locale/FreeBSD/setlocale.3

   1 .\" Copyright (c) 1993
   2 .\"     The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
   3 .\"
   4 .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
   5 .\" Donn Seeley at BSDI.
   6 .\"
   7 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
   8 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
   9 .\" are met:
  10 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
  11 .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  12 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
  13 .\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
  14 .\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
  15 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
  16 .\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
  17 .\"    without specific prior written permission.
  18 .\"
  19 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
  20 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
  21 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
  22 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
  23 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
  24 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
  25 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
  26 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
  27 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
  28 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
  29 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
  30 .\"
  31 .\"     @(#)setlocale.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
  32 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/locale/setlocale.3,v 1.35 2007/01/09 00:28:00 imp Exp $
  33 .\"
  34 .Dd November 21, 2003
  35 .Dt SETLOCALE 3
  36 .Os
  37 .Sh NAME
  38 .Nm setlocale
  39 .Nd natural language formatting for C
  40 .Sh LIBRARY
  41 .Lb libc
  42 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  43 .In locale.h
  44 .Ft char *
  45 .Fo setlocale
  46 .Fa "int category"
  47 .Fa "const char *locale"
  48 .Fc
  49 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  50 The
  51 .Fn setlocale
  52 function sets the C library's notion
  53 of natural language formatting style
  54 for particular sets of routines.
  55 Each such style is called a
  56 .Sq locale
  57 and is invoked using an appropriate name passed as a C string.
  58 .Pp
  59 The
  60 .Fn setlocale
  61 function recognizes several categories of routines.
  62 These are the categories and the sets of routines they select:
  63 .Pp
  64 .Bl -tag -width LC_MONETARY
  65 .It Dv LC_ALL
  66 Set the entire locale generically.
  67 .It Dv LC_COLLATE
  68 Set a locale for string collation routines.
  69 This controls alphabetic ordering in
  70 .Fn strcoll
  71 and
  72 .Fn strxfrm .
  73 .It Dv LC_CTYPE
  74 Set a locale for the
  75 .Xr ctype 3
  76 and
  77 .Xr multibyte 3
  78 functions.
  79 This controls recognition of upper and lower case,
  80 alphabetic or non-alphabetic characters,
  81 and so on.
  82 .It Dv LC_MESSAGES
  83 Set a locale for message catalogs, see
  84 .Xr catopen 3
  85 function.
  86 .It Dv LC_MONETARY
  87 Set a locale for formatting monetary values;
  88 this affects the
  89 .Fn localeconv
  90 function.
  91 .It Dv LC_NUMERIC
  92 Set a locale for formatting numbers.
  93 This controls the formatting of decimal points
  94 in input and output of floating point numbers
  95 in functions such as
  96 .Fn printf
  97 and
  98 .Fn scanf ,
  99 as well as values returned by
 100 .Fn localeconv .
 101 .It Dv LC_TIME
 102 Set a locale for formatting dates and times using the
 103 .Fn strftime
 104 function.
 105 .El
 106 .Pp
 107 Only three locales are defined by default:
 108 the empty string
 109 .Li "\&""\|""
 110 (which denotes the native environment) and the
 111 .Li "\&""C""
 112 and
 113 .Li "\&""POSIX""
 114 locales (which denote the C-language environment).
 115 A
 116 .Fa locale
 117 argument of
 118 .Dv NULL
 119 causes
 120 .Fn setlocale
 121 to return the current locale.
 122 By default, C programs start in the
 123 .Li "\&""C""
 124 locale.
 125 The only function in the library that sets the locale is
 126 .Fn setlocale ;
 127 the locale is never changed as a side effect of some other routine.
 128 .Sh RETURN VALUES
 129 Upon successful completion,
 130 .Fn setlocale
 131 returns the string associated with the specified
 132 .Fa category
 133 for the requested
 134 .Fa locale .
 135 The
 136 .Fn setlocale
 137 function returns
 138 .Dv NULL
 139 and fails to change the locale
 140 if the given combination of
 141 .Fa category
 142 and
 143 .Fa locale
 144 makes no sense.
 145 .Sh FILES
 146 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/locale/locale/category -compact
 147 .It Pa $PATH_LOCALE/ Ns Em locale/category
 148 .It Pa /usr/share/locale/ Ns Em locale/category
 149 locale file for the locale
 150 .Em locale
 151 and the category
 152 .Em category .
 153 .El
 154 .Sh ERRORS
 155 No errors are defined.
 156 .Sh SEE ALSO
 157 .Xr colldef 1 ,
 158 .Xr mklocale 1 ,
 159 .Xr catopen 3 ,
 160 .Xr ctype 3 ,
 161 .Xr localeconv 3 ,
 162 .Xr multibyte 3 ,
 163 .Xr strcoll 3 ,
 164 .Xr strxfrm 3 ,
 165 .Xr euc 5 ,
 166 .Xr utf8 5 ,
 167 .Xr environ 7
 168 .Sh STANDARDS
 169 The
 170 .Fn setlocale
 171 function conforms to
 172 .St -isoC-99 .
 173 .Sh HISTORY
 174 The
 175 .Fn setlocale
 176 function first appeared in
 177 .Bx 4.4 .