[arch-general] locale.conf

[Heiko Baums]

Am Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:10:14 +0200
schrieb Thomas Bächler <thomas at archlinux.org>:

> I don't know why you set it, but I find LC_COLLATE=C extremely
> annoying.
> 
> If you want an English speaking system, but live in Switzerland, I
> recommend this:
> 
> LANG=fr_CH.UTF-8
> LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8

You should be careful with LC_MESSAGES if you use desktop environments
which don't have their own language setting like Xfce. They use
LC_MESSAGES to set their language.

Means if you're e.g. in Germany, use Xfce and have this locale.conf as
it is recommended in man locale.conf:

LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=C

Then you get a fully English system.

The same with:

LANG=fr_CH.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8

I would recommend to just set

LANG=fr_CH.UTF-8

in locale.conf.

If you really need an English output on the console, e.g. for filing
bug reports, I would recommend to set LC_MESSAGES explicitly each time
you really need it:

LC_MESSAGES=C command-to-be-executed

Heiko