How to check if a locale is configured in Linux

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn how to check if a locale is configured in Linux. You will begin by using the locale command to display the currently active locale settings, understanding how these settings affect language, region, and formatting.

Following this, you will explore common configuration files that define system-wide locale settings, specifically examining the contents of /etc/locale.conf and verifying the default locale specified in /etc/default/locale. These steps will provide a comprehensive understanding of how locales are configured and verified on a Linux system.

Skills Graph

%%%%{init: {'theme':'neutral'}}%%%% flowchart RL linux(("Linux")) -.-> linux/BasicSystemCommandsGroup(["Basic System Commands"]) linux(("Linux")) -.-> linux/BasicFileOperationsGroup(["Basic File Operations"]) linux(("Linux")) -.-> linux/UserandGroupManagementGroup(["User and Group Management"]) linux/BasicSystemCommandsGroup -.-> linux/echo("Text Display") linux/BasicFileOperationsGroup -.-> linux/cat("File Concatenating") linux/UserandGroupManagementGroup -.-> linux/env("Environment Managing") subgraph Lab Skills linux/echo -.-> lab-558729{{"How to check if a locale is configured in Linux"}} linux/cat -.-> lab-558729{{"How to check if a locale is configured in Linux"}} linux/env -.-> lab-558729{{"How to check if a locale is configured in Linux"}} end

Display locales with locale command

In this step, you will learn about locales in Linux and how to display them using the locale command.

Locales are a set of parameters that define the user's language, region, and any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user interface. They affect things like:

The language used for messages and menus.
The format for dates and times.
The currency symbol.
The character encoding.

Understanding locales is important for ensuring your Linux environment behaves as expected for your language and region.

To display the current locale settings, open your terminal and type the following command:

locale

Press Enter.

You will see output similar to this:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US:en
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

This output shows various LC_* variables and the LANG variable, which together define your locale. en_US.UTF-8 indicates English language, United States region, and UTF-8 character encoding.

You can also display a specific locale setting by providing its name as an argument to the locale command. For example, to see just the language setting:

locale LANG

Press Enter.

You should see:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

This command is useful for quickly checking how your system is configured for language and regional settings.

Click Continue to proceed to the next step.

Check locale config with cat /etc/locale.conf

In the previous step, you used the locale command to see the currently active locale settings. These settings are often determined by configuration files on your system.

One common location for system-wide locale configuration on some Linux distributions is the /etc/locale.conf file. This file typically contains the LANG variable and potentially other LC_* variables that set the default locale for the entire system.

To view the contents of this file, you can use the cat command. The cat command is a simple utility used to display the content of files.

Open your terminal and type the following command:

cat /etc/locale.conf

Press Enter.

You will see the content of the /etc/locale.conf file. The output might look like this:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

This output shows that the LANG variable is set to en_US.UTF-8 in this configuration file. This setting is often used by the system to determine the default locale when a user logs in.

Keep in mind that the presence and content of /etc/locale.conf can vary between different Linux distributions. On Ubuntu systems, the primary system-wide locale configuration is often managed differently, which you will explore in the next step. However, viewing /etc/locale.conf is a useful exercise to understand where locale settings can be stored.

Click Continue to move on.

Verify default locale in /etc/default/locale

In the previous step, you looked at /etc/locale.conf. On Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, the primary system-wide locale configuration is often managed by the /etc/default/locale file. This file is read by the system's login programs to set the default locale for users.

Let's examine the contents of /etc/default/locale using the cat command.

Open your terminal and type the following command:

cat /etc/default/locale

Press Enter.

You will see the content of the /etc/default/locale file. The output should look similar to this:

##  File generated by update-locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8

This file explicitly sets the LANG variable, which is a fundamental part of determining the system's default locale. The comment ## File generated by update-locale indicates that this file is typically managed by the update-locale utility, which is the recommended way to change system-wide locale settings on Ubuntu.

Comparing the output of locale from Step 1 and the content of /etc/default/locale, you can see how the system-wide configuration influences the active locale settings for your user session.

Understanding where these configuration files are located is crucial for troubleshooting locale-related issues or for changing the default language and regional settings for your system.

Click Continue to complete this step and the lab.

Summary

In this lab, you learned how to check if a locale is configured in Linux. You started by using the locale command to display the currently active locale settings, understanding how these settings define language, region, and formatting preferences. You saw how the output of locale shows various LC_* and LANG variables. You also learned how to check a specific locale setting using locale followed by the variable name.