CODEWITHSUNDEEP
perllocale
xain
xain

Reputation: 13839

How to fix a locale setting warning from Perl

When I run perl, I get the warning:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

How do I fix it?

Upvotes: 875

Views: 882158

Answers (30)

conny
conny

Reputation: 10145

When connecting to a remote machine and using MacOS

Because the warning is only1 emitted by remote Linux systems you connect to, the least intrusive workaround is to not mess with the LC_* variables on your local macOS.

Instead, just tell your SSH client to explicitly set its (forwarded-) environment variables.

In $HOME/.ssh/config, add an override for all hosts:

Host *
  SetEnv LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

1: well, "most likely-" as of 2023.

Upvotes: 1

tkjef
tkjef

Reputation: 732

on Debian after much searching this did the trick.

first:

sudo apt-get purge locales

then:

sudo aptitude install locales

and the famous:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

This rids the system of locales, then re-installs locales and downgrades libc6 from 2.19 to 2.13 which is the issue. Then configures locales again.

Upvotes: 26

Alouani Younes
Alouani Younes

Reputation: 1036

We will set locales that are not unset after reboot.

First open the Bash file and edit it:

nano .bashrc

Add these lines to the file:

export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
export LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
export LANGUAGE="en_US.UTF-8"

Activate the change by reloading Bash:

source ~/.bashrc

Test results:

locale

Updated : Complete Solution

The warning occurs when Perl can't determine the correct locale settings, usually because the locale isn't installed or the environment variables aren't set.

  1. First, check if the locale is available on your system:
locale -a | grep en_US
  1. If the locale isn't available, install it:

For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale

For CentOS/RHEL:

sudo dnf install glibc-langpack-en

For Arch Linux:

# Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment en_US.UTF-8
sudo nano /etc/locale.gen
sudo locale-gen
  1. Add the exports to your shell configuration:
# For bash users (choose one):
echo 'export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
export LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
export LANGUAGE="en_US.UTF-8"' >> ~/.bashrc

# For zsh users:
echo 'export LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8"
export LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
export LANGUAGE="en_US.UTF-8"' >> ~/.zshrc
  • LANG: Sets the default locale
  • LC_ALL: Overrides all other locale settings
  • LANGUAGE: Used for message language selection
  • UTF-8 encoding ensures proper handling of unicode characters
  1. Apply the changes:
source ~/.bashrc  # or source ~/.zshrc for zsh users
  1. Verify the settings:
locale

Upvotes: 25

David Morales
David Morales

Reputation: 18064

For Ubuntu Server and Debian:

No need to create exports in bashrc or deal with dpkg-reconfigure.

Just replace the contents of /etc/default/locale with:

LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Upvotes: 18

Lala
Lala

Reputation: 417

For Debian users, I have this problem after modifying my locale to change machine's language. This is what I did:

  1. Modify .bashrc:

    export LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=fr_FR.UTF-8

  2. Uncomment line fr_FR.UTF-8 in file /etc/locale.gen -> sudo locale-gen to generate the missing package

  3. sudo update-locale

  4. sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales to configure my locale to fr_FR.UTF-8

  5. Add extra lines to the /etc/default/locale file:

    LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TYPE=en_US.UTF-8

  6. Reboot my computer and everything works fine

Upvotes: 20

Gerard de Visser
Gerard de Visser

Reputation: 8040

If you are using iTerm2 on MacOS this issue can be solved by unchecking this setting: iTerm2 > Settings > Profiles > Terminal > Set locale variables automatically:

enter image description here

Upvotes: 2

Canberk Sinangil
Canberk Sinangil

Reputation: 1052

Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)

I encountered this issue after creating a brand new VM instance in GCP.

Basically, I have just run the following

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Here I have got the error

error image

perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = (unset),
LC_CTYPE = "UTF-8",
LC_TERMINAL = "iTerm2",
LANG = "C"
are supported and installed on your system.

Here is how I fixed it.

  • Install the locales first.
$ sudo apt-get install locales
  • Open the locale file (use your favorite editor).
$ sudo nano /etc/default/locale
  • Add the following and save it.
LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
  • Run the following.
$ sudo localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8

  • Restart your terminal.

  • Run the command to test and close it via ctrl + d.

$ perl

Note: I created an instance to just test my solution in order to ensure. Please let me know if it doesn't work for you.

terminal history

I hope it helps you.

