to be defined in the locale.
251 outdigit
253 followed by a list of alternate output digits for the locale.
254 map to_inpunct
256 followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate digits and sep‐
257 arators for input digits for the locale.
258 map to_outpunct
260 followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate separators for
261 output for the locale.
262 translit_start
264 marks the start of the transliteration rules section. The sec‐
265 tion can contain the include keyword in the beginning followed
266 by locale-specific rules and overrides. Any rule specified in
267 the locale file will override any rule copied or included from
268 other files. In case of duplicate rule definitions in the
269 locale file, only the first rule is used.
270 A transliteration rule consist of a character to be transliter‐
272 ated followed by a list of transliteration targets separated by
273 semicolons. The first target which can be presented in the tar‐
274 get character set is used, if none of them can be used the
275 default_missing character will be used instead.
276 include
278 in the transliteration rules section includes a transliteration
279 rule file (and optionally a repertoire map file).
280 default_missing
282 in the transliteration rules section defines the default charac‐
283 ter to be used for transliteration where none of the targets
284 cannot be presented in the target character set.
285 translit_end
287 marks the end of the transliteration rules.
288 The LC_CTYPE definition ends with the string END LC_CTYPE.
290 LC_COLLATE
292 Note that glibc does not support all POSIX-defined options, only the
293 options described below are supported (as of glibc 2.23).
294 The definition starts with the string LC_COLLATE in the first column.
296 The following keywords are allowed:
298 coll_weight_max
300 followed by the number representing used collation levels. This
301 keyword is recognized but ignored by glibc.
302 collating-element
304 followed by the definition of a collating-element symbol repre‐
305 senting a multicharacter collating element.
306 collating-symbol
308 followed by the definition of a collating symbol that can be
309 used in collation order statements.
310 define followed by string to be evaluated in an ifdef string / else /
312 endif construct.
313 reorder-after
315 followed by a redefinition of a collation rule.
316 reorder-end
318 marks the end of the redefinition of a collation rule.
319 reorder-sections-after
321 followed by a script name to reorder listed scripts after.
322 reorder-sections-end
324 marks the end of the reordering of sections.
325 script followed by a declaration of a script.
327 symbol-equivalence
329 followed by a collating-symbol to be equivalent to another
330 defined collating-symbol.
331 The collation rule definition starts with a line:
333 order_start
335 followed by a list of keywords chosen from forward, backward, or
336 position. The order definition consists of lines that describe
337 the collation order and is terminated with the keyword
338 order_end.
339 The LC_COLLATE definition ends with the string END LC_COLLATE.
341 LC_IDENTIFICATION
343 The definition starts with the string LC_IDENTIFICATION in the first
344 column.
345 The following keywords are allowed:
347 title followed by the title of the locale document (e.g., "Maori lan‐
349 guage locale for New Zealand").
350 source followed by the name of the organization that maintains this
352 document.
353 address
355 followed by the address of the organization that maintains this
356 document.
357 contact
359 followed by the name of the contact person at the organization
360 that maintains this document.
361 email followed by the email address of the person or organization that
363 maintains this document.
364 tel followed by the telephone number (in international format) of
366 the organization that maintains this document. As of glibc
367 2.24, this keyword is deprecated in favor of other contact meth‐
368 ods.
369 fax followed by the fax number (in international format) of the
371 organization that maintains this document. As of glibc 2.24,
372 this keyword is deprecated in favor of other contact methods.
373 language
375 followed by the name of the language to which this document
376 applies.
377 territory
379 followed by the name of the country/geographic extent to which
380 this document applies.
381 audience
383 followed by a description of the audience for which this docu‐
384 ment is intended.
385 application
387 followed by a description of any special application for which
388 this document is intended.
389 abbreviation
391 followed by the short name for provider of the source of this
392 document.
393 revision
395 followed by the revision number of this document.
396 date followed by the revision date of this document.
398 In addition, for each of the categories defined by the document, there
400 should be a line starting with the keyword category, followed by:
401 * a string that identifies this locale category definition,
403 * a semicolon, and
405 * one of the LC_* identifiers.
