How to Change or Set System Locales in Linux

We often need to customise the operating system to match our preferences like the language we want to use, the time zone we are in, or the type of currency which would become the default in the OS. In this article we will see how to customise these options which is known as locale.

Checking Current Locale

We can check the current locale by using the locale command as shown below. We get a list of variables which can be reset to different values as per our choice ?

$ locale

Running the above code gives us the following result −

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

All Available Locales

To get all the available locales we use the below command. It displays all locale values available on the system ?

$ locale -a

Running the above code gives us the following result −

C
C.UTF-8
en_AG
en_AG.utf8
en_AU.utf8
. . .
en_IN
en_IN.utf8
en_NG
. . .
en_ZM.utf8
en_ZW.utf8
POSIX

Details of a Specific Variable

The specific variable details can be obtained by using the variable name along with the -c and -k switches ?

$ locale -c -k LC_TIME

Running the above code gives us the following result −

LC_TIME
abday="Sun;Mon;Tue;Wed;Thu;Fri;Sat"
day="Sunday;Monday;Tuesday;Wednesday;Thursday;Friday;Saturday"
abmon="Jan;Feb;Mar;Apr;May;Jun;Jul;Aug;Sep;Oct;Nov;Dec"
mon="January;February;March;April;May;June;July;August;September;October;November;December"
am_pm="AM;PM"
d_t_fmt="%a %d %b %Y %r %Z"
d_fmt="%m/%d/%Y"
t_fmt="%r"
t_fmt_ampm="%I:%M:%S %p"
. . .
. . .
timezone=""
date_fmt="%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y"
time-codeset="UTF-8"

Changing Locale Temporarily

To change a locale for the current session only, you can export the variable directly ?

$ export LANG="en_IN.utf8"
$ locale

Running the above code gives us the following result −

LANG=en_IN.utf8
LANGUAGE=en_US
LC_CTYPE="en_IN.utf8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_IN.utf8"
. . .

Changing Locale Permanently

To change the locale permanently for a user, edit the .bashrc profile of the user who needs the new locale ?

$ sudo nano ~/.bashrc

# Add the following lines at the end
LANG="en_IN.utf8"
export LANG

# Reload the profile
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ locale

System-wide Locale Changes

To change locale system-wide, edit the /etc/locale.conf file or use the localectl command ?

# Using localectl (recommended)
$ sudo localectl set-locale LANG=en_IN.utf8

# Or edit /etc/locale.conf
$ sudo nano /etc/locale.conf
# Add: LANG=en_IN.utf8

Conclusion

Linux locales allow you to customize language, time format, and currency settings. Use export for temporary changes, edit .bashrc for user-specific changes, or use localectl for system-wide modifications.