22.2. Using Localization
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## 22.2. Using Localization

Localization settings are based on three components: the language code, country code, and encoding. Locale names are constructed from these parts as follows:

    LanguageCode_CountryCode.Encoding

The `LanguageCode` and `CountryCode` are used to determine the country and the specific language variation. Table 22.1, “Common Language and Country Codes” provides some examples of `LanguageCode`_`CountryCode`:

Table 22.1. Common Language and Country Codes

LanguageCode_Country Code | Description
--- | ---
en_US | English, United States
ru_RU | Russian, Russia
zh_TW | Traditional Chinese, Taiwan

A complete listing of available locales can be found by typing:

    % locale -a | more

To determine the current locale setting:

    % locale

Language specific character sets, such as ISO8859-1, ISO8859-15, KOI8-R, and CP437, are described in multibyte(3). The active list of character sets can be found at the IANA Registry.

Some languages, such as Chinese or Japanese, cannot be represented using ASCII characters and require an extended language encoding using either wide or multibyte characters. Examples of wide or multibyte encodings include EUC and Big5. Older applications may mistake these encodings for control characters while newer applications usually recognize these characters. Depending on the implementation, users may be required to compile an application with wide or multibyte character support, or to configure it correctly.

### Note:

FreeBSD uses Xorg-compatible locale encodings.

The rest of this section describes the various methods for configuring the locale on a FreeBSD system. The next section will discuss the considerations for finding and compiling applications with i18n support.

### 22.2.1. Setting Locale for Login Shell

Locale settings are configured either in a user's `~/.login_conf` or in the startup file of the user's shell: `~/.profile`, `~/.bashrc`, or `~/.cshrc`.

Two environment variables should be set:

- `LANG`, which sets the locale

- `MM_CHARSET`, which sets the MIME character set used by applications

In addition to the user's shell configuration, these variables should also be set for specific application configuration and Xorg configuration.

Two methods are available for making the needed variable assignments: the login class method, which is the recommended method, and the startup file method. The next two sections demonstrate how to use both methods.

#### 22.2.1.1. Login Classes Method

This first method is the recommended method as it assigns the required environment variables for locale name and MIME character sets for every possible shell. This setup can either be performed by each user or it can be configured for all users by the superuser.

This minimal example sets both variables for Latin-1 encoding in the `.login_conf` of an individual user's home directory:

    me:\
    	:charset=ISO-8859-1:\
    	:lang=de_DE.ISO8859-1:

Here is an example of a user's `~/.login_conf` that sets the variables for Traditional Chinese in BIG-5 encoding. More variables are needed because some applications do not correctly respect locale variables for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean:

    #Users who do not wish to use monetary units or time formats
    #of Taiwan can manually change each variable
    me:\
    	:lang=zh_TW.Big5:\
    	:setenv=LC_ALL=zh_TW.Big5,LC_COLLATE=zh_TW.Big5,LC_CTYPE=zh_TW.Big5,LC_MESSAGES=zh_TW.Big5,LC_MONETARY=zh_TW.Big5,LC_NUMERIC=zh_TW.Big5,LC_TIME=zh_TW.Big5:\
    	:charset=big5:\
    	:xmodifiers="@im=gcin": #Set gcin as the XIM Input Server

Alternately, the superuser can configure all users of the system for localization. The following variables in `/etc/login.conf` are used to set the locale and MIME character set:

    language_name|Account Type Description:\
    	:charset=MIME_charset:\
    	:lang=locale_name:\
    	:tc=default:

So, the previous Latin-1 example would look like this:

    german|German Users Accounts:\
    	:charset=ISO-8859-1:\
    	:lang=de_DE.ISO8859-1:\
    	:tc=default:

See login.conf(5) for more details about these variables. Note that it already contains pre-defined `russian` class.

Whenever `/etc/login.conf` is edited, remember to execute the following command to update the capability database:

    # cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf

##### 22.2.1.1.1. Utilities Which Change Login Classes

In addition to manually editing `/etc/login.conf`, several utilities are available for setting the locale for newly created users.

When using `vipw` to add new users, specify the `language` to set the locale:

    user:password:1111:11:language:0:0:User Name:/home/user:/bin/sh

When using `adduser` to add new users, the default language can be pre-configured for all new users or specified for an individual user.

If all new users use the same language, set `defaultclass=`language`` in `/etc/adduser.conf`.

To override this setting when creating a user, either input the required locale at this prompt:

    Enter login class: default []:

or specify the locale to set when invoking `adduser`:

    # adduser -class language

If `pw` is used to add new users, specify the locale as follows:

    # pw useradd user_name -L language

To change the login class of an existing user, `chpass` can be used. Invoke it as superuser and provide the username to edit as the argument.

