source: BOOK/bootscripts/common/profile.xml @ 26a1cb2

clfs-1.2clfs-2.1clfs-3.0.0-systemdclfs-3.0.0-sysvinitsystemdsysvinit
Last change on this file since 26a1cb2 was 26a1cb2, checked in by Jim Gifford <clfs@…>, 18 years ago

r4592@server: jim | 2006-07-14 11:32:23 -0700
Text Updates

  • Property mode set to 100644
File size: 7.5 KB
Line 
1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
2<!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
3  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
4  <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent">
5  %general-entities;
6]>
7
8<sect1 id="ch-scripts-profile">
9  <title>The Bash Shell Startup Files</title>
10  <?dbhtml filename="profile.html"?>
11
12  <indexterm zone="ch-scripts-profile">
13    <primary sortas="e-/etc/profile">/etc/profile</primary>
14  </indexterm>
15
16  <para>The shell program <command>/bin/bash</command> (hereafter
17  referred to as <quote>the shell</quote>) uses a collection of startup
18  files to help create an environment to run in. Each file has a
19  specific use and may affect login and interactive environments
20  differently. The files in the <filename
21  class="directory">/etc</filename> directory provide global settings.
22  If an equivalent file exists in the home directory, it may override
23  the global settings.</para>
24
25  <para>An interactive login shell is started after a successful login,
26  using <command>/bin/login</command>, by reading the
27  <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file. An interactive non-login shell
28  is started at the command-line (e.g.,
29  <prompt>[prompt]$</prompt><command>/bin/bash</command>). A
30  non-interactive shell is usually present when a shell script is
31  running. It is non-interactive because it is processing a script and
32  not waiting for user input between commands.</para>
33
34  <para>For more information, see <command>info bash</command> under the
35  <emphasis>Bash Startup Files and Interactive Shells</emphasis> section.</para>
36
37  <para>The files <filename>/etc/profile</filename> and
38  <filename>~/.bash_profile</filename> are read when the shell is
39  invoked as an interactive login shell.</para>
40
41  <para>The base <filename>/etc/profile</filename> below sets some
42  environment variables necessary for native language support. Setting
43  them properly results in:</para>
44
45  <itemizedlist>
46    <listitem>
47      <para>The output of programs translated into the native language</para>
48    </listitem>
49    <listitem>
50      <para>Correct classification of characters into letters, digits and
51      other classes. This is necessary for <command>bash</command> to
52      properly accept non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English
53      locales</para>
54    </listitem>
55    <listitem>
56      <para>The correct alphabetical sorting order for the country</para>
57    </listitem>
58    <listitem>
59      <para>Appropriate default paper size</para>
60    </listitem>
61    <listitem>
62      <para>Correct formatting of monetary, time, and date values</para>
63    </listitem>
64  </itemizedlist>
65
66  <para>This script also sets the <envar>INPUTRC</envar> environment variable
67  that makes Bash and Readline use the <filename>/etc/inputrc</filename> file
68  created earlier.</para>
69
70  <para>Replace <replaceable>[ll]</replaceable> below with the
71  two-letter code for the desired language (e.g., <quote>en</quote>) and
72  <replaceable>[CC]</replaceable> with the two-letter code for the
73  appropriate country (e.g., <quote>GB</quote>).
74  <replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable> should be replaced with the
75  canonical charmap for your chosen locale.</para>
76
77  <para>The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running
78  the following command:</para>
79
80<screen role="nodump"><userinput>locale -a</userinput></screen>
81
82  <para>Locales can have a number of synonyms, e.g. <quote>ISO-8859-1</quote>
83  is also referred to as <quote>iso8859-1</quote> and <quote>iso88591</quote>.
84  Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly, so it is
85  safest to choose the canonical name for a particular locale. To determine
86  the canonical name, run the following command, where <replaceable>[locale
87  name]</replaceable> is the output given by <command>locale -a</command> for
88  your preferred locale (<quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> in our example).</para>
89
90<screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=<replaceable>[locale name]</replaceable> locale charmap</userinput></screen>
91
92  <para>For the <quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> locale, the above command
93  will print:</para>
94
95<screen><computeroutput>ISO-8859-1</computeroutput></screen>
96
97  <para>This results in a final locale setting of <quote>en_GB.ISO-8859-1</quote>.
98  It is important that the locale found using the heuristic above is tested prior
99  to it being added to the Bash startup files:</para>
100
101<screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=[locale name] locale country
102LC_ALL=[locale name] locale language
103LC_ALL=[locale name] locale charmap
104LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_curr_symbol
105LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_prefix</userinput></screen>
106
107  <para>The above commands should print the language name, the character
108  encoding used by the locale, the local currency, and the prefix to dial
109  before the telephone number in order to get into the country. If any of the
110  commands above fail with a message similar to the one shown below, this means
111  that your locale was either not installed in Chapter 10 or is not supported by
112  the default installation of Glibc.</para>
113
114<screen><computeroutput>locale: Cannot set LC_* to default locale: No such file or directory</computeroutput></screen>
115
116  <para>If this happens, you should either install the desired locale using
117  the <command>localedef</command> command, or consider choosing a different
118  locale. Further instructions assume that there are no such error messages
119  from Glibc.</para>
120
121  <para>Some packages beyond CLFS may also lack support for your chosen locale.
122  One example is the X library (part of the X Window System), which outputs
123  the following error message:</para>
124
125<screen><computeroutput>Warning: locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C</computeroutput></screen>
126
127  <para>Sometimes it is possible to fix this by removing the charmap part of
128  the locale specification, as long as that does not change the character map
129  that Glibc associates with the locale (this can be checked by running the
130  <command>locale charmap</command> command in both locales). For example,
131  one would have to change &quot;de_DE.ISO-8859-15@euro&quot; to
132  &quot;de_DE@euro&quot; in order to get this locale recognized by Xlib.</para>
133
134  <para>Other packages can also function incorrectly (but may not necessarily
135  display any error messages) if the locale name does not meet their expectations.
136  In those cases, investigating how other Linux distributions support your locale
137  might provide some useful information.</para>
138
139  <para>Once the proper locale settings have been determined, create the
140  <filename>/etc/profile</filename> file:</para>
141
142<screen><userinput>cat &gt; /etc/profile &lt;&lt; "EOF"
143<literal># Begin /etc/profile
144
145export LANG=<replaceable>[ll]</replaceable>_<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable>.<replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable>
146export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
147
148# End /etc/profile</literal>
149EOF</userinput></screen>
150
151  <note>
152    <para>The <quote>C</quote> (default) and <quote>en_US</quote>
153    (the recommended one for United States English users) locales are
154    different.</para>
155  </note>
156
157  <para>Setting the keyboard layout, screen font, and locale-related
158  environment variables are the only internationalization steps needed to
159  support locales that use ordinary single-byte encodings and left-to-right
160  writing direction. More complex cases (including UTF-8 based locales)
161  require additional steps and additional patches because many applications
162  tend to not work properly under such conditions. These steps and patches
163  are not included in the CLFS book and such locales are not yet supported
164  by CLFS.</para>
165
166</sect1>
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.