LOCALECTL(1) localectl LOCALECTL(1)
NAME
localectl - Control the system locale and keyboard layout settings
SYNOPSIS
localectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
DESCRIPTION
localectl may be used to query and change the system locale and keyboard
layout settings. It communicates with systemd-localed(8) to modify files
such as /etc/locale.conf and /etc/vconsole.conf.
The system locale controls the language settings of system services and
of the UI before the user logs in, such as the display manager, as well
as the default for users after login.
The keyboard settings control the keyboard layout used on the text
console and of the graphical UI before the user logs in, such as the
display manager, as well as the default for users after login.
Note that the changes performed using this tool might require the initrd
to be rebuilt to take effect during early system boot. The initrd is not
rebuilt automatically by localectl, this task has to be performed
manually, usually by reinstalling the distribution's kernel package.
Note that systemd-firstboot(1) may be used to initialize the system
locale for mounted (but not booted) system images.
COMMANDS
The following commands are understood:
status
Show current settings of the system locale and keyboard mapping. If
no command is specified, this is the implied default.
Added in version 195.
set-locale LOCALE, set-locale VARIABLE=LOCALE...
Set the system locale. This takes one locale such as "en_US.UTF-8",
or takes one or more locale assignments such as "LANG=de_DE.utf8",
"LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.utf8", and so on. If one locale without variable
name is provided, then "LANG=" locale variable will be set. See
locale(7) for details on the available settings and their meanings.
Use list-locales for a list of available locales (see below).
Added in version 195.
list-locales
List available locales useful for configuration with set-locale.
Added in version 195.
set-keymap MAP [TOGGLEMAP]
Set the system keyboard mapping for the console and X11. This takes
a mapping name (such as "de" or "us"), and possibly a second one to
define a toggle keyboard mapping. Unless --no-convert is passed, the
selected setting is also applied as the default system keyboard
mapping of X11, after converting it to the closest matching X11
keyboard mapping. Use list-keymaps for a list of available keyboard
mappings (see below).
Added in version 195.
list-keymaps
List available keyboard mappings for the console, useful for
configuration with set-keymap.
Added in version 195.
set-x11-keymap LAYOUT [MODEL [VARIANT [OPTIONS]]]
Set the system default keyboard mapping for X11 and the virtual
console. This takes a keyboard mapping name (such as "de" or "us"),
and possibly a model, variant, and options, see kbd(4) for details.
Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting is also applied
as the system console keyboard mapping, after converting it to the
closest matching console keyboard mapping.
Added in version 195.
list-x11-keymap-models, list-x11-keymap-layouts,
list-x11-keymap-variants [LAYOUT], list-x11-keymap-options
List available X11 keymap models, layouts, variants and options,
useful for configuration with set-keymap. The command
list-x11-keymap-variants optionally takes a layout parameter to
limit the output to the variants suitable for the specific layout.
Added in version 201.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
-l, --full
Do not ellipsize the output.
Added in version 257.
--no-convert
If set-keymap or set-x11-keymap is invoked and this option is
passed, then the keymap will not be converted from the console to
X11, or X11 to console, respectively.
Added in version 195.
-H, --host=
Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by
":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which connects
directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will
use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container
names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses
in brackets.
-M, --machine=
Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
connect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a
separating "@" character. If the special string ".host" is used in
place of the container name, a connection to the local system is
made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
"--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used,
the connection is made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used
either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted (but
not both) in which case the local user name and ".host" are implied.
--no-ask-password
Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
ENVIRONMENT
$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Takes a
comma-separated list of values. A value may be either one of (in
order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err, warning,
notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See syslog(3)
for more information. Each value may optionally be prefixed with one
of console, syslog, kmsg or journal followed by a colon to set the
maximum log level for that specific log target (e.g.
SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL=debug,console:info specifies to log at debug level
except when logging to the console which should be at info level).
