Re: fileutils/textutils LC_COLLATE support

[Paul Eggert]

> Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 12:00:52 +0100 (BST)
> From: Corin Hartland-Swann <address@hidden>

> > Why not just use "LC_ALL=C sort", if you want a C-locale sort?
> 
> Because it would be documented in the man page

Can't that be fixed by documenting "LC_ALL=C sort" better in the man
page?  Once that is done, the other advantages I mentioned for
"LC_ALL=C sort" will apply.  (Since you got confused by the current
documentation, you get to suggest better wording.  :-)

> Also because it's easier to call from perl (because that's what I'm
> doing) without changing LC_ALL for the whole process.

You don't need to change LC_ALL for the whole process.  You need to
change it only for the child process that execs sort.  That should be
easy to arrange in Perl.

> Just as an aside, do you need to set LC_ALL=C, or is it just the same
> setting LC_COLLATE=C?

It's not the same, but it's safer, because LC_COLLATE must be
compatible with LC_CTYPE, and LC_ALL sets both.

> And is C the same as POSIX in this context?

Yes, on POSIX hosts.  It's also the same on all non-POSIX hosts that I
know about.  However, in theory there could be some non-POSIX hosts
where "C" works but "POSIX" does not.