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 using a tool like dracut(8).
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.
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).
list-locales
List available locales useful for configuration with
set-locale.
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).
list-keymaps
List available keyboard mappings for the console, useful
for configuration with set-keymap.
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.
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.
OPTIONS¶
The following options are understood:
--no-ask-password
Do not query the user for authentication for privileged
operations.
--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.
-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.
-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). 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.
$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_PAGER
Pager to use when
--no-pager is not given;
overrides
$PAGER. If neither
$SYSTEMD_PAGER nor
$PAGER
are set, a set of well-known pager implementations are tried in turn,
including
less(1) and
more(1), until one is found. If no pager
implementation is discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment
variable to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to
passing
--no-pager.
Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set,
$SYSTEMD_PAGER (as well as $PAGER) will be silently
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
Takes a boolean argument. When true, the
"secure" mode of the pager is enabled; if false, disabled. If
$SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, 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). In secure mode,
LESSSECURE=1 will be set when invoking the pager, and the pager shall
disable commands that open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
$SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known to
implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only
less(1)
implements secure mode.)
Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to
ensure that unintended interactive features are not enabled.
"Secure" mode for the pager may be enabled automatically as
describe above. Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from
the inherited environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note
that if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be
honoured, $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be
reasonable to completely disable the pager using --no-pager
instead.
$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[1], systemctl(1),
systemd-localed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1),
dracut(8)
NOTES¶
- 1.
- The XKB Configuration Guide
