Locale

The Single UNIX ® Specification, Version 2
Copyright © 1997 The Open Group

Locale

General
A locale is the definition of the subset of a user's environment that depends on language and cultural conventions. It is made up from one or more categories. Each category is identified by its name and controls specific aspects of the behaviour of components of the system. Category names correspond to the following environment variable names:

LC_CTYPE
Character classification and case conversion.
LC_COLLATE
Collation order.
LC_TIME
Date and time formats.
LC_NUMERIC
Numeric, non-monetary formatting.
LC_MONETARY
Monetary formatting.
LC_MESSAGES
Formats of informative and diagnostic messages and interactive responses.

The standard utilities in the XCU specification base their behaviour on the current locale, as defined in the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section for each utility. The behaviour of some of the C-language functions defined in the XSH specification will also be modified based on the current locale, as defined by the last call to setlocale().
Locales other than those supplied by the implementation can be created by the application via the localedef utility, if it is provided; see the XCU specification. This capability is supported on all systems where the {POSIX2_LOCALEDEF} or {XOPEN_XCU_VERSION} options are supported; see the XSH specification <unistd.h>. Even if localedef is not provided, all implementations conforming to the XSH specification provide one or more locales that behave as described in this chapter. The input to the utility is described in Locale Definition . The value that is used to specify a locale when using environment variables will be the string specified as the name operand to the localedef utility when the locale was created. The strings C and POSIX are reserved as identifiers for the POSIX locale (see POSIX Locale ). When the value of a locale environment variable begins with a slash (/), it is interpreted as the pathname of the locale definition; the type of file (regular, directory, and so forth) used to store the locale definition is implementation-dependent. If the value does not begin with a slash, the mechanism used to locate the locale is implementation-dependent.
If different character sets are used by the locale categories, the results achieved by an application utilising these categories are undefined. Likewise, if different codesets are used for the data being processed by interfaces whose behaviour is dependent on the current locale, or the codeset is different from the codeset assumed when the locale was created, the result is also undefined.
Applications can select the desired locale by invoking the setlocale() function (or equivalent) with the appropriate value. If the function is invoked with an empty string, such as:
setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
the value of the corresponding environment variable is used. If the environment variable is unset or is set to the empty string, the implementation sets the appropriate environment as defined in Environment Variables .
POSIX Locale
All systems provide a POSIX locale, also known as the C locale. The behaviour of standard utilities and functions in the POSIX locale is as if the locale was defined via the localedef utility with input data from the POSIX locale tables in Locale Definition .
The tables in Locale Definition describe the characteristics and behaviour of the POSIX locale for data consisting entirely of characters from the portable character set and the control character set. For other characters, the behaviour is unspecified. For C-language programs, the POSIX locale is the default locale when the setlocale() function is not called.
The POSIX locale can be specified by assigning to the appropriate environment variables the values C or POSIX.
All implementations define a locale as the default locale, to be invoked when no environment variables are set, or set to the empty string. This default locale can be the POSIX locale or any other, implementation-dependent locale. Some implementations may provide facilities for local installation administrators to set the default locale, customising it for each location. This specification set does not require such a facility.
Locale Definition
Locales can be described with the file format presented in this section. The file format is that accepted by the localedef utility. For the purposes of this section, the file is referred to as the but no locales are affected by this file unless it is processed by localedef or some similar mechanism. Any requirements in this section imposed upon the utility apply to localedef or to any other similar utility used to install locale information using the locale definition file format described here.
The locale definition file must contain one or more locale category source definitions, and must not contain more than one definition for the same locale category. If the file contains source definitions for more than one category, implementation-dependent categories, if present, must appear after the categories defined by General . A category source definition must contain either the definition of a category or a copy directive. For a description of the copy directive, see localedef. In the event that some of the information for a locale category, as specified in this specification, is missing from the locale source definition, the behaviour of that category, if it is referenced, is unspecified.
A category source definition consists of a category header, a category body and a category trailer. A category header consists of the character string naming of the category, beginning with the characters LC_. The category trailer consists of the string END, followed by one or more blank characters and the string used in the corresponding category header.
The category body consists of one or more lines of text. Each line contains an identifier, optionally followed by one or more operands. Identifiers are either keywords, identifying a particular locale element, or collating elements. In addition to the keywords defined in this specification, the source can contain implementation-dependent keywords. Each keyword within a locale must have a unique name (that is, two categories cannot have a commonly-named keyword); no keyword can start with the characters LC_. Identifiers must be separated from the operands by one or more blank characters.
Operands must be characters, collating elements or strings of characters. Strings must be enclosed in double-quotes. Literal double-quotes within strings must be preceded by the <escape character>, described below. When a keyword is followed by more than one operand, the operands must be separated by semicolons; blank characters are allowed both before and after a semicolon.
The first category header in the file can be preceded by a line modifying the comment character. It has the following format, starting in column 1:
 

"comment_char %c\n", <comment character>
The comment character defaults to the number sign (#). Blank lines and lines containing the <comment character> in the first position are ignored.
The first category header in the file can be preceded by a line modifying the escape character to be used in the file. It has the following format, starting in column 1:
 

"escape_char %c\n", <escape character>
The escape character defaults to backslash, which is the character used in all examples shown in this specification.
A line can be continued by placing an escape character as the last character on the line; this continuation character will be discarded from the input. Although the implementation need not accept any one portion of a continued line with a length exceeding {LINE_MAX} bytes, it places no limits on the accumulated length of the continued line. Comment lines cannot be continued on a subsequent line using an escaped newline character.
Individual characters, characters in strings, and collating elements must be represented using symbolic names, as defined below. In addition, characters can be represented using the characters themselves or as octal, hexadecimal or decimal constants. When non-symbolic notation is used, the resultant locale definitions will in many cases not be portable between systems. The left angle bracket (<) is a reserved symbol, denoting the start of a symbolic name; when used to represent itself it must be preceded by the escape character. The following rules apply to character representation:
A character can be represented via a symbolic name, enclosed within angle brackets "<" and ">". The symbolic name, including the angle brackets, must exactly match a symbolic name defined in the charmap file specified via the localedef -f option, and will be replaced by a character value determined from the value associated with the symbolic name in the charmap file. The use of a symbolic name not found in the charmap file constitutes an error, unless the category is LC_CTYPE or LC_COLLATE, in which case it constitutes a warning condition (see localedef for a description of action resulting from errors and warnings). The specification of a symbolic name in a collating-element or collating-symbol section that duplicates a symbolic name in the charmap file (if present) is an error. Use of the escape character or a right angle bracket within a symbolic name is invalid unless the character is preceded by the escape character.
Example:
<c>;<c-cedilla> "<M><a><y>"
A character can be represented by the character itself, in which case the value of the character is implementation-dependent. Within a string, the double-quote character, the escape character and the right angle bracket character must be escaped (preceded by the escape character) to be interpreted as the character itself. Outside strings, the characters:
, ; < > escape_char
must be escaped to be interpreted as the character itself.
Example:
c ß "May"
A character can be represented as an octal constant. An octal constant is specified as the escape character followed by two or more octal digits. Each constant represents a byte value. Multi-byte values can be represented by concatenated constants specified in byte order with the last constant specifying the least significant byte of the character.
Example:
\143;\347;\143\150 "\115\141\171"
A character can be represented as a hexadecimal constant. A hexadecimal constant is specified as the escape character followed by an x followed by two or more hexadecimal digits. Each constant represents a byte value. Multi-byte values can be represented by concatenated constants specified in byte order with the last constant specifying the least significant byte of the character.
Example:
\x63;\xe7;\x63\x68 "\x4d\x61\x79"
A character can be represented as a decimal constant. A decimal constant is specified as the escape character followed by a d followed by two or more decimal digits. Each constant represents a byte value. Multi-byte values can be represented by concatenated constants specified in byte order with the last constant specifying the least significant byte of the character.
Example:
\d99;\d231;\d99\d104 "\d77\d97\d121"
Implementations may accept single-digit octal, decimal or hexadecimal constants following the escape character. Only characters existing in the character set for which the locale definition is created can be specified, whether using symbolic names, the characters themselves, or octal, decimal or hexadecimal constants. If a charmap file is present, only characters defined in the charmap can be specified using octal, decimal or hexadecimal constants. Symbolic names not present in the charmap file can be specified and will be ignored, as specified under item 1 above.

