QUERYLOCALE(3)

💅 QUERYLOCALE(3) — bestie's guide to looking up locale names and versions ✨

okay so real talk, this page lives in the Library Functions Manual, and it's part of the Standard C Library — that's libc, link it with -lc, mwah 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

querylocale — the little function that looks up the locale name or the version for a category you pick 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <locale.h>

const char *
querylocale(int mask, locale_t locale);

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So here's the vibe: it returns the name or the version of the locale, for whichever category your mask says. 🫶

The possible values for the mask are literally the same ones as in newlocale(3) — but like, when you're requesting the locale name, yk? Same energy. 💫

Now for the spicy part: if you want a version string, you OR together LC_VERSION_MASK and another mask value. Bitwise OR, bestie, not vibes. 🔥

What's a version string even for? Comparing them, periodt — you compare version strings to detect changes to the locale's definition. 👀 The structure of the version string is unspecified though, so don't get attached to any particular format, ngl.

And rn? Version info is only available for LC_COLLATE_MASK 🍓 — for every other category you just get an empty string back. That's it, that's the whole story. 😭

⚠️ Heads up: if more than one bit in the mask is set (not counting LC_VERSION_MASK, okay?), the returned value is undefined. Like, undefined undefined. So don't do that. 💀

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

duplocale(3), freelocale(3), localeconv(3), newlocale(3), uselocale(3), xlocale(3) — go read the whole friend group, iykyk 💜

🧚 HISTORY 🧚

querylocale() first appeared in FreeBSD 9.1, and it's based on the function of the same name in Darwin. Iconic lineage honestly. Then LC_VERSION_MASK first appeared in FreeBSD 13.0 — glow-up era ✨

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Debian · November 8, 2020 · that's the source/version and date, bestie, signed, sealed, slayed 💅🎀