9.7.5 Activating a particular locale

The following environment variables are evaluated in this order to provide particular locale values to programs:

1. LANGUAGE: This environment variable consists of a colon-separated list of locale names in order of priority. Used only if the POSIX locale is set to a value other than "C" [in Woody; the Potato version always has priority over the POSIX locale]. (GNU extension)

2. LC_ALL: If this is non-null, the value is used for all locale categories. (POSIX.1) Usually "" (null).

3. LC_*: If this is non-null, the value is used for the corresponding category (POSIX.1). Usually "C".

   LC_* variables are:

   • LC_CTYPE: Character classification and case conversion.

   • LC_COLLATE: Collation order.

   • LC_TIME: Date and time formats.

   • LC_NUMERIC: Non-monetary numeric formats.

   • LC_MONETARY: Monetary formats.

   • LC_MESSAGES: Formats of informative and diagnostic messages and interactive responses.

   • LC_PAPER: Paper size.

   • LC_NAME: Name formats.

   • LC_ADDRESS: Address formats and location information.

   • LC_TELEPHONE: Telephone number formats.

   • LC_MEASUREMENT: Measurement units (Metric or Other).

   • LC_IDENTIFICATION: Metadata about the locale information.

4. LANG: If this is non-null and LC_ALL is undefined, the value is used for all LC_* locale categories with undefined values. (POSIX.1) Usually "C".

Note that some applications (e.g., Netscape 4) ignore LC_* settings.

The locale program can display active locale settings and available locales; see locale(1). (NOTE: locale -a lists all the locales that your system knows about; this does not mean that all of them are compiled! See Activating locale support, Section 9.7.4.)