LC_CTYPE
The LC_CTYPE category defines character classification, case conversion and other character attributes. In addition, a series of characters can be represented by three adjacent periods representing an ellipsis symbol (...). The ellipsis specification is interpreted as meaning that all values between the values preceding and following it represent valid characters. The ellipsis specification is valid only within a single encoded character set; that is, within a group of characters of the same size. An ellipsis is interpreted as including in the list all characters with an encoded value higher than the encoded value of the character preceding the ellipsis and lower than the encoded value of the character following the ellipsis.
Example:
\x30;...;\x39;
includes in the character class all characters with encoded values between the endpoints.
The following keywords are recognised. In the descriptions, the term "automatically included" means that it is not an error either to include or omit any of the referenced characters; the implementation will provide them if missing (even if the entire keyword is missing) and accept them silently if present. When the implementation automatically includes a missing character, it will have an encoded value dependent on the charmap file in effect (see the description of the localedef -f option); otherwise, it will have a value derived from an implementation-dependent character mapping.
The character classes digit, xdigit, lower, upper and space have a set of automatically included characters. These only need to be specified if the character values (that is, encoding) differ from the implementation default values. It is not possible to define a locale without these automatically included characters unless some implementation extension is used to prevent their inclusion. Such a definition would not be a proper superset of the C or POSIX locale and thus, it might not be possible for applications conforming to the XSI to work properly.
upper
Define characters to be classified as upper-case letters. In the POSIX locale, the 26 upper-case letters are included:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
In a locale definition file, no character specified for the keywords cntrl, digit, punct or space can be specified. The upper-case letters A to Z, as defined in Character Set Description File (the portable character set), are automatically included in this class.
lower
Define characters to be classified as lower-case letters. In the POSIX locale, the 26 lower-case letters are included:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
In a locale definition file, no character specified for the keywords cntrl, digit, punct or space can be specified. The lower-case letters a to z of the portable character set are automatically included in this class.
alpha
Define characters to be classified as letters. In the POSIX locale, all characters in the classes upper and lower are included. In a locale definition file, no character specified for the keywords cntrl, digit, punct or space can be specified. Characters classified as either upper or lower are automatically included in this class.
digit
Define the characters to be classified as numeric digits. In the POSIX locale, only:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
are included. In a locale definition file, only the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 can be specified, and in contiguous ascending sequence by numerical value. The digits 0 to 9 of the portable character set are automatically included in this class. The definition of character class digit requires that only ten characters the ones defining digits can be specified; alternative digits (for example, Hindi or Kanji) cannot be specified here. However, the encoding may vary if an implementation supports more than one encoding.
space
Define characters to be classified as white-space characters. In the POSIX locale, at a minimum, the characters space, form-feed, newline, carriage-return, tab and vertical-tab are included. In a locale definition file, no character specified for the keywords upper, lower, alpha, digit, graph or xdigit can be specified. The characters space, form-feed, newline, carriage-return, tab and vertical-tab of the portable character set, and any characters included in the class blank are automatically included in this class.
cntrl
Define characters to be classified as control characters. In the POSIX locale, no characters in classes alpha or print are included. In a locale definition file, no character specified for the keywords upper, lower, alpha, digit, punct, graph, print or xdigit can be specified.
punct
Define characters to be classified as punctuation characters. In the POSIX locale, neither the space character nor any characters in classes alpha, digit or cntrl are included. In a locale definition file, no character specified for the keywords upper, lower, alpha, digit, cntrl, xdigit or as the space character can be specified.
graph
Define characters to be classified as printable characters, not including the space character. In the POSIX locale, all characters in classes alpha, digit and punct are included; no characters in class cntrl are included. In a locale definition file, characters specified for the keywords upper, lower, alpha, digit, xdigit and punct are automatically included in this class. No character specified for the keyword cntrl can be specified.
print
Define characters to be classified as printable characters, including the space character. In the POSIX locale, all characters in class graph are included; no characters in class cntrl are included. In a locale definition file, characters specified for the keywords upper, lower, alpha, digit, xdigit, punct and the space character are automatically included in this class. No character specified for the keyword cntrl can be specified.
xdigit
Define the characters to be classified as hexadecimal digits. In the POSIX locale, only:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F a b c d e f
are included. In a locale definition file, only the characters defined for the class digit can be specified, in contiguous ascending sequence by numerical value, followed by one or more sets of six characters representing the hexadecimal digits 10 to 15 inclusive, with each set in ascending order (for example A, B, C, D, E, F, a, b, c, d, e, f). The digits 0 to 9, the upper-case letters A to F and the lower-case letters a to f of the portable character set are automatically included in this class. The definition of character class xdigit requires that the characters included in character class digit be included here also.
blank
Define characters to be classified as blank characters. In the POSIX locale, only the space and tab characters are included. In a locale definition file, the characters space and tab are automatically included in this class.
charclass
Define one or more locale-specific character class names as strings separated by semicolons. Each named character class can then be defined subsequently in the LC_CTYPE definition. A character class name consists of at least one and at most {CHARCLASS_NAME_MAX} bytes of alphanumeric characters from the portable filename character set. The first character of a character class name cannot be a digit. The name cannot match any of the LC_CTYPE keywords defined in this specification.
charclass-name
Define characters to be classified as belonging to the named locale-specific character class. In the POSIX locale, the locale-specific named character classes need not exist. If a class name is defined by a charclass keyword, but no characters are subsequently assigned to it, this is not an error; it represents a class without any characters belonging to it. The charclass-name can be used as the property argument to the wctype() function, in regular expression and shell pattern-matching bracket expressions, and by the tr command.
toupper
Define the mapping of lower-case letters to upper-case letters. In the POSIX locale, at a minimum, the 26 lower-case characters:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
are mapped to the corresponding 26 upper-case characters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
In a locale definition file, the operand consists of character pairs, separated by semicolons. The characters in each character pair are separated by a comma and the pair enclosed by parentheses. The first character in each pair is the lower-case letter, the second the corresponding upper-case letter. Only characters specified for the keywords lower and upper can be specified. The lower-case letters a to z, and their corresponding upper-case letters A to Z, of the portable character set are automatically included in this mapping, but only when the toupper keyword is omitted from the locale definition.
tolower
Define the mapping of upper-case letters to lower-case letters. In the POSIX locale, at a minimum, the 26 upper-case characters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
are mapped to the corresponding 26 lower-case characters:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
In a locale definition file, the operand consists of character pairs, separated by semicolons. The characters in each character pair are separated by a comma and the pair enclosed by parentheses. The first character in each pair is the upper-case letter, the second the corresponding lower-case letter. Only characters specified for the keywords lower and upper can be specified. If the tolower keyword is omitted from the locale definition, the mapping will be the reverse mapping of the one specified for toupper.
copy
Specify the name of an existing locale to be used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword can be specified.
The following table shows the character class combinations allowed.
In
Can Also Belong To
Class
upper
lower
alpha
digit
space
cntrl
punct
graph
print
xdigit
blank
upper 
  
-
A
x
x
x
x
A
A
-
x
lower 
-
  
A
x
x
x
x
A
A
-
x
alpha 
-
-
  
x
x
x
x
A
A
-
x
digit 
x
x
x
  
x
x
x
A
A
A
x
space 
x
x
x
x
  
-
*
*
*
x
-
cntrl 
x
x
x
x
-
  
x
x
x
x
-
punct 
x
x
x
x
-
x
  
A
A
x
-
graph 
-
-
-
-
-
x
-
  
A
-
-
print 
-
-
-
-
-
x
-
-
  
-
-
xdigit
-
-
-
-
x
x
x
A
A
  
x
blank 
x
x
x
x
A
-
*
*
*
x
 

 Table: Valid Character Class Combinations
Notes:


Explanation of codes:


A
Automatically included; see text.

-
Permitted.

x
Mutually exclusive.

*
See note 2.



The space character, which is part of the space and blank classes, 
cannot belong to punct or graph, but automatically belongs to 
the print class. Other space or blank characters can 
be classified as any of punct, graph or print.
The character classifications for the POSIX locale follow; the code listing depicting the localedef input, the table representing the same information, sorted by character.
LC_CTYPE
# The following is the POSIX locale LC_CTYPE.
# "alpha" is by default "upper" and "lower"
# "alnum" is by definition "alpha" and "digit"
# "print" is by default "alnum", "punct" and the <space> character
# "graph" is by default "alnum" and "punct"
#
upper <A>;;<C>;<D>;<E>;<F>;<G>;<H>;;<J>;<K>;<L>;<M>;\
 <N>;<O>;;<Q>;<R>;<S>;<T>;;<V>;<W>;<X>;<Y>;<Z>
#
lower <a>;;<c>;<d>;<e>;<f>;<g>;<h>;;<j>;<k>;<l>;<m>;\
 <n>;<o>;;<q>;<r>;<s>;<t>;;<v>;<w>;<x>;<y>;<z>
#
digit <zero>;<one>;<two>;<three>;<four>;<five>;<six>;\
 <seven>;<eight>;<nine>
#
space <tab>;<newline>;<vertical-tab>;<form-feed>;\
 <carriage-return>;<space>
#
cntrl <alert>;<backspace>;<tab>;<newline>;<vertical-tab>;\
 <form-feed>;<carriage-return>;\
 <NUL>;<SOH>;<STX>;<ETX>;<EOT>;<ENQ>;<ACK>;<SO>;\
 <SI>;<DLE>;<DC1>;<DC2>;<DC3>;<DC4>;<NAK>;<SYN>;\
 <ETB>;<CAN>;;;<ESC>;<IS4>;<IS3>;<IS2>;\
 <IS1>;<DEL>
#
punct <exclamation-mark>;<quotation-mark>;<number-sign>;\
 <dollar-sign>;<percent-sign>;<ampersand>;<apostrophe>;\
 <left-parenthesis>;<right-parenthesis>;<asterisk>;\
 <plus-sign>;<comma>;<hyphen>;<period>;<slash>;\
 <colon>;<semicolon>;<less-than-sign>;<equals-sign>;\
 <greater-than-sign>;<question-mark>;<commercial-at>;\
 <left-square-bracket>;<backslash>;<right-square-bracket>;\
 <circumflex>;<underscore>;<grave-accent>;<left-curly-bracket>;\
 <vertical-line>;<right-curly-bracket>;<tilde>
#
xdigit <zero>;<one>;<two>;<three>;<four>;<five>;<six>;<seven>;\
 <eight>;<nine>;<A>;;<C>;<D>;<E>;<F>;<a>;;<c>;<d>;<e>;<f>
#
blank <space>;<tab>
#
toupper (<a>,<A>);(,);(<c>,<C>);(<d>,<D>);(<e>,<E>);\
 (<f>,<F>);(<g>,<G>);(<h>,<H>);(,);(<j>,<J>);\
 (<k>,<K>);(<l>,<L>);(<m>,<M>);(<n>,<N>);(<o>,<O>);\
 (,);(<q>,<Q>);(<r>,<R>);(<s>,<S>);(<t>,<T>);\
 (,);(<v>,<V>);(<w>,<W>);(<x>,<X>);(<y>,<Y>);(<z>,<Z>)
#
tolower (<A>,<a>);(,);(<C>,<c>);(<D>,<d>);(<E>,<e>);\
 (<F>,<f>);(<G>,<g>);(<H>,<h>);(,);(<J>,<j>);\
 (<K>,<k>);(<L>,<l>);(<M>,<m>);(<N>,<n>);(<O>,<o>);\
 (,);(<Q>,<q>);(<R>,<r>);(<S>,<s>);(<T>,<t>);\
 (,);(<V>,<v>);(<W>,<w>);(<X>,<x>);(<Y>,<y>);(<Z>,<z>)
END LC_CTYPE
Symbolic Name Other Case Character Classes
<NUL> cntrl
<SOH> cntrl
<STX> cntrl
<ETX> cntrl
<EOT> cntrl
<ENQ> cntrl
<ACK> cntrl
<alert> cntrl
<backspace> cntrl
<tab> cntrl, space, blank
<newline> cntrl, space
<vertical-tab> cntrl, space
<form-feed> cntrl, space
<carriage-return> cntrl, space
<SO> cntrl
<SI> cntrl
<DLE> cntrl
<DC1> cntrl
<DC2> cntrl
<DC3> cntrl
<DC4> cntrl
<NAK> cntrl
<SYN> cntrl
<ETB> cntrl
<CAN> cntrl
 cntrl
 cntrl
<ESC> cntrl
<IS4> cntrl
<IS3> cntrl
<IS2> cntrl
<IS1> cntrl
<space> space, print, blank
<exclamation-mark> punct, print, graph
<quotation-mark> punct, print, graph
<number-sign> punct, print, graph
<dollar-sign> punct, print, graph
<percent-sign> punct, print, graph
<ampersand> punct, print, graph
<apostrophe> punct, print, graph
<left-parenthesis> punct, print, graph
<right-parenthesis> punct, print, graph
<asterisk> punct, print, graph
<plus-sign> punct, print, graph
<comma> punct, print, graph
<hyphen> punct, print, graph
<period> punct, print, graph
<slash> punct, print, graph
<zero> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<one> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<two> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<three> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<four> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<five> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<six> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<seven> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<eight> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<nine> digit, xdigit, print, graph
<colon> punct, print, graph
<semicolon> punct, print, graph
<less-than-sign> punct, print, graph
<equals-sign> punct, print, graph
<greater-than-sign> punct, print, graph
<question-mark> punct, print, graph
<commercial-at> punct, print, graph
<A> <a> upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
 upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<C> <c> upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<D> <d> upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<E> <e> upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<F> <f> upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<G> <g> upper, alpha, print, graph
<H> <h> upper, alpha, print, graph
 upper, alpha, print, graph
<J> <j> upper, alpha, print, graph
<K> <k> upper, alpha, print, graph
<L> <l> upper, alpha, print, graph
<M> <m> upper, alpha, print, graph
<N> <n> upper, alpha, print, graph
<O> <o> upper, alpha, print, graph
 upper, alpha, print, graph
<Q> <q> upper, alpha, print, graph
<R> <r> upper, alpha, print, graph
<S> <s> upper, alpha, print, graph
<T> <t> upper, alpha, print, graph
 upper, alpha, print, graph
<V> <v> upper, alpha, print, graph
<W> <w> upper, alpha, print, graph
<X> <x> upper, alpha, print, graph
<Y> <y> upper, alpha, print, graph
<Z> <z> upper, alpha, print, graph
<left-square-bracket> punct, print, graph
<backslash> punct, print, graph
<right-square-bracket> punct, print, graph
<circumflex> punct, print, graph
<underscore> punct, print, graph
<grave-accent> punct, print, graph
<a> <A> lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
 lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<c> <C> lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<d> <D> lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<e> <E> lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<f> <F> lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<g> <G> lower, alpha, print, graph
<h> <H> lower, alpha, print, graph
 lower, alpha, print, graph
<j> <J> lower, alpha, print, graph
<k> <K> lower, alpha, print, graph
<l> <L> lower, alpha, print, graph
<m> <M> lower, alpha, print, graph
<n> <N> lower, alpha, print, graph
<o> <O> lower, alpha, print, graph
 lower, alpha, print, graph
<q> <Q> lower, alpha, print, graph
<r> <R> lower, alpha, print, graph
<s> <S> lower, alpha, print, graph
<t> <T> lower, alpha, print, graph
 lower, alpha, print, graph
<v> <V> lower, alpha, print, graph
<w> <W> lower, alpha, print, graph
<x> <X> lower, alpha, print, graph
<y> <Y> lower, alpha, print, graph
<z> <Z> lower, alpha, print, graph
<left-curly-bracket> punct, print, graph
<vertical-line> punct, print, graph
<right-curly-bracket> punct, print, graph
<tilde> punct, print, graph
<DEL> cntrl

