Re: default locale considered harmful? (was Re: [GENERAL]

On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, Nigel J. Andrews wrote:

> On Wed, 4 Jun 2003, Tom Lane wrote:
>
> > Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
> > > That is one thing I liked about the initdb mention --- it clearly told
> > > them to watch out for something they might not have been looking for.
> >
> > Only if they read the message, though. People who are running RPM
> > installations probably never get to see what initdb has to say ...
> > so I can't put much faith in the usefulness of warnings emitted by
> > initdb.
> >
>
> Yes, I mentioned this when this thread was going a few weeks ago. I only caught
> the locale setting being wrong on a system before it went into production
> because I happened to install on another system and noticed the message. I then
> had to ask the hosting company's SA to first check and then re-initdb. I was
> even sat watching/directing what he was doing and missed it. He was using
> Redhat with RPMs I was doing it properly from source.
>
> Those RPMs are dangerous, they turn you mind off.
>
> I voted for setting 'C' by default.

Everything Nigel just wrote plus one thing.

If it comes down to it, we could always require a --locale setting and
refuse to initdb without it. That way, whether it's in an RPM or from
source, somebody somewhere along the line has to choose something.

Or would that break RPM / automated installs in too nasty a way?