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LOCALE(5)                         Linux User Manual                         LOCALE(5)

NAME         top

       locale - Describes a locale definition file

DESCRIPTION         top

       The locale definition files contains all the information that the localedef(1)
       command needs to convert it into the binary locale database.

       The definition files consist of sections which each describe a locale category
       in detail.

Syntax

       The locale definition file starts with a header that may consist of the
       following keywords:

       <escape_char>
              is followed by a character that should be used as the escape-character
              for the rest of the file to mark characters that should be interpreted
              in a special way.  It defaults to the backslash (\).

       <comment_char>
              is followed by a character that will be used as the comment-character
              for the rest of the file.  It defaults to the number sign (#).

       The locale definition has one part for each locale category.  Each part can be
       copied from another existing locale or can be defined from scratch.  If the
       category should be copied, the only valid keyword in the definition is copy
       followed by the name of the locale which should be copied.

LC_CTYPE

       The definition for the LC_CTYPE category starts with the string LC_CTYPE in
       the first column.

       There are the following keywords allowed:

       upper  followed by a list of uppercase letters.  The letters A through Z are
              included automatically.  Characters also specified as cntrl, digit,
              punct, or space are not allowed.

       lower  followed by a list of lowercase letters.  The letters a through z are
              included automatically.  Characters also specified as cntrl, digit,
              punct, or space are not allowed.

       alpha  followed by a list of letters.  All character specified as either upper
              or lower are automatically included.  Characters also specified as
              cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not allowed.

       digit  followed by the characters classified as numeric digits.  Only the
              digits 0 through 9 are allowed.  They are included by default in this
              class.

       space  followed by a list of characters defined as white-space characters.
              Characters also specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, graph, or
              xdigit are not allowed.  The characters <space>, <form-feed>,
              <newline>, <carriage-return>, <tab>, and <vertical-tab> are
              automatically included.

       cntrl  followed by a list of control characters.  Characters also specified as
              upper, lower, alpha, digit, punct, graph, print, or xdigit are not
              allowed.

       punct  followed by a list of punctuation characters.  Characters also
              specified as upper, lower, alpha, digit, cntrl, xdigit, or the <space>
              character are not allowed.

       graph  followed by a list of printable characters, not including the <space>
              character.  The characters defined as upper, lower, alpha, digit,
              xdigit, and punct are automatically included.  Characters also
              specified as cntrl are not allowed.

       print  followed by a list of printable characters, including the <space>
              character.  The characters defined as upper, lower, alpha, digit,
              xdigit, punct, and the <space> character are automatically included.
              Characters also specified as cntrl are not allowed.

       xdigit followed by a list of characters classified as hexadecimal digits.  The
              decimal digits must be included followed by one or more set of six
              characters in ascending order.  The following characters are included
              by default: 0 through 9, a through f, A through F.

       blank  followed by a list of characters classified as blank.  The characters
              <space> and <tab> are automatically included.

       toupper
              followed by a list of mappings from lowercase to uppercase letters.
              Each mapping is a pair of a lowercase and an uppercase letter separated
              with a , and enclosed in parentheses.  The members of the list are
              separated with semicolons.

       tolower
              followed by a list of mappings from uppercase to lowercase letters.  If
              the keyword tolower is not present, the reverse of the toupper list is
              used.

       The LC_CTYPE definition ends with the string END LC_CYTPE.

LC_COLLATE

       The LC_COLLATE category defines the rules for collating characters.  Due to
       limitations of libc not all POSIX-options are implemented.

       The definition starts with the string LC_COLLATE in the first column.

       There are the following keywords allowed:

       collating-element

       collating-symbol

       The order-definition starts with a line:

       order_start

       followed by a list of keywords out of forward, backward, or position.  The
       order definition consists of lines that describe the order and is terminated
       with the keyword

       order_end.

       For more details see the sources in /usr/lib/nls/src notably the examples
       POSIX, Example and Example2

       The LC_COLLATE definition ends with the string END LC_COLLATE.

LC_MONETARY

       The definition starts with the string LC_MONETARY in the first column.

