Character classification and case conversion.

Collation order.

Date and time formats.

Numeric formatting.

Monetary formatting.

Formats of informative and diagnostic messages and interactive responses.

1. 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(1) 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>"

2. 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

c "May"

3. 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:

\e143;\e347;\e143\e150 "\e115\e141\e171"

4. 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:

\ex63;\exe7;\ex63\ex68 "\ex4d\ex61\ex79"

5. 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:

\ed99;\ed231;\ed99\ed104 "\ed77\ed97\ed121"

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

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

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.

Define the characters to be classified as numeric digits. In the POSIX locale, only

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Define characters to be classified as letters and numeric digits. Only the characters specified for the alpha and digit keywords are specified. Characters specified for the keywords alpha and digit are automatically included in this class.

Define characters to be classified as white-space characters. In the POSIX locale, at a minimum, the characters SPACE, FORMFEED, 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, FORMFEED, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Define one or more locale-specific character class names as strings separated by semi-colons. 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 document.

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(3C) function, in regular expression and shell pattern-matching bracket expressions, and by the tr(1) command.

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

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

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

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

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

2. 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.

3. 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.

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

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

6. 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, 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.

Specify the name of an existing locale which is used as the definition of this category. If this keyword is specified, no other keyword is specified.

Define a collating-element symbol representing a multi-character collating element. This keyword is optional.

Define a collating symbol for use in collation order statements. This keyword is optional.

Define collation rules. This statement is followed by one or more collation order statements, assigning character collation values and collation weights to collating elements.

Specify the end of the collation-order statements.

Specifies that comparison operations for the weight level proceed from start of string towards the end of string.

Specifies that comparison operations for the weight level proceed from end of string towards the beginning of string.

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.

1. 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.

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

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

4. 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 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 ISO 4217 standard. The fourth character is the character used to separate the international currency symbol from the monetary quantity.

The string used as the local currency symbol.

The operand is a string containing the symbol that is used as the decimal delimiter (radix character) in monetary formatted quantities.

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.

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 "\e3\e177"
3 123'456'789 "\e3"
3;2;-1 1234'56'789 "\e3\e2\e177"
3;2 12'34'56'789 "\e3\e2"
-1 1234567898 "\e177"

A string used to indicate a non-negative-valued formatted monetary quantity.

A string used to indicate a negative-valued formatted monetary quantity.

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.

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.

In an application conforming to the SUSv3 standard, an integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a non-negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value. In an application not conforming to the SUSv3 standard, an integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol or int_currency_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a non-negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.

In an application conforming to the SUSv3 standard, an integer set to 0 if no space separates the currency_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. In an application not conforming to the SUSv3 standard, 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.

In an application conforming to the SUSv3 standard, an integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value. In an application not conforming to the SUSv3 standard, an integer set to 1 if the currency_symbol or int_currency_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.

In an application conforming to the SUSv3 standard, an integer set to 0 if no space separates the currency_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. In an application not conforming to the SUSv3 standard, 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.

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 recognized for both p_sign_posn and n_sign_posn: In an application conforming to the SUSv3 standard: 0

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

An integer set to 1 if the 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.

An integer set to 1 if the int_curr_symbol precedes the value for a monetary quantity with a negative value, and set to 0 if the symbol succeeds the value.

An integer set to 0 if no space separates the 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.

An integer set to 0 if no space separates the 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.

An integer set to a value indicating the positioning of the positive_sign for a positive monetary quantity formatted with the international format. The following integer values are recognized for int_p_sign_posn and int_n_sign_posn: 0

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

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.

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.

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. The non-monetary numeric formatting definitions for the POSIX locale follow. The code listing depicts 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 the escape sequences \e\e, \ea, \eb, \ef, \en, \er, \et, \ev.

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 the escape sequences \e\e, \ea, \eb, \ef, \en, \er, \et, \ev.

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 the escape sequences \e\e, \ea, \eb, \ef, \en, \er, \et, \ev.

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 the escape sequences \e\e, \ea, \eb, \ef, \en, \er, \et, \ev.

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.

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.

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. The start of an era might not be the earliest point For example, the Christian era B.C. starts on the day before January 1, A.D. 1, and increases with earlier time. direction

Define the format of the date in alternative era notation, corresponding to the %Ex field descriptor.

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

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

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.

The abbreviated weekday names (for example Sun), where x is a number from 1 to 7.

The full weekday names (for example Sunday), where x is a number from 1 to 7.

The abbreviated month names (for example Jan), where x is a number from 1 to 12.

The full month names (for example January), where x is a number from 1 to 12.

The appropriate date and time representation.

The appropriate date representation.

The appropriate time representation.

The appropriate ante-meridiem affix.

The appropriate post-meridiem affix.

The appropriate time representation in the 12-hour clock format with AM_STR and PM_STR.

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

The era date format.

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

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

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 date(1) and the strftime(3C), wcsftime(3C), and strptime(3C) functions.

The operand consists of an extended regular expression (see regex(7)) that describes the acceptable affirmative response to a question expecting an affirmative or negative response.

The operand consists of an extended regular expression that describes the acceptable negative response to a question expecting an affirmative or negative response.

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.

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. 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>\e
 <right-square-bracket>"
#
noexpr "<circumflex><left-square-bracket><n><N>\e
 <right-square-bracket>"
#
yesstr "yes"
nostr "no"
END LC_MESSAGES