[kde-linux] Wrong language detection in KDE since 3.1

[Ingo Klöcker]

Sergey M. Serov wrote:
> Hello, KDE!
> You guys doing a good job, keep it going, but I have some problem....
> 
> How does KDE determinate a user language?
> It seems that it did use LANG or LC_MESSAGES before 3.1 but now it
> uses LC_CTYPE.
> I think it's a bug.

Me too (see below).

> I need to have LANG and LC_MESSAGES to be set to en_US but I need
> LC_CTYPE an LC_COLLATE to be set ru_RU.CP1251.
> But when I set LC_CTYPE to ru_RU.CP1251 every KDE apps starts with
> Russian interface.
> What I should gonna do?

Wait until KDE is fixed.


Why is KDE's behavior wrong? Let's have a look at the man page for 
locale(7):
=====
If the second argument to setlocale() is empty string, "", for the 
default  locale, it is determined using the following steps:
1. If there is a non-null environment variable LC_ALL, the value of
   LC_ALL is used.
2. If an environment variable with the same name as one of the
   categories above exists and is non-null, its value is used for that
   category.
3. If there is a non-null environment variable LANG, the value of LANG
   is used.
=====


Excerpt of kdelibs/kdecore/klocale.cpp:
=====
void KLocale::initLanguage(KConfig * config, bool useEnv)
{
  KConfigGroupSaver saver(config, "Locale");

  m_country = config->readEntry( "Country" );
  if ( m_country.isEmpty() )
    m_country = defaultCountry();

  // Reset the list and add the new languages
  QStringList languageList;
  if ( useEnv )
    languageList += QStringList::split
      (':', QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("KDE_LANG") ));

  languageList += config->readListEntry("Language", ':');

  // same order as setlocale use
  if ( useEnv )
    {
      // HPB: Only run splitLocale on the environment variables..
      QStringList langs;

      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_CTYPE") );
      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_MESSAGES") );
      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_ALL") );
      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LANG") );
=====


According to the aforementioned man page to following change would 
correct KDE's language determination:
=====
-      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_CTYPE") );
-      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_MESSAGES") );
       langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_ALL") );
+      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_MESSAGES") );
       langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LANG") );
=====

The line
      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_CTYPE") );
was added by lukas with the cvs comment:
=====
respect LC_CTYPE as well, fixes #32485
=====

Bug 32485 (http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32485) is
=====
 KDE should take also LC_CTYPE contents 
 during the first start if LC_ALL or LANG 
 is not set. 
=====

Obviously the fix is wrong (because it prefers LC_CTYPE over the other 
environment variables). The correct fix would have been to add
      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_CTYPE") );
_after_ the three other lines.

Does anyone object against the following change:
=====
-      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_CTYPE") );
-      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_MESSAGES") );
       langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_ALL") );
+      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_MESSAGES") );
       langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LANG") );
+      langs << QFile::decodeName( ::getenv("LC_CTYPE") );
=====

Regards,
Ingo

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