Upvotes: 17

Ax_
Ax_

Reputation: 997

I had multiple users using different shells so in my case this solved:

  • Check which shell
    echo $0
  • if bash
    echo "# Setting locale\nLC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8\nLC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8" >> .bashrc
  • if zsh
    echo "# Setting locale\nLC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8\nLC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8" >> .zshrc

Upvotes: 2

Khoi Ngo
Khoi Ngo

Reputation: 1441

Tried those ways on Mac M1 Monterey, but no one works. My quick way to disable that message: Open Terminal -> Preferences -> Advanced tab -> uncheck to Set locale environment variables on startup

Upvotes: 1

Real
Real

Reputation: 191

I had LC_COLLATE=C set on my machine on /etc/locale.conf. I simply deleted that line, so that only LANG=en_US.UTF-8 (or equivalent for you) is set, and get no more problems.

Upvotes: 1

rGunti
rGunti

Reputation: 83

In case someone has a server with Strato and tries to figure this out, check /etc/profile. I was regenerating locales and setting variables for too long before I found out that there are two lines at the end of this file which overwrote my locale settings all the time.

Upvotes: 0

lanoxx
lanoxx

Reputation: 13041

If this problem occurs while you are connecting via ssh to a remote host then it is possible that the remote system is missing certain locales. I am not going to repeat how to install and configure locales as this has been well explained by other answers already.

As other answers have pointed out, ssh should be passing your local computer's locales to the remote host. For example, if you have Australian locales set (e.g., en_AU.UFT-8), and you are connecting to a newly setup Ubuntu Server which only comes with en_US.UTF-8 then you will receive this warning.

To solve this problem you have several options:

  1. Install the required locales on the remote host such that they match locales configured on your client.

  2. Change the SSH configuration to not pass your clients' environment variables. I would not recommend this.

  3. Override the locale on your remote machine by exporting locale settings from file .bashrc and friends.

Upvotes: 7

dotbit
dotbit

Reputation: 5015

perl -e exit
sudo localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_DE.UTF-8
#                                   DE = German
# Use your country code en lieu of  DE

# The second "perl" should then not complain any more
perl -e exit

localectl list-locales # Just make sure it is OK

Upvotes: 3

user13353532
user13353532

Reputation:

I have this issue whenever I run a Perl script, such as enum4linux, on the latest Kali Linux version.

kali@kali:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Kali
Description:    Kali GNU/Linux Rolling
Release:    2020.3
Codename:    kali-rolling
kali@kali:~$

E.g.,

kali@kali:~$ enum4linux
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LC_ADDRESS = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_NAME = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_MONETARY = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_PAPER = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_IDENTIFICATION = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_TELEPHONE = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_MEASUREMENT = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_TIME = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LC_NUMERIC = "ms_MY.UTF-8",
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to a fallback locale ("en_US.UTF-8").
enum4linux v0.8.9 (http://labs.portcullis.co.uk/application/enum4linux/)
Copyright (C) 2011 Mark Lowe ([email protected])

Look at the warning message given.

perl: warning: Falling back to a fallback locale ("en_US.UTF-8").

Also, notice that LC_ALL = (unset)

The solution is simple. All you have to do is to set it.

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

E.g.,

kali@kali:~$ export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
kali@kali:~$

And problem solved

kali@kali:~$ enum4linux
enum4linux v0.8.9 (http://labs.portcullis.co.uk/application/enum4linux/)
Copyright (C) 2011 Mark Lowe ([email protected])

For a permanent solution, you might want to add it to the .bashrc file.

Upvotes: 5

erik
erik

Reputation: 2446

Source of the problem

I experienced this, logging in from one machine to another via ssh. The remote machine didn’t have the locale files, that I had on my local machine. You can either disable the forwarding of the locale from your local machine to the remote machine (in the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config remove the line AcceptEnv LANG LC_CTYPE …) or install the locale (changing it is not necessary in this case).

Installing

On Fedora, Red Hat Linux, and CentOS I used

sudo dnf install langpacks-de

for the German (de) language packs. I logged out, in, and it worked.

Search for other langpacks with

dnf search langpacks-

Changing/Activating

To list available locales I used

localectl list-locales

And to set a new one

sudo localectl set-locale de_DE.utf8

Upvotes: 7

Bharath Kumar
Bharath Kumar

Reputation: 964

Setting the LC_TYPE environment variable to the default locale language "C" will help to suppress this warning.

Run export LC_CTYPE="C" and try to run the perl command.

P.S: You need to set this variable in one of file /etc/environment or file /etc/default/locale for a permanent solution.

Upvotes: 1

Amjith
Amjith

Reputation: 462

For Ubuntu use this,

#export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
#export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
#export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
#export LC_TYPE=en_US.UTF-8

It worked for me.

Upvotes: 15

LandiLeite
LandiLeite

Reputation: 613

For me, I fixed this error by editing the .bashrc file, adding exports. Add after the initial comments.

