locale_gen: unable to install custom locales

[Perdition-117]

Summary

Custom locales won't install because locale_gen does not check /usr/local/share/i18n/SUPPORTED, only /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED. /usr/local is the intended path for user defined locales, and is checked by locale-gen itself.

https://manpages.debian.org/trixie/locales/locale-gen.8.en.html#SEE_ALSO

Issue Type

Bug Report

Component Name

locale_gen

Ansible Version

$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.14.18]
  config file = /home/u/provisions/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/u/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/u/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.11.2 (main, Apr 28 2025, 14:11:48) [GCC 12.2.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True

Community.general Version

$ ansible-galaxy collection list community.general

# /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible_collections
Collection        Version
----------------- -------
community.general 6.6.2

Configuration

$ ansible-config dump --only-changed
CONFIG_FILE() = /home/u/provisions/ansible.cfg
DEFAULT_HOST_LIST(/home/u/provisions/ansible.cfg) = ['/home/u/provisions/inventory.yaml']
DEFAULT_STDOUT_CALLBACK(/home/u/provisions/ansible.cfg) = default
DISPLAY_SKIPPED_HOSTS(/home/u/provisions/ansible.cfg) = True

OS / Environment

Debian 13

Steps to Reproduce

- ansible.builtin.file:
    path: /usr/local/share/i18n/locales
    state: directory

- ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: locale
    dest: /usr/local/share/i18n/locales/en_US@iso

- ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
    path: /usr/local/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
    create: true
    line: en_US.UTF-8@iso UTF-8

- community.general.locale_gen:
    name:
      - en_US.UTF-8@iso

Expected Results

Locale en_US.UTF-8@iso to get installed.

Actual Results

TASK [common : community.general.locale_gen] ************************************************************************************
fatal: [192.168.20.106]: FAILED! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "The locale you've entered is not available on your system."
}

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the Ansible Code of Conduct

[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description:

• plugins/modules/locale_gen.py

If these files are incorrect, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

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[ansibullbot]

cc @AugustusKling
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[russoz]

Hi @Perdition-117 thanks for reporting this issue.

It was not lost on me the fact that you are running community.general 6.6.2 - that is an ancient version of this collection, one that is no longer supported.

I believe this problem will happen in latest versions, but just in case, could you please install a newer version of community.general (12.0.0 should be released today or tomorrow, or the previous one is 11.4.0) and confirm the problem still exists? That module suffered a major revamp between then and now. Thanks

[Perdition-117]

Hi,

While I checked the main branch in order to verify how the module functioned, I later realised that that's not at all the version I was using myself. Indeed, it does actually work on the latest version. Upon a closer inspection I can see that it now uses locale -a as a fallback to verify whether a locale exists. Sorry about that.

Clearly the topic as stated is incorrect, but is it worth still checking the secondary file in /usr/local?

[russoz]

Hi @Perdition-117 thanks for double checking.

Without looking at the code again, I'd say it sounds like a good thing. However, it's likely that I will have no time for this for quite a while.

If you want to give it a try and submit a PR, we will be more than happy to help you.

[Perdition-117]

I take it back. locale -a only includes installed locales, not available ones. I must have gotten confused by having installed the locale by some other means beforehand.

I'm not sure what the best approach to fix it would be. The code is set up to read only a single file.

Hm. I need to go over my playbook again. Things don't work as I remember them.

[Perdition-117]

Ok, I've taken some time to better understand the locale infrastructure.

While the locale-gen manual refers to the SUPPORTED files as listing "supported" locales, the script itself does not actually check those files. The script only cares about which locales are uncommented in /etc/locale.gen, and also verifies that the requested locale definitions exist at /usr[/local]/share/i18n/locales. SUPPORTED, as far as I can tell, is mainly for the benefit of dpkg-reconfigure locales. I can generate locales listed in /etc/locale.gen fine without them being included in SUPPORTED.

It seems logical, then, for this module to mirror the above behaviour. I noticed that it already checks for the locale being present in /etc/locale.gen.

[Perdition-117]

I will leave this open, but for now I'm better off just "manually" writing locale.gen and running locale-gen.

[felixfontein]

Please note that this is the behavior you're observing on Debian; the behvaior on other distributions might be different, so

It seems logical, then, for this module to mirror the above behaviour.

should be

It seems logical, then, for this module to mirror the above behaviour on Debian.

(until someone verifies what exactly happens on other distros :) )

[russoz]

The supported distros for this module are Debian and Ubuntu, which AFAIR behave the same way wrt locale_gen.

Update: ... and Archlinux, missed it before, sorry.