    # chpass user_name

#### 22.2.1.2. Shell Startup File Method

This second method is not recommended as each shell that is used requires manual configuration, where each shell has a different configuration file and differing syntax. As an example, to set the German language for the `sh` shell, these lines could be added to `~/.profile` to set the shell for that user only. These lines could also be added to `/etc/profile` or `/usr/share/skel/dot.profile` to set that shell for all users:

    LANG=de_DE.ISO8859-1; export LANG
    MM_CHARSET=ISO-8859-1; export MM_CHARSET

However, the name of the configuration file and the syntax used differs for the `csh` shell. These are the equivalent settings for `~/.csh.login`, `/etc/csh.login`, or `/usr/share/skel/dot.login`:

    setenv LANG de_DE.ISO8859-1
    setenv MM_CHARSET ISO-8859-1

To complicate matters, the syntax needed to configure Xorg in `~/.xinitrc` also depends upon the shell. The first example is for the `sh` shell and the second is for the `csh` shell:

    LANG=de_DE.ISO8859-1; export LANG

    setenv LANG de_DE.ISO8859-1

### 22.2.2. Console Setup

Several localized fonts are available for the console. To see a listing of available fonts, type `ls /usr/share/syscons/fonts`. To configure the console font, specify the `font_name`, without the `.fnt` suffix, in `/etc/rc.conf`:

    font8x16=font_name
    font8x14=font_name
    font8x8=font_name

The keymap and screenmap can be set by adding the following to `/etc/rc.conf`:

    scrnmap=screenmap_name
    keymap=keymap_name
    keychange="fkey_number sequence"

To see the list of available screenmaps, type `ls /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps`. Do not include the `.scm` suffix when specifying `screenmap_name`. A screenmap with a corresponding mapped font is usually needed as a workaround for expanding bit 8 to bit 9 on a VGA adapter's font character matrix so that letters are moved out of the pseudographics area if the screen font uses a bit 8 column.

To see the list of available keymaps, type `ls /usr/share/syscons/keymaps`. When specifying the `keymap_name`, do not include the `.kbd` suffix. To test keymaps without rebooting, use kbdmap(1).

The `keychange` entry is usually needed to program function keys to match the selected terminal type because function key sequences cannot be defined in the keymap.

Next, set the correct console terminal type in `/etc/ttys` for all virtual terminal entries. Table 22.2, “Defined Terminal Types for Character Sets” summarizes the available terminal types.:

Table 22.2. Defined Terminal Types for Character Sets

Character Set | Terminal Type
--- | ---
ISO8859-1 or ISO8859-15 | `cons25l1`
ISO8859-2 | `cons25l2`
ISO8859-7 | `cons25l7`
KOI8-R | `cons25r`
KOI8-U | `cons25u`
CP437 (VGA default) | `cons25`
US-ASCII | `cons25w`

For languages with wide or multibyte characters, install a console for that language from the FreeBSD Ports Collection. The available ports are summarized in Table 22.3, “Available Console from Ports Collection”. Once installed, refer to the port's `pkg-message` or man pages for configuration and usage instructions.

Table 22.3. Available Console from Ports Collection

Language | Port Location
--- | ---
Traditional Chinese (BIG-5) | chinese/big5con
Chinese/Japanese/Korean | chinese/cce
Chinese/Japanese/Korean | chinese/zhcon
Japanese | chinese/kon2
Japanese | japanese/kon2-14dot
Japanese | japanese/kon2-16dot

If moused is enabled in `/etc/rc.conf`, additional configuration may be required. By default, the mouse cursor of the syscons(4) driver occupies the `0xd0`-`0xd3` range in the character set. If the language uses this range, move the cursor's range by adding the following line to `/etc/rc.conf`:

    mousechar_start=3

### 22.2.3. Xorg Setup

Chapter 5, The X Window System describes how to install and configure Xorg. When configuring Xorg for localization, additional fonts and input methods are available from the FreeBSD Ports Collection. Application specific i18n settings such as fonts and menus can be tuned in `~/.Xresources` and should allow users to view their selected language in graphical application menus.

The X Input Method (XIM) protocol is an Xorg standard for inputting non-English characters. Table 22.4, “Available Input Methods” summarizes the input method applications which are available in the FreeBSD Ports Collection. Additional Fcitx and Uim applications are also available.

Table 22.4. Available Input Methods

Language | Input Method
--- | ---
Chinese | chinese/gcin
Chinese | chinese/ibus-chewing
Chinese | chinese/ibus-pinyin
Chinese | chinese/oxim
Chinese | chinese/scim-fcitx
Chinese | chinese/scim-pinyin
Chinese | chinese/scim-tables
Japanese | japanese/ibus-anthy
Japanese | japanese/ibus-mozc
Japanese | japanese/ibus-skk
Japanese | japanese/im-ja
Japanese | japanese/kinput2
Japanese | japanese/scim-anthy
Japanese | japanese/scim-canna
Japanese | japanese/scim-honoka
Japanese | japanese/scim-honoka-plugin-romkan
Japanese | japanese/scim-honoka-plugin-wnn
Japanese | japanese/scim-prime
Japanese | japanese/scim-skk
Japanese | japanese/scim-tables
Japanese | japanese/scim-tomoe
Japanese | japanese/scim-uim
Japanese | japanese/skkinput
Japanese | japanese/skkinput3
Japanese | japanese/uim-anthy
Korean | korean/ibus-hangul
Korean | korean/imhangul
Korean | korean/nabi
Korean | korean/scim-hangul
Korean | korean/scim-tables
Vietnamese | vietnamese/xvnkb
Vietnamese | vietnamese/x-unikey

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