ads' corner

The initial situation is still the following problem:

ads@ansible-ubuntu-03:~$ perl --version
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
        LANGUAGE = "en_US:en",
        LC_ALL = (unset),
        LC_PAPER = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_ADDRESS = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_MONETARY = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_NUMERIC = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_TELEPHONE = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_IDENTIFICATION = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_MEASUREMENT = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_TIME = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LC_NAME = "de_DE.UTF-8",
        LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to a fallback locale ("en_US.UTF-8").

But this time the first part of the configuration is done using the "debconf" module:

- name: select default locale
  debconf:
    name: locales
    question: locales/default_environment_locale
    value: en_US.UTF-8
    vtype: select
  notify:
    - rebuild locales database

This task selects the default locale for the system. Next step is selecting all the locales in /etc/locale.gen:

- name: /etc/locale.gen
  lineinfile:
    dest: /etc/locale.gen
    regexp: "{{ item.regexp }}"
    line: "{{ item.line }}"
    state: "{{ item.state }}"
  with_items:
    - { regexp: '^#? ?de_DE ISO-8859-1', line: 'de_DE ISO-8859-1', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8', line: 'de_DE.UTF-8 UTF-8', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15', line: 'de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?en_GB ISO-8859-1', line: 'en_GB ISO-8859-1', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?en_GB.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15', line: 'en_GB.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8', line: 'en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?en_US ISO-8859-1', line: 'en_US ISO-8859-1', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?en_US.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15', line: 'en_US.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15', state: present }
    - { regexp: '^#? ?en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8', line: 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8', state: present }
  notify:
    - rebuild locales database

Most entries - if not all - should be already in the file, but commented out. This task will remove the comment in front of the selected entry, or add a new line if the line is not in the file. It is possible to add additional locales, Ansible will not touch them. All it does it make sure that the selected locales are build.

Both tasks notify a trigger if they change something on the system:

- name: rebuild locales database
  command: "{{ item }}"
  with_items:
    - dpkg-reconfigure locales -f noninteractive
    - /usr/sbin/locale-gen

The trigger will in turn also update the debconf database.