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 lo‐
10 caledef(1) command needs to convert it into the binary locale database.
11 The definition files consist of sections which each describe a locale
13 category in detail. See locale(7) for additional details for these
14 categories.
15 Syntax
17 The locale definition file starts with a header that may consist of the
18 following keywords:
19 escape_char
21 is followed by a character that should be used as the escape-
22 character for the rest of the file to mark characters that
23 should be interpreted in a special way. It defaults to the
24 backslash (\).
25 comment_char
27 is followed by a character that will be used as the comment-
28 character for the rest of the file. It defaults to the number
29 sign (#).
30 The locale definition has one part for each locale category. Each part
32 can be copied from another existing locale or can be defined from
33 scratch. If the category should be copied, the only valid keyword in
34 the definition is copy followed by the name of the locale in double
35 quotes which should be copied. The exceptions for this rule are
36 LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE where a copy statement can be followed by lo‐
37 cale-specific rules and selected overrides.
38 When defining a locale or a category from scratch, an existing system-
40 provided locale definition file should be used as a reference to follow
41 common glibc conventions.
42 Locale category sections
44 The following category sections are defined by POSIX:
45 * LC_CTYPE
47 * LC_COLLATE
49 * LC_MESSAGES
51 * LC_MONETARY
53 * LC_NUMERIC
55 * LC_TIME
57 In addition, since version 2.2, the GNU C library supports the follow‐
59 ing nonstandard categories:
60 * LC_ADDRESS
62 * LC_IDENTIFICATION
64 * LC_MEASUREMENT
66 * LC_NAME
68 * LC_PAPER
70 * LC_TELEPHONE
72 See locale(7) for a more detailed description of each category.
74 LC_ADDRESS
76 The definition starts with the string LC_ADDRESS in the first column.
77 The following keywords are allowed:
79 postal_fmt
81 followed by a string containing field descriptors that define
82 the format used for postal addresses in the locale. The follow‐
83 ing field descriptors are recognized:
84 %n Person's name, possibly constructed with the LC_NAME
86 name_fmt keyword (since glibc 2.24).
87 %a Care of person, or organization.
89 %f Firm name.
91 %d Department name.
93 %b Building name.
95 %s Street or block (e.g., Japanese) name.
97 %h House number or designation.
99 %N Insert an end-of-line if the previous descriptor's value was
101 not an empty string; otherwise ignore.
102 %t Insert a space if the previous descriptor's value was not an
104 empty string; otherwise ignore.
105 %r Room number, door designation.
107 %e Floor number.
109 %C Country designation, from the country_post keyword.
111 %l Local township within town or city (since glibc 2.24).
113 %z Zip number, postal code.
115 %T Town, city.
117 %S State, province, or prefecture.
119 %c Country, as taken from data record.
121 Each field descriptor may have an 'R' after the '%' to specify
123 that the information is taken from a Romanized version string of
124 the entity.
125 country_name
127 followed by the country name in the language of the current doc‐
128 ument (e.g., "Deutschland" for the de_DE locale).
129 country_post
131 followed by the abbreviation of the country (see CERT_MAIL‐
132 CODES).
133 country_ab2
135 followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO
136 3166).
137 country_ab3
139 followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO
140 3166).
141 country_num
143 followed by the numeric country code (ISO 3166).
144 country_car
146 followed by the international license plate country code.
147 country_isbn
149 followed by the ISBN code (for books).
150 lang_name
152 followed by the language name in the language of the current
153 document.
154 lang_ab
156 followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO
157 639).
158 lang_term
160 followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO
161 639-2/T).
162 lang_lib
164 followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language for
165 library use (ISO 639-2/B). Applications should in general pre‐
166 fer lang_term over lang_lib.
