Re: Overriding local encoding defaults

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bob McConnell <rmcconne@lightlink.com> writes:
>> I am trying to create a Pg 8.4 cluster with UTF8 encoding for JDBC
>> access. But initdb insists that because my local console is en_US, it
>> cannot do that. We're talking about setting up a server here. Why should
>> it even care what the local console settings are?
>
> You need a locale setting that's compatible with UTF8, and apparently
> your platform's version of "en_US" isn't.  Try specifying locale
> en_US.utf8.  (There are various ways of spelling that --- "locale -a"
> should give you a clue which one applies for you.)

OK, this seems to work, so far. While logged in as the postgres user, I
typed in:

    export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Then:

    initdb -D /home/pgsql/data -E UTF8

built a cluster with UTF8 encoding. Just for safety, I also created
~/.profile with the same export line. So if I accidentally use pgsql via
SSH, I should be safe.

The 'export' syntax came from the CHANGES_AND_HINTS.TXT file for
Slackware 13.1 under SCIM input methods.

I still don't understand why a server process should care about the
local console. Are there any plans to fix that?

Thank you,

Bob McConnell
N2SPP