Re: Autoconf proposed fix for "NLS nuisances" POSIX non-conformance

[akim]

On Wed, Oct 31, 2001 at 02:36:13PM -0800, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Autoconf generates "configure" scripts that do the following:
> 
>   # NLS nuisances.
>   $as_unset LANG || test "${LANG+set}" != set || { LANG=C; export LANG; }
>   $as_unset LC_ALL || test "${LC_ALL+set}" != set || { LC_ALL=C; export 
> LC_ALL; }
>   ...
> 
> Unfortunately, this does not necessarily have the desired effect on
> POSIX platforms.  POSIX says that if none of the LANG or LC_*
> environment variables are set, then the locale is
> implementation-defined.  I think most implementations default to 'C',
> which is what is wanted here, but this is not required by POSIX.
> 
> Here's the ChangeLog entry that talks about why Autoconf does it the way
> that it does:
> 
> Thu Jun 24 15:58:04 1993  Noah Friedman  (address@hidden)
> 
>       * autoconf.sh, autoheader.sh, acgeneral.m4 (AC_PREPARE): Undo
>       change of Jun 16 1993.  Only set `LANG' and `LC_ALL' to "C" if
>       already set.
> 
> I vaguely recall that the problem is that some older (pre-POSIX)
> shells reject "LC_ALL='C'", because they don't have a C locale.

OK.  Please, install, together with a small update of the doc if you
have some time for that.  Thanks!