167 The LC_ADDRESS definition ends with the string END LC_ADDRESS.
169 LC_CTYPE
171 The definition starts with the string LC_CTYPE in the first column.
172 The following keywords are allowed:
174 upper followed by a list of uppercase letters. The letters A through
176 Z are included automatically. Characters also specified as cn‐
177 trl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
178 lower followed by a list of lowercase letters. The letters a through
180 z are included automatically. Characters also specified as cn‐
181 trl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
182 alpha followed by a list of letters. All character specified as ei‐
184 ther upper or lower are automatically included. Characters also
185 specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.
186 digit followed by the characters classified as numeric digits. Only
188 the digits 0 through 9 are allowed. They are included by de‐
189 fault in this class.
190 space followed by a list of characters defined as white-space charac‐
192 ters. Characters also specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit,
193 graph, or xdigit are not allowed. The characters <space>,
194 <form-feed>, <newline>, <carriage-return>, <tab>, and <vertical-
195 tab> are automatically included.
196 cntrl followed by a list of control characters. Characters also spec‐
198 ified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, punct, graph, print, or
199 xdigit are not allowed.
200 punct followed by a list of punctuation characters. Characters also
202 specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, cntrl, xdigit, or the
203 <space> character are not allowed.
204 graph followed by a list of printable characters, not including the
206 <space> character. The characters defined as upper, lower, al‐
207 pha, digit, xdigit, and punct are automatically included. Char‐
208 acters also specified as cntrl are not allowed.
209 print followed by a list of printable characters, including the
211 <space> character. The characters defined as upper, lower, al‐
212 pha, digit, xdigit, punct, and the <space> character are auto‐
213 matically included. Characters also specified as cntrl are not
214 allowed.
215 xdigit followed by a list of characters classified as hexadecimal dig‐
217 its. The decimal digits must be included followed by one or
218 more set of six characters in ascending order. The following
219 characters are included by default: 0 through 9, a through f, A
220 through F.
221 blank followed by a list of characters classified as blank. The char‐
223 acters <space> and <tab> are automatically included.
224 charclass
226 followed by a list of locale-specific character class names
227 which are then to be defined in the locale.
228 toupper
230 followed by a list of mappings from lowercase to uppercase let‐
231 ters. Each mapping is a pair of a lowercase and an uppercase
232 letter separated with a , and enclosed in parentheses.
233 tolower
235 followed by a list of mappings from uppercase to lowercase let‐
236 ters. If the keyword tolower is not present, the reverse of the
237 toupper list is used.
238 map totitle
240 followed by a list of mapping pairs of characters and letters to
241 be used in titles (headings).
242 class followed by a locale-specific character class definition, start‐
244 ing with the class name followed by the characters belonging to
245 the class.
246 charconv
248 followed by a list of locale-specific character mapping names
249 which are then to be defined in the locale.
250 outdigit
252 followed by a list of alternate output digits for the locale.
253 map to_inpunct
255 followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate digits and sep‐
256 arators for input digits for the locale.
257 map to_outpunct
259 followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate separators for
260 output for the locale.
261 translit_start
263 marks the start of the transliteration rules section. The sec‐
264 tion can contain the include keyword in the beginning followed
265 by locale-specific rules and overrides. Any rule specified in
266 the locale file will override any rule copied or included from
267 other files. In case of duplicate rule definitions in the lo‐
268 cale file, only the first rule is used.
269 A transliteration rule consist of a character to be transliter‐
271 ated followed by a list of transliteration targets separated by
272 semicolons. The first target which can be presented in the tar‐
273 get character set is used, if none of them can be used the de‐
274 fault_missing character will be used instead.
275 include
277 in the transliteration rules section includes a transliteration
278 rule file (and optionally a repertoire map file).
279 default_missing
281 in the transliteration rules section defines the default charac‐
282 ter to be used for transliteration where none of the targets
283 cannot be presented in the target character set.
284 translit_end
286 marks the end of the transliteration rules.
287 The LC_CTYPE definition ends with the string END LC_CTYPE.
289 LC_COLLATE
291 Note that glibc does not support all POSIX-defined options, only the
292 options described below are supported (as of glibc 2.23).
