Bug#891976: localechooser: Unhelpful modifications to /root/.profile when locale "C" is chosen
Package: localechooser
Version: 2.69
Severity: normal
Tags: d-i
If I install Stretch using Debian-Installer and select language 'C' ('no
localisation'), and default locale 'C', then I end up with the following
lines at the end of /root/.profile:
# Installed by Debian Installer:
# no localization for root because C
# cannot be properly displayed at the Linux console
LANG=C
LANGUAGE=C
This is mostly harmless, but it causes trouble if I later change
/etc/default/locale (eg to C.UTF-8).
This seems to have been going on for the last several Debian releases.
sources.debian.net suggests that these lines are added by the
post-base-installer.d/05localechooser script.
The intention is apparently that those lines would be added if the
selected language is one which has "no chance to be displayed at the
Linux console", so I think adding them when the C locale was chosen is a
bug.
I don't understand how the code it's using to decide whether to do this
ends up firing for "C", but in any case it appears to be broken:
- it evidently hasn't been updated for changes to the format of the
languagelist file ('cut -f 2-3' seems appropriate for the version in
etch but not the version in lenny);
- it fails to ignore comment lines.
Perhaps terminals have improved sufficiently that this feature should
just be removed altogether.
Reply to: