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2. What is the nature and description of the request? the inclusion of the following aliases in the default /usr/lib64/gconv/gconv-modules and /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules: alias ISO-10646-UCS-2// UNICODE// alias ISO-10646-UCS-2// ISO-10646/UTF8/ 3. Why does the customer need this? (List the business requirements here) The customer builds SMS systems. Some mobile phones (e.g. Nokia 3560) use the ISO-10646-UCS-2 charset, if the OS does not know this character set the message cannot be processed, and the message is rejected. This will lead to the impossibility to send messages with these handsets, resulting in upset end-users. 4. How would the customer like to achieve this? (List the functional requirements here) As proposed add lines to gconv-modules 5. For each functional requirement listed in question 4, specify how Red Hat and the customer can test to confirm the requirement is successfully implemented. The output of "iconv --list | grep ISO-10646-UCS-2" should be non-empty. 6. Is there already an existing RFE upstream or in Red Hat bugzilla? No. 7. How quickly does this need resolved? (desired target release) ASAP 8. Does this request meet the RHEL Inclusion criteria (please review) Yes. 9. List the affected packages glibc 10. Would the customer be able to assist in testing this functionality if implemented? Yes.
What is ISO-10646-UCS-2?
(In reply to comment #2) > What is ISO-10646-UCS-2? An alias of "ISO-10646/UCS2/". Quoting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-16/UCS-2>: a similar character encoding that was superseded by UTF-16 in version 2.0 of the Unicode standard in July 1996.[2] It produces a fixed-length format by simply using the code point as the 16-bit code unit and produces exactly the same result as UTF-16 for 63,488 code points in the range 0-0xFFFF, including all characters that had been assigned a value at that time. See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Character_Set#Encoding_forms_of_the_Universal_Character_Set> as well.
What makes ISO-10646/UCS2/ so special that it requires a special name?
"ISO-10646/UCS2/" is supported as a name for this particular character set in at least RHEL[4-6]. If you meant to ask `what makes "ISO-10646-UCS-2/" so special that it requires an alias?' instead, then this is covered in the original feature request. Having this alias shipped by default will make it possible for application programmers that develop software which processes SMS messages from phones like the Nokia 3560 and that relies on the OS's "iconv" mechanism for character set translation to process such messages without having to arrange for the gconv-modules configuration files to be modified.
The original feature request talks about ISO-10646/UTF8/.
Since the problem described in this bug report should be resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated files, follow the link below. If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2012-0763.html