// locales-c.utf-8 - Circumvent Debian locales packages using C.UTF-8
// Copyright (C) 2014-2017 Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@open-infrastructure.net>
//
// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

LOCALES-C.UTF-8(7)
==================
:doctype: manpage
:man manual: Open Infrastructure
:man source: locales-c.utf-8
:man version: {revnumber}


NAME
----
locales-c.utf-8 - Circumvent Debian locales packages using C.UTF-8


DESCRIPTION
-----------
"[A] locale is a set of parameters that defines the user's language, region and
any special variant preferences that the user wants to see in their user
interface."::
    -- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locale_(computer_software))

locale-c.utf-8 provides the system integration to use C.UTF-8 within Debian
based systems (see rational below).


DOWNLOAD
--------
  * Upstream Releases: https://files.open-infrastructure.net/software/locales-c.utf-8/upstream
  * Upstream Sources: https://sources.open-infrastructure.net/software/locales-c.utf-8
  * Debian Releases: https://files.open-infrastructure.net/software/locales-c.utf-8/debian
  * Debian Sources: https://sources.progress-linux.org/users/daniel.baumann/debian/packages/open-infrastructure-locales-c.utf-8


INSTALLATION
------------

SOURCE
~~~~~~
  1. sudo apt install asciidoc git docbook-xml docbook-xsl libxml2-utils make xsltproc
  2. git clone https://sources.open-infrastructure.net/software/locales-c.utf-8
  3. cd locales-c.utf-8 && sudo make install


DEVELOPMENT
-----------
Bug reports, feature requests, help, patches, support and everything else
are welcome on the Open Infrastructure Software Mailing List:

  * https://lists.open-infrastructure.net/listinfo/software

Please base patches against the 'next' Git branch using common sense:

  * https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/SubmittingPatches

Debian specific bugs can also be reported in the Debian Bug Tracking System:

  * https://bugs.debian.org


RATIONAL
--------

Problem
~~~~~~~
On Debian based system the locales or locales-all package provide not only
the localization files itself but also some system configuration

If any of this is missing, the fallback local of libc is used (C and not
C.UTF-8). Therefore, when falling back to a non-UTF-8 locale some packages
behave differently, such as:

  * showing warnings on the command line
  * failing to start

Additionally some packages in Debian depend on locales or locales-all
eventhough C.UTF-8 from libc-bin (which is marked as an essential package
and thus the C.UTF-8 locale is always present on any Debian based system)
would be enough.

Use Case
~~~~~~~~
On minimal systems such as servers and containers one prefers to use
the C.UTF-8 locale instead of en_US.UTF-8. This can save up to 125MB
(locales-all) or at least save the system from the reconfigure and
preseed handling on upgrades (locales).

Solution
~~~~~~~~
The locale-c.utf-8 package provides the necessary glue on the system
level (configuration files) as well as the on the package manager level
(conflicts/breaks/provides on locales and locales-all) to allow using C.UTF-8
as the default locale by not breaking any other packages assumptions.


AUTHORS
-------
  * Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@open-infrastructure.net>