293 The definition starts with the string LC_COLLATE in the first column.
295 The following keywords are allowed:
297 coll_weight_max
299 followed by the number representing used collation levels. This
300 keyword is recognized but ignored by glibc.
301 collating-element
303 followed by the definition of a collating-element symbol repre‐
304 senting a multicharacter collating element.
305 collating-symbol
307 followed by the definition of a collating symbol that can be
308 used in collation order statements.
309 define followed by string to be evaluated in an ifdef string / else /
311 endif construct.
312 reorder-after
314 followed by a redefinition of a collation rule.
315 reorder-end
317 marks the end of the redefinition of a collation rule.
318 -sections-after
319 reorde
320 followed by a script name to reorder listed scripts after.
321 reorder-sections-end
323 marks the end of the reordering of sections.
324 script followed by a declaration of a script.
326 symbol-equivalence
328 followed by a collating-symbol to be equivalent to another de‐
329 fined collating-symbol.
330 The collation rule definition starts with a line:
332 order_start
334 followed by a list of keywords chosen from forward, backward, or
335 position. The order definition consists of lines that describe
336 the collation order and is terminated with the keyword or‐
337 der_end.
338 The LC_COLLATE definition ends with the string END LC_COLLATE.
340 LC_IDENTIFICATION
342 The definition starts with the string LC_IDENTIFICATION in the first
343 column.
344 The following keywords are allowed:
346 title followed by the title of the locale document (e.g., "Maori lan‐
348 guage locale for New Zealand").
349 source followed by the name of the organization that maintains this
351 document.
352 address
354 followed by the address of the organization that maintains this
355 document.
356 contact
358 followed by the name of the contact person at the organization
359 that maintains this document.
360 email followed by the email address of the person or organization that
362 maintains this document.
363 tel followed by the telephone number (in international format) of
365 the organization that maintains this document. As of glibc
366 2.24, this keyword is deprecated in favor of other contact meth‐
367 ods.
368 fax followed by the fax number (in international format) of the or‐
370 ganization that maintains this document. As of glibc 2.24, this
371 keyword is deprecated in favor of other contact methods.
372 language
374 followed by the name of the language to which this document ap‐
375 plies.
376 territory
378 followed by the name of the country/geographic extent to which
379 this document applies.
380 audience
382 followed by a description of the audience for which this docu‐
383 ment is intended.
384 application
386 followed by a description of any special application for which
387 this document is intended.
388 abbreviation
390 followed by the short name for provider of the source of this
391 document.
392 revision
394 followed by the revision number of this document.
395 date followed by the revision date of this document.
397 In addition, for each of the categories defined by the document, there
399 should be a line starting with the keyword category, followed by:
400 * a string that identifies this locale category definition,
402 * a semicolon, and
404 * one of the LC_* identifiers.
406 The LC_IDENTIFICATION definition ends with the string END LC_IDENTIFI‐
408 CATION.
409 LC_MESSAGES
411 The definition starts with the string LC_MESSAGES in the first column.
412 The following keywords are allowed:
414 yesexpr
416 followed by a regular expression that describes possible yes-re‐
417 sponses.
418 noexpr followed by a regular expression that describes possible no-re‐
420 sponses.
421 yesstr followed by the output string corresponding to "yes".
423 nostr followed by the output string corresponding to "no".
425 The LC_MESSAGES definition ends with the string END LC_MESSAGES.
427 LC_MEASUREMENT
429 The definition starts with the string LC_MEASUREMENT in the first col‐
430 umn.
431 The following keywords are allowed:
433 measurement
435 followed by number identifying the standard used for measure‐
436 ment. The following values are recognized:
437 1 Metric.
439 2 US customary measurements.
441 The LC_MEASUREMENT definition ends with the string END LC_MEASUREMENT.
443 LC_MONETARY
445 The definition starts with the string LC_MONETARY in the first column.
446 The following keywords are allowed:
448 int_curr_symbol
450 followed by the international currency symbol. This must be a
451 4-character string containing the international currency symbol
452 as defined by the ISO 4217 standard (three characters) followed
453 by a separator.