407 The LC_IDENTIFICATION definition ends with the string END LC_IDENTIFI‐
409 CATION.
410 LC_MESSAGES
412 The definition starts with the string LC_MESSAGES in the first column.
413 The following keywords are allowed:
415 yesexpr
417 followed by a regular expression that describes possible yes-
418 responses.
419 noexpr followed by a regular expression that describes possible no-
421 responses.
422 yesstr followed by the output string corresponding to "yes".
424 nostr followed by the output string corresponding to "no".
426 The LC_MESSAGES definition ends with the string END LC_MESSAGES.
428 LC_MEASUREMENT
430 The definition starts with the string LC_MEASUREMENT in the first col‐
431 umn.
432 The following keywords are allowed:
434 measurement
436 followed by number identifying the standard used for measure‐
437 ment. The following values are recognized:
438 1 Metric.
440 2 US customary measurements.
442 The LC_MEASUREMENT definition ends with the string END LC_MEASUREMENT.
444 LC_MONETARY
446 The definition starts with the string LC_MONETARY in the first column.
447 The following keywords are allowed:
449 int_curr_symbol
451 followed by the international currency symbol. This must be a
452 4-character string containing the international currency symbol
453 as defined by the ISO 4217 standard (three characters) followed
454 by a separator.
455 currency_symbol
457 followed by the local currency symbol.
458 mon_decimal_point
460 followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delim‐
461 iter when formatting monetary quantities.
462 mon_thousands_sep
464 followed by the string that will be used as a group separator
465 when formatting monetary quantities.
466 mon_grouping
468 followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that
469 describe the formatting of monetary quantities. See grouping
470 below for details.
471 positive_sign
473 followed by a string that is used to indicate a positive sign
474 for monetary quantities.
475 negative_sign
477 followed by a string that is used to indicate a negative sign
478 for monetary quantities.
479 int_frac_digits
481 followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used
482 when formatting with the int_curr_symbol.
483 frac_digits
485 followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used
486 when formatting with the currency_symbol.
487 p_cs_precedes
489 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of cur‐
490 rency_symbol for a nonnegative formatted monetary quantity:
491 0 the symbol succeeds the value.
493 1 the symbol precedes the value.
495 p_sep_by_space
497 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of cur‐
498 rency_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a nonnegative
499 formatted monetary quantity. The following values are recog‐
500 nized:
501 0 No space separates the currency symbol and the value.
503 1 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a
505 space separates them from the value; otherwise a space sepa‐
506 rates the currency symbol and the value.
507 2 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a
509 space separates them from the value; otherwise a space sepa‐
510 rates the sign string and the value.
511 n_cs_precedes
513 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of cur‐
514 rency_symbol for a negative formatted monetary quantity. The
515 same values are recognized as for p_cs_precedes.
516 n_sep_by_space
518 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of cur‐
519 rency_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a negative for‐
520 matted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
521 p_sep_by_space.
522 p_sign_posn
524 followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign
525 should be placed for a nonnegative monetary quantity:
526 0 Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or
528 int_curr_symbol.
529 1 The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_sym‐
531 bol or the int_curr_symbol.
532 2 The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_sym‐
534 bol or the int_curr_symbol.
535 3 The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or the
537 int_curr_symbol.
538 4 The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or the
540 int_curr_symbol.
541 n_sign_posn
543 followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign
544 should be placed for a negative monetary quantity. The same
545 values are recognized as for p_sign_posn.
546 int_p_cs_precedes
548 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
549 int_curr_symbol for a nonnegative internationally formatted mon‐
550 etary quantity. The same values are recognized as for p_cs_pre‐
551 cedes.
552 int_n_cs_precedes
554 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
555 int_curr_symbol for a negative internationally formatted mone‐
556 tary quantity. The same values are recognized as for p_cs_pre‐
557 cedes.
558 int_p_sep_by_space
560 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
561 int_curr_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a nonnega‐
562 tive internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same val‐
563 ues are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.
564 int_n_sep_by_space
566 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
567 int_curr_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a negative
568 internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values
569 are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.
570 int_p_sign_posn
572 followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign
573 should be placed for a nonnegative internationally formatted
574 monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
575 p_sign_posn.
