======Locales in Ubuntu-based dCore ======

In Ubuntu, locales are created based on language packs. Proper locale files are generated by ''locale-gen''. Since these files are large, making them persistent is best done by creating a locale extension.

These instructions have been tested on ...
  * dCore-trusty --- //[[sm8ps-tcl1@yahoo.com|sm8ps]] 2015//
  * dCore-xenial --- //[[sm8ps-tcl1@yahoo.com|sm8ps]] 2017/09/23 08:49//
  * dCore-bionic64 --- //[[sm8ps-tcl1@yahoo.com|sm8ps]] 2018/07/15 14:37//

=====Preparation=====

Import and load the //locales// package. Review '/usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED' for a list of locales to determine the desired locale code, ignoring the second string.

Either use the //lang// boot code for the desired locale (eg. ''lang=de_CH.UTF-8'' for Swiss German) and comment out the line in '~/.profile' that hard codes LANG to "en_US.UTF-8" ...
<code>
#LANG=en_US.UTF-8
</code>
or change that line to the desired locale directly. 

==== Fallback Locales ====
International users may want US English as a fallback to be stored in LANGUAGE (source: [[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Locale#LANGUAGE:_fallback_locales|Archlinux-wiki]]).

If so add the following to '~/.profile':
<code>
~/.profile:
export LANGUAGE=$LANG:en_US:en
</code>

=====Generating Locale Files=====

Reboot for the changes to take effect.

For a first test ''locale'' will complain that it cannot set some LC_ variables but will then list where all but LANGUAGE and LC_ALL are set to the chosen locale code.

Create a temporary working directory (eg. ~/temp/).

Create a package list there (eg. ./mylocale-LIST) with all desired language choices (eg. English and German):
<code>
./mylocale-LIST:
coreutils
bash
libc-bin
language-pack-en
language-pack-de
</code>

Import the package list using ''sce-import -nl ./mylocale-LIST'' and load the extension. Be aware that this may take quite a while.

Run ''sudo locale-gen ''''-''''-''''archive'' to produce '/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive' containing all locales specified in the language packs. Again, this will take a while.

===Package Selection===

The language packs depend on the //locale// package, which provides the command ''locale-gen''. This is a Bash script which uses the core-utilities plus 'localedef' which is not included in //locale// but rather in //libc-bin//.

===Testing===

''locale'' will show the same list as before without errors. Furthermore ''date +%A'' will print the week-day in the local language.

=====Create a Locales Extension=====

Certainly, one could add "usr/lib/locale/locale-archive" to '.filetool.lst' to make the locales archive persistent. However, the archive is approximately 2 MB in size per language and (un-)packing such a file at each boot or shutdown, respectively, takes considerable time.

Since the archive will not change (unless one should have reason to update it) it is futile to have it included in the backup process. Let's create therefore an extension containing that single file!

In the temporary directory, create a directory that contains the full path to the archive and move that one in there.

<code Bash>
mkdir -p ./mylocale/usr/lib/locale/
sudo cp -a /usr/lib/locale/locale-archive ./mylocale/usr/lib/locale/
</code>
The directory is packed into a SquashFS-file, an extension that is. That extension is then put in the right place.

<code Bash>
mksquashfs ./mylocale/ mylocale.sce
sudo mv mylocale.sce /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/sce/
</code>

Finally, create a file containing the MD5-sum of that extension because that is needed especially by ''sce-update''.

<code Bash>
md5sum /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/sce/mylocale.sce > /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/sce/mylocale.sce.md5.txt
</code>

The extension name "mylocale" should be included into 'sceboot.lst' so as to have it automatically loaded at boot.

===Testing===

After rebooting ''locale'' should list all LC-variables set to the chosen locale code.

=== Cleanup ===
The extensions //locales// and //mylocale.LIST// (but not //mylocale//!) can be removed together with the temporary directory.

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