454 currency_symbol
456 followed by the local currency symbol.
457 mon_decimal_point
459 followed by the single-character string that will be used as the
460 decimal delimiter when formatting monetary quantities.
461 mon_thousands_sep
463 followed by the single-character string that will be used as a
464 group separator when formatting monetary quantities.
465 mon_grouping
467 followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that
468 describe the formatting of monetary quantities. See grouping
469 below for details.
470 positive_sign
472 followed by a string that is used to indicate a positive sign
473 for monetary quantities.
474 negative_sign
476 followed by a string that is used to indicate a negative sign
477 for monetary quantities.
478 int_frac_digits
480 followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used
481 when formatting with the int_curr_symbol.
482 frac_digits
484 followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used
485 when formatting with the currency_symbol.
486 p_cs_precedes
488 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of cur‐
489 rency_symbol for a nonnegative formatted monetary quantity:
490 0 the symbol succeeds the value.
492 1 the symbol precedes the value.
494 p_sep_by_space
496 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of cur‐
497 rency_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a nonnegative
498 formatted monetary quantity. The following values are recog‐
499 nized:
500 0 No space separates the currency symbol and the value.
502 1 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a
504 space separates them from the value; otherwise a space sepa‐
505 rates the currency symbol and the value.
506 2 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a
508 space separates them from the value; otherwise a space sepa‐
509 rates the sign string and the value.
510 n_cs_precedes
512 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of cur‐
513 rency_symbol for a negative formatted monetary quantity. The
514 same values are recognized as for p_cs_precedes.
515 n_sep_by_space
517 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of cur‐
518 rency_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a negative for‐
519 matted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
520 p_sep_by_space.
521 p_sign_posn
523 followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign
524 should be placed for a nonnegative monetary quantity:
525 0 Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or
527 int_curr_symbol.
528 1 The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_sym‐
530 bol or the int_curr_symbol.
531 2 The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_sym‐
533 bol or the int_curr_symbol.
534 3 The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or the
536 int_curr_symbol.
537 4 The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or the
539 int_curr_symbol.
540 n_sign_posn
542 followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign
543 should be placed for a negative monetary quantity. The same
544 values are recognized as for p_sign_posn.
545 int_p_cs_precedes
547 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
548 int_curr_symbol for a nonnegative internationally formatted mon‐
549 etary quantity. The same values are recognized as for p_cs_pre‐
550 cedes.
551 int_n_cs_precedes
553 followed by an integer that indicates the placement of
554 int_curr_symbol for a negative internationally formatted mone‐
555 tary quantity. The same values are recognized as for p_cs_pre‐
556 cedes.
557 int_p_sep_by_space
559 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
560 int_curr_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a nonnega‐
561 tive internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same val‐
562 ues are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.
563 int_n_sep_by_space
565 followed by an integer that indicates the separation of
566 int_curr_symbol, the sign string, and the value for a negative
567 internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values
568 are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.
569 int_p_sign_posn
571 followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign
572 should be placed for a nonnegative internationally formatted
573 monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
574 p_sign_posn.
575 int_n_sign_posn
577 followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign
578 should be placed for a negative internationally formatted mone‐
579 tary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
580 p_sign_posn.
581 The LC_MONETARY definition ends with the string END LC_MONETARY.
583 LC_NAME
585 The definition starts with the string LC_NAME in the first column.
586 Various keywords are allowed, but only name_fmt is mandatory. Other
588 keywords are needed only if there is common convention to use the cor‐
589 responding salutation in this locale. The allowed keywords are as fol‐
590 lows:
591 name_fmt
593 followed by a string containing field descriptors that define
594 the format used for names in the locale. The following field
595 descriptors are recognized:
596 %f Family name(s).
