Php on docker : Using setLocale

Question

I'm trying to migrate an existing Apache/php site to docker and have problem with site localization. Digging into the code, the problem is that setLocale is returning false on Docker install (and true on the existing site). Here is a php test that runs well on existing site and fails on Docker installation.

<?php
$locale = "fr_FR";
putenv("LC_ALL=$locale");
$ok = setlocale(LC_ALL, $locale);
if ($ok) {
  echo "success";
} else {
  echo "failure";
}
?>

Here is my Docker file:

FROM php:5-apache

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y locales && apt-get clean
RUN locale-gen fr_FR && locale-gen zh_TW && locale-gen tr_TR && locale-gen ru_R$
RUN docker-php-ext-install gettext

RUN a2enmod rewrite && a2enmod headers

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

You need to reconfigure your locales:

RUN locale-gen fr_FR.UTF-8 && dpkg-reconfigure locales

And you might need (but I don't know exactly under which circumstances) to add LC_ALL and LANGUAGE environment variables to /etc/environment:

LC_ALL=...
LANGUAGE=...

Answer 2

As requested by "That Brazilian Guy", here is an answer with the fixed docker file

FROM php:5-apache

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y locales && apt-get clean
RUN sed -i -e 's/# fr_FR ISO-8859-1/fr_FR ISO-8859-1/' /etc/locale.gen && \
    dpkg-reconfigure --frontend=noninteractive locales
RUN docker-php-ext-install gettext

RUN a2enmod rewrite && a2enmod headers
If you need more locales, you'll have to look at /etc.locale.gen in your container and add a line

sed -i -e 's/# locale/locale/' /etc/locale.gen && \

for every locale you need (assuming # locale is the content of a line in /ec tc/locale.gen containing the locale you need).