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LOCALE(5) Linux User Manual LOCALE(5)

NAME
locale - describes a locale definition file

DESCRIPTION
The locale definition file 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.
See locale(7) for additional details for these categories.

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 in double
quotes which should be copied. The exceptions for this rule are LC_COLLATE and LC_CTYPE
where a copy statement can be followed by locale-specific rules and selected overrides.

When defining a locale or a category from scratch, an existing system- provided locale defi‐
nition file should be used as a reference to follow common glibc conventions.

Locale category sections
The following category sections are defined by POSIX:

* LC_CTYPE

* LC_COLLATE

* LC_MESSAGES

* LC_MONETARY

* LC_NUMERIC

* LC_TIME

In addition, since version 2.2, the GNU C library supports the following nonstandard cate‐
gories:

* LC_ADDRESS

* LC_IDENTIFICATION

* LC_MEASUREMENT

* LC_NAME

* LC_PAPER

* LC_TELEPHONE

See locale(7) for a more detailed description of each category.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

postal_fmt
followed by a string containing field descriptors that define the format used for
postal addresses in the locale. The following field descriptors are recognized:

%n Person's name, possibly constructed with the LC_NAME name_fmt keyword (since
glibc 2.24).

%a Care of person, or organization.

%f Firm name.

%d Department name.

%b Building name.

%s Street or block (e.g., Japanese) name.

%h House number or designation.

%N Insert an end-of-line if the previous descriptor's value was not an empty string;
otherwise ignore.

%t Insert a space if the previous descriptor's value was not an empty string; other‐
wise ignore.

%r Room number, door designation.

%e Floor number.

%C Country designation, from the country_post keyword.

%l Local township within town or city (since glibc 2.24).

%z Zip number, postal code.

%T Town, city.

%S State, province, or prefecture.

%c Country, as taken from data record.

Each field descriptor may have an 'R' after the '%' to specify that the information is
taken from a Romanized version string of the entity.

country_name
followed by the country name in the language of the current document (e.g., "Deutsch‐
land" for the de_DE locale).

country_post
followed by the abbreviation of the country (see CERT_MAILCODES).

country_ab2
followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO 3166).

country_ab3
followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the country (ISO 3166).

country_num
followed by the numeric country code (ISO 3166).

country_car
followed by the international license plate country code.

country_isbn
followed by the ISBN code (for books).

lang_name
followed by the language name in the language of the current document.

lang_ab
followed by the two-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO 639).

lang_term
followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language (ISO 639-2/T).

lang_lib
followed by the three-letter abbreviation of the language for library use (ISO
639-2/B). Applications should in general prefer lang_term over lang_lib.

The LC_ADDRESS definition ends with the string END LC_ADDRESS.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

upper followed by a list of uppercase letters. The letters A through Z are included auto‐
matically. Characters also specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not al‐
lowed.

lower followed by a list of lowercase letters. The letters a through z are included auto‐
matically. Characters also specified as cntrl, digit, punct, or space are not al‐
lowed.

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 char‐
acters <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> char‐
acter 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.

charclass
followed by a list of locale-specific character class names which are then to be de‐
fined in the locale.

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 paren‐
theses.

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.

map totitle
followed by a list of mapping pairs of characters and letters to be used in titles
(headings).

class followed by a locale-specific character class definition, starting with the class name
followed by the characters belonging to the class.

charconv
followed by a list of locale-specific character mapping names which are then to be de‐
fined in the locale.

outdigit
followed by a list of alternate output digits for the locale.

map to_inpunct
followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate digits and separators for input dig‐
its for the locale.

map to_outpunct
followed by a list of mapping pairs of alternate separators for output for the locale.

translit_start
marks the start of the transliteration rules section. The section can contain the in‐
clude keyword in the beginning followed by locale-specific rules and overrides. Any
rule specified in the locale file will override any rule copied or included from other
files. In case of duplicate rule definitions in the locale file, only the first rule
is used.