598 %F Family names in uppercase.
600 %g First given name.
602 %G First given initial.
604 %l First given name with Latin letters.
606 %o Other shorter name.
608 %m Additional given name(s).
610 %M Initials for additional given name(s).
612 %p Profession.
614 %s Salutation, such as "Doctor".
616 %S Abbreviated salutation, such as "Mr." or "Dr.".
618 %d Salutation, using the FDCC-sets conventions.
620 %t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty
622 string, then the empty string, otherwise a space character.
623 name_gen
625 followed by the general salutation for any gender.
626 name_mr
628 followed by the salutation for men.
629 name_mrs
631 followed by the salutation for married women.
632 name_miss
634 followed by the salutation for unmarried women.
635 name_ms
637 followed by the salutation valid for all women.
638 The LC_NAME definition ends with the string END LC_NAME.
640 LC_NUMERIC
642 The definition starts with the string LC_NUMERIC in the first column.
643 The following keywords are allowed:
645 decimal_point
647 followed by the single-character string that will be used as the
648 decimal delimiter when formatting numeric quantities.
649 thousands_sep
651 followed by the single-character string that will be used as a
652 group separator when formatting numeric quantities.
653 grouping
655 followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that
656 describe the formatting of numeric quantities.
657 Each integer specifies the number of digits in a group. The
659 first integer defines the size of the group immediately to the
660 left of the decimal delimiter. Subsequent integers define suc‐
661 ceeding groups to the left of the previous group. If the last
662 integer is not -1, then the size of the previous group (if any)
663 is repeatedly used for the remainder of the digits. If the last
664 integer is -1, then no further grouping is performed.
665 The LC_NUMERIC definition ends with the string END LC_NUMERIC.
667 LC_PAPER
669 The definition starts with the string LC_PAPER in the first column.
670 The following keywords are allowed:
672 height followed by the height, in millimeters, of the standard paper
674 format.
675 width followed by the width, in millimeters, of the standard paper
677 format.
678 The LC_PAPER definition ends with the string END LC_PAPER.
680 LC_TELEPHONE
682 The definition starts with the string LC_TELEPHONE in the first column.
683 The following keywords are allowed:
685 tel_int_fmt
687 followed by a string that contains field descriptors that iden‐
688 tify the format used to dial international numbers. The follow‐
689 ing field descriptors are recognized:
690 %a Area code without nationwide prefix (the prefix is often
692 "00").
693 %A Area code including nationwide prefix.
695 %l Local number (within area code).
697 %e Extension (to local number).
699 %c Country code.
701 %C Alternate carrier service code used for dialing abroad.
703 %t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty
705 string, then the empty string, otherwise a space character.
706 tel_dom_fmt
708 followed by a string that contains field descriptors that iden‐
709 tify the format used to dial domestic numbers. The recognized
710 field descriptors are the same as for tel_int_fmt.
711 int_select
713 followed by the prefix used to call international phone numbers.
714 int_prefix
716 followed by the prefix used from other countries to dial this
717 country.
718 The LC_TELEPHONE definition ends with the string END LC_TELEPHONE.
720 LC_TIME
722 The definition starts with the string LC_TIME in the first column.
723 The following keywords are allowed:
725 abday followed by a list of abbreviated names of the days of the week.
727 The list starts with the first day of the week as specified by
728 week (Sunday by default). See NOTES.
729 day followed by a list of names of the days of the week. The list
731 starts with the first day of the week as specified by week (Sun‐
732 day by default). See NOTES.
733 abmon followed by a list of abbreviated month names.
735 mon followed by a list of month names.
737 d_t_fmt
739 followed by the appropriate date and time format (for syntax,
740 see strftime(3)).
741 d_fmt followed by the appropriate date format (for syntax, see strf‐
743 time(3)).
744 t_fmt followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see strf‐
746 time(3)).
747 am_pm followed by the appropriate representation of the am and pm
749 strings. This should be left empty for locales not using AM/PM
750 convention.
