localizing debian

A friend of mine had a problem with his too well localized debian, as it vomits out Dutch warning messages, which makes it impossible to understand what is going on or Google them. (even when you're Dutch)

On the Debian reference: tuning a Debian system website:

1) Run: dpkg-reconfigure locales

Add the locales of your choice, or even all locales!

2) Change your personal locale to one of the in step 1 installed locales:

For example by adding to your $HOME/.profile:

LC_MESSAGES="de_DE.UTF-8"

and/or

LC_ALL="de_DE.UTF-8"

and/or

LANG="de_DE.UTF-8"

Fiddle around with all the locale options until you found the combination that suits you.

# LC_ALL="en_GB.UTF-8" cat foo
cat: foo: No such file or directory

# LC_ALL="de_DE.UTF-8" cat foo
cat: foo: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

# LC_ALL="sv_SE.UTF-8" cat foo
cat: foo: Filen eller katalogen finns inte

# LC_ALL="fr_FR.UTF-8" cat foo
cat: foo: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type

# LC_ALL="es_ES.UTF-8" cat foo
cat: foo: No existe el fichero o el directorio

# LC_ALL="nl_NL.UTF-8" cat foo
cat: foo: Onbekend bestand of map