Bug#311259: error and omission in documentation of LANGUAGE
On Mon, May 30, 2005 at 10:03:25PM +0200, Denis Barbier wrote:
> On Mon, May 30, 2005 at 10:59:29AM +0200, Mirko Parthey wrote:
> > Package: glibc-doc
> > Version: 2.3.2.ds1-22
> >
> > LANGUAGE seems to have no effect unless LANG is set to something other
> > than C. I would propose to document this behaviour in the libc reference
> > manual, where LANGUAGE is explained.
>
> This documentation states:
> At the program start the default domain is `messages', and the
> default locale is "C". The `setlocale' call sets the locale according
> to the user's environment variables; remember that correct functioning
> of `gettext' relies on the correct setting of the `LC_MESSAGES' locale
> (for looking up the message catalog) and of the `LC_CTYPE' locale (for
> the character set conversion).
>
> So basically you should not set LC_MESSAGES to C (either explicitly or
> through LANG or LC_ALL variables) if you want localized output. There
> are some discussions at http://bugs.debian.org/308853
Except that the problem is that (if everything but LANGUAGE is unset)
I would have expected LANGUAGE to set LC_MESSAGES, and it doesn't.
That's what needs to be documented, since it is a deliberate choice.
--
Daniel Jacobowitz
CodeSourcery, LLC
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