Add language support.

export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_TYPE=en_US.UTF-8

Upvotes: 10

Stuart Cardall
Stuart Cardall

Reputation: 2447

In Arch Linux using a UK keyboard and locale, I had the following error:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
LANGUAGE = (unset),
LC_ALL = (unset),
LANG = "en_US.utf8"

  • Exporting my locales in /etc/profile didn't fix it.

  • I did however fix this by editing /etc/locale.gen, also enabling the en_US.utf8 locale that perl expected to find, and running local-gen.

(I use pac-manager which uses a whole bunch of perl modules from AUR, so reinstalling perl in my particular case would be a nuisance.)

Upvotes: 3

Parinda Rajapaksha
Parinda Rajapaksha

Reputation: 3109

Add missing locales to file .bash_profile:

echo "export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8">>~/.bash_profile

Then source your .bash_profile file:

source ~/.bash_profile

Upvotes: 6

Blago Eres
Blago Eres

Reputation: 1348

For anyone connecting to DigitalOcean or some other Cloud hosting provider from the iTerm2.app on macOS v10.13 (High Sierra) and getting this error on some commands:

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LC_CTYPE = "UTF-8",
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
  are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to a fallback locale ("en_US.UTF-8").

This fixed the problem for me:

Enter image description here

Upvotes: 9

java newbees
java newbees

Reputation: 31

In my case, with Debian 8.6 (Jessie), I had to change settings in:

/etc/ssh/ssh_config` for `#AcceptEnv LANG LC_*

and

sshd_config for #SendEnv LANG LC_*

Then restart the ssh service.

At last, I did:

locale-gen en_US.UTF-8 and dpkg-reconfigure locales

Upvotes: 3

Thomas Jensen
Thomas Jensen

Reputation: 2765

sudo nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment the locales you want to use (e.g. en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8):

Then run:

sudo /usr/sbin/locale-gen

Source: Configuring Locales

Upvotes: 11

Allen Bargi
Allen Bargi

Reputation: 15162

Here is how to solve it on Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion) or Cygwin (Windows 10):

Add the following lines to your bashrc or bash_profile file on the host machine:

# Setting for the new UTF-8 terminal support in Lion
export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

If you are using Z shell (zsh), edit file zshrc:

# Setting for the new UTF-8 terminal support in Lion
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

Upvotes: 624

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon

Reputation: 139411

Your OS doesn't know about en_US.UTF-8.

You didn't mention a specific platform, but I can reproduce your problem:

% uname -a
OSF1 hunter2 V5.1 2650 alpha
% perl -e exit
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

My guess is you used ssh to connect to this older host from a newer desktop machine. It's common for /etc/ssh/sshd_config to contain

AcceptEnv LANG LC_*

which allows clients to propagate the values of those environment variables into new sessions.

The warning gives you a hint about how to squelch it if you don't require the full-up locale:

% env LANG=C perl -e exit
%

or with Bash:

$ LANG=C perl -e exit
$

For a permanent fix, choose one of

  1. On the older host, set the LANG environment variable in your shell's initialization file.
  2. Modify your environment on the client side, e.g., rather than ssh hunter2, use the command LANG=C ssh hunter2.
  3. If you have administrator rights, stop ssh from sending the environment variables by commenting out the SendEnv LANG LC_* line in the local /etc/ssh/ssh_config file. (Thanks to this answer. See Bug 1285 for OpenSSH for more.)

Upvotes: 563

Surender
Surender

Reputation: 757

Export the variable

$ export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
$ export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
$ export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
$ export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

Next run

$ sudo locale-gen
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

When you run dpkg-reconfigure locales it asks you to choose the locales, choose en_US.UTF-8 . If you run this by selecting all locales, it will take some time to configure.

Upvotes: 4

joscarsson
joscarsson

Reputation: 4849

Adding the following to /etc/environment fixed the problem for me on Debian and Ubuntu (of course, modify to match the locale you want to use):

LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

Upvotes: 40

artemn
artemn

Reputation: 2069

Use:

export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

It works for Debian. I don't know why - but locale-gen had not results.

Important! It's a temporary solution. It has to be run for each session.

Upvotes: 193

Adrian W
Adrian W

Reputation: 5026

Another Git-related answer:

The source of the problem might be the Git server. If all else fails, try doing dpkg-reconfigure locales (or whatever is appropriate for your distribution) on the server.

Upvotes: 4

EpicVoyage
EpicVoyage

Reputation: 754

If you are running a chroot in CentOS, try manually copying /usr/lib/locale to the chroot environment for the account that is having this issue.

Upvotes: 0

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