576 int_n_sign_posn
578 followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign
579 should be placed for a negative internationally formatted mone‐
580 tary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
581 p_sign_posn.
582 The LC_MONETARY definition ends with the string END LC_MONETARY.
584 LC_NAME
586 The definition starts with the string LC_NAME in the first column.
587 Various keywords are allowed, but only name_fmt is mandatory. Other
589 keywords are needed only if there is common convention to use the cor‐
590 responding salutation in this locale. The allowed keywords are as fol‐
591 lows:
592 name_fmt
594 followed by a string containing field descriptors that define
595 the format used for names in the locale. The following field
596 descriptors are recognized:
597 %f Family name(s).
599 %F Family names in uppercase.
601 %g First given name.
603 %G First given initial.
605 %l First given name with Latin letters.
607 %o Other shorter name.
609 %m Additional given name(s).
611 %M Initials for additional given name(s).
613 %p Profession.
615 %s Salutation, such as "Doctor".
617 %S Abbreviated salutation, such as "Mr." or "Dr.".
619 %d Salutation, using the FDCC-sets conventions.
621 %t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty
623 string, then the empty string, otherwise a space character.
624 name_gen
626 followed by the general salutation for any gender.
627 name_mr
629 followed by the salutation for men.
630 name_mrs
632 followed by the salutation for married women.
633 name_miss
635 followed by the salutation for unmarried women.
636 name_ms
638 followed by the salutation valid for all women.
639 The LC_NAME definition ends with the string END LC_NAME.
641 LC_NUMERIC
643 The definition starts with the string LC_NUMERIC in the first column.
644 The following keywords are allowed:
646 decimal_point
648 followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delim‐
649 iter when formatting numeric quantities.
650 thousands_sep
652 followed by the string that will be used as a group separator
653 when formatting numeric quantities.
654 grouping
656 followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that
657 describe the formatting of numeric quantities.
658 Each integer specifies the number of digits in a group. The
660 first integer defines the size of the group immediately to the
661 left of the decimal delimiter. Subsequent integers define suc‐
662 ceeding groups to the left of the previous group. If the last
663 integer is not -1, then the size of the previous group (if any)
664 is repeatedly used for the remainder of the digits. If the last
665 integer is -1, then no further grouping is performed.
666 The LC_NUMERIC definition ends with the string END LC_NUMERIC.
668 LC_PAPER
670 The definition starts with the string LC_PAPER in the first column.
671 The following keywords are allowed:
673 height followed by the height, in millimeters, of the standard paper
675 format.
676 width followed by the width, in millimeters, of the standard paper
678 format.
679 The LC_PAPER definition ends with the string END LC_PAPER.
681 LC_TELEPHONE
683 The definition starts with the string LC_TELEPHONE in the first column.
684 The following keywords are allowed:
686 tel_int_fmt
688 followed by a string that contains field descriptors that iden‐
689 tify the format used to dial international numbers. The follow‐
690 ing field descriptors are recognized:
691 %a Area code without nationwide prefix (the prefix is often
693 "00").
694 %A Area code including nationwide prefix.
696 %l Local number (within area code).
698 %e Extension (to local number).
700 %c Country code.
702 %C Alternate carrier service code used for dialing abroad.
704 %t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty
706 string, then the empty string, otherwise a space character.
707 tel_dom_fmt
709 followed by a string that contains field descriptors that iden‐
710 tify the format used to dial domestic numbers. The recognized
711 field descriptors are the same as for tel_int_fmt.
712 int_select
714 followed by the prefix used to call international phone numbers.
715 int_prefix
717 followed by the prefix used from other countries to dial this
718 country.
719 The LC_TELEPHONE definition ends with the string END LC_TELEPHONE.
721 LC_TIME
723 The definition starts with the string LC_TIME in the first column.
724 The following keywords are allowed:
726 abday followed by a list of abbreviated names of the days of the week.
728 The list starts with the first day of the week as specified by
729 week (Sunday by default). See NOTES.
730 day followed by a list of names of the days of the week. The list
732 starts with the first day of the week as specified by week (Sun‐
733 day by default). See NOTES.
734 abmon followed by a list of abbreviated month names.
736 mon followed by a list of month names.
738 d_t_fmt
740 followed by the appropriate date and time format (for syntax,
741 see strftime(3)).
