Re: What's the locale for system files (e.g. /etc/fstab)?
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:10:05 UTC
(pruned cc: to just the list) On 2022-03-25 04:08, Warner Losh wrote: > On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 2:51 PM Phil Shafer <phil@juniper.net> wrote: > >> On 24 Mar 2022, at 15:12, Warner Losh wrote: >> > That is the primary reason for system files always being C.UTF-8... >> > There is no way to tag it as anything else... and some of these files >> > are often parsed from a context that can't set the locale, like the >> > boot loader or the kernel... also, these files have a format that was >> > defined back in the 7bit ascii time frame. They also don't make use of >> > the text in a way that isn't literal... >> >> Exactly. There's just no way to know in the current setup. And >> declaring it UTF-8 will break anyone currently using locale-based >> values. Using the symlink has the value of allowing a simple fix >> ("sudo >> ln -s $LANG /etc/locale"). > > Except it's not a simple fix. Sure, you can find this value, but > nothing > will use it, necessarily. Since there's little value and little need, I > think it would be more hassle than it's worth absent a much more > extensive audit. For system wide things like config files, we assume > C.UTF-8 or the lessor ASCII-7 (or maybe ASCII-8). There's no ASCII-8. (If you meant 8859-*, there's 15 or 16, which essentially means "no".) Assuming ASCII (and therefore 7-bit) went out of style last millenium. Anything that expects or enforces something other than Unicode (which for all practical purposes means UTF-8) needs to be fixed urgently. -- #BlackLivesMatter #TransWomenAreWomen #AccessibilityMatters #StandWithUkrainians English: he/him/his (singular they/them/their/theirs OK) French: il/le/lui (iel/iel and ielle/ielle OK) Tagalog: siya/niya/kaniya (please avoid sila/nila/kanila)