A transliteration rule consist of a character to be transliterated followed by a list
of transliteration targets separated by semicolons. The first target which can be
presented in the target character set is used, if none of them can be used the de‐
fault_missing character will be used instead.

include
in the transliteration rules section includes a transliteration rule file (and option‐
ally a repertoire map file).

default_missing
in the transliteration rules section defines the default character to be used for
transliteration where none of the targets cannot be presented in the target character
set.

translit_end
marks the end of the transliteration rules.

The LC_CTYPE definition ends with the string END LC_CTYPE.

LC_COLLATE
Note that glibc does not support all POSIX-defined options, only the options described below
are supported (as of glibc 2.23).

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

The following keywords are allowed:

coll_weight_max
followed by the number representing used collation levels. This keyword is recognized
but ignored by glibc.

collating-element
followed by the definition of a collating-element symbol representing a multicharacter
collating element.

collating-symbol
followed by the definition of a collating symbol that can be used in collation order
statements.

define followed by string to be evaluated in an ifdef string / else / endif construct.

reorder-after
followed by a redefinition of a collation rule.

reorder-end
marks the end of the redefinition of a collation rule.

reorder-sections-after
followed by a script name to reorder listed scripts after.

reorder-sections-end
marks the end of the reordering of sections.

script followed by a declaration of a script.

symbol-equivalence
followed by a collating-symbol to be equivalent to another defined collating-symbol.

The collation rule definition starts with a line:

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

The LC_COLLATE definition ends with the string END LC_COLLATE.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

title followed by the title of the locale document (e.g., "Maori language locale for New
Zealand").

source followed by the name of the organization that maintains this document.

address
followed by the address of the organization that maintains this document.

contact
followed by the name of the contact person at the organization that maintains this
document.

email followed by the email address of the person or organization that maintains this docu‐
ment.

tel followed by the telephone number (in international format) of the organization that
maintains this document. As of glibc 2.24, this keyword is deprecated in favor of
other contact methods.

fax followed by the fax number (in international format) of the organization that main‐
tains this document. As of glibc 2.24, this keyword is deprecated in favor of other
contact methods.

language
followed by the name of the language to which this document applies.

territory
followed by the name of the country/geographic extent to which this document applies.

audience
followed by a description of the audience for which this document is intended.

application
followed by a description of any special application for which this document is in‐
tended.

abbreviation
followed by the short name for provider of the source of this document.

revision
followed by the revision number of this document.

date followed by the revision date of this document.

In addition, for each of the categories defined by the document, there should be a line
starting with the keyword category, followed by:

* a string that identifies this locale category definition,

* a semicolon, and

* one of the LC_* identifiers.

The LC_IDENTIFICATION definition ends with the string END LC_IDENTIFICATION.

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.

yesstr followed by the output string corresponding to "yes".

nostr followed by the output string corresponding to "no".

The LC_MESSAGES definition ends with the string END LC_MESSAGES.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

measurement
followed by number identifying the standard used for measurement. The following val‐
ues are recognized:

1 Metric.

2 US customary measurements.

The LC_MEASUREMENT definition ends with the string END LC_MEASUREMENT.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

int_curr_symbol
followed by the international currency symbol. This must be a 4-character string con‐
taining 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 single-character string that will be used as the decimal delimiter
when formatting monetary quantities.

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

mon_grouping
followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that describe the format‐
ting of monetary quantities. See grouping below for details.

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 that indicates the placement of currency_symbol for a nonnega‐
tive formatted monetary quantity:

0 the symbol succeeds the value.

1 the symbol precedes the value.

p_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of currency_symbol, the sign
string, and the value for a nonnegative formatted monetary quantity. The following
values are recognized:

0 No space separates the currency symbol and the value.

1 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a space separates them
from the value; otherwise a space separates the currency symbol and the value.

