Login shell sets LC_CTYPE=UTF-8

[whoward]

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on several servers. On all of the servers the login shell sets LC_CTYPE=UTF-8. See the output below:

Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS

Welcome to Ubuntu!
 * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/
Last login: Fri Aug 19 04:15:31 2011 from localhost
root@gains:~# locale
locale: Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory
LANG=en_US.utf8
LC_CTYPE=UTF-8
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.utf8"
LC_TIME="en_US.utf8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.utf8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.utf8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.utf8"
LC_NAME="en_US.utf8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.utf8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.utf8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.utf8"
LC_ALL=
root@gains:~#

A LC_CTYPE=UTF-8 value generate rather annoying messages such as "Cannot set LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory".

However if I start a shell via "su -", the variable setting changes to LC_CTYPE="en_US.utf8". See below.

root@gains:~# su -
root@gains:~# locale
LANG=en_US.utf8
LC_CTYPE="en_US.utf8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.utf8"
LC_TIME="en_US.utf8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.utf8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.utf8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.utf8"
LC_NAME="en_US.utf8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.utf8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.utf8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.utf8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.utf8"
LC_ALL=

The "su -" behavior is what I expect to be correct, since the contents of my "/etc/defaul/locale" file is:

root@gains:~# cat /etc/default/locale
LANG=en_US.utf8

Which from my understanding should mean that all the LC_* environment variables are set to match LANG.

Note this problem also manifests in bash tab completion for a non-privileged user, see below:

Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS

Welcome to Ubuntu!
 * Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com/
Last login: Fri Aug 19 03:28:55 2011 from localhost
warren@gains:~$ cd /-bash: warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (UTF-8)
-bash: warning: setlocale: LC_CTYPE: cannot change locale (UTF-8)

bin/ dev/ home/ lib32/ lost+found/ mnt/ proc/ sbin/ srv/ tmp/ var/
boot/ etc/ lib/ lib64/ media/ opt/ root/ selinux/ sys/ usr/
warren@gains:~$ cd /^C
warren@gains:~$ su - warren
Password:
warren@gains:~$ cd /
bin/ dev/ home/ lib32/ lost+found/ mnt/ proc/ sbin/ srv/ tmp/ var/
boot/ etc/ lib/ lib64/ media/ opt/ root/ selinux/ sys/ usr/
warren@gains:~$ cd /^C
warren@gains:~$

After "su -" tab completion now works.

I imagine that the work around would be to set the desired LC_CTYPE value in /etc/default/locale, but I'd kind of like Ubuntu (particularly LTS - which I use for server installs) to "just work".

Regards,

Warren.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

http://iam.richardbucker.com/tag/change-locale/

[Jean-Luc Geering (jlgeering)]

still seems to be the case ...