       There are the following keywords allowed:

       int_curr_symbol
              followed by the international currency symbol.  This must be a
              4-character string containing the international currency symbol as
              defined by the ISO 4217 standard (three characters) followed by a
              separator.

       currency_symbol
              followed by the local currency symbol.

       mon_decimal_point
              followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delimiter when
              formatting monetary quantities.

       mon_thousands_sep
              followed by the string that will be used as a group separator when
              formatting monetary quantities.

       mon_grouping
              followed by a string that describes the formatting of numeric
              quantities.

       positive_sign
              followed by a string that is used to indicate a positive sign for
              monetary quantities.

       negative_sign
              followed by a string that is used to indicate a negative sign for
              monetary quantities.

       int_frac_digits
              followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used when
              formatting with the int_curr_symbol.

       frac_digits
              followed by the number of fractional digits that should be used when
              formatting with the currency_symbol.

       p_cs_precedes
              followed by an integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol or
              int_curr_symbol should precede the formatted monetary quantity or set
              to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.

       p_sep_by_space
              followed by an integer.

              0      means that no space should be printed between the symbol and the
                     value.

              1      means that a space should be printed between the symbol and the
                     value.

              2      means that a space should be printed between the symbol and the
                     sign string, if adjacent.

       n_cs_precedes

              0      - the symbol succeeds the value.

              1      - the symbol precedes the value.

       n_sep_by_space
              An integer set to 0 if no space separates the currency_symbol or
              int_curr_symbol from the value for a negative monetary quantity, set to
              1 if a space separates the symbol from the value and set to 2 if a
              space separates the symbol and the sign string, if adjacent.

       p_sign_posn

              0      Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or
                     int_curr_symbol.

              1      The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_symbol or
                     the int_curr_symbol.

              2      The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_symbol or
                     the int_curr_symbol.

              3      The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or the
                     int_curr_symbol.

              4      The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or the
                     int_curr_symbol.

       n_sign_posn

              0      Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or
                     int_curr_symbol.

              1      The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_symbol or
                     the int_curr_symbol.

              2      The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_symbol or
                     the int_curr_symbol.

              3      The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or the
                     int_curr_symbol.

              4      The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or the
                     int_curr_symbol.

       The LC_MONETARY definition ends with the string END LC_MONETARY.

LC_NUMERIC

       The definition starts with the string LC_NUMERIC in the first column.

       The following keywords are allowed:

       decimal_point
              followed by the string that will be used as the decimal delimiter when
              formatting numeric quantities.

       thousands_sep
              followed by the string that will be used as a group separator when
              formatting numeric quantities.

       grouping
              followed by a string that describes the formatting of numeric
              quantities.

       The LC_NUMERIC definition ends with the string END LC_NUMERIC.

LC_TIME

       The definition starts with the string LC_TIME in the first column.

       The following keywords are allowed:

       abday  followed by a list of abbreviated weekday names.  The list starts with
              the first day of the week as specified by week (Sunday by default).

       day    followed by a list of weekday names.  The list starts with the first
              day of the week as specified by week (Sunday by default).

       abmon  followed by a list of abbreviated month names.

       mon    followed by a list of month names.

       am_pm  The appropriate representation of the am and pm strings.

       d_t_fmt
              The appropriate date and time format.

       d_fmt  The appropriate date format.

       t_fmt  The appropriate time format.

       t_fmt_ampm
              The appropriate time format when using 12h clock format.

       week   followed by a list of three values: The number of days in a week (by
              default 7), a date of beginning of the week (by default corresponds to
              Sunday), and the minimal length of the first week in year (by default
              4).  Regarding the start of the week, 19971130 shall be used for Sunday
              and 19971201 shall be used for Monday.  Thus, countries using 19971130
              should have local Sunday name as the first day in the day list, while
              countries using 19971201 should have Monday translation as the first
              item in the day list.

       first_weekday (since glibc 2.2)
              Number of the first day from the day list to be shown in calendar
              applications.  The default value of 1 corresponds to either Sunday or
              Monday depending on the value of the second week list item.

       first_workday (since glibc 2.2)
              Number of the first working day from the day list.

       The LC_TIME definition ends with the string END LC_TIME.

LC_MESSAGES

       The definition starts with the string LC_MESSAGES in the first column.

       The following keywords are allowed:

       yesexpr
              followed by a regular expression that describes possible yes-responses.

       noexpr followed by a regular expression that describes possible no-responses.

       The LC_MESSAGES definition ends with the string END LC_MESSAGES.

       See the POSIX.2 standard for details.

FILES         top

       /usr/lib/locale/ -- database for the current locale setting of that category
       /usr/lib/nls/charmap/* -- charmap-files

CONFORMING TO         top

       POSIX.2, ISO/IEC 14652.

BUGS         top

       This manual page isn't complete.

SEE ALSO         top

       locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), setlocale(3), charmap(5)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.23 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
       at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                                 2008-06-17                            LOCALE(5)