LC_COLLATE
The LC_COLLATE category provides a collation sequence definition for numerous utilities in the XCU specification (sort, uniq, and so forth), regular expression matching (see Regular Expressions ) and the strcoll(), strxfrm(), wcscoll() and wcsxfrm() functions in the XSH specification.
A collation sequence definition defines the relative order between collating elements (characters and multi-character collating elements) in the locale. This order is expressed in terms of collation values; that is, by assigning each element one or more collation values (also known as collation weights). This does not imply that implementations assign such values, but that ordering of strings using the resultant collation definition in the locale will behave as if such assignment is done and used in the collation process. At least the following capabilities are provided:

Multi-character collating elements. Specification of multi-character collating elements (that is, sequences of two or more characters to be collated as an entity).

User-defined ordering of collating elements. Each collating element is assigned a collation value defining its order in the character (or basic) collation sequence. This ordering is used by regular expressions and pattern matching and, unless collation weights are explicitly specified, also as the collation weight to be used in sorting.

Multiple weights and equivalence classes. Collating elements can be assigned one or more (up to the limit {COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX}) collating weights for use in sorting. The first weight is hereafter referred to as the primary weight.

One-to-Many mapping. A single character is mapped into a string of collating elements.

Equivalence class definition. Two or more collating elements have the same collation value (primary weight).

Ordering by weights. When two strings are compared to determine their relative order, the two strings are first broken up into a series of collating elements; the elements in each successive pair of elements are then compared according to the relative primary weights for the elements. If equal, and more than one weight has been assigned, then the pairs of collating elements are recompared according to the relative subsequent weights, until either a pair of collating elements compare unequal or the weights are exhausted.

The following keywords are recognised in a collation sequence definition. They are described in detail in the following sections.

collating-element
Define a collating-element symbol representing a multi-character collating element. This keyword is optional.
collating-symbol
Define a collating symbol for use in collation order statements. This keyword is optional.
order_start
Define collation rules. This statement is followed by one or more collation order statements, assigning character collation values and collation weights to collating elements.
order_end
Specify the end of the collation-order statements.
copy
Specify the name of an existing locale to be used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword can be specified.

The collating-element Keyword
In addition to the collating elements in the character set, the collating-element keyword is used to define multi-character collating elements. The syntax is:

"collating-element %s from \"%s\"\n", <collating-symbol>, <string>

The <collating-symbol> operand is a symbolic name, enclosed between angle brackets (< and >), and must not duplicate any symbolic name in the current charmap file (if any), or any other symbolic name defined in this collation definition. The string operand is a string of two or more characters that collates as an entity. A <collating-element> defined via this keyword is only recognised with the LC_COLLATE category.
Example:
collating-element <ch> from "<c><h>"
collating-element <e-acute> from "<acute><e>"
collating-element <ll> from "ll"
The collating-symbol Keyword
This keyword will be used to define symbols for use in collation sequence statements; that is, between the order_start and the order_end keywords. The syntax is:
 

"collating-symbol %s\n", <collating-symbol>
The <collating-symbol> is a symbolic name, enclosed between angle brackets (< and >), and must not duplicate any symbolic name in the current charmap file (if any), or any other symbolic name defined in this collation definition. A <collating-symbol> defined via this keyword is only recognised with the LC_COLLATE category.
Example:
collating-symbol <UPPER_CASE>
collating-symbol <HIGH>
The collating-symbol keyword defines a symbolic name that can be associated with a relative position in the character order sequence. While such a symbolic name does not represent any collating element, it can be used as a weight.
The order_start Keyword
The order_start keyword must precede collation order entries and also defines the number of weights for this collation sequence definition and other collation rules.
The syntax of the order_start keyword is:

"order_start %s;%s;...;%s\n", <sort-rules>, <sort-rules>

The operands to the order_start keyword are optional. If present, the operands define rules to be applied when strings are compared. The number of operands define how many weights each element is assigned; if no operands are present, one forward operand is assumed. If present, the first operand defines rules to be applied when comparing strings using the first (primary) weight; the second when comparing strings using the second weight, and so on. Operands are separated by semicolons (;). Each operand consists of one or more collation directives, separated by commas (,). If the number of operands exceeds the {COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX} limit, the utility will issue a warning message. The following directives will be supported:

forward
Specifies that comparison operations for the weight level proceed from start of string towards the end of string.
backward
Specifies that comparison operations for the weight level proceed from end of string towards the beginning of string.
position
Specifies that comparison operations for the weight level will consider the relative position of elements in the strings not subject to IGNORE. The string containing an element not subject to IGNORE after the fewest collating elements subject to IGNORE from the start of the compare will collate first. If both strings contain a character not subject to IGNORE in the same relative position, the collating values assigned to the elements will determine the ordering. In case of equality, subsequent characters not subject to IGNORE are considered in the same manner.

The directives forward and backward are mutually exclusive.
Example:
order_start forward;backward
If no operands are specified, a single forward operand is assumed.
The character (and collating element) order is defined by the order in which characters and elements are specified between the order_start and order_end keywords. This character order is used in range expressions in regular expressions (see Regular Expressions ). Weights assigned to the characters and elements define the collation sequence; in the absence of weights, the character order is also the collation sequence.
The position keyword provides the capability to consider, in a compare, the relative position of characters not subject to IGNORE. As an example, consider the two strings "o-ring" and "or-ing". Assuming the hyphen is subject to IGNORE on the first pass, the two strings will compare equal, and the position of the hyphen is immaterial. On second pass, all characters except the hyphen are subject to IGNORE, and in the normal case the two strings would again compare equal. By taking position into account, the first collates before the second.
Collation Order
The order_start keyword is followed by collating identifier entries. The syntax for the collating element entries is:

"%s %s;%s;...;%s\n", <collating-identifier>, <weight>, <weight>, ...

Each collating-identifier consists of either a character (in any of the forms defined in Locale Definition ), a <collating-element>, a <collating-symbol>, an ellipsis or the special symbol UNDEFINED. The order in which collating elements are specified determines the character order sequence, such that each collating element compares less than the elements following it. The NUL character compares lower than any other character.
A <collating-element> is used to specify multi-character collating elements, and indicates that the character sequence specified via the <collating-element> is to be collated as a unit and in the relative order specified by its place.
A <collating-symbol> is used to define a position in the relative order for use in weights. No weights are specified with a <collating-symbol>.
The ellipsis symbol specifies that a sequence of characters will collate according to their encoded character values. It is interpreted as indicating that all characters with a coded character set value higher than the value of the character in the preceding line, and lower than the coded character set value for the character in the following line, in the current coded character set, will be placed in the character collation order between the previous and the following character in ascending order according to their coded character set values. An initial ellipsis is interpreted as if the preceding line specified the NUL character, and a trailing ellipsis as if the following line specified the highest coded character set value in the current coded character set. An ellipsis is treated as invalid if the preceding or following lines do not specify characters in the current coded character set. The use of the ellipsis symbol ties the definition to a specific coded character set and may preclude the definition from being portable between implementations.
The symbol UNDEFINED is interpreted as including all coded character set values not specified explicitly or via the ellipsis symbol. Such characters are inserted in the character collation order at the point indicated by the symbol, and in ascending order according to their coded character set values. If no UNDEFINED symbol is specified, and the current coded character set contains characters not specified in this section, the utility will issue a warning message and place such characters at the end of the character collation order.
The optional operands for each collation-element are used to define the primary, secondary, or subsequent weights for the collating element. The first operand specifies the relative primary weight, the second the relative secondary weight, and so on. Two or more collation-elements can be assigned the same weight; they belong to the same if they have the same primary weight. Collation behaves as if, for each weight level, elements subject to IGNORE are removed, unless the position collation directive is specified for the corresponding level with the order_start keyword. Then each successive pair of elements is compared according to the relative weights for the elements. If the two strings compare equal, the process is repeated for the next weight level, up to the limit {COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX}.
Weights are expressed as characters (in any of the forms specified in Locale Definition ), <collating-symbol>s, <collating-element>s, an ellipsis, or the special symbol IGNORE. A single character, a <collating-symbol> or a <collating-element> represent the relative position in the character collating sequence of the character or symbol, rather than the character or characters themselves. Thus, rather than assigning absolute values to weights, a particular weight is expressed using the relative order value assigned to a collating element based on its order in the character collation sequence.
One-to-many mapping is indicated by specifying two or more concatenated characters or symbolic names. For example, if the character <eszet> is given the string <s><s> as a weight, comparisons are performed as if all occurrences of the character <eszet> are replaced by <s><s> (assuming that <s> has the collating weight <s>). If it is necessary to define <eszet> and <s><s> as an equivalence class, then a collating element must be defined for the string ss.
All characters specified via an ellipsis will by default be assigned unique weights, equal to the relative order of characters. Characters specified via an explicit or implicit UNDEFINED special symbol will by default be assigned the same primary weight (that is, belong to the same equivalence class). An ellipsis symbol as a weight is interpreted to mean that each character in the sequence has unique weights, equal to the relative order of their character in the character collation sequence. The use of the ellipsis as a weight is treated as an error if the collating element is neither an ellipsis nor the special symbol UNDEFINED.
The special keyword IGNORE as a weight indicates that when strings are compared using the weights at the level where IGNORE is specified, the collating element is ignored; that is, as if the string did not contain the collating element. In regular expressions and pattern matching, all characters that are subject to IGNORE in their primary weight form an equivalence class.
An empty operand is interpreted as the collating element itself.
For example, the order statement:
<a> <a>;<a>
is equal to:
<a>
An ellipsis can be used as an operand if the collating element was an ellipsis, and is interpreted as the value of each character defined by the ellipsis.
The collation order as defined in this section defines the interpretation of bracket expressions in regular expressions (see RE Bracket Expression ).

