Re: GDM and locales
Jean-Christophe Dubacq, 2003-09-11 10:50:16 +0200 :
> As one who submitted several times trivial patches to enable gdm in
> default locale language, I concurr. Right now (for woody and sarge),
> the current way of setting the default locale for all programs is
> sourcing /etc/environment.
You don't source /etc/environment. You have to parse it. The reason
being, it's not a shell file, just a series of KEY=VALUE lines. In
particular, VALUE can have spaces in it yet not be quoted, and if you
try to source it you're going to have problems.
> So any solution if fine with me, but as of now, default locale is set
> through debconf at install time. So there are two places where gdm can
> fetch the information: debconf or /etc/environment. /etc/environment is
> a more sensible place, since all HOWTOs and FAQs tell users it is the
> place to modify default language.
As Joss pointed out to me on IRC: it's the place to modify default
language for users, not necessarily for system. It's a file that's
only used (and documented) by PAM, which means it only affects users
when they have logged in. Using the values in that file outside of
this context doesn't match the intent of that file, as far as I know.
Therefore, I'd be happier to have a /etc/default_language file or
something. Everything in its proper place, and don't try to use PAM
stuff for cases it's not supposed to handle.
Roland.
--
Roland Mas
Mou ichido ! Hayaku ! Ookii koede !
-- Atsuko Sasaki
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