I accidentally add a locale, e.g. sudo locale-gen zh\_TW

e.g. locale -a

```
zh_TW

```

But how to remove it?
['https://serverfault.com/questions/394610', 'https://serverfault.com', 'https://serverfault.com/users/50774/']
**Which locales are installed on my machine?**

You can check which locales are generated and configured on your system using the locale command:

* **`locale`** ... list the current locale configuration
* **`locale -a`** ... lists all all locales that were generated on your system
* **`locale -a -v`** ... list all locales and show useful additional information (such as
directory names that contain the locale information data files)

The last command from above makes you see that all generated locales are located in **`/usr/lib/locale/`**, and you may remove any of them if unneeded. Each pack of locale information is a directory containing text files and other directories.

-

**Supported locales**

All locales that you want your system to support are listed in the text files in **`/var/lib/locales/supported.d/`**. These files have two columns, language tag and character map.

I want my system to know US-English only, so I have only one file there, called **`en`**, which contains just a single line:

```
en_US UTF-8

```

-

**Error messages**

If error messages are displayed when issuing the locale command, e.g.

```
locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

```

make sure the file **`/etc/default/locale`** exists and has proper content, such as:

```
LANG="en_US"
LANGUAGE="en_US:en"

```

-

**Get rid of unneeded locale data - Step by step**

Now we know all the necessary details to get started with cleaning up our system's locale information:

1. Edit the locale file(s) in **`/var/lib/locales/supported.d/`**, and remove all unneeded locales (one locale per line)
2. Create and edit **`/etc/default/locale`** (see above for an example)
3. Delete all generated locale data: **`rm -rfv /usr/lib/locale/*`**
4. Re-generate new locales: **`locale-gen`**

That's all! Reboot your machine to make your changes take effect. Then run one or more of the locale command examples from above to ensure yourself that the result is as expected.

-

**Reference:**

<https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/blog/bittner-195120/remove-unwanted-locales-on-ubuntu-debian-3281/>
**Note:** Some of the commands below require root privileges, consider the use of `sudo`.

### Basic info

According to [`man locale-gen`](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man8/locale-gen.8.html), locales are set in several files.

> 
> `/etc/locale.gen`
> 
> 
> The main configuration file, which has a simple format: every line that is not empty and does not begin with a # is treated as a locale definition that is to be built.
> 
> 
> `/var/lib/locales/supported.d/`
> 
> 
> A directory containing locale.gen snippets provided by language-pack packages. Do not edit these manually, they will be overwritten on package upgrades.
> 
> 
> 

Locales are compiled (generated) into a single file.

> 
> `/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive`
> 
> 
> Usual default locale archive location.
> 
> 
> 

Comprehensive details on locales at the [Arch Wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/locale).

### Checking locales and the locale

To list available (known) locales, run any of the following commands (with minor output differences).

```bash
locale -a
localectl list-locales

```

To check the (already) generated locales, run the following command.

```bash
localedef --list-archive

```

To check the currently used locale, run any of the following commands (with minor output differences).

```bash
locale
localectl

```

### Setting and generating (new) locales

Locales are typically set by uncommenting lines in `/etc/locale.gen`, after which running `locale-gen` is required.

```bash
nano /etc/locale.gen # uncomment desired lines (locales)
locale-gen

```

This will compile (generate) locales into `/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive` for each uncommented line in `/etc/locale.gen` and under `/var/lib/locales/supported.d/`, whether they were previously compiled or not.

Alternatively, the command

```bash
locale-gen <locale>

```

will uncomment the corresponding line in `locale-gen` while generating the desired locale and only this one.

Note: The implementation of `locale-gen` is distro dependent. For instance, the command above is valid in Ubuntu/Debian but not in ArchLinux.

### Removing locales

When issuing `locale-gen`, the compiled archive is erased and all locales in `/etc/locale.gen` and under `/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive` are regenerated anew. The command `locale-gen --purge <locale>` doesn't do what the modifier suggests but the opposite: It removes all compiled locales except those indicated. To make sure only specific locales are generated when `locale-gen` is issued or and update is performed both `/etc/locale.gen` and `/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive` must be considered.

To remove locales in `/etc/locale.gen`, simply comment the desired lines and regenerate the locales using `locale-gen`.

To remove locales under `/var/lib/locales/supported.d/` is trickier. Since any file `/var/lib/locales/supported.d/<code>` depends on the package `language-pack-<code>-base`, any change on the former will be restored when the latter is updated. To solve this, simply hold the packages that update files under `/var/lib/locales/supported.d/`. The command that achieves this in Ubuntu/Debian is the following.

```bash
apt-mark language-pack-<code>-base

```

To update a held package, you must [unmark](https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man8/apt-mark.8.html) it or simply [`--ignore-hold`](https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man8/apt-get.8.html).

**Workaround.** A more intrusive but general solution that prevents changes under `/var/lib/locales/supported.d/` is to set files in it with the ["immutable (i)" attribute](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man1/chattr.1.html). So instead of removing files, empty them. For instance:

```bash
cd /var/lib/locales/supported.d/
rm <code> && touch <code> # <code> has been emptied
lsattr <code>    # regular attributes
chattr +i <code> # adding (+) immutable
lsattr <code>    # checking attributes

```

### Setting the locale

Setting and generating locales does not set the system locale. Any of the following commands achieves this.

```bash
echo LANG=<code> | sudo tee /etc/locale.conf # reboot (might be ignored in Ubuntu)
localectl set-locale LANG=<code>

```