Example:
 

order_start
forward;backward
UNDEFINED
IGNORE;IGNORE
<LOW>
<space>
<LOW>;<space>
...
<LOW>;...
<a>
<a>;<a>
<a-acute>
<a>;<a-acute>
<a-grave>
<a>;<a-grave>
<A>
<a>;<A>
<A-acute>
<a>;<A-acute>
<A-grave>
<a>;<A-grave>
<ch>
<ch>;<ch>
<Ch>
<ch>;<Ch>
<s>
<s>;<s>
<eszet>
"<s><s>";"<eszet><eszet>"
order_end
This example is interpreted as follows:

The UNDEFINED means that all characters not specified in this definition (explicitly or via the ellipsis) are ignored for collation purposes; for regular expression purposes they are ordered first.

All characters between <space> and <a> have the same primary equivalence class and individual secondary weights based on their ordinal encoded values.

All characters based on the upper- or lower-case character a belong to the same primary equivalence class.

The multi-character collating element <ch> is represented by the collating symbol <ch> and belongs to the same primary equivalence class as the multi-character collating element <Ch>.

The order_end Keyword
The collating order entries must be terminated with an order_end keyword.
The collation sequence definition of the POSIX locale follows; the code listing depicts the localedef input.
LC_COLLATE
# This is the POSIX locale definition for the LC_COLLATE category.
# The order is the same as in the ASCII codeset.
order_start forward
<NUL>
<SOH>
<STX>
<ETX>
<EOT>
<ENQ>
<ACK>
<alert>
<backspace>
<tab>
<newline>
<vertical-tab>
<form-feed>
<carriage-return>
<SO>
<SI>
<DLE>
<DC1>
<DC2>
<DC3>
<DC4>
<NAK>
<SYN>
<ETB>
<CAN>


<ESC>
<IS4>
<IS3>
<IS2>
<IS1>
<space>
<exclamation-mark>
<quotation-mark>
<number-sign>
<dollar-sign>
<percent-sign>
<ampersand>
<apostrophe>
<left-parenthesis>
<right-parenthesis>
<asterisk>
<plus-sign>
<comma>
<hyphen>
<period>
<slash>
<zero>
<one>
<two>
<three>
<four>
<five>
<six>
<seven>
<eight>
<nine>
<colon>
<semicolon>
<less-than-sign>
<equals-sign>
<greater-than-sign>
<question-mark>
<commercial-at>
<A>

<C>
<D>
<E>
<F>
<G>
<H>

<J>
<K>
<L>
<M>
<N>
<O>

<Q>
<R>
<S>
<T>

<V>
<W>
<X>
<Y>
<Z>
<left-square-bracket>
<backslash>
<right-square-bracket>
<circumflex>
<underscore>
<grave-accent>
<a>

<c>
<d>
<e>
<f>
<g>
<h>

<j>
<k>
<l>
<m>
<n>
<o>

<q>
<r>
<s>
<t>

<v>
<w>
<x>
<y>
<z>
<left-curly-bracket>
<vertical-line>
<right-curly-bracket>
<tilde>
<DEL>
order_end
#
END LC_COLLATE
LC_MONETARY
The LC_MONETARY category defines the rules and symbols that are used to format monetary numeric information. This information is available through the localeconv() function and is used by the strfmon() function.
Some of the information is also available in an alternative form via the nl_langinfo() function (see CRNCYSTR in <langinfo.h>).
The following items are defined in this category of the locale. The item names are the keywords recognised by the localedef utility when defining a locale. They are also similar to the member names of the lconv structure defined in <locale.h>; see the XSH specification for the exact symbols in the header. The localeconv() function returns {CHAR_MAX} for unspecified integer items and the empty string () for unspecified or size zero string items.
In a locale definition file, the operands are strings, formatted as indicated by the grammar in Locale Definition Grammar . For some keywords, the strings can contain only integers. Keywords that are not provided, string values set to the empty string (), or integer keywords set to -1, are used to indicate that the value is not available in the locale.

int_curr_symbol
The international currency symbol. The operand is a four-character string, with the first three characters containing the alphabetic international currency symbol in accordance with those specified in the . The fourth character is the character used to separate the international currency symbol from the monetary quantity.
currency_symbol
The string used as the local currency symbol.
mon_decimal_point
The operand is a string containing the symbol that is used as the decimal delimiter (radix character) in monetary formatted quantities. In contexts where standards (such as the ISO C standard) limit the mon_decimal_point to a single byte, the result of specifying a multi-byte operand is unspecified.
mon_thousands_sep
The operand is a string containing the symbol that is used as a separator for groups of digits to the left of the decimal delimiter in formatted monetary quantities. In contexts where standards limit the mon_thousands_sep to a single byte, the result of specifying a multi-byte operand is unspecified.
mon_grouping
Define the size of each group of digits in formatted monetary quantities. The operand is a sequence of integers separated by semicolons. Each integer specifies the number of digits in each group, with the initial integer defining the size of the group immediately preceding the decimal delimiter, and the following integers defining the preceding groups. If the last integer is not -1, then the size of the previous group (if any) will be repeatedly used for the remainder of the digits. If the last integer is -1, then no further grouping will be performed. The following is an example of the interpretation of the mon_grouping keyword. Assuming that the value to be formatted is 123456789 and the mon_thousands_sep is ', then the following table shows the result. The third column shows the equivalent string in the ISO C standard that would be used by the localeconv() function to accommodate this grouping.
mon_grouping Formatted Value ISO C String
3;-1 123456'789 "\3\177"
3 123'456'789 "\3"
3;2;-1 1234'56'789 "\3\2\177"
3;2 12'34'56'789 "\3\2"
-1 123456789 "\177"
In these examples, the octal value of {CHAR_MAX} is 177.
positive_sign
A string used to indicate a non-negative-valued formatted monetary quantity.
negative_sign
A string used to indicate a negative-valued formatted monetary quantity.
int_frac_digits
An integer representing the number of fractional digits (those to the right of the decimal delimiter) to be written in a formatted monetary quantity using int_curr_symbol.
frac_digits
An integer representing the number of fractional digits (those to the right of the decimal delimiter) to be written in a formatted monetary quantity using currency_symbol.
p_cs_precedes
An integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a non-negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.
p_sep_by_space
An integer set to 0 if no space separates the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol from the value for a monetary quantity with a non-negative value, set to 1 if a space separates the symbol from the value, and set to 2 if a space separates the symbol and the sign string, if adjacent.
n_cs_precedes
An integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.
n_sep_by_space
An integer set to 0 if no space separates the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol from the value for a monetary quantity with a negative value, set to 1 if a space separates the symbol from the value, and set to 2 if a space separates the symbol and the sign string, if adjacent.
p_sign_posn
An integer set to a value indicating the positioning of the positive_sign for a monetary quantity with a non-negative value. The following integer values are recognised for both p_sign_posn and n_sign_posn:

0
Parentheses enclose the quantity and the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.
1
The sign string precedes the quantity and the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.
2
The sign string succeeds the quantity and the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.
3
The sign string precedes the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.
4
The sign string succeeds the currency_symbol or int_curr_symbol.

n_sign_posn
An integer set to a value indicating the positioning of the negative_sign for a negative formatted monetary quantity.

copy
Note: This is a localedef utility keyword, unavailable through localeconv().
Specify the name of an existing locale to be used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword can be specified.

The following table shows the result of various combinations:
  
 
p_sep_by_space
 
 
2
1
0
p_cs_precedes = 1
p_sign_posn = 0
($1.25)
($ 1.25)
($1.25)
 
p_sign_posn = 1
+ $1.25
+$ 1.25
+$1.25
 
p_sign_posn = 2
$1.25 +
$ 1.25+
$1.25+
 
p_sign_posn = 3
+ $1.25
+$ 1.25
+$1.25
 
p_sign_posn = 4
$ +1.25
$+ 1.25
$+1.25
p_cs_precedes = 0
p_sign_posn = 0
(1.25 $)
(1.25 $)
(1.25$)
 
p_sign_posn = 1
+1.25 $
+1.25 $
+1.25$
 
p_sign_posn = 2
1.25$ +
1.25 $+
1.25$+
 
p_sign_posn = 3
1.25+ $
1.25 +$
1.25+$
 
p_sign_posn = 4
1.25$ +
1.25 $+
1.25$+
The monetary formatting definitions for the POSIX locale follow; the code listing depicting the localedef input, the table representing the same information with the addition of localeconv() and nl_langinfo() formats. All values are unspecified in the POSIX locale.
LC_MONETARY
# This is the POSIX locale definition for
# the LC_MONETARY category.
#
int_curr_symbol ""
currency_symbol ""
mon_decimal_point ""
mon_thousands_sep ""
mon_grouping -1
positive_sign ""
negative_sign ""
int_frac_digits -1
p_cs_precedes -1
p_sep_by_space -1
n_cs_precedes -1
n_sep_by_space -1
p_sign_posn -1
n_sign_posn -1
#
END LC_MONETARY
Item POSIX locale Value langinfo constant localeconv() Value localedef Value
currency_symbol n/a CRNCYSTR "" ""
frac_digits n/a - CHAR_MAX -1
int_curr_symbol n/a - "" ""
int_frac_digits n/a - CHAR_MAX -1
mon_decimal_point n/a - "" ""
mon_thousands_sep n/a - "" ""
mon_grouping n/a - "" ""
positive_sign n/a - "" ""
negative_sign n/a - "" ""
p_cs_precedes n/a CRNCYSTR CHAR_MAX -1
n_cs_precedes n/a CRNCYSTR CHAR_MAX -1
p_sep_by_space n/a - CHAR_MAX -1
n_sep_by_space n/a - CHAR_MAX -1
p_sign_posn n/a - CHAR_MAX -1
n_sign_posn n/a - CHAR_MAX -1

In the preceding table, the langinfo Constant column represents an extension. The entry n/a indicates that the value is not available in the POSIX locale.

LC_NUMERIC
The LC_NUMERIC category defines the rules and symbols that will be used to format non-monetary numeric information. This information is available through the localeconv() function. Some of the information is also available in an alternative form via the nl_langinfo() function.
The following items are defined in this category of the locale. The item names are the keywords recognised by the localedef utility when defining a locale. They are also similar to the member names of the lconv structure defined in <locale.h>; see the XSH specification for the exact symbols in the header. The localeconv() function returns {CHAR_MAX} for unspecified integer items and the empty string () for unspecified or size zero string items.
In a locale definition file, the operands are strings, formatted as indicated by the grammar in Locale Definition Grammar . For some keywords, the strings only can contain integers. Keywords that are not provided, string values set to the empty string (), or integer keywords set to -1, will be used to indicate that the value is not available in the locale. The following keywords are recognised:

decimal_point
The operand is a string containing the symbol that is used as the decimal delimiter (radix character) in numeric, non-monetary formatted quantities. This keyword cannot be omitted and cannot be set to the empty string. In contexts where standards limit the decimal_point to a single byte, the result of specifying a multi-byte operand is unspecified.
thousands_sep
The operand is a string containing the symbol that is used as a separator for groups of digits to the left of the decimal delimiter in numeric, non-monetary formatted monetary quantities. In contexts where standards limit the thousands_sep to a single byte, the result of specifying a multi-byte operand is unspecified.
grouping
Define the size of each group of digits in formatted non-monetary quantities. The operand is a sequence of integers separated by semicolons. Each integer specifies the number of digits in each group, with the initial integer defining the size of the group immediately preceding the decimal delimiter, and the following integers defining the preceding groups. If the last integer is not -1, then the size of the previous group (if any) will be repeatedly used for the remainder of the digits. If the last integer is -1, then no further grouping will be performed.
copy
Note: This is a localedef utility keyword, unavailable through localeconv(). Specify the name of an existing locale to be used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword can be specified.

