An administrator works on a host where LANG=de_DE.UTF-8. She wants command output and error messages in untranslated English so that she can search for them online, while keeping German number, date and currency formatting. Which environment setting achieves exactly that?
LPIC-1 Exam 102-500, objective 107. Administrative tasks medium
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The options
Correct export LC_MESSAGES=C
Correct. LC_MESSAGES is the category that selects the language of program messages, and overriding just that category leaves the others deriving from LANG.
Not correct export LC_ALL=C
Wrong. LC_ALL overrides every category at once, so the messages become English but the number, date and currency formats fall back to the C locale as well.
Not correct export LANG=C
Wrong. LANG is the fallback for every unset category, so changing it moves all formatting to the C locale too, not just the messages.
Not correct export LC_CTYPE=C
Wrong. LC_CTYPE governs character classification and multibyte handling. Setting it to C leaves messages in German while breaking correct handling of non-ASCII characters.
Why
Locale settings resolve in a fixed order: LC_ALL wins if set, otherwise the specific LC_* category applies, otherwise LANG is the fallback. Overriding one category is therefore the precise tool, and running `locale` prints which value each category resolved to and where it came from. A common one-shot form is `LC_ALL=C command`, used when reproducible output matters more than keeping any local formatting.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- manual page locale(7)
Practise this
Reading one question is not practice. The trainer will draw a short set from objective 107 and space the ones you get wrong.
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