Software Support for Localization

This section contains information about the Oracle Solaris locale packages, DVD disk, localization functions, and script enabling.

Summary of the Oracle Solaris Locale Packages

All current Oracle Solaris locale packages are classified into either full locales or partial locales.

Partial locales are the enablers of the locales. With partial locales installed on the system, users can input, display, print text, and run applications on the target locales, while the OS/GUI messages in the Oracle Solaris operating system are English. All partial locale packages are available on the Oracle Solaris DVD. Japanese and Asian partial locales are packaged according to the language. Partial locales are packaged according to the geographic region.

Full locale packages include translations of software messages, online help files, optional fonts, and language-specific features. Full locale packages provide the full set of language features for many languages. All locales based on the following languages are full locales:

• German

• French

• Spanish

• Brazilian Portuguese

• Italian

• Japanese

• Korean

• Simplified Chinese

• Traditional Chinese

Full locale packages are packaged according to the language and are available on the Oracle Solaris DVD.

Partial locale packages (locale enablers) must be installed in order for the full locales to be functional.

During the Oracle Solaris installation process, you are prompted to choose which geographic regions' support you require. The locale support that is available after the installation is completed depends on the choices made at this stage. Note that the English locale ("C") is installed in any case.

Adding Additional Locales After Installation

You can configure additional locales by using the Locale administrator tool. Using the localeadm(1M) tool, you can display information about locale packages that are installed on the system or that reside on a particular device or directory. You can add and remove locales on the current system on a per-region basis. For example, you can add all locales in the Eastern European region to the current system.

The locale administrator now enables you to automatically add and remove locale packages on a per-region basis on the machine, once the system is installed. Because of this capability, you need not work with individual packages, and thus errors are reduced.

The locale administrator is a supplement to the locale selection logic in the Oracle Solaris installer. The installer is still considered as the primary application for the correct installation of Oracle Solaris locales.