Localization and changes to /etc/login.conf

A

anbj

Hi all,

First, I want to pardon my ignorance. Feel free to bash me (pun intended).

I've been reading about localization (https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/l10n/#using-localization).

I've used the "Shell Startup File Method" (editing ~/.login_conf), but now that I'm more comfortable with FreeBSD I want to use the "Login Classes Method ". Same settings for every possible shell.

I need to use the letters æøå; so I need a non-default charset, more specifically nb_NO.UTF-8.

So what I have to do is apparently clear (as per handbook):

- vim /etc/login.conf

- add :charset=nb_NO.UTF-8: to the default class (all users on my system use this)

-update, cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf

If I now create a new user, the charset is not nb_NO.UTF-8. ÆØÅ does not work. I assume it is the default charset being used.

Additional question:
Are settings in /etc/login.conf only applied when a user is created? Or is it loaded every time a user logs in or every time the system boots? If I make a change in /etc/login.conf, how would I make those changes apply to existing users? I've been playing around to try to figure this out, but I'm confused.

Additional question #2
I thought the whole point of UTF-8 is that it's able to print/input all kind of characters. Why then, is necessary to specify a LanguageCode_CountryCode (as in LanguageCode_CountryCode.UTF-8)? Why does UTF-8 care about this?

I've read:
* login.conf(5)
* https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/freebsd-12-2-localization-issue.78664/
* https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/what-happened-to-etc-profile.78406/#post-489962
* https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/localization-and-character-set-in-console.62051/
* https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/setting-locale-accented-characters-in-console.71696/

Thanks for any enlightening inputs.
 
anbj said:
I need to use the letters æøå; so I need a non-default charset, more specifically nb_NO.UTF-8.
Click to expand...
nb_NO.UTF-8 is a language setting. UTF-8 is the character set. The charset is already at UTF-8 by default on most new installs (you may have migrated from an older version that didn't have it).

anbj said:
Are settings in /etc/login.conf only applied when a user is created? Or is it loaded every time a user logs in or every time the system boots? If I make a change in /etc/login.conf, how would I make those changes apply to existing users? I've been playing around to try to figure this out, but I'm confused.
Click to expand...
They're applied when the user logs in.
 
SirDice,

Two sentences and I've learned a lot. Thank you.

I just did a new install of 13-BETA2 and æøå works right out of the box. Great. This is a recent change, right? I was running 13-CURRENT from some months ago, where it did not work out of the box.
 
Hmm, thats strange. Then it should be working out of the box in 12.1, 12.2, and 13-* (which are the only versions I've been using), but I'm fairly certain it did not.
 
No, I do believe there were some issues that needed to be ironed out. Most of the time it still required some configuration. Sounds like they fixed all of those with 13.0 :)

I'm Dutch but I rarely write anything in Dutch, so I have very little need for some of the Dutch specific characters like ë or é. Most of the time I don't type them and just let a spellchecker fix those. So I typically leave everything on en_US or en_GB (sometimes pick GB to "fix" the date to D/M/Y instead of the American M/D/Y).
 
That makes sense. Thanks again, SirDice.

I'm Norwegian, and my needs for the special characters are not that great either, but still, it's always a pain when they're not readily available. People who only write english dont know how lucky they are ;)
 
For anyone else dealing with this;

I've found that on 12.2, it appears that both :charset=UTF.8: and :lang=C.UTF-8: have to be set in /etc/login.conf in order to use UTF-8. I guess it does not matter which :lang: you use, as long as it's been set. On 13 it is enough to set only :charmap=UTF-8:. I do not guarantee that this is correct, but this is my experience.
 
Be aware that /etc/login.conf (precisely the database generated from it) only works for actual logins. If you want to pre-select a locale for other processes (like for example an X display manager started from rc), you could add environment variables to /etc/profile:
Code: 
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8; export LANG
CHARSET=UTF-8; export CHARSET
 
T-Daemon said:
On stable/13 there is no need to set anything, the default locale is already set to UTF-8 (since November 2020 when 13 was CURRENT):

src - FreeBSD source tree

cgit.freebsd.org cgit.freebsd.org

login.conf « login « usr.bin - src - FreeBSD source tree

cgit.freebsd.org cgit.freebsd.org
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right. I'm also contradicting myself (ref. earlier post). Thank you T-Daemon.

Zirias said:
Be aware that /etc/login.conf (precisely the database generated from it) only works for actual logins. If you want to pre-select a locale for other processes (like for example an X display manager started from rc), you could add environment variables to /etc/profile:
Code: 
LANG=de_DE.UTF-8; export LANG
CHARSET=UTF-8; export CHARSET
Click to expand...

Good info, thanks Zirias.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top