742 d_fmt followed by the appropriate date format (for syntax, see strf‐
744 time(3)).
745 t_fmt followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see strf‐
747 time(3)).
748 am_pm followed by the appropriate representation of the am and pm
750 strings. This should be left empty for locales not using AM/PM
751 convention.
752 t_fmt_ampm
754 followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see strf‐
755 time(3)) when using 12h clock format. This should be left empty
756 for locales not using AM/PM convention.
757 era followed by semicolon-separated strings that define how years
759 are counted and displayed for each era in the locale. Each
760 string has the following format:
761 direction:offset:start_date:end_date:era_name:era_format
763 The fields are to be defined as follows:
765 direction
767 Either + or -. + means the years closer to start_date have
768 lower numbers than years closer to end_date. - means the
769 opposite.
770 offset
772 The number of the year closest to start_date in the era,
773 corresponding to the %Ey descriptor (see strptime(3)).
774 start_date
776 The start of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd. Years prior
777 AD 1 are represented as negative numbers.
778 end_date
780 The end of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd, or one of the
781 two special values of -* or +*. -* means the ending date is
782 the beginning of time. +* means the ending date is the end
783 of time.
784 era_name
786 The name of the era corresponding to the %EC descriptor (see
787 strptime(3)).
788 era_format
790 The format of the year in the era corresponding to the %EY
791 descriptor (see strptime(3)).
792 era_d_fmt
794 followed by the format of the date in alternative era notation,
795 corresponding to the %Ex descriptor (see strptime(3)).
796 era_t_fmt
798 followed by the format of the time in alternative era notation,
799 corresponding to the %EX descriptor (see strptime(3)).
800 era_d_t_fmt
802 followed by the format of the date and time in alternative era
803 notation, corresponding to the %Ec descriptor (see strptime(3)).
804 alt_digits
806 followed by the alternative digits used for date and time in the
807 locale.
808 week followed by a list of three values separated by semicolons: The
810 number of days in a week (by default 7), a date of beginning of
811 the week (by default corresponds to Sunday), and the minimal
812 length of the first week in year (by default 4). Regarding the
813 start of the week, 19971130 shall be used for Sunday and
814 19971201 shall be used for Monday. See NOTES.
815 first_weekday (since glibc 2.2)
817 followed by the number of the first day from the day list to be
818 shown in calendar applications. The default value of 1 corre‐
819 sponds to either Sunday or Monday depending on the value of the
820 second week list item. See NOTES.
821 first_workday (since glibc 2.2)
823 followed by the number of the first working day from the day
824 list. The default value is 2. See NOTES.
825 cal_direction
827 followed by a number value that indicates the direction for the
828 display of calendar dates, as follows:
829 1 Left-right from top.
831 2 Top-down from left.
833 3 Right-left from top.
835 date_fmt
837 followed by the appropriate date representation for date(1) (for
838 syntax, see strftime(3)).
839 The LC_TIME definition ends with the string END LC_TIME.
841
843 /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
844 Usual default locale archive location.
845 /usr/share/i18n/locales
847 Usual default path for locale definition files.
848
850 POSIX.2.
851
853 The collective GNU C library community wisdom regarding abday, day,
854 week, first_weekday, and first_workday states at https://source‐
855 ware.org/glibc/wiki/Locales the following:
856 * The value of the second week list item specifies the base of the
858 abday and day lists.
859 * first_weekday specifies the offset of the first day-of-week in the
861 abday and day lists.
862 * For compatibility reasons, all glibc locales should set the value of
864 the second week list item to 19971130 (Sunday) and base the abday
865 and day lists appropriately, and set first_weekday and first_workday
866 to 1 or 2, depending on whether the week and work week actually
867 starts on Sunday or Monday for the locale.
868
870 iconv(1), locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), newlocale(3), setlo‐
871 cale(3), strftime(3), strptime(3), uselocale(3), charmap(5),
872 charsets(7), locale(7), unicode(7), utf-8(7)
873
875 This page is part of release 4.16 of the Linux man-pages project. A
876 description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
877 latest version of this page, can be found at
878 https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
879Linux 2017-09-15 LOCALE(5)