[arch-projects] [initscripts][RFC][PATCH] locale.sh: add support for user-specific locale.conf, drop DAEMON_LOCALE

[Tom Gundersen]

We use the first configuration file we find out of:

 * $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/locale.conf
 * /etc/locale.conf
 * /etc/rc.conf

All subsequent config files are ignored. E.g., an emtpy /etc/locale.conf
means that LOCALE from rc.conf is ignored.

This will easily allow users to set one locale to be used for
daemons/boot and a separate one to be used for users consoles etc.

This eliminates the need for DAEMON_LOCALE, so remove that
functionality. A post-install note will be added.

The constraints that led to this suggestion:

1) The default locale should work even if locale-gen has not been run,
   i.e., it should be "C".
2) It is common to want the system locale to be "English", which a
   priori "C" satisfies. However, "C" is not UTF-8, which causes issues
   when the user locale is in UTF-8 (as it is the system locale that
   configures the console mode).
3) Users might (and often do) want a different locale than what is used
   system-wide. Moreover, different users might want different locales.

In case this seems far-fetched: This computer is shared by two people
neither of whose mother tongue is English (and whose mother tongue
is  not the same). I also want all my daemons to output in English so I can
paste the output in bug reports etc.

Signed-off-by: Tom Gundersen <teg at jklm.no>
---
 functions     | 24 ++++++++----------------
 locale.sh     | 10 ++++++----
 rc.conf.5.txt | 13 +++----------
 3 files changed, 17 insertions(+), 30 deletions(-)

diff --git a/functions b/functions
index e8ff7b8..7e7549a 100644
--- a/functions
+++ b/functions
@@ -9,7 +9,14 @@ localevars=(LANG LC_CTYPE LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME LC_COLLATE LC_MONETARY
             LC_MESSAGES LC_PAPER LC_NAME LC_ADDRESS LC_TELEPHONE
             LC_MEASUREMENT LC_IDENTIFICATION LC_ALL)
 
-vconsolevars=(KEYMAP KEYMAP_TOGGLE FONT FONT_MAP FONT_UNIMAP)
+
+# clear the TZ envvar, so daemons always respect /etc/localtime
+unset TZ
+
+# sanitize the locale settings
+unset "${localevars[@]}"
+
+. /etc/profile.d/locale.sh
 
 if [[ $1 == "start" ]]; then
 	if [[ $STARTING ]]; then
@@ -66,12 +73,6 @@ if (( $? != 3 )); then
 fi
 unset TERM_COLORS
 
-# clear the TZ envvar, so daemons always respect /etc/localtime
-unset TZ
-
-# sanitize the locale settings
-unset "${localevars[@]}"
-
 parse_envfile() {
 	local file=$1 validkeys=("${@:2}") ret=0 lineno=0 key= val=
 	local -r quotes=$'[\'"]' comments=$'[;#]*'
@@ -723,15 +724,6 @@ if (( RC_FUNCTIONS_HOOK_FUNCS_DEFINED != 1 )); then
 	declare -r RC_FUNCTIONS_HOOK_FUNCS_DEFINED=1
 fi
 
-if [[ $DAEMON_LOCALE != [nN][oO] ]]; then
-	export LANG=${LOCALE:-C}
-	if [[ -r /etc/locale.conf ]]; then
-		parse_envfile /etc/locale.conf "${localevars[@]}"
-	fi
-else
-	export LANG=C
-fi
-
 # set colors
 if [[ $USECOLOR != [nN][oO] ]]; then
 	if tput setaf 0 &>/dev/null; then
diff --git a/locale.sh b/locale.sh
index c465f6f..48c3c50 100644
--- a/locale.sh
+++ b/locale.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 unset LANG
 
-if [ -s /etc/locale.conf ]; then
+if [ -s $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/locale.conf ]; then
+	. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/locale.conf
+elif [ -s $HOME/.config/locale.conf ]; then
+	. $HOME/.config/locale.conf
+elif [ -s /etc/locale.conf ]; then
 	. /etc/locale.conf
-fi
-
-if [ -z "$LANG" ] && [ -s /etc/rc.conf ]; then
+elif [ -s /etc/rc.conf ]; then
 	LANG=$(. /etc/rc.conf 2>/dev/null; echo "$LOCALE")
 fi
 
diff --git a/rc.conf.5.txt b/rc.conf.5.txt
index 73c2423..8983871 100644
--- a/rc.conf.5.txt
+++ b/rc.conf.5.txt
@@ -190,21 +190,14 @@ FONT_MAP in /etc/vconsole.conf takes precedence (see vconsole.conf(5)), and is r
 This sets your system language, which will be used by all i18n-friendly applications and utilities.
 See `locale -a` (or locale.gen) for available options.
 
-LANG in /etc/locale.conf takes precedence (see locale.conf(5)), and is recommended.
+LANG in /etc/locale.conf takes precedence (see locale.conf(5)), and is recommended. User-specific
+locale settings which override both /etc/locale.conf and /etc/rc.conf are set in
+$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/locale.conf using the same syntax as /etc/locale.conf.
 
 If unset, it falls back to the C locale.
 
 	LOCALE="en_US.UTF-8"
 
-*DAEMON_LOCALE=*
-
-	- If set to 'no', export the C locale to daemons and during the boot process.
-	- Otherwise, export LANG (or LOCALE) as configured in /etc/locale.conf (or /etc/rc.conf).
-
-Leave this unset, unless you have a specific reason to set it to 'no'.
-
-	DAEMON_LOCALE="yes"
-
 *USECOLOR=*
 
 Use ANSI color sequences in start-up messages, unless set to 'no'.
-- 
1.7.11.4