Location of Locale Files

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Location of Locale Files

When an IBM Informix product needs to obtain locale-specific information, it accesses one of the GLS locale files in the following table.

Platform	Locale File
UNIX	$INFORMIXDIR/gls/lcX/lg_tr/codemodf.lco
Windows	%INFORMIXDIR%\gls\lcX\lg_tr\codemodf.lco

In these paths, INFORMIXDIR is the environment variable that specifies the directory in which you install the IBM Informix product, and gls is the subdirectory that contains the GLS files. This rest of this section describes the remaining elements in the pathname of GLS locale files.

Locale-File Subdirectories

The subdirectories of the lcX subdirectory, where X represents the version number for the locale object-file format, contain the GLS locale files. These subdirectories have names of the form lg_tr, where lg is the 2-character language name and tr is the 2-character territory name that the locale supports.

The next table shows some languages and territories that IBM Informix products can support, and their associated locale-file subdirectory names.

Language	Territory	Locale-File Subdirectory
English	Australia United States Great Britain	en_au en_us en_gb
German	Germany Austria Switzerland	de_de de_at de_ch
French	Belgium Canada Switzerland France	fr_be fr_ca fr_ch fr_fr

Locale Source and Object Files

Each locale file has the following two forms:

A locale source file is an ASCII file that defines the locale categories for the locale.
This file has the .lc file extension and serves as documentation for the corresponding object file.
A locale object file is a compiled form of the locale information.
IBM Informix products use the object file to obtain locale information quickly. Locale object files have the .lco file extension.

The header of the locale source file (.lc) lists the language, territory, code set, and any optional locale modifier of the locale. A section of the locale source file supports each of the locale categories, unless that category is empty, as the next table shows.

Locale Category	Reference	Locale Category	Reference
CTYPE	page The CTYPE Category	MONETARY	page The MONETARY Category
COLLATION	page The COLLATION Category	TIME	page The TIME Category
NUMERIC	page The NUMERIC Category	MESSAGES	page The MESSAGES Category

Locale Filenames

To conform to the 8.3 filename.ext restriction on the maximum number of characters in valid filenames and file extensions on DOS systems, a GLS locale file uses a condensed form of the code-set name, codemodf, in its filenames. The 4-character code name of each locale file is the hexadecimal representation of the code-set number for the code set that the locale supports. The 4-character modf name is the optional locale modifier.

For example, the ISO8859-1 code set has an IBM CCSID number of 819 in decimal and 0333 in hexadecimal. Therefore, the 4-character name of a locale source file that supports the ISO8859-1 code set is 0333.lc.

The next table shows some code sets and locale modifiers that IBM Informix products can support, along with their associated locale source filenames.

Code Set	Locale Modifier	Locale Source File
ISO8859-1 (IBM CCSID 819)	None Dictionary	0333.lc 0333dict.lc
Windows Code Page 1252 (West Europe)	None Dictionary	04e4.lc 04e4dict.lc
IBM CCSID 850	None Dictionary	0352.lc 0352dict.lc

A French locale that supports the ISO8859-1 code set has a GLS locale that is called 0333.lc file in the fr_fr locale-file subdirectory. The default locale, U.S. English, also uses the ISO8859-1 code set (on UNIX platforms); a locale file that is called 0333.lc is also in the en_us locale-file subdirectory. Because both the French and U.S. English locales support the Windows Code Page 1252, both the fr_fr and en_us locale-file subdirectories contain a 04e4.lc locale file as well.