LOCALECTL(1) localectl LOCALECTL(1)
NAME
localectl - Control the system locale and keyboard layout settings
SYNOPSIS
localectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
DESCRIPTION
localectl may be used to query and change the system locale and keyboard layout settings. It communicates with systemd-localed(8) to modify
files such as /etc/locale.conf and /etc/vconsole.conf.
The system locale controls the language settings of system services and of the UI before the user logs in, such as the display manager, as
well as the default for users after login.
The keyboard settings control the keyboard layout used on the text console and of the graphical UI before the user logs in, such as the
display manager, as well as the default for users after login.
Note that the changes performed using this tool might require the initramfs to be rebuilt to take effect during early system boot. The
initramfs is not rebuilt automatically by localectl.
Note that systemd-firstboot(1) may be used to initialize the system locale for mounted (but not booted) system images.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--no-ask-password
Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
--no-convert
If set-keymap or set-x11-keymap is invoked and this option is passed, then the keymap will not be converted from the console to X11, or
X11 to console, respectively.
-H, --host=
Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
optionally be suffixed by a container name, separated by ":", which connects directly to a specific container on the specified host.
This will use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST.
-M, --machine=
Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to connect to.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
The following commands are understood:
status
Show current settings of the system locale and keyboard mapping.
set-locale LOCALE...
Set the system locale. This takes one or more assignments such as "LANG=de_DE.utf8", "LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.utf8", and so on. See locale(7)
for details on the available settings and their meanings. Use list-locales for a list of available locales (see below).
list-locales
List available locales useful for configuration with set-locale.
set-keymap MAP [TOGGLEMAP]
Set the system keyboard mapping for the console and X11. This takes a mapping name (such as "de" or "us"), and possibly a second one to
define a toggle keyboard mapping. Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting is also applied as the default system keyboard
mapping of X11, after converting it to the closest matching X11 keyboard mapping. Use list-keymaps for a list of available keyboard
mappings (see below).
list-keymaps
List available keyboard mappings for the console, useful for configuration with set-keymap.
set-x11-keymap LAYOUT [MODEL [VARIANT [OPTIONS]]]
Set the system default keyboard mapping for X11 and the virtual console. This takes a keyboard mapping name (such as "de" or "us"), and
possibly a model, variant, and options, see kbd(4) for details. Unless --no-convert is passed, the selected setting is also applied as
the system console keyboard mapping, after converting it to the closest matching console keyboard mapping.
list-x11-keymap-models, list-x11-keymap-layouts, list-x11-keymap-variants [LAYOUT], list-x11-keymap-options
List available X11 keymap models, layouts, variants and options, useful for configuration with set-keymap. The command
list-x11-keymap-variants optionally takes a layout parameter to limit the output to the variants suitable for the specific layout.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
ENVIRONMENT
$SYSTEMD_PAGER
Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known pager
implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is discovered no pager
is invoked. Setting this environment variable to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing --no-pager.
$SYSTEMD_LESS
Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
$SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), locale(7), locale.conf(5), vconsole.conf(5), loadkeys(1), kbd(4), The XKB Configuration Guide[1], systemctl(1), systemd-
localed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1), mkinitrd(8)
NOTES
1. The XKB Configuration Guide
http://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/xorg-docs/input/XKB-Config.html
systemd 237 LOCALECTL(1)