R SIG Debian - Apr 2010 - Changing locale?

Hi

I need for a specific application to change the locale of R 2.9.2 in 
Ubuntu 9.04. Trying the example in ?Sys.setlocale:
Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME", "de_DE.utf8")
[1] ""
Warning message:
In Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME", "de_DE.utf8") :
  la requ?te OS pour sp?cifier la localisation ? "de_DE.utf8" n'a
pas pu
?tre honor?e

I tried the code line for windows on R windows
(Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME",
"German")) and it worked. Does it mean that the basic installation
(from
ubuntu repo) does not provide those locales? Or did I do something wrong?

Thanks a lot!

Matthieu

 sessionInfo()
R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24)
i486-pc-linux-gnu

locale:
LC_CTYPE=C;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=C;LC_COLLATE=C;LC_MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;LC_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base    

other attached packages:
[1] Revobase_0.2-1

Matthieu,

Finally found the solution.  This is an Ubuntu issue, so this would
effect other programs as well, but I was able to change the locale in
R by doing the following:

sudo gedit /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local

Add "de_DE.utf8 UTF-8" to the file.  Save and exit.

Then execute:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

This will take a minute or so.  I was then able to change locales in R
without being root.  Full credit goes to this webpage:

http://blog.andrewbeacock.com/2007/01/how-to-change-your-default-locale-on.html

Michael

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 9:57 AM, Matthieu Stigler
<matthieu.stigler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I need for a specific application to change the locale of R 2.9.2 in Ubuntu
> 9.04. Trying the example in ?Sys.setlocale:
> Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME", "de_DE.utf8")
> [1] ""
> Warning message:
> In Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME", "de_DE.utf8") :
> ?la requ?te OS pour sp?cifier la localisation ? "de_DE.utf8"
n'a pas pu ?tre
> honor?e
>
> I tried the code line for windows on R windows
(Sys.setlocale("LC_TIME",
> "German")) and it worked. Does it mean that the basic
installation (from
> ubuntu repo) does not provide those locales? Or did I do something wrong?
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Matthieu
>
> sessionInfo()
> R version 2.9.2 (2009-08-24)
> i486-pc-linux-gnu
>
> locale:
>
LC_CTYPE=C;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=C;LC_COLLATE=C;LC_MONETARY=C;LC_MESSAGES=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_NAME=C;LC_ADDRESS=C;LC_TELEPHONE=C;LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_FR.UTF-8;LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] stats ? ? graphics ?grDevices utils ? ? datasets ?methods ? base
> other attached packages:
> [1] Revobase_0.2-1
>
> _______________________________________________
> R-SIG-Debian mailing list
> R-SIG-Debian at r-project.org
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian
>


-- 
Dr. Michael A. Rutter
School of Science
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Station Road
Erie, PA 16563
http://math.bd.psu.edu/faculty/rutter