Re: Is there / should there be a default locale setting on Debian systems ?
Hello,
> > However, I only became aware of that fact by accident. In addition to that, I had
> > to try and figure out myself where to put the 'export LANG=de_DE' (I'm German) to
> > make it available to all applications. Just putting it into /etc/profile is not
> > enough, because X apps may not get the setting that way if you use xdm.
>
> just add LANG=de_DE to /etc/environment
>
I'm afraid you misunderstood me. By now *I* know what I must do to i18nize my system, but
most beginners will not know, and at present nothing in Debian will tell them about it.
So what is missing IMHO is:
1) a question in the installation tool that lets you set the default locale
2) a place to put that setting
With respect to 2) and your answer:
> just add LANG=de_DE to /etc/environment
is a good idea, but it will only work if /etc/environment is sourced in all the places
it needs to be. That would include at least Xsession, /etc/profile and any other startup
script for shells that don't use /etc/profile. Problem: at present the standard /etc/profile
for potato (the one in base-files) does not source /etc/environment.
The problem therefore is actually a wider one: Where to put env. var. settings that should
be available to EVERY program? (This occurs not only for the locale, there are a few other
progs where you must use env.vars. to set defaults - even if there are none in potato,
people might want to install such progs. on a Debian system).
/etc/environment seems a good place for global var. settings, but I think it would help to
have that in the policy, so all shells actually use it.
What do the others think about it? This might need some discussion.
Sebastian Leske
Sebastian.Leske@bigfoot.de
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