NEWLOCALE(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual NEWLOCALE(3P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAMEnewlocale — create or modify a locale object
SYNOPSIS
#include <locale.h>
locale_t newlocale(int category_mask, const char *locale,
locale_t base);
DESCRIPTION
The newlocale() function shall create a new locale object or modify an
existing one. If the base argument is (locale_t)0, a new locale object
shall be created. It is unspecified whether the locale object pointed
to by base shall be modified, or freed and a new locale object created.
The category_mask argument specifies the locale categories to be set or
modified. Values for category_mask shall be constructed by a bitwise-
inclusive OR of the symbolic constants LC_CTYPE_MASK, LC_NUMERIC_MASK,
LC_TIME_MASK, LC_COLLATE_MASK, LC_MONETARY_MASK, and LC_MESSAGES_MASK,
or any of the other implementation-defined LC_*_MASK values defined in
<locale.h>.
For each category with the corresponding bit set in category_mask the
data from the locale named by locale shall be used. In the case of mod‐
ifying an existing locale object, the data from the locale named by
locale shall replace the existing data within the locale object. If a
completely new locale object is created, the data for all sections not
requested by category_mask shall be taken from the default locale.
The following preset values of locale are defined for all settings of
category_mask:
"POSIX" Specifies the minimal environment for C-language transla‐
tion called the POSIX locale.
"C" Equivalent to "POSIX".
"" Specifies an implementation-defined native environment.
This corresponds to the value of the associated environment
variables, LC_* and LANG; see the Base Definitions volume
of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 7, Locale and Chapter 8, Environ‐
ment Variables.
If the base argument is not (locale_t)0 and the newlocale() function
call succeeds, the contents of base are unspecified. Applications shall
ensure that they stop using base as a locale object before calling
newlocale(). If the function call fails and the base argument is not
(locale_t)0, the contents of base shall remain valid and unchanged.
The behavior is undefined if the base argument is the special locale
object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE, or is not a valid locale object handle and is
not (locale_t)0.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, the newlocale() function shall return a
handle which the caller may use on subsequent calls to duplocale(),
freelocale(), and other functions taking a locale_t argument.
Upon failure, the newlocale() function shall return (locale_t)0 and set
errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The newlocale() function shall fail if:
ENOMEM There is not enough memory available to create the locale object
or load the locale data.
EINVAL The category_mask contains a bit that does not correspond to a
valid category.
ENOENT For any of the categories in category_mask, the locale data is
not available.
The newlocale() function may fail if:
EINVAL The locale argument is not a valid string pointer.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Constructing a Locale Object from Different Locales
The following example shows the construction of a locale where the
LC_CTYPE category data comes from a locale loc1 and the LC_TIME cate‐
gory data from a locale tok2:
#include <locale.h>
...
locale_t loc, new_loc;
/* Get the "loc1" data. */
loc = newlocale (LC_CTYPE_MASK, "loc1", (locale_t)0);
if (loc == (locale_t) 0)
abort ();
/* Get the "loc2" data. */
new_loc = newlocale (LC_TIME_MASK, "loc2", loc);
if (new_loc != (locale_t) 0)
/* We don t abort if this fails. In this case this
simply used to unchanged locale object. */
loc = new_loc;
...
Freeing up a Locale Object
The following example shows a code fragment to free a locale object
created by newlocale():
#include <locale.h>
...
/* Every locale object allocated with newlocale() should be
* freed using freelocale():
*/
locale_t loc;
/* Get the locale. */
loc = newlocale (LC_CTYPE_MASK | LC_TIME_MASK, "locname", (locale_t)0);
/* ... Use the locale object ... */
...
/* Free the locale object resources. */
freelocale (loc);
APPLICATION USAGE
Handles for locale objects created by the newlocale() function should
either be released by a corresponding call to freelocale(), or be used
as a base locale to another newlocale() call.
The special locale object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE must not be passed for the
base argument, even when returned by the uselocale() function.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOduplocale(), freelocale(), uselocale()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 7, Locale, Chapter
8, Environment Variables, <locale.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 NEWLOCALE(3P)
