This page contain information about the GNU libc locale collection, including patches, suggested formates, list of known problems and who to contact regarding the different locales. It is a work in progress. The page maintainer, Petter Reinholdtsen, is working with the GNU libc maintainers to get all the fixes included in the official releases of the source.
A mailing list for discussing the GNU libc locales have been created. It is archived on the web. Send an email to libc-locales-subscribe@sources.redhat.com to subscribe.
It is currently an open question where the format og locales in glibc is documented. This list of references is at least pointing to related docuemnts documenting the format of locales, even if the glibc maintainers might not accept them as authoritative.
Getting locale fixes past the glibc maintainers is still a kind of black art to me. This is my first try to document what I believe is needed to get the glibc maintainers to accept a change.
Register the change request in bugzilla, to make sure the request is not forgotten, and that all relevant info is collected in one place.
It is always good to involve the original locale author when submitting a change request. Getting the original author to agree to the change increases the chance that the glibc maintainers will accept it. It is also an idea to involve the contributors to the locale. This is why I maintain a list of authors and contributors for each locale. The people listed there should be emailed as well, and asked for comments. If the contributors agree as well, the change is less likely to be controversial, and more likely to be accepted by the glibc maintainers.
Give references to official standards and specifications documenting the correct locale behavoiur. URLs are fine. If such references are impossible to find, official-looking pages might have the same effect. Another idea is to show locale-specific use of dates and other formatting on country-official web pages and other publications.
If all of these are present, the change is likely to be accepted by the glibc maintainer. If some of them are missing (like the author is unavailable, no standard and specifications exist, and it is hard to document the correct format, I do not know how to get the change past the glibc maintainers.
The GNATS database is dead at the moment (2003-10-31), and has been dead since this summer.
If you know of some patches that should be listed here, please send me an email. I want to track all relevant patches, not just the ones submitted by me.
Bruno Haible told me about a list of language codes available from Microsoft, and discovered that some of these are missing as locales in current GNU libc.
| Locale code | Language | Region/Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| bnt_TZ | Sutu | Tanzania | (MS calls this one "sx" - not ISO 639)
(see also http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=NGU) Correct code st_LS / nso_ZA ? |
| de_LI | German | Liechtenstein | |
| en_JM | English | Jamaica | |
| en_GD | English | Caribbean | |
| en_BZ | English | Belize | |
| en_TT | English | Trinidad | |
| gd_IE | Gaelic | Ireland | |
| rm_CH | Rhaeto-Romanic | Switzerland | |
| ro_MD | Romanian | Moldavia | (MS calls this one "MO" - not ISO 3166) |
| ru_MD | Russian | Moldavia | (MS calls this one "MO" - not ISO 3166) |
| ts_ZA | Tsonga | South Africa | (see also http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=TSO) |
| tn_BW | Tswana | Botswana | (see also http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=TSW) |
| ven_ZA | Venda | South Africa | (not sure about ISO 639 code: "ve" or "ven")
(see also http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=VEN) |
| wen_DE | Sorbian | Germany | (MS calls this one "sb" - not ISO 639)
(see also http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=WEN) |