Locale errors on perl package upgrade

[Jonathan Davies]

Perl returns cosmetic locale errors after a package upgrade:

[..]
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Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main python-minimal all 2.7.2-5ubuntu2 [30.7 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main python all 2.7.2-5ubuntu2 [166 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libdb4.8 amd64 4.8.30-9ubuntu1 [679 kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main friendly-recovery all 0.2.17 [7406 B]
Fetched 883 kB in 3s (273 kB/s)
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = (unset),
LC_MESSAGES = "fr_FR.UTF-8",
LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
locale: Cannot set LC_MESSAGES to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
(Reading database ... 85602 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace python-minimal 2.7.2-5ubuntu1 (using .../python-minimal_2.7.2-5ubuntu2_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement python-minimal ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
[...]

We should narrow or eliminate the window in which we have no valid locales installed.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Fabián Rodríguez (magicfab)]

This happens in a new install from Alternate edition, when using the US alternative keyboard.

I normally use this keyabord layout for installation as I need accents for some of the initial setup information, but want to remain as close as possible to a default us-EN layout.

[markusj (markusj)]

I can confirm this issue for a new oneiric x64 desktop edition install. I get those annoying warnings when using git. I already tried to fix my locale settings on every place i could find, with no success.

git pull
> perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
> perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
> LANGUAGE = (unset),
> LC_ALL = (unset),
> LC_CTYPE = "de_DE.utf8",
> LC_COLLATE = "de_DE.utf8",
> LC_MESSAGES = "de_DE.utf8",
> LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
> are supported and installed on your system.
>perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").
>Already up-to-date.

I set up my locale in /etc/default/locale, /etc/environment, ~/.profile, tried locale-gen en_US.UTF-8, purging, reconfiguring and reinstalling locales but nothing worked, git (or perl) complains still about locale settings.

(Output slightly reordered for shortening purposes)
> markus@markusnb:~$ locale
> LANGUAGE=de_DE.utf8:en
> LANG=de_DE.utf8
> LC_ALL=
> LC_CTYPE=de_DE.utf8
and so on for: LC_TIME, LC_COLLATE, LC_MONETARY, LC_MESSAGES, LC_PAPER, LC_NAME, LC_ADDRESS, LC_TELEPHONE, LC_MEASUREMENT, LC_IDENTIFICATION

markus@markusnb:~$ locale -a
>C
>C.UTF-8
[...]
>de_DE
>de_DE.iso88591
>de_DE.utf8
[...]
>en_US
>en_US.iso88591
>en_US.utf8
[...]
>POSIX

Oh, and /usr/share/locale contains de_DE and en_US@piglatin, so i see no reason why perl fails to do whatever it should do

To sum it up: I *have* set up my locales and en_US.UTF-8 *exists* (however, i *never* instructed someone to use it!) but perl ignores those settings and whines about missing/wrong locales it has chosen by itself!

One last tought: Is this a langpack-locales bug or a perl bug or from where does it come from and what can i do against it? Will it break my git repositories?

[markusj (markusj)]

Ok, i just fixed it for me. It appears like if perl did not like my "LANGUAGE=de_DE.utf8:en", i'm not sure if it's invalid or just a perl issue.
However, "LANGUAGE=de_DE:de:en_GB:en" works now fine.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

markusj [2012-02-09 21:06 -0000]:
> It appears like if perl did not like my "LANGUAGE=de_DE.utf8:en"

Yes, this is invalid. de_DT.utf8 is a locale, not a language.

> However, "LANGUAGE=de_DE:de:en_GB:en" works now fine.

That's correct.

Martin
--
Martin Pitt | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com) | Debian Developer (www.debian.org)