glibc-utf8-locales

glibc-utf8-locales

[Simon Josefsson via]

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Hi.  Reconfiguring my machine lately fails with:

root@hamster ~# guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm
guix system: error: glibc-utf8-locales: unknown package
guix system: error: failed to load '/etc/config.scm':
srfi/srfi-1.scm:586:17: In procedure map1:
Throw to key `quit' with args `(1)'.
root@hamster ~# 

I noticed the following commmit:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-commits/2022-02/msg01204.html

First, I wonder if this is optimal.  There must be many machines
(servers and embedded) where having all locales installed on is
wasteful, but where it is useful to have the C.UTF-8 and/or en_US.UTF-8
installed, to get minimal working UTF-8 support.  Making this hard to
achieve for users seems unhelpful to me.  I understand the motivation
for the patch, so I don't think it is necessarily wrong, just that
something more would also be useful.  Maybe it is just the documentation
part that could be improved).

Trying to follow its advice, I modified my config.scm [1] as follows:

(use-modules (gnu packages base)) ; make-glibc-utf8-locales
...
(define my-glibc-locales
  (make-glibc-utf8-locales
   glibc
   #:locales (list "en_US" "sv_SE")
   #:name "glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"))
...
(operating-system
...
  (packages (append (map specification->package
                         '("glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"
...

Thus letting "glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales" replace my earlier use
of "glibc-utf8-locales" in that package list stanza (which worked
happily for me for a long time).  However it results in the following
error:

root@hamster ~# guix system reconfigure /etc/config.scm
guix system: error: glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales: unknown package
guix system: error: failed to load '/etc/config.scm':
srfi/srfi-1.scm:586:17: In procedure map1:
Throw to key `quit' with args `(1)'.
root@hamster ~# 

I tried changing the definition into:

(define glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales
  (make-glibc-utf8-locales
   glibc
   #:locales (list "en_US" "sv_SE")
   #:name "glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"))

and even trying

(make-glibc-utf8-locales
 glibc
 #:locales (list "en_US" "sv_SE")
 #:name "glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales")

to prove that I'm clearly not understanding what I'm doing, however, it
still doesn't work.

Help?

/Simon

[1] https://gitlab.com/jas/sjd-cosmos/-/blob/master/hamster.josefsson.org/overlay/etc/config.scm

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Re: glibc-utf8-locales

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

Hullo Simon,

Simon Josefsson via <help-guix@gnu.org> wrote:
>First, I wonder if this is optimal.  There must be many machines
>(servers and embedded) where having all locales installed on is
>wasteful, but where it is useful to have the C.UTF-8 and/or en_US.UTF-8
>installed, to get minimal working UTF-8 support.  Making this hard to
>achieve for users seems unhelpful to me.  I understand the motivation
>for the patch

I don't think you do, if that's what you thought it was ;-) 

>  (packages (append (map specification->package
>                         '("glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"

You have a (probably left-over) specification->package call but no "glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"  package in Guix for it to find.  It does not search the environment.

Remove the spec and refer to your custom variable directly, e.g.:

  (packages (append (list glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales ...) ...))


Kind regards,

T G-R

Sent on the go.  Excuse or enjoy my brevity.

Re: glibc-utf8-locales

[Simon Josefsson via]

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tis 2022-03-08 klockan 10:28 +0000 skrev Tobias Geerinckx-Rice:
> Hullo Simon,
> 
> Simon Josefsson via <help-guix@gnu.org> wrote:
> > First, I wonder if this is optimal.  There must be many machines
> > (servers and embedded) where having all locales installed on is
> > wasteful, but where it is useful to have the C.UTF-8 and/or
> > en_US.UTF-8
> > installed, to get minimal working UTF-8 support.  Making this hard
> > to
> > achieve for users seems unhelpful to me.  I understand the
> > motivation
> > for the patch
> 
> I don't think you do, if that's what you thought it was ;-) 

Sorry I was unclear -- I reckon the motivation for the patch was that
the semantics with the old glibc-utf8-locales package was confusing
(not containing all UTF-8 locales).  Still, I think the old package did
provide some useful aspect which is now lost, and has to be worked
around with more complex logic.  Offering a newer more simple solution
is what I'm asking for.  Meanwhile I'm happy to use the more complex
solution that you helped me with (below).

> >  (append (map specification->package
> >                         '("glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"
> 
> You have a (probably left-over) specification->package call but no
> "glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales"  package in Guix for it to find. 
> It does not search the environment.
> 
> Remove the spec and refer to your custom variable directly, e.g.:
> 
>   (packages (append (list glibc-useful-swedish-utf8-locales ...)
> ...))

Thanks, I managed to get it to work now:

https://gitlab.com/jas/sjd-cosmos/-/blob/master/hamster.josefsson.org/overlay/etc/config.scm

https://gitlab.com/jas/sjd-cosmos/-/commit/cecbdf4ad834c3d06e1344d843582ac1defa935b

However, I'm not sure it is fully working, 'locale -a' gives me more
than just the locales I specified?!  Yes I did successful 'system
reconfigure' and reboot into new system.

/Simon


root@hamster ~# /gnu/store/2fk1gz2s7ppdicynscra9b19byrrr866-glibc-
2.33/bin/locale -a
C
ca_ES.utf8
cs_CZ.utf8
da_DK.utf8
de_DE.utf8
el_GR.utf8
en_AU.utf8
en_CA.utf8
en_GB.utf8
en_US.utf8
en_US.UTF-8
es_AR.utf8
es_CL.utf8
es_ES.utf8
es_MX.utf8
fi_FI.utf8
fr_BE.utf8
fr_CA.utf8
fr_CH.utf8
fr_FR.utf8
ga_IE.utf8
it_IT.utf8
ja_JP.utf8
ko_KR.utf8
nb_NO.utf8
nl_NL.utf8
pl_PL.utf8
POSIX
pt_PT.utf8
ro_RO.utf8
ru_RU.utf8
sv_SE.utf8
tr_TR.utf8
uk_UA.utf8
vi_VN.utf8
zh_CN.utf8
root@hamster ~# 


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Re: glibc-utf8-locales

[Philip McGrath]

Hi,

On Tuesday, March 8, 2022 10:02:25 AM EST Simon Josefsson via wrote:
> tis 2022-03-08 klockan 10:28 +0000 skrev Tobias Geerinckx-Rice:
> > Hullo Simon,
> > 
> > Simon Josefsson via <help-guix@gnu.org> wrote:
> > > First, I wonder if this is optimal.  There must be many machines
> > > (servers and embedded) where having all locales installed on is
> > > wasteful, but where it is useful to have the C.UTF-8 and/or
> > > en_US.UTF-8
> > > installed, to get minimal working UTF-8 support.  Making this hard
> > > to
> > > achieve for users seems unhelpful to me.  I understand the
> > > motivation
> > > for the patch
> > 
> > I don't think you do, if that's what you thought it was ;-)
> 
> Sorry I was unclear -- I reckon the motivation for the patch was that
> the semantics with the old glibc-utf8-locales package was confusing
> (not containing all UTF-8 locales).  Still, I think the old package did
> provide some useful aspect which is now lost, and has to be worked
> around with more complex logic.  Offering a newer more simple solution
> is what I'm asking for.  Meanwhile I'm happy to use the more complex
> solution that you helped me with (below).
> 

Would it make any sense to define a `glibc-utf8-locales` package that actually 
does include all of the UTF-8 locales?

In hindsight, it seems like it might have been better to have a more gradual 
transition from recommending `glibc-utf8-locales` in the docs to removing it, 
if that required everyone to update their configurations. (I haven't had a 
problem personally, though.)

-Philip