Note that the global maximum log level takes priority over any per
target maximum log levels.
$SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
according to priority.
This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.
$SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
timestamp.
This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
their own.
$SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
line number in the source code where the message originates.
Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
$SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current
numerical thread ID (TID).
Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal
entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
$SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
(log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
automatically, the default), null (disable log output).
$SYSTEMD_LOG_RATELIMIT_KMSG
Whether to ratelimit kmsg or not. Takes a boolean. Defaults to
"true". If disabled, systemd will not ratelimit messages written to
kmsg.
$SYSTEMD_PAGER, $PAGER
Pager to use when --no-pager is not given. $SYSTEMD_PAGER is used
if set; otherwise $PAGER is used. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor
$PAGER are set, a set of well-known pager implementations is tried
in turn, including less(1) and more(1), until one is found. If no
pager implementation is discovered, no pager is invoked. Setting
those environment variables to an empty string or the value "cat" is
equivalent to passing --no-pager.
Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER and $PAGER
can only be used to disable the pager (with "cat" or ""), and are
otherwise ignored.
$SYSTEMD_LESS
Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
Users might want to change two options in particular:
K
This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch back
to the pager command prompt, unset this option.
If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.
X
This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.
Note that setting the regular $LESS environment variable has no
effect for less invocations by systemd tools.
See less(1) for more discussion.
$SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
Note that setting the regular $LESSCHARSET environment variable has
no effect for less invocations by systemd tools.
$SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
Common pager commands like less(1), in addition to "paging", i.e.
scrolling through the output, support opening of or writing to other
files and running arbitrary shell commands. When commands are
invoked with elevated privileges, for example under sudo(8) or
pkexec(1), the pager becomes a security boundary. Care must be taken
that only programs with strictly limited functionality are used as
pagers, and unintended interactive features like opening or creation
of new files or starting of subprocesses are not allowed. "Secure
mode" for the pager may be enabled as described below, if the pager
supports that (most pagers are not written in a way that takes this
into consideration). It is recommended to either explicitly enable
"secure mode" or to completely disable the pager using --no-pager or
PAGER=cat when allowing untrusted users to execute commands with
elevated privileges.
This option takes a boolean argument. When set to true, the "secure
mode" of the pager is enabled. In "secure mode", LESSSECURE=1 will
be set when invoking the pager, which instructs the pager to disable
commands that open or create new files or start new subprocesses.
Currently only less(1) is known to understand this variable and
implement "secure mode".
When set to false, no limitation is placed on the pager. Setting
SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
environment may allow the user to invoke arbitrary commands.
When $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, systemd tools attempt to
automatically figure out if "secure mode" should be enabled and
whether the pager supports it. "Secure mode" is enabled if the
effective UID is not the same as the owner of the login session, see
geteuid(2) and sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3), or when running under
sudo(8) or similar tools ($SUDO_UID is set [1]). In those cases,
SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=1 will be set and pagers which are not known to
implement "secure mode" will not be used at all. Note that this
autodetection only covers the most common mechanisms to elevate
privileges and is intended as convenience. It is recommended to
explicitly set $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE or disable the pager.
Note that if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be
honoured, other than to disable the pager, $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must
be set too.
$SYSTEMD_COLORS
Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the following
special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors to the
base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be specified to
override the automatic decision based on $TERM and what the console
is connected to.
$SYSTEMD_URLIFY
The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links should
be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting this.
This can be specified to override the decision that systemd makes
based on $TERM and other conditions.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), locale(7), locale.conf(5), vconsole.conf(5), loadkeys(1),
kbd(4), The XKB Configuration Guide[2], systemctl(1), systemd-
localed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1)
NOTES
1. It is recommended for other tools to set and check $SUDO_UID as
appropriate, treating it is a common interface.
2. The XKB Configuration Guide
http://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/xorg-docs/input/XKB-Config.html
systemd 257.9 LOCALECTL(1)
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