The non-monetary numeric formatting definitions for the POSIX locale follow; the code listing depicting the localedef input, the table representing the same information with the addition of localeconv() values and nl_langinfo() constants.
LC_NUMERIC
# This is the POSIX locale definition for
# the LC_NUMERIC category.
#
decimal_point "<period>"
thousands_sep ""
grouping -1
#
END LC_NUMERIC
Item POSIX locale Value langinfo Constant localeconv() Value localedef Value
decimal_point "." RADIXCHAR "." .
thousands_sep n/a THOUSEP "" ""
grouping n/a - "" -1

In the preceding table, the langinfo Constant column represents an extension. The entry n/a indicates that the value is not available in the POSIX locale.

LC_TIME
The LC_TIME category defines the interpretation of the field descriptors supported by the date utility and affects the behaviour of the strftime(), wcsftime(), strptime() and nl_langinfo() functions. Because the interfaces for C-language access and locale definition differ significantly, they are described separately.
LC_TIME Locale Definition
For locale definition, the following mandatory keywords are recognised:
abday
Define the abbreviated weekday names, corresponding to the %a field descriptor (conversion specification in the strftime(), wcsftime() and strptime() functions). The operand consists of seven semicolon-separated strings, each surrounded by double-quotes. The first string is the abbreviated name of the day corresponding to Sunday, the second the abbreviated name of the day corresponding to Monday, and so on.
day
Define the full weekday names, corresponding to the %A field descriptor. The operand consists of seven semicolon-separated strings, each surrounded by double-quotes. The first string is the full name of the day corresponding to Sunday, the second the full name of the day corresponding to Monday, and so on.
abmon
Define the abbreviated month names, corresponding to the %b field descriptor. The operand consists of twelve semicolon-separated strings, each surrounded by double-quotes. The first string is the abbreviated name of the first month of the year (January), the second the abbreviated name of the second month, and so on.
mon
Define the full month names, corresponding to the %B field descriptor. The operand consists of twelve semicolon-separated strings, each surrounded by double-quotes. The first string is the full name of the first month of the year (January), the second the full name of the second month, and so on.
d_t_fmt
Define the appropriate date and time representation, corresponding to the %c field descriptor. The operand consists of a string, and can contain any combination of characters and field descriptors. In addition, the string can contain escape sequences defined in the table in Escape Sequences and Associated Actions (\\, \a, \b, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v).
d_fmt
Define the appropriate date representation, corresponding to the %x field descriptor. The operand consists of a string, and can contain any combination of characters and field descriptors. In addition, the string can contain escape sequences defined in the table in Escape Sequences and Associated Actions .
t_fmt
Define the appropriate time representation, corresponding to the %X field descriptor. The operand consists of a string, and can contain any combination of characters and field descriptors. In addition, the string can contain escape sequences defined in the table in Escape Sequences and Associated Actions .
am_pm
Define the appropriate representation of the ante meridiem and post meridiem strings, corresponding to the %p field descriptor. The operand consists of two strings, separated by a semicolon, each surrounded by double-quotes. The first string represents the ante meridiem designation, the last string the post meridiem designation.
t_fmt_ampm
Define the appropriate time representation in the 12-hour clock format with am_pm, corresponding to the %r field descriptor. The operand consists of a string and can contain any combination of characters and field descriptors. If the string is empty, the 12-hour format is not supported in the locale.
era
Define how years are counted and displayed for each era in a locale. The operand consists of semicolon-separated strings. Each string is an era description segment with the format:
direction:offset:start_date:end_date:era_name:era_format
according to the definitions below. There can be as many era description segments as are necessary to describe the different eras.
Note:
The start of an era might not be the earliest point in the era it may be the latest. For example, the Christian era BC starts on the day before January 1, AD 1, and increases with earlier time.

direction
Either a + or a - character. The + character indicates that years closer to the start_date have lower numbers than those closer to the end_date. The - character indicates that years closer to the start_date have higher numbers than those closer to the end_date.
offset
The number of the year closest to the start_date in the era, corresponding to the %Ey field descriptor.
start_date
A date in the form yyyy/mm/dd, where yyyy, mm and dd are the year, month and day numbers respectively of the start of the era. Years prior to AD 1 are represented as negative numbers.
end_date
The ending date of the era, in the same format as the start_date, or one of the two special values -* or +*. The value -* indicates that the ending date is the beginning of time. The value +* indicates that the ending date is the end of time.
era_name
A string representing the name of the era, corresponding to the %EC field descriptor.
era_format
A string for formatting the year in the era, corresponding to the %EY field descriptor.
era_d_fmt
Define the format of the date in alternative era notation, corresponding to the %Ex field descriptor.

era_t_fmt
Define the locale's appropriate alternative time format, corresponding to the %EX field descriptor.

era_d_t_fmt
Define the locale's appropriate alternative date and time format, corresponding to the %Ec field descriptor.

alt_digits
Define alternative symbols for digits, corresponding to the %O field descriptor modifier. The operand consists of semicolon-separated strings, each surrounded by double-quotes. The first string is the alternative symbol corresponding with zero, the second string the symbol corresponding with one, and so on. Up to 100 alternative symbol strings can be specified. The %O modifier indicates that the string corresponding to the value specified via the field descriptor will be used instead of the value.

copy
Specify the name of an existing locale to be used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword can be specified.
LC_TIME C-language Access
The following information can be accessed. These correspond to constants defined in <langinfo.h> and used as arguments to the nl_langinfo() function.
ABDAY_x
The abbreviated weekday names (for example Sun), where x is a number from 1 to 7.
DAY_x
The full weekday names (for example Sunday), where x is a number from 1 to 7.
ABMON_x
The abbreviated month names (for example Jan), where x is a number from 1 to 12.
MON_x
The full month names (for example January), where x is a number from 1 to 12.
D_T_FMT
The appropriate date and time representation.
D_FMT
The appropriate date representation.
T_FMT
The appropriate time representation.
AM_STR
The appropriate ante-meridiem affix.
PM_STR
The appropriate post-meridiem affix.
T_FMT_AMPM
The appropriate time representation in the 12-hour clock format with AM_STR and PM_STR.
ERA
The era description segments, which describe how years are counted and displayed for each era in a locale. Each era description segment has the format:
direction:offset:start_date:end_date:era_name:era_format
according to the definitions below. There will be as many era description segments as are necessary to describe the different eras. Era description segments are separated by semicolons.
Note:
The start of an era might not be the earliest point in the era it may be the latest. For example, the Christian era BC starts on the day before January 1, AD 1, and increases with earlier time.

direction
Either a + or a - character. The + character indicates that years closer to the start_date have lower numbers than those closer to the end_date. The - character indicates that years closer to the start_date have higher numbers than those closer to the end_date.
offset
The number of the year closest to the start_date in the era.
start_date
A date in the form yyyy/mm/dd, where yyyy, mm and dd are the year, month and day numbers respectively of the start of the era. Years prior to AD 1 are represented as negative numbers.
end_date
The ending date of the era, in the same format as the start_date, or one of the two special values -* or +*. The value -* indicates that the ending date is the beginning of time. The value +* indicates that the ending date is the end of time.
era_name
The era, corresponding to the %EC conversion specification.
era_format
The format of the year in the era, corresponding to the %EY conversion specification.
ERA_D_FMT
The era date format.

ERA_T_FMT
The locale's appropriate alternative time format, corresponding to the %EX field descriptor.

ERA_D_T_FMT
The locale's appropriate alternative date and time format, corresponding to the %Ec field descriptor.

ALT_DIGITS
The alternative symbols for digits, corresponding to the %O conversion specification modifier. The value consists of semicolon-separated symbols. The first is the alternative symbol corresponding to zero, the second is the symbol corresponding to one, and so on. Up to 100 alternative symbols may be specified.
The following table displays the correspondence between the items described above and the conversion specifiers used by the date utility and the strftime(), wcsftime() and strptime() functions.
localedef Keyword langinfo Constant Conversion Specifier
abday ABDAY_x %a
day DAY_x %A
abmon ABMON_x %b
mon MON %B
d_t_fmt D_T_FMT %c
d_fmt D_FMT %x
t_fmt T_FMT %X
am_pm AM_STR %p
am_pm PM_STR %p
t_fmt_ampm T_FMT_AMPM %r
era ERA %EC,%Ey,%EY
era_d_fmt ERA_D_FMT %Ex
era_t_fmt ERA_T_FMT %EX
era_d_t_fmt ERA_D_T_FMT %Ec
alt_digits ALT_DIGITS %O

In the preceding table, the langinfo Constant column represents an extension.
LC_TIME General Information
Although certain of the field descriptors in the POSIX locale (such as the name of the month) are shown with initial capital letters, this need not be the case in other locales. Programs using these fields may need to adjust the capitalisation if the output is going to be used at the beginning of a sentence.
The LC_TIME descriptions of abday, day, mon and abmon imply a Gregorian style calendar (7-day weeks, 12-month years, leap years, and so forth). Formatting time strings for other types of calendars is outside the scope of this specification set.
As specified under date in the and strftime(), in the XSH specification, the field descriptors corresponding to the optional keywords consist of a modifier followed by a traditional field descriptor (for instance %Ex). If the optional keywords are not supported by the implementation or are unspecified for the current locale, these field descriptors are treated as the traditional field descriptor. For instance, assume the following keywords:
alt_digits "0th";"1st";"2nd";"3rd";"4th";"5th";\
 "6th";"7th";"8th";"9th";"10th"

d_fmt "The %Od day of %B in %Y"
On 7/4/1776, the %x field descriptor would result in "The 4th day of July in 1776", while 7/14/1789 would come out as "The 14 day of July in 1789". It can be noted that the above example is for illustrative purposes only; the %O modifier is primarily intended to provide for Kanji or Hindi digits in date formats.
The following is an example for Japan that supports the current plus last three Emperors and reverts to Western style numbering for years prior to the Meiji era. The example also allows for the custom of using a special name for the first year of an era instead of using 1. (The examples substitute romaji where kanji should be used.)
era_d_fmt "%EY%mgatsu%dnichi (%a)"

