systemd-stable/man/org.freedesktop.locale1.xml

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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" >
<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1+ -->

<refentry id="org.freedesktop.locale1" conditional='ENABLE_LOCALED'
    xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
  <refentryinfo>
    <title>org.freedesktop.locale1</title>
    <productname>systemd</productname>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>org.freedesktop.locale1</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>org.freedesktop.locale1</refname>
    <refpurpose>The D-Bus interface of systemd-localed</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Introduction</title>

    <para>
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-localed.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    is a system service that can be used to control the system locale and keyboard mapping from user
    programs. This page describes the D-Bus interface.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>The D-Bus API</title>

    <para>The service exposes the following interfaces on the bus:</para>

    <programlisting>
$ gdbus introspect --system \
        --dest org.freedesktop.locale1 \
        --object-path /org/freedesktop/locale1

node /org/freedesktop/locale1 {
  interface org.freedesktop.locale1 {
    methods:
      SetLocale(in  as locale,
                in  b user_interaction);
      SetVConsoleKeyboard(in  s keymap,
                          in  s keymap_toggle,
                          in  b convert,
                          in  b user_interaction);
      SetX11Keyboard(in  s layout,
                     in  s model,
                     in  s variant,
                     in  s options,
                     in  b convert,
                     in  b user_interaction);
    signals:
    properties:
      readonly as Locale = ['LANG=en_US.UTF-8'];
      readonly s VConsoleKeymap = 'de';
      readonly s VConsoleKeymapToggle = '';
      readonly s X11Layout = 'de';
      readonly s X11Model = '';
      readonly s X11Variant = '';
      readonly s X11Options = '';
  };
  interface org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties {
  };
  interface org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable {
  };
  interface org.freedesktop.DBus.Peer {
  };
};
    </programlisting>

    <para>The system locale consists of an array of environment-variable-assignment-like strings. The
    following strings are known: <varname>LANG=</varname>, <varname>LC_CTYPE=</varname>,
    <varname>LC_NUMERIC=</varname>, <varname>LC_TIME=</varname>, <varname>LC_COLLATE=</varname>,
    <varname>LC_MONETARY=</varname>, <varname>LC_MESSAGES=</varname>, <varname>LC_PAPER=</varname>,
    <varname>LC_NAME=</varname>, <varname>LC_ADDRESS=</varname>, <varname>LC_TELEPHONE=</varname>,
    <varname>LC_MEASUREMENT=</varname>, <varname>LC_IDENTIFICATION=</varname>.</para>

    <para>Whenever the system locale or keymap is changed via the daemon <function>PropertyChanged</function>
    signals are sent out to which clients can subscribe.</para>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Methods</title>

      <para>If you set a new system locale all old system locale settings will be dropped, and the new
      settings will be saved to disk. It will also be passed to the system manager, and subsequently started
      daemons will inherit the new system locale from it. Note that already running daemons will not learn
      about the new system locale.</para>

      <para>The <function>SetVConsoleKeyboard()</function> call may be used to set the key mapping on the
      virtual console. Similarly, <function>SetX11Keyboard()</function> may be used to set the default key
      mapping of the X11 servers.</para>

      <para>Note that <function>SetVConsoleKeyboard()</function> instantly applies the new keymapping to the
      console, while <function>SetX11Keyboard()</function> simply sets a default that may be used by later
      sessions.</para>

      <para>The boolean argument <varname>convert</varname> may be set to optionally convert the console
      keyboard configuration to X11 keyboard mappings, resp. vice versa. If true and
      <function>SetVConsoleKeyboard()</function> is used the nearest X11 keyboard setting for the chosen
      console setting is set. If true and <function>SetX11Keyboard()</function> is used, the nearest console
      keyboard setting for the chosen X11 setting is set. Usually it is hence sufficient to call one of the
      two functions.</para>

      <para>For graphical UIs that need to set the system keyboard mapping simply invoke
      <function>SetX11Keyboard()</function>, set <varname>convert=true</varname> and ignore
      <function>SetVConsoleKeyboard()</function>.</para>

      <para>Use the empty string for the keymap parameters you wish not to set.</para>

      <para>Changing the system locale or keymap using this interface is authenticated via PolicyKit. The
      PolicyKit action for <function>SetLocale()</function> is
      <constant>org.freedesktop.locale1.set-locale</constant>. The PolicyKit action for
      <function>SetX11Keyboard()</function> and <function>SetVConsoleKeyboard()</function> is
      <constant>org.freedesktop.locale1.set-keyboard</constant>.</para>

      <para>The <varname>user_interaction</varname> boolean parameters can be used to control whether
      PolicyKit should interactively ask the user for authentication credentials if it needs to.</para>
    </refsect2>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Versioning</title>

    <para>These D-Bus interfaces follow <ulink url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/versioning-dbus.html">
    the usual interface versioning guidelines</ulink>.</para>
  </refsect1>
</refentry>