Locale settings not honoured - file bug report?

[Terry]

Erik Harrison wrote:
> On 12/8/06, Terry <teaman at exemail.com.au> wrote:
>   
>> Erik Harrison wrote:
>>     
>>> On 12/7/06, Terry <teaman at exemail.com.au> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I've noticed that locale settings seem not to be recognised in Xfce.
>>>>
>>>> So far, I've had to use shell scripts to open Thunderbird and Thunar and
>>>> I will have to do the same for KSpread.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> Shell scripts? As in manually setting the locale then launching
>>> Thunderbird and Thunar?
>>>
>>> You say later that some applications obey the localizations and others
>>> do not. Which apps DO appear localized, and how do you launch them?
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Yes.  The shell script has an export command, followed by a call to the
>> executable.
>>
>> I said the settings "are not being adopted by all applications".  When I
>> examine the matter closely in response to your question, I can find no
>> applications in Xfce which use the system settings.  I now recall that I
>> had to take extra trouble with OrageClock.  The string %x uses the US
>> format.  To get the correct format for my locale, I have to use %a %d.%m.%y
>>
>> One application which has the correct settings is OpenOffice which
>> controls its own locale settings.  Another is Konqueror which uses the
>> date format set in Kde.  I had to use a utility in Kde to set the locale.
>>
>> I have menu shortcuts for all applications which I use.
>>
>> It seems that Xfce could do with a tool to change the locale for Xfce
>> and perhaps set date formats.  Would it be appropriate to request such a
>> feature?
>>     
>
> I think I understand the problem, though I'm not entirely familiar
> with PCLinuxOS, so I may be wrong. Here is my guess
>
> You have a .bash_rc in your home directory that loads up your locale
> settings whenever you start a shell. This file, in turn, loads up the
> locale data from a system wide location at /etc/sysconfig/i18n
>
> Thus, when you load applications from the Terminal, they run fine -
> Terminal loads up a new shell, that shell has the appropriate
> environment (due to .bash_rc) and thus checking the environment seems
> correct and, indeed, apps run from the Terminal seem to run fine.
>
> However, /etc/sysconfig/i18n is a distro specific file (it certainly
> isn't available on my Slackware system), and thus isn't loaded by the
> shell script that starts Xfce, so the locale isn't properly set for
> the desktop.
>
> You should alter the xinitrc script used to launch Xfce to source
> /etc/sysconfig/i18n (it's in /etc/X11/xinitrc/xinitrc.xfce on my
> system) by adding
>
> .  /etc/sysconfig/i18n
>
> at the top of the script.
>
> Does that solve your problem? If it does, and you installed Xfce from
> packages provided by your distro, then you should send a feature
> request to the package maintainer to patch the script.
>
> Hope that helps

Thank you.  I have no idea why just adding the file reference should 
invoke the settings it contains but I've done that anyway.  The file is 
/etc/X11/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc

I will report the results of the change.

I am also filing a post in the forum thread relating to the particular 
repository and will follow that up as I am inspired and moved to do so.

-- 

Xfce on PCLinuxOS, OOo 2.0.2 (en_GB).
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