era "+:2:1990/01/01:+*:Heisei:%EC%Eynen";\
 "+:1:1989/01/08:1989/12/31:Heisei:%ECgannen";\
 "+:2:1927/01/01:1989/01/07:Shouwa:%EC%Eynen";\
 "+:1:1926/12/25:1926/12/31:Shouwa:%ECgannen";\
 "+:2:1913/01/01:1926/12/24:Taishou:%EC%Eynen";\
 "+:1:1912/07/30:1912/12/31:Taishou:%ECgannen";\
 "+:2:1869/01/01:1912/07/29:Meiji:%EC%Eynen";\
 "+:1:1868/09/08:1868/12/31:Meiji:%ECgannen";\
 "-:1868:1868/09/07:-*::%Ey"
Assuming that the current date is September 21, 1991, a request to date or strftime() would yield the following results:
%Ec - Heisei3nen9gatsu21nichi (Sat) 14:39:26
%EC - Heisei
%Ex - Heisei3nen9gatsu21nichi (Sat)
%Ey - 3
%EY - Heisei3nen
Example era definitions for the Republic of China:
era "+:2:1913/01/01:+*:ChungHwaMingGuo:%EC%EyNen";\
 "+:1:1912/1/1:1912/12/31:ChungHwaMingGuo:%ECYuenNen";\
 "+:1:1911/12/31:-*:MingChien:%EC%EyNen"
Example definitions for the Christian Era:
era "+:0:0000/01/01:+*:AD:%EC %Ey";\
 "+:1:-0001/12/31:-*:BC:%Ey %EC"
The LC_TIME category definition of the POSIX locale follows; the code listing depicts the localedef input; the table depicts the langinfo items defined in this category.
LC_TIME
# This is the POSIX locale definition for
# the LC_TIME category.
#
# Abbreviated weekday names (%a)
abday "<S><n>";"<M><o><n>";"<T><e>";"<W><e><d>";\
 "<T><h>";"<F><r>";"<S><a><t>"
#
# Full weekday names (%A)
day "<S><n><d><a><y>";"<M><o><n><d><a><y>";\
 "<T><e><s><d><a><y>";"<W><e><d><n><e><s><d><a><y>";\
 "<T><h><r><s><d><a><y>";"<F><r><d><a><y>";\
 "<S><a><t><r><d><a><y>"
#
# Abbreviated month names (%b)
abmon "<J><a><n>";"<F><e>";"<M><a><r>";\
 "<A><r>";"<M><a><y>";"<J><n>";\
 "<J><l>";"<A><g>";"<S><e>";\
 "<O><c><t>";"<N><o><v>";"<D><e><c>"
#
# Full month names (%B)
mon "<J><a><n><a><r><y>";"<F><e><r><a><r><y>";\
 "<M><a><r><c><h>";"<A><r><l>";\
 "<M><a><y>";"<J><n><e>";\
 "<J><l><y>";"<A><g><s><t>";\
 "<S><e><t><e><m><e><r>";"<O><c><t><o><e><r>";\
 "<N><o><v><e><m><e><r>";"<D><e><c><e><m><e><r>"
#
# Equivalent of AM/PM (%p) "AM";"PM"
am_pm "<A><M>";"<M>"
#
# Appropriate date and time representation (%c)
# "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y"
d_t_fmt "<percent-sign><a><space><percent-sign>\
 <space><percent-sign><e><space><percent-sign><H>\
 <colon><percent-sign><M><colon><percent-sign><S>\
 <space><percent-sign><Y>"
#
# Appropriate date representation (%x) "%m/%d/%y"
d_fmt "<percent-sign><m><slash><percent-sign><d>\
 <slash><percent-sign><y>"
#
# Appropriate time representation (%X) "%H:%M:%S"
t_fmt "<percent-sign><H><colon><percent-sign><M>\
 <colon><percent-sign><S>"
#
# Appropriate 12-hour time representation (%r) "%I:%M:%S %p"
t_fmt_ampm "<percent-sign><colon><percent-sign><M><colon>\
 <percent-sign><S> <percent_sign>"
#
END LC_TIME
Item POSIX Locale Value Item POSIX Locale Value
D_T_FMT "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y" MON_3 "March"
D_FMT "%m/%d/%y" MON_4 "April"
T_FMT "%H:%M:%S" MON_5 "May"
AM_STR "AM" MON_6 "June"
PM_STR "PM" MON_7 "July"
T_FMT_AMPM "%I:%M:%S %p" MON_8 "August"
DAY_1 "Sunday" MON_9 "September"
DAY_2 "Monday" MON_10 "October"
DAY_3 "Tuesday" MON_11 "November"
DAY_4 "Wednesday" MON_12 "December"
DAY_5 "Thursday" ABMON_1 "Jan"
DAY_6 "Friday" ABMON_2 "Feb"
DAY_7 "Saturday" ABMON_3 "Mar"
ABDAY_1 "Sun" ABMON_4 "Apr"
ABDAY_2 "Mon" ABMON_5 "May"
ABDAY_3 "Tue" ABMON_6 "Jun"
ABDAY_4 "Wed" ABMON_7 "Jul"
ABDAY_5 "Thu" ABMON_8 "Aug"
ABDAY_6 "Fri" ABMON_9 "Sep"
ABDAY_7 "Sat" ABMON_10 "Oct"
MON_1 "January" ABMON_11 "Nov"
MON_2 "February" ABMON_12 "Dec"

LC_MESSAGES
The LC_MESSAGES category defines the format and values for affirmative and negative responses.
The message catalogue used by the standard utilities and selected by the catopen() function is determined by the setting of NLSPATH see Environment Variables . The LC_MESSAGES category can be specified as part of an NLSPATH substitution field.
The following keywords are recognised as part of the locale definition file. The nl_langinfo() function accepts upper-case versions of the first four keywords.

yesexpr
The operand consists of an extended regular expression (see Extended Regular Expressions ) that describes the acceptable affirmative response to a question expecting an affirmative or negative response.
noexpr
The operand consists of an extended regular expression that describes the acceptable negative response to a question expecting an affirmative or negative response.
yesstr (LEGACY)

The operand consists of a fixed string (not a regular expression) that can be used by an application for composition of a message that lists an acceptable affirmative response, such as in a prompt.
nostr (LEGACY)

The operand consists of a fixed string that can be used by an application for composition of a message that lists an acceptable negative response.
copy
Specify the name of an existing locale to be used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword can be specified.

Note that the yesstr and nostr values have different uses from those in Issue 3.
The format and values for affirmative and negative responses of the POSIX locale follow; the code listing depicting the localedef input, the table representing the same information with the addition of nl_langinfo() constants.
LC_MESSAGES
# This is the POSIX locale definition for
# the LC_MESSAGES category.
#
yesexpr "<circumflex><left-square-bracket><y><Y><right-square-bracket>"
#
noexpr "<circumflex><left-square-bracket><n><N><right-square-bracket>"
#
yesstr "yes"
nostr "no"
END LC_MESSAGES
localedef Keyword langinfo Constant POSIX Locale Value
yesexpr YESEXPR "^[yY]"
noexpr NOEXPR "^[nN]"
yesstr YESSTR "yes" (LEGACY)
nostr NOSTR "no" (LEGACY)

LC_MESSAGES Application Usage
The yesstr and nostr locale keywords and the YESSTR and NOSTR langinfoitems formerly were used to match user affirmative and negative responses. In this issue, the yesexpr, noexpr, YESEXPR and NOEXPR extended regular expressions have replaced them. However, they have been retained for backward compatibility to allow an application to include a sample desired response in a prompting message. They are marked LEGACY. Applications should use the general locale-based messaging facilities (see the Internationalisation Guide) to issue such prompting messages.
Locale Definition Grammar
The grammar and lexical conventions in this section together describe the syntax for the locale definition source. The general conventions for this style of grammar are described in the XCU specification, Section 1.8, Grammar Conventions. The grammar takes precedence over the text.
Locale Lexical Conventions
The lexical conventions for the locale definition grammar are described in this section.
The following tokens are processed (in addition to those string constants shown in the grammar):

LOC_NAME
A string of characters representing the name of a locale.
CHAR
Any single character.
NUMBER
A decimal number, represented by one or more decimal digits.
COLLSYMBOL
A symbolic name, enclosed between angle brackets. The string cannot duplicate any charmap symbol defined in the current charmap (if any), or a COLLELEMENT symbol.
COLLELEMENT
A symbolic name, enclosed between angle brackets, which cannot duplicate either any charmap symbol or a COLLSYMBOL symbol.
CHARCLASS
A string of alphanumeric characters from the portable character set, the first of which is not a digit, consisting of at least one and at most {CHARCLASS_NAME_MAX} bytes, and optionally surrounded by double-quotes.
CHARSYMBOL
A symbolic name, enclosed between angle brackets, from the current charmap (if any).
OCTAL_CHAR
One or more octal representations of the encoding of each byte in a single character. The octal representation consists of an escape character (normally a backslash) followed by two or more octal digits.
HEX_CHAR
One or more hexadecimal representations of the encoding of each byte in a single character. The hexadecimal representation consists of an escape character followed by the constant x and two or more hexadecimal digits.
DECIMAL_CHAR
One or more decimal representations of the encoding of each byte in a single character. The decimal representation consists of an escape character followed by a character d and two or more decimal digits.
ELLIPSIS
The string ...
EXTENDED_REG_EXP
An extended regular expression as defined in the grammar in Regular Expression Grammar .
EOL
The line termination character newline.

Locale Grammar
This section presents the grammar for the locale definition.
%token LOC_NAME
%token CHAR
%token NUMBER
%token COLLSYMBOL COLLELEMENT
%token CHARSYMBOL OCTAL_CHAR HEX_CHAR DECIMAL_CHAR
%token ELLIPSIS
%token EXTENDED_REG_EXP
%token EOL

%start locale_definition

%%

locale_definition : global_statements locale_categories
 | locale_categories
 ;

global_statements : global_statements symbol_redefine
 | symbol_redefine
 ;

symbol_redefine : 'escape_char' CHAR EOL
 | 'comment_char' CHAR EOL
 ;
locale_categories : locale_categories locale_category
 | locale_category
 ;

locale_category : lc_ctype | lc_collate | lc_messages
 | lc_monetary | lc_numeric | lc_time
 ;

/* The following grammar rules are common to all categories */

char_list : char_list char_symbol
 | char_symbol
 ;

char_symbol : CHAR | CHARSYMBOL
 | OCTAL_CHAR | HEX_CHAR | DECIMAL_CHAR
 ;

elem_list : elem_list char_symbol
 | elem_list COLLSYMBOL
 | elem_list COLLELEMENT
 | char_symbol
 | COLLSYMBOL
 | COLLELEMENT
 ;

symb_list : symb_list COLLSYMBOL
 | COLLSYMBOL
 ;

locale_name : LOC_NAME
 | '"' LOC_NAME '"'
 ;

/* The following is the LC_CTYPE category grammar */

lc_ctype : ctype_hdr ctype_keywords ctype_tlr
 | ctype_hdr 'copy' locale_name EOL ctype_tlr
 ;

ctype_hdr : 'LC_CTYPE' EOL
 ;

ctype_keywords : ctype_keywords ctype_keyword
 | ctype_keyword
 ;

ctype_keyword : charclass_keyword charclass_list EOL
 | charconv_keyword charconv_list EOL
 | 'charclass' charclass_namelist EOL
 ;
charclass_namelist : charclass_namelist ' ;' CHARCLASS
 | CHARCLASS
 ;

charclass_keyword : 'upper' | 'lower' | 'alpha' | 'digit'
 | 'punct' | 'xdigit' | 'space' | 'print'
 | 'graph' | 'blank' | 'cntrl'
 | CHARCLASS
 ;
charclass_list : charclass_list ' ;' char_symbol
 | charclass_list ' ;' ELLIPSIS ';' char_symbol
 | char_symbol
 ;

charconv_keyword : 'toupper'
 | 'tolower'
 ;

charconv_list : charconv_list ' ;' charconv_entry
 | charconv_entry
 ;
charconv_entry : '(' char_symbol ',' char_symbol ')'
 ;

ctype_tlr : 'END' 'LC_CTYPE' EOL
 ;

