localectl

TLDR

Show current locale and keymap settings

$ localectl

List available locales

$ localectl list-locales

Set a system locale variable

$ localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

List available keymaps

$ localectl list-keymaps

Set system keyboard mapping

$ localectl set-keymap us

Set X11 keyboard layout

$ localectl set-x11-keymap us pc105

DESCRIPTION

localectl queries and changes the system locale and keyboard layout settings. It controls both console and X11 keyboard mappings through systemd-localed.

PARAMETERS

--no-ask-password

Do not prompt for password

--no-convert

Do not convert console keymap to X11 or vice versa

-H, --host

Execute operation on remote host

-M, --machine

Execute operation on container

COMMANDS

status

Show current locale and keymap settings

set-locale LOCALE...

Set system locale variables (LANG, LC_*, etc.)

list-locales

List available locales

set-keymap MAP [TOGGLEMAP]

Set console keyboard mapping

list-keymaps

List available console keymaps

set-x11-keymap LAYOUT [MODEL [VARIANT [OPTIONS]]]

Set X11 keyboard mapping

list-x11-keymap-models

List X11 keyboard models

list-x11-keymap-layouts

List X11 keyboard layouts

list-x11-keymap-variants [LAYOUT]

List X11 keyboard variants

list-x11-keymap-options

List X11 keyboard options

LANG: Default locale for all categories
LC_COLLATE: String collation order
LC_CTYPE: Character classification
LC_MESSAGES: Message language
LC_NUMERIC: Number formatting
LC_TIME: Date and time formatting

CAVEATS

Setting the console keymap with set-keymap automatically updates the X11 keymap unless --no-convert is used. Changes take effect immediately for new sessions.

HISTORY

localectl is part of systemd, providing unified locale and keymap management through systemd-localed.