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.TH NEWLOCALE "3P" 2013 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.SH PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

.SH NAME
newlocale
\(em create or modify a locale object
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
#include <locale.h>
.P
locale_t newlocale(int \fIcategory_mask\fP, const char *\fIlocale\fP,
    locale_t \fIbase\fP);
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
\fInewlocale\fR()
function shall create a new locale object or modify an existing one.
If the
.IR base
argument is (\c
.BR locale_t )0,
a new locale object shall be created. It is unspecified whether the
locale object pointed to by
.IR base
shall be modified, or freed and a new locale object created.
.P
The
.IR category_mask
argument specifies the locale categories to be set or modified.
Values for
.IR category_mask
shall be constructed by a bitwise-inclusive OR of the symbolic
constants
.IR LC_CTYPE_MASK ,
.IR LC_NUMERIC_MASK ,
.IR LC_TIME_MASK ,
.IR LC_COLLATE_MASK ,
.IR LC_MONETARY_MASK ,
and
.IR LC_MESSAGES_MASK ,
or any of the other implementation-defined
.IR LC_*_MASK
values defined in
.IR <locale.h> .
.P
For each category with the corresponding bit set in
.IR category_mask
the data from the locale named by
.IR locale
shall be used. In the case of modifying an existing locale object, the
data from the locale named by
.IR locale
shall replace the existing data within the locale object. If a completely
new locale object is created, the data for all sections not requested by
.IR category_mask
shall be taken from the default locale.
.P
The following preset values of
.IR locale
are defined for all settings of
.IR category_mask :
.IP "\&\(dqPOSIX\(dq" 12
Specifies the minimal environment for C-language translation called
the POSIX locale.
.IP "\&\(dqC\(dq" 12
Equivalent to
.BR \(dqPOSIX\(dq .
.IP "\&\(dq\|\(dq" 12
Specifies an implementation-defined native environment. This corresponds
to the value of the associated environment variables,
.IR LC_*
and
.IR LANG ;
see the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,
.IR "Chapter 7" ", " "Locale"
and
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables".
.P
If the
.IR base
argument is not (\c
.BR locale_t )0
and the
\fInewlocale\fR()
function call succeeds, the contents of
.IR base
are unspecified. Applications shall ensure that they stop using
.IR base
as a locale object before calling
\fInewlocale\fR().
If the function call fails and the
.IR base
argument is not (\c
.BR locale_t )0,
the contents of
.IR base
shall remain valid and unchanged.
.P
The behavior is undefined if the
.IR base
argument is the special locale object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE, or is not a
valid locale object handle and is not (\c
.BR locale_t )0.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Upon successful completion, the
\fInewlocale\fR()
function shall return a handle which the caller may use on subsequent
calls to
\fIduplocale\fR(),
\fIfreelocale\fR(),
and other functions taking a
.BR locale_t
argument.
.P
Upon failure, the
\fInewlocale\fR()
function shall return (\c
.BR locale_t )0
and set
.IR errno
to indicate the error.
.SH ERRORS
The
\fInewlocale\fR()
function shall fail if:
.TP
.BR ENOMEM
There is not enough memory available to create the locale object or
load the locale data.
.TP
.BR EINVAL
The
.IR category_mask
contains a bit that does not correspond to a valid category.
.TP
.BR ENOENT
For any of the categories in
.IR category_mask ,
the locale data is not available.
.P
The
\fInewlocale\fR()
function may fail if:
.TP
.BR EINVAL
The
.IR locale
argument is not a valid string pointer.
.LP
.IR "The following sections are informative."
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS "Constructing a Locale Object from Different Locales"
.P
The following example shows the construction of a locale where the
.IR LC_CTYPE
category data comes from a locale
.IR loc1
and the
.IR LC_TIME
category data from a locale
.IR tok2 :
.sp
.RS 4
.nf
\fB
#include <locale.h>
\&...
locale_t loc, new_loc;
.P
/* Get the "loc1" data. */
.P
loc = newlocale (LC_CTYPE_MASK, "loc1", (locale_t)0);
if (loc == (locale_t) 0)
    abort ();
.P
/* Get the "loc2" data. */
.P
new_loc = newlocale (LC_TIME_MASK, "loc2", loc);
if (new_loc != (locale_t) 0)
    /* We don t abort if this fails. In this case this
       simply used to unchanged locale object. */
    loc = new_loc;
.P
\&...
.fi \fR
.P
.RE
.SS "Freeing up a Locale Object"
.P
The following example shows a code fragment to free a locale object
created by
\fInewlocale\fR():
.sp
.RS 4
.nf
\fB
#include <locale.h>
\&...
.P
/* Every locale object allocated with newlocale() should be
 * freed using freelocale():
 */
.P
locale_t loc;
.P
/* Get the locale. */
.P
loc = newlocale (LC_CTYPE_MASK | LC_TIME_MASK, "locname", (locale_t)0);
.P
/* ... Use the locale object ... */
\&...
.P
/* Free the locale object resources. */
freelocale (loc);
.fi \fR
.P
.RE
.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
Handles for locale objects created by the
\fInewlocale\fR()
function should either be released by a corresponding call to
\fIfreelocale\fR(),
or be used as a base locale to another
\fInewlocale\fR()
call.
.P
The special locale object LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE must not be passed for the
.IR base
argument, even when returned by the
\fIuselocale\fR()
function.
.SH RATIONALE
None.
.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
None.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR "\fIduplocale\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIfreelocale\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIuselocale\fR\^(\|)"
.P
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,
.IR "Chapter 7" ", " "Locale",
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables",
.IR "\fB<locale.h>\fP"
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
(This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .

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