localectl

Index · Directives systemd 234

## 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`.

`-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 , systemctl(1), systemd-localed.service(8), systemd-firstboot(1), mkinitrd(8)