2 If the currency symbol and the sign string are adjacent, a space separates them
from the value; otherwise a space separates the sign string and the value.

n_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of currency_symbol for a negative
formatted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for p_cs_precedes.

n_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of currency_symbol, the sign
string, and the value for a negative formatted monetary quantity. The same values are
recognized as for p_sep_by_space.

p_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign should be placed for a
nonnegative monetary quantity:

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_sym‐
bol.

2 The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_symbol or the int_curr_sym‐
bol.

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
followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign should be placed for a
negative monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for p_sign_posn.

int_p_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of int_curr_symbol for a nonnega‐
tive internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as
for p_cs_precedes.

int_n_cs_precedes
followed by an integer that indicates the placement of int_curr_symbol for a negative
internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized as for
p_cs_precedes.

int_p_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of int_curr_symbol, the sign
string, and the value for a nonnegative internationally formatted monetary quantity.
The same values are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.

int_n_sep_by_space
followed by an integer that indicates the separation of int_curr_symbol, the sign
string, and the value for a negative internationally formatted monetary quantity. The
same values are recognized as for p_sep_by_space.

int_p_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the positive_sign should be placed for a
nonnegative internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values are recog‐
nized as for p_sign_posn.

int_n_sign_posn
followed by an integer that indicates where the negative_sign should be placed for a
negative internationally formatted monetary quantity. The same values are recognized
as for p_sign_posn.

The LC_MONETARY definition ends with the string END LC_MONETARY.

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

Various keywords are allowed, but only name_fmt is mandatory. Other keywords are needed only
if there is common convention to use the corresponding salutation in this locale. The al‐
lowed keywords are as follows:

name_fmt
followed by a string containing field descriptors that define the format used for
names in the locale. The following field descriptors are recognized:

%f Family name(s).

%F Family names in uppercase.

%g First given name.

%G First given initial.

%l First given name with Latin letters.

%o Other shorter name.

%m Additional given name(s).

%M Initials for additional given name(s).

%p Profession.

%s Salutation, such as "Doctor".

%S Abbreviated salutation, such as "Mr." or "Dr.".

%d Salutation, using the FDCC-sets conventions.

%t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty string, then the empty
string, otherwise a space character.

name_gen
followed by the general salutation for any gender.

name_mr
followed by the salutation for men.

name_mrs
followed by the salutation for married women.

name_miss
followed by the salutation for unmarried women.

name_ms
followed by the salutation valid for all women.

The LC_NAME definition ends with the string END LC_NAME.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

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

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

grouping
followed by a sequence of integers separated by semicolons that describe the format‐
ting of numeric quantities.

Each integer specifies the number of digits in a group. The first integer defines the
size of the group immediately to the left of the decimal delimiter. Subsequent inte‐
gers define succeeding groups to the left of the previous group. If the last integer
is not -1, then the size of the previous group (if any) is repeatedly used for the re‐
mainder of the digits. If the last integer is -1, then no further grouping is per‐
formed.

The LC_NUMERIC definition ends with the string END LC_NUMERIC.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

height followed by the height, in millimeters, of the standard paper format.

width followed by the width, in millimeters, of the standard paper format.

The LC_PAPER definition ends with the string END LC_PAPER.

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

The following keywords are allowed:

tel_int_fmt
followed by a string that contains field descriptors that identify the format used to
dial international numbers. The following field descriptors are recognized:

%a Area code without nationwide prefix (the prefix is often "00").

%A Area code including nationwide prefix.

%l Local number (within area code).

%e Extension (to local number).

%c Country code.

%C Alternate carrier service code used for dialing abroad.

%t If the preceding field descriptor resulted in an empty string, then the empty
string, otherwise a space character.

tel_dom_fmt
followed by a string that contains field descriptors that identify the format used to
dial domestic numbers. The recognized field descriptors are the same as for
tel_int_fmt.

int_select
followed by the prefix used to call international phone numbers.

int_prefix
followed by the prefix used from other countries to dial this country.

