Re: [proaudio] More overlay problems

[Steve Long <slong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 08 October 2008 17:21:09 Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 9:01 AM, Steve Long <slong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> > LC_ALL should _not_ be set in the standard config, as it forcibly 
> > overrides all other locale settings. It's used for test situations, eg to
> > get an error message in English, to ensure that the program is run with a
> > default locale (usually C), so: LC_ALL=C prog -foo
> Already you are beyond my meager abilities. I've been running Gentoo
> since 1999/2000. I have NEVER edited a file in /etc/env.d. Should I
> now be changing something there?
>
Yes.

> >> >>> * Running command "/usr/bin/svn update
> >> >>> "/usr/portage/local/layman/pro-audio""... svn: warning: cannot set
> >> >>> LC_CTYPE locale svn: warning: environment variable LC_ALL is en_US
> >> >>> svn: warning: please check that your locale name is correct

svn can't set that locale variable because LC_ALL is in effect.

> >> > lightning ~ # cat /etc/env.d/02locale
> >> > LC_ALL="en_US"
> > Use:
> > LANG=en_US
> Are you saying that the 02locale file contents are wrong and should
> not have the quotes?
>
Yes and no: the contents are wrong if they set LC_ALL, but not because of the 
quotes (which will make no difference to a shell; you'd need them if you used 
a setting with a whitespace or [technically] a glob char in. And 
single-quotes would do better in that case, not that it matters for this 
issue.)

LANG is the correct variable to set; nothing else /should/ be required, unless 
the user wants to change something for preference.

> > You might want to consider:
> > LC_COLLATE=C
> > ..which helps with ordering in programs, although if it matters to an
> > app, it should set it itself
...as svn is trying to do above.

>  >The main thing is to make sure that
> > LC_ALL isn't in the environment, as it means nothing else will ever be
> > set or allowed.
> >
> > Setting LC_TYPE or the like is redundant if there is a LANG setting (and
> > you're using the same one ofc;). That's what it's for: the system or user
> > default choice of all the other settings, unless otherwise specified.
> >
Oops: LC_CTYPE; you wouldn't want that set differently in general, as opposed 
to collation order, as it would change the set of valid chars negating the 
whole point. Whether or not to set LC_COLLATE (sort order) is down to the 
individual admin imo; you're in en_US anyhow, so setting it can't adversely 
affect you.

It affects things like [a-z] in a wildcard; in French, for example, there are 
a few more letters that need to be collated which don't appear in English. A 
properly-coded (modern) app wouldn't use [a-z] however, it would use 
[[:lower:]].

> >> > I will have to look around for Gentoo instructions on setting this up
> >> > correctly. I've never had to touch anything except /etc/locale.gen
> >> > before. Maybe things have changed?
> >
> > It used to be recommended, but is a bit of a myth; I think it came about
> > as so many people have been told to run LC_ALL=C someProg  before
> > reporting a bug. man locale is very good on Gentoo, but some other
> > distros don't even mention LC_ALL, I think deliberately because it gets
> > in the way.
>
> I really appreciate your inputs but I'm now more confused and not
> confident about making changes.
No worries; it doesn't make any difference to me how your machine is setup ;-) 
I do recommend 'man locale' however (not just saying RTFM.) This is the 
canonical version:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/locale.html

(This is the reference bookmark for the POSIX SHell and commands if you're 
interested:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/contents.html
Note: find .. -exec someCmd {} +   # it's very handy.)
> Probably an outgrowth of how the world 
> is acting these last two weeks.
>
Heh such is life; I think it must be that time of year again..