/* The following is the LC_COLLATE category grammar */

lc_collate : collate_hdr collate_keywords collate_tlr
 | collate_hdr 'copy' locale_name EOL collate_tlr
 ;

collate_hdr : 'LC_COLLATE' EOL
 ;

collate_keywords : order_statements
 | opt_statements order_statements
 ;

opt_statements : opt_statements collating_symbols
 | opt_statements collating_elements
 | collating_symbols
 | collating_elements
 ;

collating_symbols : 'collating-symbol' COLLSYMBOL EOL
 ;

collating_elements : 'collating-element' COLLELEMENT
 'from' '"' elem_list '"' EOL
 ;

order_statements : order_start collation_order order_end
 ;

order_start : 'order_start' EOL
 | 'order_start' order_opts EOL
 ;

order_opts : order_opts ' ;' order_opt
 | order_opt
 ;

order_opt : order_opt ',' opt_word
 | opt_word
 ;

opt_word : 'forward' | 'backward' | 'position'
 ;

collation_order : collation_order collation_entry
 | collation_entry
 ;

collation_entry : COLLSYMBOL EOL
 | collation_element weight_list EOL
 | collation_element EOL
 ;

collation_element : char_symbol
 | COLLELEMENT
 | ELLIPSIS
 | 'UNDEFINED'
 ;

weight_list : weight_list ' ;' weight_symbol
 | weight_list ' ;'
 | weight_symbol
 ;

weight_symbol : /* empty */
 | char_symbol
 | COLLSYMBOL
 | '"' elem_list '"'
 | '"' symb_list '"'
 | ELLIPSIS
 | 'IGNORE'
 ;

order_end : 'order_end' EOL
 ;

collate_tlr : 'END' 'LC_COLLATE' EOL
 ;

/* The following is the LC_MESSAGES category grammar */

lc_messages : messages_hdr messages_keywords messages_tlr
 | messages_hdr 'copy' locale_name EOL messages_tlr
 ;

messages_hdr : 'LC_MESSAGES' EOL
 ;

messages_keywords : messages_keywords messages_keyword
 | messages_keyword
 ;

messages_keyword : 'yesexpr' '"' EXTENDED_REG_EXP '"' EOL
 | 'noexpr' '"' EXTENDED_REG_EXP '"' EOL
 | 'yesstr' '"' char_list '"' EOL
 | 'nostr' '"' char_list '"' EOL
 ;

messages_tlr : 'END' 'LC_MESSAGES' EOL
 ;

/* The following is the LC_MONETARY category grammar */

lc_monetary : monetary_hdr monetary_keywords monetary_tlr
 | monetary_hdr 'copy' locale_name EOL monetary_tlr
 ;

monetary_hdr : 'LC_MONETARY' EOL
 ;

monetary_keywords : monetary_keywords monetary_keyword
 | monetary_keyword
 ;

monetary_keyword : mon_keyword_string mon_string EOL
 | mon_keyword_char NUMBER EOL
 | mon_keyword_char '-1' EOL
 | mon_keyword_grouping mon_group_list EOL
 ;

mon_keyword_string : 'int_curr_symbol' | 'currency_symbol'
 | 'mon_decimal_point' | 'mon_thousands_sep'
 | 'positive_sign' | 'negative_sign'
 ;

mon_string : '"' char_list '"'
 | '""'
 ;

mon_keyword_char : 'int_frac_digits' | 'frac_digits'
 | 'p_cs_precedes' | 'p_sep_by_space'
 | 'n_cs_precedes' | 'n_sep_by_space'
 | 'p_sign_posn' | 'n_sign_posn'
 ;

mon_keyword_grouping : 'mon_grouping'
 ;

mon_group_list : NUMBER
 | mon_group_list ' ;' NUMBER
 ;

monetary_tlr : 'END' 'LC_MONETARY' EOL
 ;

/* The following is the LC_NUMERIC category grammar */

lc_numeric : numeric_hdr numeric_keywords numeric_tlr
 | numeric_hdr 'copy' locale_name EOL numeric_tlr
 ;

numeric_hdr : 'LC_NUMERIC' EOL
 ;

numeric_keywords : numeric_keywords numeric_keyword
 | numeric_keyword
 ;

numeric_keyword : num_keyword_string num_string EOL
 | num_keyword_grouping num_group_list EOL
 ;

num_keyword_string : 'decimal_point'
 | 'thousands_sep'
 ;

num_string : '"' char_list '"'
 | '""'
 ;

num_keyword_grouping: 'grouping'
 ;

num_group_list : NUMBER
 | num_group_list ' ;' NUMBER
 ;

numeric_tlr : 'END' 'LC_NUMERIC' EOL
 ;

/* The following is the LC_TIME category grammar */

lc_time : time_hdr time_keywords time_tlr
 | time_hdr 'copy' locale_name EOL time_tlr
 ;

time_hdr : 'LC_TIME' EOL
 ;

time_keywords : time_keywords time_keyword
 | time_keyword
 ;

time_keyword : time_keyword_name time_list EOL
 | time_keyword_fmt time_string EOL
 | time_keyword_opt time_list EOL
 ;

time_keyword_name : 'abday' | 'day' | 'abmon' | 'mon'
 ;

time_keyword_fmt : 'd_t_fmt' | 'd_fmt' | 't_fmt'
 | 'am_pm' | 't_fmt_ampm'
 ;

time_keyword_opt : 'era' | 'era_d_fmt' | 'era_t_fmt'
 | 'era_d_t_fmt' | 'alt_digits'
 ;

time_list : time_list ' ;' time_string
 | time_string
 ;

time_string : '"' char_list '"'
 ;

time_tlr : 'END' 'LC_TIME' EOL
 ;
Locale Definition Example
The following is an example of a locale definition file that could be used as input to the localedef utility. It assumes that the utility is executed with the -f option, naming a charmap file with (at least) the following content:
CHARMAP
<space> \x20
<dollar> \x24
<A> \101
<a> \141
<A-acute> \346
<a-acute> \365
<A-grave> \300
<a-grave> \366
 \142
<C> \103
<c> \143
<c-cedilla> \347
<d> \x64
<H> \110
<h> \150
<eszet> \xb7
<s> \x73
<z> \x7a
END CHARMAP
It should not be taken as complete or to represent any actual locale, but only to illustrate the syntax.
A further set of examples is offered as part of the Internationalisation Guide.
#
LC_CTYPE
lower <a>;;<c>;<c-cedilla>;<d>;...;<z>
upper A;B;C;C;...;Z
space \x20;\x09;\x0a;\x0b;\x0c;\x0d
blank \040;\011
toupper (<a>,<A>);(b,B);(c,C);(c,C);(d,D);(z,Z)
END LC_CTYPE
#
LC_COLLATE
#
# The following example of collation is based on the proposed
# Canadian standard Z243.4.1-1990, "Canadian Alphanumeric
# Ordering Standard For Character sets of CSA Z234.4 Standard".
# (Other parts of this example locale definition file do not
# purport to relate to Canada, or to any other real culture.)
# The proposed standard defines a 4-weight collation, such that
# in the first pass, characters are compared without regard to
# case or accents; in second pass, backwards compare without
# regard to case; in the third pass, forward compare without
# regard to diacriticals. In the 3 first passes, non-alphabetic
# characters are ignored; in the fourth pass, only special
# characters are considered, such that "The string that has a
# special character in the lowest position comes first. If two
# strings have a special character in the same position, the
# collation value of the special character determines ordering.
#
# Only a subset of the character set is used here; mostly to
# illustrate the set-up.
#
#
collating-symbol <LOW_VALUE>
collating-symbol <LOWER-CASE>
collating-symbol <SUBSCRIPT-LOWER>
collating-symbol <SUPERSCRIPT-LOWER>
collating-symbol <UPPER-CASE>
collating-symbol <NO-ACCENT>
collating-symbol <PECULIAR>
collating-symbol <LIGATURE>
collating-symbol <ACUTE>
collating-symbol <GRAVE>
# Further collating-symbols follow.
#
# Properly, the standard does not include any multi-character
# collating elements; the one below is added for completeness.
#
collating_element <ch> from "<c><h>"
collating_element <CH> from "<C><H>"
collating_element <Ch> from "<C><h>"
#
order_start forward;backward;forward;forward,position
#
# Collating symbols are specified first in the sequence to allocate
# basic collation values to them, lower than that of any character.
<LOW_VALUE>
<LOWER-CASE>
<SUBSCRIPT-LOWER>
<SUPERSCRIPT-LOWER>
<UPPER-CASE>
<NO-ACCENT>
<PECULIAR>
<LIGATURE>
<ACUTE>
<GRAVE>
<RING-ABOVE>
<DIAERESIS>
<TILDE>
# Further collating symbols are given a basic collating value here.
#
# Here follow special characters.
<space> IGNORE;IGNORE;IGNORE;<space>
# Other special characters follow here.
#
# Here follow the regular characters.
<a> <a>;<NO-ACCENT>;<LOWER-CASE>;IGNORE
<A> <a>;<NO-ACCENT>;<UPPER-CASE>;IGNORE
<a-acute> <a>;<ACUTE>;<LOWER-CASE>;IGNORE
<A-acute> <a>;<ACUTE>;<UPPER-CASE>;IGNORE
<a-grave> <a>;<GRAVE>;<LOWER-CASE>;IGNORE
<A-grave> <a>;<GRAVE>;<UPPER-CASE>;IGNORE
<ae> "<a><e>";"<LIGATURE><LIGATURE>";\
 "<LOWER-CASE><LOWER-CASE>";IGNORE
<AE> "<a><e>";"<LIGATURE><LIGATURE>";\
 "<UPPER-CASE><UPPER-CASE>";IGNORE
 ;<NO-ACCENT>;<LOWER-CASE>;IGNORE
 ;<NO-ACCENT>;<UPPER-CASE>;IGNORE
<c> <c>;<NO-ACCENT>;<LOWER-CASE>;IGNORE
<C> <c>;<NO-ACCENT>;<UPPER-CASE>;IGNORE
<ch> <ch>;<NO-ACCENT>;<LOWER-CASE>;IGNORE
<Ch> <ch>;<NO-ACCENT>;<PECULIAR>;IGNORE
<CH> <ch>;<NO-ACCENT>;<UPPER-CASE>;IGNORE
#
# As an example, the strings "Bach" and "bach" could be encoded (for
# compare purposes) as:
# "Bach" ;<a>;<ch>;<LOW_VALUE>;<NO_ACCENT>;<NO_ACCENT>;\
# <NO_ACCENT>;<LOW_VALUE>;<UPPER>;<LOWER>;<LOWER>;<NULL>
# "bach" ;<a>;<ch>;<LOW_VALUE>;<NO_ACCENT>;<NO_ACCENT>;\
# <NO_ACCENT>;<LOW_VALUE>;<LOWER>;<LOWER>;<LOWER>;<NULL>
#
# The two strings are equal in pass 1 and 2, but differ in pass 3.
#
# Further characters follow.
#
UNDEFINED IGNORE;IGNORE;IGNORE;IGNORE
#
order_end
#
END LC_COLLATE
#
LC_MONETARY
int_curr_symbol "USD "
currency_symbol "$"
mon_decimal_point "."
mon_grouping 3;0
positive_sign ""
negative_sign "-"
p_cs_precedes 1
n_sign_posn 0
END LC_MONETARY
#
LC_NUMERIC
copy "US_en.ASCII"
END LC_NUMERIC
#
LC_TIME
abday "Sun";"Mon";"Tue";"Wed";"Thu";"Fri";"Sat"
#
day "Sunday";"Monday";"Tuesday";"Wednesday";\
 "Thursday";"Friday";"Saturday"
#
abmon "Jan";"Feb";"Mar";"Apr";"May";"Jun";\
 "Jul";"Aug";"Sep";"Oct";"Nov";"Dec"
#
mon "January";"February";"March";"April";\
 "May";"June";"July";"August";"September";\
 "October";"November";"December"
#
d_t_fmt "%a %b %d %T %Z %Y\n"
END LC_TIME
#
LC_MESSAGES
yesexpr "^([yY][[:alpha:]]*)|(OK)"
#
noexpr "^[nN][[:alpha:]]*"
END LC_MESSAGES