The LC_TELEPHONE definition ends with the string END LC_TELEPHONE.

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 names of the days of the week. The list starts with
the first day of the week as specified by week (Sunday by default). See NOTES.

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

abmon followed by a list of abbreviated month names.

mon followed by a list of month names.

d_t_fmt
followed by the appropriate date and time format (for syntax, see strftime(3)).

d_fmt followed by the appropriate date format (for syntax, see strftime(3)).

t_fmt followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see strftime(3)).

am_pm followed by the appropriate representation of the am and pm strings. This should be
left empty for locales not using AM/PM convention.

t_fmt_ampm
followed by the appropriate time format (for syntax, see strftime(3)) when using 12h
clock format. This should be left empty for locales not using AM/PM convention.

era followed by semicolon-separated strings that define how years are counted and dis‐
played for each era in the locale. Each string has the following format:

direction:offset:start_date:end_date:era_name:era_format

The fields are to be defined as follows:

direction
Either + or -. + means the years closer to start_date have lower numbers than
years closer to end_date. - means the opposite.

offset
The number of the year closest to start_date in the era, corresponding to the %Ey
descriptor (see strptime(3)).

start_date
The start of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd. Years prior AD 1 are represented
as negative numbers.

end_date
The end of the era in the form of yyyy/mm/dd, or one of the two special values of
-* or +*. -* means the ending date is the beginning of time. +* means the ending
date is the end of time.

era_name
The name of the era corresponding to the %EC descriptor (see strptime(3)).

era_format
The format of the year in the era corresponding to the %EY descriptor (see strp‐‐
time(3)).

era_d_fmt
followed by the format of the date in alternative era notation, corresponding to the
%Ex descriptor (see strptime(3)).

era_t_fmt
followed by the format of the time in alternative era notation, corresponding to the
%EX descriptor (see strptime(3)).

era_d_t_fmt
followed by the format of the date and time in alternative era notation, corresponding
to the %Ec descriptor (see strptime(3)).

alt_digits
followed by the alternative digits used for date and time in the locale.

week followed by a list of three values separated by semicolons: The number of days in a
week (by default 7), a date of beginning of the week (by default corresponds to Sun‐
day), 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. See NOTES.

first_weekday (since glibc 2.2)
followed by the number of the day from the day list to be shown as the first day of
the week in calendar applications. The default value of 1 corresponds to either Sun‐
day or Monday depending on the value of the second week list item. See NOTES.

first_workday (since glibc 2.2)
followed by the number of the first working day from the day list. The default value
is 2. See NOTES.

cal_direction
followed by a number value that indicates the direction for the display of calendar
dates, as follows:

1 Left-right from top.

2 Top-down from left.

3 Right-left from top.

date_fmt
followed by the appropriate date representation for date(1) (for syntax, see strf‐‐
time(3)).

The LC_TIME definition ends with the string END LC_TIME.

FILES
/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive
Usual default locale archive location.

/usr/share/i18n/locales
Usual default path for locale definition files.

CONFORMING TO
POSIX.2.

NOTES
The collective GNU C library community wisdom regarding abday, day, week, first_weekday, and
first_workday states at https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/Locales the following:

* The value of the second week list item specifies the base of the abday and day lists.

* first_weekday specifies the offset of the first day-of-week in the abday and day lists.

* For compatibility reasons, all glibc locales should set the value of the second week list
item to 19971130 (Sunday) and base the abday and day lists appropriately, and set
first_weekday and first_workday to 1 or 2, depending on whether the week and work week ac‐
tually starts on Sunday or Monday for the locale.

SEE ALSO
iconv(1), locale(1), localedef(1), localeconv(3), newlocale(3), setlocale(3), strftime(3),
strptime(3), uselocale(3), charmap(5), charsets(7), locale(7), unicode(7), utf-8(7)

COLOPHON
This page is part of release 5.10 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the
project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found
at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux 2020-11-01 LOCALE(5)