Thread: Win32 & NLS

Hi!

Working the NLS stuff on win32. Considering I know very little about
this part (don't use it myself, never coded around in it), perhaps
someone else can shed some light?

PostgreSQL responds correctly to whatever the LC_MESSAGES environment
variable is set to upon startup of postgresql - I get my error messages
in swedish, english, german or whatever depending on that.

However, postgresql.conf does not load with the error message:
FATAL:  invalid value for parameter "lc_messages": "EN"

This goes for whatever I set lc_messages to, including all the
combinations that work when set in the environment variable. If I
comment it out completely from the config file, things appear to work
with the locale picked up from the environment.
(The error msg of course only shows up when NLS is enabled in configure)


Some quick tracking-down of this shows that the code on line 80-82 of
pg_locale.c:

    save = setlocale(category, NULL);
    if (!save)
        return NULL;            /* won't happen, we hope
*/

*does* return NULL...

Now, I really don't know anything about the setlocale() integration, but
from the MSDN documentation
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vclib/
html/_crt_setlocale.2c_._wsetlocale.asp) doesn't even list LC_MESSAGES
as a valid identifier. My bet is that's why it returns NULL on
LC_MESSAGES.

Also, some googling lead me to this:
http://www.haible.de/bruno/gettext-FAQ.html#windows_woe32

Which appears to suggest that we should change the locale using putenv()
etc, and not using setlocale() at all... Because setlocale() does not
support LC_MESSAGES, probably.

Attached is a patch with adds a environment variable based version of
locale_messages_assign(). It's not a pretty solution, but I think it's
probably necessary.

Comments?


(There is also a patch for initdb required to work on win32 when
compiled with NLS enabled, but this is the start...)


//Magnus

Magnus Hagander wrote:
> Which appears to suggest that we should change the locale using
> putenv() etc, and not using setlocale() at all... Because setlocale()
> does not support LC_MESSAGES, probably.

This cannot possibly work.  putenv() doesn't change any locale.  The
environment variables only serve as a default when you call setlocale()
without an actual locale value.  But to enable any locale, you always
need to call setlocale() somehow, somewhere.

--
Peter Eisentraut
http://developer.postgresql.org/~petere/

>> Which appears to suggest that we should change the locale using
>> putenv() etc, and not using setlocale() at all... Because setlocale()
>> does not support LC_MESSAGES, probably.
>
>This cannot possibly work.  putenv() doesn't change any locale.  The
>environment variables only serve as a default when you call
>setlocale()
>without an actual locale value.  But to enable any locale, you always
>need to call setlocale() somehow, somewhere.

That was my first thought, too. But it *does* appear to work.

With this patch, I can change lc_messages from
environment-before-startup, from postgresql.conf or using "set
lc_messages='foo'".
The only main thing I see as being wrong is that it cannot check if the
specified messages were incorrect. If I literally set it to "foo", I get
english without getting any error/warning.

Clearly they don't just serve as defaults on win32. That's the only
conclusion I can draw from the fact that this works, and from the
questions in the FAQ referenced.

See also for example
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnu-utils/2004-02/msg00091.html


//Magnus

"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> However, postgresql.conf does not load with the error message:
> FATAL:  invalid value for parameter "lc_messages": "EN"

That's because "en" isn't a legal locale spec.  "en_US", for instance,
would be valid.  (At least on most platforms ... maybe Windoze is out in
left field?)

            regards, tom lane

"Magnus Hagander" <mha@sollentuna.net> writes:
> Attached is a patch with adds a environment variable based version of
> locale_messages_assign(). It's not a pretty solution, but I think it's
> probably necessary.

Applied with minor cleanup.

I'm still concerned about the order-of-operations issue, but some
desultory experimentation on Linux (Fedora Core 3) did not find any
cases where setlocale(LC_MESSAGES) would fail because of a contradictory
LC_CTYPE setting, so maybe that theory is all wet.  Still it seems there
is *something* fishy going on, given the number of reports we've seen.

            regards, tom lane