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perllocalepragma

use locale - question

When I set my locale to it_IT.UTF-8 (export LC_ALL=it_IT.UTF-8) and run this script

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use warnings;
use 5.012;
use POSIX qw(strftime);

say strftime "%A %B %e %H:%M:%S %Y", localtime;

I get this output:

martedì marzo 15 08:50:07 2011

but reading this (from The-use-locale-pragma ):

By default, Perl ignores the current locale. The use locale pragma tells Perl to use the current locale for some operations: ... The POSIX date formatting function (strftime()) uses LC_TIME .

why does my locale-setting have an influence on the strftime-output without the use of the locale pragma?

Solution

  • POSIX::strftime is a thin wrapper around the real strftime C function call in time.h which uses the current locale. Perl doesn't go through the effort to make it conform.

    DateTime has a strftime equivalent implemented in Perl that will conform to Perl's locale pragma.