MKLOCALE(1) | General Commands Manual | MKLOCALE(1)

# NAME

`mklocale` — make LC_CTYPE locale files

# SYNOPSIS

`mklocale` | [`-d`] [`-t` type] < source > language/LC_CTYPE

`mklocale` | [`-d`] [`-t` type] `-o` language/LC_CTYPE source

# DESCRIPTION

The `mklocale` utility reads an `LC_CTYPE` source file from standard input and produces an `LC_CTYPE` binary file on standard output suitable for placement in /usr/share/locale/<language>/LC_CTYPE.

The format of source is quite simple. It consists of a series of lines which start with a keyword and have associated data following. C style comments are used to place comments in the file.

Following options are available:

`-d`
  Turns on debugging messages.
`-o`
  Specify output file.
`-t`
  Generate output in new-style LC_{MONETARY,NUMERIC,TIME,MESSAGES} locale-db format.

Besides the keywords which will be listed below, the following are valid tokens in source:

`RUNE`
  A `RUNE` may be any of the following:
  'x'
    The ASCII character x.
  '\x'
    The ANSI C character \x where \x is one of `\a`, `\b`, `\f`, `\n`, `\r`, `\t`, or `\v`.
  0x[0-9a-f]+
    A hexadecimal number representing a rune code.
  0[0-7]*
    An octal number representing a rune code.
  [1-9][0-9]*
    A decimal number representing a rune code.
`STRING`
  A string enclosed in double quotes (").
`THRU`
  Either `...` or `-`. Used to indicate ranges.
literal
  The follow characters are taken literally:
  `<([`
    Used to start a mapping. All are equivalent.
  `>)]`
    Used to end a mapping. All are equivalent.
  `:`
    Used as a delimiter in mappings.

Key words which should only appear once are:

`ENCODING`
  Followed by a `STRING` which indicates the encoding mechanism to be used for this locale. The current encodings are:
  `NONE`
    No translation and the default.
  `UTF2`
    `Universal character set Transformation Format` adopted from `Plan 9 from Bell Labs`.
  `EUC`
    `EUC` encoding as used by several vendors of UNIX systems.
`VARIABLE`
  This keyword must be followed by a single tab or space character, after which encoding specific data is placed. Currently only the `EUC` encoding requires variable data.
`INVALID`
  A single `RUNE` follows and is used as the invalid rune for this locale.

The following keywords may appear multiple times and have the following format for data:

⟨`RUNE1 RUNE2`⟩
  `RUNE1` is mapped to `RUNE2`.
⟨`RUNE1 THRU RUNEn`: `RUNE2`⟩
  Runes `RUNE1` through `RUNEn` are mapped to `RUNE2` through `RUNE2` + n-1.

`MAPLOWER`
  Defines the tolower mappings. `RUNE2` is the lower case representation of `RUNE1`.
`MAPUPPER`
  Defines the toupper mappings. `RUNE2` is the upper case representation of `RUNE1`.
`TODIGIT`
  Defines a map from runes to their digit value. `RUNE2` is the integer value represented by `RUNE1`. For example, the ASCII character ‘0’ would map to the decimal value 0. On NetBSD, this information has never been used until now. Only values up to 255 are allowed, and mapping to 256 and above is silently ignored.

The following keywords may appear multiple times and have the following format for data:

`RUNE`
  This rune has the property defined by the keyword.
`RUNE1 THRU RUNEn`
  All the runes between and including `RUNE1` and `RUNEn` have the property defined by the keyword.

`ALPHA`
  Defines runes which are alphabetic, printable, and graphic.
`CONTROL`
  Defines runes which are control characters.
`DIGIT`
  Defines runes which are decimal digits, printable, and graphic.
`GRAPH`
  Defines runes which are graphic and printable.
`LOWER`
  Defines runes which are lower case, printable, and graphic.
`PUNCT`
  Defines runes which are punctuation, printable, and graphic.
`SPACE`
  Defines runes which are spaces.
`UPPER`
  Defines runes which are upper case, printable, and graphic.
`XDIGIT`
  Defines runes which are hexadecimal digits, printable, and graphic.
`BLANK`
  Defines runes which are blank.
`PRINT`
  Defines runes which are printable.
`IDEOGRAM`
  Defines runes which are ideograms, printable, and graphic.
`SPECIAL`
  Defines runes which are special characters, printable, and graphic.
`PHONOGRAM`
  Defines runes which are phonograms, printable, and graphic.
`SWIDTHn`
  Defines runes with specific glyph width. n takes 0 to 3.
`CHARSET`
  Controls character set for subsequent runes.

# SEE ALSO

setlocale(3), nls(7)

# HISTORY

The `mklocale` utility first appeared in 4.4BSD.

# BUGS

The `mklocale` utility is overly simplistic.

We should switch to `localedef` and its file format, which is more standard.

January 5, 2024 | NetBSD 11.0