Bug#859627: ITP: open-infrastructure-locales-c.utf-8 -- Circumvent Debian locales packages using C.UTF-8

[Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist

  * Package name : open-infrastructure-locales-c.utf-8
    Upstream Author : Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
  * License : GPL-3+
    Description : Circumvent Debian locales packages using C.UTF-8

from the manpage:

---snip---
RATIONAL
--------

Problem
~~~~~~~
On Debian based system the locales or locales-all package provide not only
the localization files itself but also some system configuration

If any of this is missing, the fallback local of libc is used (C and not
C.UTF-8). Therefore, when falling back to a non-UTF-8 locale some packages
behave differently, such as:

  * showing warnings on the command line
  * failing to start

Additionally some packages in Debian depend on locales or locales-all
eventhough C.UTF-8 from libc-bin (which is marked as an essential package
and thus the C.UTF-8 locale is always present on any Debian based system)
would be enough.

Use Case
~~~~~~~~
On minimal systems such as servers and containers one prefers to use
the C.UTF-8 locale instead of en_US.UTF-8. This can save up to 125MB
(locales-all) or at least save the system from the reconfigure and
preseed handling on upgrades (locales).

Solution
~~~~~~~~
The locale-c.utf-8 package provides the necessary glue on the system
level (configuration files) as well as the on the package manager level
(conflicts/breaks/provides on locales and locales-all) to allow using
C.UTF-8
as the default locale by not breaking any other packages assumptions.
---snap---

Regards,
Daniel