no, i want LANG (and possibly LC_MESSAGES) to be en_US.UTF-8 and all others should be C.UTF-8
$ cat /etc/locale.conf
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=C.UTF-8
LC_TIME=C.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=C.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=C.UTF-8
LC_NAME=C.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=C.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=C.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=C.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=C.UTF-8
$ cat /etc/locale.gen
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
$ cat /etc/default/locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=C.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=C.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=C.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=C.UTF-8
LC_NAME=C.UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC=C.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=C.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=C.UTF-8
LC_TIME=C.UTF-8
it shouldnāt only work with LC_ALL, output of date changed when i modified LC_TIME in current shell
$ date
Mon Mar 18 03:40:33 AM CET 2024
$ LC_TIME=C.UTF-8 date
Mon Mar 18 03:40:35 CET 2024
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Good to know. Iād read that elsewhere (i.e., not the Arch page).
Thank you, again. Those all look correct.
The locale.conf file should really only reflect the ones that you have changed. Technically, if that is blank, it should default to C.UTF-8. Whether it does or not, seems to be in question. Based on what you responded previously, it had not done so.
So, if you run sudo locale-gen and reboot, it doesnāt stay set? If you try again, do NOT run ```source /etc/profile.d/locale.sh````.
This is part of what is perplexing me at the moā. When I run it on my system, it displays all of the settings I changed, as I changed them. Then the ones that were set at install time are listed in inverted commas. But yours only shows what was set at install?
when i sudo locale-gen with my current locale.conf and reboot without sourcing the locale.sh file nothing seems to happen, localectl reports the same as before and so does locale and the formats are still american.
yes, it seems so:
$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=
Hmmm, something else I just read said that whatever you set for locale at install is what it defaults to instead of C. And using C will just default back to what you had set.
I know itās inconvenient, but you could set them each to whatever specific locale you want it to be (you donāt need to share what it is to maintain anonymity) and may need to do so to get it correct.
Edit: So in your case, it would default back to US.
itās not about anonymity, thereās just no regional locale i want. i specifically want C because it does not follow any countryās customs.
ā¦so now i need to reinstall the entire system to be able to set it that way?
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Thatās what I am not completely certain about. As far as I know, you cannot install without selecting a language/locale. Thus, it will default to whatever you set.
For example, you could set it to cs_CZ.UTF-8 at install and then everything would default to that.
Edit:
Iāve never heard of a way of installing any Linux distro without selecting a locale, thus getting you where you donāt want to be.
Edit 2: Unfortunately, or not, I donāt actually think locale is causing any problems. Itās because you set it at US at install, thatās what C is defaulting to at this time.
that doesnāt seem to be correct. i can set C.UTF-8 manually:
$ export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
$ locale
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="C.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="C.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="C.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="C.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="C.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="C.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
however, even after wiping my entire locale.conf and only letting
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
be there and after rebooting my locale command gives the exact same output, with en_US everywhere.
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I think because the C defaults back.
What if you changed it to en_GB.UTF-8 and executing locale-gen and rebooting? Does that still leave everything at US or is it now changed?
i donāt think C is defaulting to anything else than C, thatās the entire point of the C locale. i can export it manually just fine and it behaves like the locale should. it just doesnāt work in locale.conf for whatever reason (or i think something might be rewriting it afterwards?)
iām 99% sure you can have linux without a regional locale, i always set my language to be en_US without it affecting other parts of the system. i just messed up the installation this time.
that changed all the variables to the new locale and the system now uses that localeās language.
That shouldnāt be happening as far as I know.
I had not thought so, but am happy to be wrong.
Aside from the locale.conf file not sticking with C. What in your system is not changing correctly to what you would like?
Okay, that at least shows itās working correctly, even if itās not what you want.
And if you set everything to C (similar to the change with GB) it doesnāt stay?
Okay, itās late for me and I have to work soon and should sleep. Iāll try to make more sense of this when Iām at work in a few hours. Or at least as soon as I have timeā¦
itās hard picking a locale, especially for dates. non-english languages will print dates in their own language, americans have the am/pm system, british have something going on too. when i started using linux i used to use australian english for a locale because overall it was the least weird one.
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it stays that way and i guess iāll have to stick to that for now (itās not a bad choice i guess, most of C is the same as en_US anyway, right?)
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Yes, youāre totally right. I couldnāt agree more. Which is partly why Iāve not shown you what my conf file looks like. 
I currently live in one country and have a couple things set because of that. I grew up in a different country and have a few things set because of that. Lastly, I have a few odd preferences and have other locale settings for that.
So I completely understand.
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