How to use the command 'locale' (with examples)

The locale command is used to obtain locale-specific information, such as language, date and time formats, and numeric formats. It is helpful for managing language and cultural settings on a system.

Use case 1: List all global environment variables describing the user’s locale

Code:

locale

Motivation: This use case is useful for quickly obtaining information about the current locale settings. It allows you to see the language, character set, date format, and other locale-specific settings.

Explanation: The locale command without any arguments displays information about the current locale. It retrieves and prints the values of environment variables related to the user’s locale.

Example output:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

Use case 2: List all available locales

Code:

locale --all-locales

Motivation: This use case allows you to retrieve a comprehensive list of all available locales on the system. It can be useful when selecting a specific locale for configuration purposes or determining the supported locales on the system.

Explanation: The --all-locales argument instructs the locale command to list all available locales. By default, it will display the locale names in a compact format.

Example output:

C
C.UTF-8
en_AG.utf8
en_AU.utf8
en_BW.utf8
en_CA.utf8
en_DK.utf8
en_GB.utf8
en_HK.utf8
en_IE.utf8
en_IN
en_NG.utf8
en_NZ.utf8
en_PH.utf8
en_SG.utf8
en_US.utf8
en_ZA.utf8
en_ZM.utf8
en_ZW.utf8
POSIX

Use case 3: Display all available locales and the associated metadata

Code:

locale --all-locales --verbose

Motivation: This use case extends on the previous one by providing additional metadata about each locale. It can be useful when detailed information about the locale settings is required.

Explanation: The --verbose argument modifies the output of the locale command to include additional metadata, such as the character encoding, language name, and country. Combined with --all-locales, it provides a comprehensive overview of all available locales and their associated metadata.

Example output:

Latn_AE.utf8: Arabic (United Arab Emirates) locale – United Arab Emirates
Latn_AG.utf8: English (Antigua and Barbuda)
Latn_AI.utf8: English (Anguilla)
Latn_AL.utf8: Albanian (Albania) locale – Albania
Latn_AM.utf8: Armenian (Armenia) locale – Armenia
...

Use case 4: Display the current date format

Code:

locale date_fmt

Motivation: This use case is helpful when you need to determine the current date format used by the system. It allows you to verify and obtain information about the date format configuration.

Explanation: The date_fmt argument fetches the current date format from the locale settings. It specifically retrieves the value of the LC_TIME environment variable, which controls the date and time formatting.

Example output:

"%a %d %b %Y %T %Z"

Conclusion:

The locale command is a versatile tool for managing and retrieving locale-specific information on a system. It provides a valuable resource for configuring language and cultural settings and obtaining information about the current locale and available locales.