Installation guide

3.1.3.1 Setting the Environment Variable for Messages
To display a message in your native language, a program reads the
message from a message catalog. By default, your program searches the
/usr/lib/nls/msg/
%L / %N path for message catalogs. In the preceding
pathname,
%L represents the locale name specified by the LANG
environment variable, and
%N represents the name of the message catalog,
which is usually similar to program_name.cat.
If the message catalog your program needs is not stored in one of the
default directories, you must set the NLSPATH environment variable, as you
did on ULTRIX systems. The NLSPATH environment variable tells the
program where to find the message catalogs.
3.1.3.2 Setting the Environment Variables for Data Handling
You can set a number of environment variables that control how programs
accept input, display data, and manipulate data. The international
environment variables on a DIGITAL UNIX system are LANG, LC_ALL,
LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_NUMERIC, LC_MONETARY, LC_TIME, and
LC_MESSAGES. For a description of these environment variables, see
Section 6.10.2.1.
To define these international environment variables, you specify a string,
called the locale name, that tells the system what language, territory, and
codeset to use in your environment. You may also be able to specify a
modifier that allows you to further refine program display and data input.
The DIGITAL UNIX system uses a naming convention for locales different
from the ULTRIX system. On ULTRIX systems, the language specifier is
three characters long and uppercase. On DIGITAL UNIX systems, the
language specifier is two characters long and lowercase. In addition, the
format of the codeset names differ between the ULTRIX and DIGITAL
UNIX systems. For example, to choose an environment that supports
French as it is spoken in France, enter the following command on a
DIGITAL UNIX system:
% setenv LANG fr_FR.ISO8859-1
On ULTRIX systems, international environment variables have little effect
on the commands on the system. For example, setting the LC_TIME
variable to a French locale name does not cause the date command to
display dates as you expect them to be displayed in France. However, on
DIGITAL UNIX systems, the setting of the LC_TIME variable does affect
the operation of the date command, as well as other commands.
The DIGITAL UNIX system supports more locales than the ULTRIX
system. However, the ULTRIX ISO 646 and DEC Multinational character
Migrating Your ULTRIX User Environment to a DIGITAL UNIX System 3–3