751 t_fmt_ampm
753 followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see strf‐
754 time(3)) when using 12h clock format. This should be left empty
755 for locales not using AM/PM convention.
756 era followed by semicolon-separated strings that define how years
758 are counted and displayed for each era in the locale. Each
759 string has the following format:
760 direction:offset:start_date:end_date:era_name:era_format
762 The fields are to be defined as follows:
764 direction
766 Either + or -. + means the years closer to start_date have
767 lower numbers than years closer to end_date. - means the
768 opposite.
769 offset
771 The number of the year closest to start_date in the era,
772 corresponding to the %Ey descriptor (see strptime(3)).
773 start_date
775 The start of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd. Years prior
776 AD 1 are represented as negative numbers.
777 end_date
779 The end of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd, or one of the
780 two special values of -* or +*. -* means the ending date is
781 the beginning of time. +* means the ending date is the end
782 of time.
783 era_name
785 The name of the era corresponding to the %EC descriptor (see
786 strptime(3)).
787 era_format
789 The format of the year in the era corresponding to the %EY
790 descriptor (see strptime(3)).
791 era_d_fmt
793 followed by the format of the date in alternative era notation,
794 corresponding to the %Ex descriptor (see strptime(3)).
795 era_t_fmt
797 followed by the format of the time in alternative era notation,
798 corresponding to the %EX descriptor (see strptime(3)).
799 era_d_t_fmt
801 followed by the format of the date and time in alternative era
802 notation, corresponding to the %Ec descriptor (see strptime(3)).
803 alt_digits
805 followed by the alternative digits used for date and time in the
806 locale.
807 week followed by a list of three values separated by semicolons: The
809 number of days in a week (by default 7), a date of beginning of
810 the week (by default corresponds to Sunday), and the minimal
811 length of the first week in year (by default 4). Regarding the
812 start of the week, 19971130 shall be used for Sunday and
813 19971201 shall be used for Monday. See NOTES.
814 first_weekday (since glibc 2.2)
816 followed by the number of the day from the day list to be shown
817 as the first day of the week in calendar applications. The de‐
818 fault value of 1 corresponds to either Sunday or Monday depend‐
819 ing on the value of the second week list item. See NOTES.
820 first_workday (since glibc 2.2)
822 followed by the number of the first working day from the day
823 list. The default value is 2. See NOTES.
824 cal_direction
826 followed by a number value that indicates the direction for the
827 display of calendar dates, as follows:
828 1 Left-right from top.
830 2 Top-down from left.
832 3 Right-left from top.
834 date_fmt
836 followed by the appropriate date representation for date(1) (for
837 syntax, see strftime(3)).
838 The LC_TIME definition ends with the string END LC_TIME.
840
842 /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
843 Usual default locale archive location.
844 /usr/share/i18n/locales
846 Usual default path for locale definition files.
847
849 POSIX.2.
850
852 The collective GNU C library community wisdom regarding abday, day,
853 week, first_weekday, and first_workday states at https://source‐
854 ware.org/glibc/wiki/Locales the following:
855 * The value of the second week list item specifies the base of the ab‐
857 day and day lists.
858 * first_weekday specifies the offset of the first day-of-week in the
860 abday and day lists.
861 * For compatibility reasons, all glibc locales should set the value of
863 the second week list item to 19971130 (Sunday) and base the abday
864 and day lists appropriately, and set first_weekday and first_workday
865 to 1 or 2, depending on whether the week and work week actually
866 starts on Sunday or Monday for the locale.
867
869 iconv(1), locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), newlocale(3), setlo‐
870 cale(3), strftime(3), strptime(3), uselocale(3), charmap(5),
871 charsets(7), locale(7), unicode(7), utf-8(7)
872
874 This page is part of release 5.12 of the Linux man-pages project. A
875 description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
876 latest version of this page, can be found at
877 https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
878Linux 2021-03-22 LOCALE(5)