Excerpts from Greg Sabino Mullane's message of vie jul 23 19:08:27 UTC 2010:
>
> Hash: RIPEMD160
>
> > Hmm, wouldn't have it been easier to set LC_MESSAGES to C before
> > calling pg_controldata?
>
> To be honest, I can't remember why that wasn't working for me when
> I tried it some time ago. I just verified that it *will* work,
> however, when I set LANGUAGE (LC_MESSAGES has no effect).
Hmm, now that you mention it, I think I remember different systems
honoring different env vars. To be safe you probably want to set the
lot of them -- LANGUAGE, LANG, LC_ALL.
Note that LC_MESSAGES has no effect if LC_ALL is set. I think other
vars also override LC_MESSAGES in some systems.
Still, this is way better than a collection of translated strings;
consider a translator fixing a typo, or choosing a different wording, or
a new language being added.
