localectl

Control locale and keyboard settings

medium risk

interactive breakdown — edit the command and press Explain

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⚠ Risks & cautions

A wrong locale can break scripts that parse tool output; test in a session first.

What it does

Show or set system locale, keyboard layout and X11 keymap via systemd-localed.

Examples

localectl statusCurrent locale · explain & risk-check →

localectl set-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8Set the locale · explain & risk-check →

Related

timedatectl hostnamectl

Open the full explainer →More in System & Processes

Reference text is hand-written and may be incomplete — check man localectl for your version. Test destructive commands on a non-production system first.