How to make results of “localedef” survive “dpkg-reconfigure locales”?

[Thorsten Schöning]

Hi all,

Im using UB 16.04 LTS Server and yesterday a new version of the
locales[1]-package has been released and installed:

> Start-Date: 2019-02-21  09:44:05
> Commandline: /usr/bin/apt-get -y -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confdef -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold dist-upgrade
> Upgrade: [...], locales:amd64 (2.23-0ubuntu10, 2.23-0ubuntu11), [...]
> End-Date: 2019-02-21  09:44:45

I'm additionally using PostgreSQL 11 with databases relying on the
character set `windows-1252` for historical reasons:

> Name  |  Owner   | Encoding |   Collate    |    Ctype     |   Access[...]
> ------+----------+----------+--------------+--------------+--------------
> [...] | postgres | WIN1252  | de_DE.CP1252 | de_DE.CP1252 |

To make that available, the following command is used:

>  localedef -f CP1252 -i /usr/share/i18n/locales/de_DE /usr/lib/locale/de_DE.CP1252

Using `locale-gen` before/after `localedef` gives the following error:

> locale-gen de_DE.CP1252
> Error: 'de_DE.CP1252' is not a supported language or locale

That error message is correct, the file `/usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED`
doesn't contain my locale. From my understanding that's why I need to
use `localedef`.

The problem now is that most likely after the new `locales`-package
has been installed, my manually added one was removed automatically
and access to the databases relying on that locale failed:

> 2019-02-21 09:42:45.109 CET [27039] FATAL:  Datenbank-Locale ist inkompatibel mit Betriebssystem
> 2019-02-21 09:42:45.109 CET [27039] DETAIL:  Die Datenbank wurde mit LC_COLLATE »de_DE.CP1252« initialisiert, was von setlocale() nicht erkannt wird.

From my understanding, all locales which were recognized and enabled
by `dpkg-reconfigure locales` have been kept and my custom locale was
not listed there. So I followed instructions from `/etc/locale.gen`
and created the following file with the following line:

> /usr/local/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
> de_DE.CP1252 CP1252

That made my locale available in the end[2]. The problem is that this
doesn't seem to be enough to solve my goal:

Whenever I run `dpkg-reconfigure locales`, the created locale using
`localedef` gets deleted from the folder
`/usr/lib/locale/de_DE.CP1252` and Postgres fails again. Even though
`locale -a` prints my locale and such. So that's most likely what was
happening with/after installing the new `locales`-package. If I run
`localedef` like documented above manually again, Postgres instantly
allows access to the legacy databases again.

One interesting thing I recognized is the locale `C.UTF-8` being
available in `/usr/lib/locale` like my custom one, BUT that never gets
deleted automatically for some reason. Searching for that locale in
the web, it seems it is provided as part of some package by the
distribution instead of configured and generated locally as needed:

> We now have an "uninstallable" C.UTF-8 locale that is available even
> if you delete locale-archive, or change the installed language set
> for locale-archive.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=902094#c20

> /usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_ADDRESS
> /usr/lib/locale/C.UTF-8/LC_COLLATE

https://packages.debian.org/de/sid/sh4/libc-bin/filelist

So, what do I need to do to make my `localedef`-results survive
`dpkg-reconfigure locales` or whatever has been done during installing
the new `locales`-packages`

Thanks!

  [1]: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/xenial/amd64/locales
  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/e67wh.png

Mit freundlichen Grüßen,

Thorsten Schöning

-- 
Thorsten Schöning       E-Mail: Thorsten.Schoening at AM-SoFT.de
AM-SoFT IT-Systeme      http://www.AM-SoFT.de/

Telefon...........05151-  9468- 55
Fax...............05151-  9468- 88
Mobil..............0178-8 9468- 04

AM-SoFT GmbH IT-Systeme, Brandenburger Str. 7c, 31789 Hameln
AG Hannover HRB 207 694 - Geschäftsführer: Andreas Muchow