In	Can Also Belong To
Class	upper	lower	alpha	digit	space	cntrl	punct	graph	print	xdigit	blank
upper		-	A	x	x	x	x	A	A	-	x
lower	-		A	x	x	x	x	A	A	-	x
alpha	-	-		x	x	x	x	A	A	-	x
digit	x	x	x		x	x	x	A	A	A	x
space	x	x	x	x		-	*	*	*	x	-
cntrl	x	x	x	x	-		x	x	x	x	-
punct	x	x	x	x	-	x		A	A	x	-
graph	-	-	-	-	-	x	-		A	-	-
print	-	-	-	-	-	x	-	-		-	-
xdigit	-	-	-	-	x	x	x	A	A		x
blank	x	x	x	x	A	-	*	*	*	x


Symbolic Name	Other Case	Character Classes
<NUL>		cntrl
<SOH>		cntrl
<STX>		cntrl
<ETX>		cntrl
<EOT>		cntrl
<ENQ>		cntrl
<ACK>		cntrl
<alert>		cntrl
<backspace>		cntrl
<tab>		cntrl, space, blank
<newline>		cntrl, space
<vertical-tab>		cntrl, space
<form-feed>		cntrl, space
<carriage-return>		cntrl, space
<SO>		cntrl
<SI>		cntrl
<DLE>		cntrl
<DC1>		cntrl
<DC2>		cntrl
<DC3>		cntrl
<DC4>		cntrl
<NAK>		cntrl
<SYN>		cntrl
<ETB>		cntrl
<CAN>		cntrl
<EM>		cntrl
<SUB>		cntrl
<ESC>		cntrl
<IS4>		cntrl
<IS3>		cntrl
<IS2>		cntrl
<IS1>		cntrl
<space>		space, print, blank
<exclamation-mark>		punct, print, graph
<quotation-mark>		punct, print, graph
<number-sign>		punct, print, graph
<dollar-sign>		punct, print, graph
<percent-sign>		punct, print, graph
<ampersand>		punct, print, graph
<apostrophe>		punct, print, graph
<left-parenthesis>		punct, print, graph
<right-parenthesis>		punct, print, graph
<asterisk>		punct, print, graph
<plus-sign>		punct, print, graph
<comma>		punct, print, graph
<hyphen>		punct, print, graph
<period>		punct, print, graph
<slash>		punct, print, graph
<zero>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<one>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<two>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<three>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<four>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<five>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<six>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<seven>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<eight>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<nine>		digit, xdigit, print, graph
<colon>		punct, print, graph
<semicolon>		punct, print, graph
<less-than-sign>		punct, print, graph
<equals-sign>		punct, print, graph
<greater-than-sign>		punct, print, graph
<question-mark>		punct, print, graph
<commercial-at>		punct, print, graph
<A>	<a>	upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<B>	<b>	upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<C>	<c>	upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<D>	<d>	upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<E>	<e>	upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<F>	<f>	upper, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<G>	<g>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<H>	<h>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<I>	<i>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<J>	<j>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<K>	<k>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<L>	<l>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<M>	<m>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<N>	<n>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<O>	<o>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<P>	<p>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<Q>	<q>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<R>	<r>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<S>	<s>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<T>	<t>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<U>	<u>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<V>	<v>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<W>	<w>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<X>	<x>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<Y>	<y>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<Z>	<z>	upper, alpha, print, graph
<left-square-bracket>		punct, print, graph
<backslash>		punct, print, graph
<right-square-bracket>		punct, print, graph
<circumflex>		punct, print, graph
<underscore>		punct, print, graph
<grave-accent>		punct, print, graph
<a>	<A>	lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<b>	<B>	lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<c>	<C>	lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<d>	<D>	lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<e>	<E>	lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<f>	<F>	lower, xdigit, alpha, print, graph
<g>	<G>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<h>	<H>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<i>	<I>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<j>	<J>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<k>	<K>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<l>	<L>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<m>	<M>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<n>	<N>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<o>	<O>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<p>	<P>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<q>	<Q>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<r>	<R>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<s>	<S>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<t>	<T>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<u>	<U>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<v>	<V>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<w>	<W>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<x>	<X>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<y>	<Y>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<z>	<Z>	lower, alpha, print, graph
<left-curly-bracket>		punct, print, graph
<vertical-line>		punct, print, graph
<right-curly-bracket>		punct, print, graph
<tilde>		punct, print, graph
<DEL>		cntrl

order_start	forward;backward
UNDEFINED	IGNORE;IGNORE
<LOW>
<space>	<LOW>;<space>
...	<LOW>;...
<a>	<a>;<a>
<a-acute>	<a>;<a-acute>
<a-grave>	<a>;<a-grave>
<A>	<a>;<A>
<A-acute>	<a>;<A-acute>
<A-grave>	<a>;<A-grave>
<ch>	<ch>;<ch>
<Ch>	<ch>;<Ch>
<s>	<s>;<s>
<eszet>	"<s><s>";"<eszet><eszet>"
order_end

mon_grouping	Formatted Value	ISO C String
3;-1	123456'789	"\3\177"
3	123'456'789	"\3"
3;2;-1	1234'56'789	"\3\2\177"
3;2	12'34'56'789	"\3\2"
-1	123456789	"\177"

		p_sep_by_space
		2	1	0
p_cs_precedes = 1	p_sign_posn = 0	($1.25)	($ 1.25)	($1.25)
	p_sign_posn = 1	+ $1.25	+$ 1.25	+$1.25
	p_sign_posn = 2	$1.25 +	$ 1.25+	$1.25+
	p_sign_posn = 3	+ $1.25	+$ 1.25	+$1.25
	p_sign_posn = 4	$ +1.25	$+ 1.25	$+1.25
p_cs_precedes = 0	p_sign_posn = 0	(1.25 $)	(1.25 $)	(1.25$)
	p_sign_posn = 1	+1.25 $	+1.25 $	+1.25$
	p_sign_posn = 2	1.25$ +	1.25 $+	1.25$+
	p_sign_posn = 3	1.25+ $	1.25 +$	1.25+$
	p_sign_posn = 4	1.25$ +	1.25 $+	1.25$+

Item	POSIX locale Value	langinfo constant	localeconv() Value	localedef Value
currency_symbol	n/a	CRNCYSTR	""	""
frac_digits	n/a	-	CHAR_MAX	-1
int_curr_symbol	n/a	-	""	""
int_frac_digits	n/a	-	CHAR_MAX	-1
mon_decimal_point	n/a	-	""	""
mon_thousands_sep	n/a	-	""	""
mon_grouping	n/a	-	""	""
positive_sign	n/a	-	""	""
negative_sign	n/a	-	""	""
p_cs_precedes	n/a	CRNCYSTR	CHAR_MAX	-1
n_cs_precedes	n/a	CRNCYSTR	CHAR_MAX	-1
p_sep_by_space	n/a	-	CHAR_MAX	-1
n_sep_by_space	n/a	-	CHAR_MAX	-1
p_sign_posn	n/a	-	CHAR_MAX	-1
n_sign_posn	n/a	-	CHAR_MAX	-1

Item	POSIX locale Value	langinfo Constant	localeconv() Value	localedef Value
decimal_point	"."	RADIXCHAR	"."	.
thousands_sep	n/a	THOUSEP	""	""
grouping	n/a	-	""	-1

localedef Keyword	langinfo Constant	Conversion Specifier
abday	ABDAY_x	%a
day	DAY_x	%A
abmon	ABMON_x	%b
mon	MON	%B
d_t_fmt	D_T_FMT	%c
d_fmt	D_FMT	%x
t_fmt	T_FMT	%X
am_pm	AM_STR	%p
am_pm	PM_STR	%p
t_fmt_ampm	T_FMT_AMPM	%r
era	ERA	%EC,%Ey,%EY
era_d_fmt	ERA_D_FMT	%Ex
era_t_fmt	ERA_T_FMT	%EX
era_d_t_fmt	ERA_D_T_FMT	%Ec
alt_digits	ALT_DIGITS	%O

Item	POSIX Locale Value	Item	POSIX Locale Value
D_T_FMT	"%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y"	MON_3	"March"
D_FMT	"%m/%d/%y"	MON_4	"April"
T_FMT	"%H:%M:%S"	MON_5	"May"
AM_STR	"AM"	MON_6	"June"
PM_STR	"PM"	MON_7	"July"
T_FMT_AMPM	"%I:%M:%S %p"	MON_8	"August"
DAY_1	"Sunday"	MON_9	"September"
DAY_2	"Monday"	MON_10	"October"
DAY_3	"Tuesday"	MON_11	"November"
DAY_4	"Wednesday"	MON_12	"December"
DAY_5	"Thursday"	ABMON_1	"Jan"
DAY_6	"Friday"	ABMON_2	"Feb"
DAY_7	"Saturday"	ABMON_3	"Mar"
ABDAY_1	"Sun"	ABMON_4	"Apr"
ABDAY_2	"Mon"	ABMON_5	"May"
ABDAY_3	"Tue"	ABMON_6	"Jun"
ABDAY_4	"Wed"	ABMON_7	"Jul"
ABDAY_5	"Thu"	ABMON_8	"Aug"
ABDAY_6	"Fri"	ABMON_9	"Sep"
ABDAY_7	"Sat"	ABMON_10	"Oct"
MON_1	"January"	ABMON_11	"Nov"
MON_2	"February"	ABMON_12	"Dec"

localedef Keyword	langinfo Constant	POSIX Locale Value
yesexpr	YESEXPR	"^[yY]"
noexpr	NOEXPR	"^[nN]"
yesstr	YESSTR	"yes" (LEGACY)
nostr	NOSTR	"no" (LEGACY)