Bug 84779 - Switch default encodings to Unicode?
Summary: Switch default encodings to Unicode?
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Linux
Classification: Retired
Component: postgresql
Version: 8.0
Hardware: i386
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Andrew Overholt
QA Contact: David Lawrence
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2003-02-21 10:41 UTC by Tim Landscheidt
Modified: 2007-04-18 16:51 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2003-03-27 22:23:08 UTC
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Tim Landscheidt 2003-02-21 10:41:32 UTC
It seems that by default the Postgresql server and frontend use the SQL_ASCII 
encoding. Given the Red Hat quest for Unicode "domination" :-), wouldn't it be 
better to switch defaults to Unicode? 
 
Besides, a utf-8 terminal and a psql using SQL_ASCII encoding do not get along 
very well :-(. 
 
Suggestions: 
 
- Switch initdb's default encoding to Unicode. 
- For psql, either: 
  - have a /etc/skel/.psqlrc with "\encoding utf-8" (does not affect existing 
users :-() 
  - add some magic to psql to determine whether the controlling tty has 
Unicode capability and set encoding accordingly (quick hack: check if LANG 
ends with ".UTF-8"?)

Comment 1 Andrew Overholt 2003-03-04 16:44:25 UTC
I will think about this.  Thanks for the suggestions.

Comment 2 Andrew Overholt 2003-03-27 22:23:08 UTC
For the time being (to maintain regression test passes, among other reasons), I
am going to keep the default encoding the way it is.  Client encoding can be
changed in dotfiles as you suggest.  Databases can be initialized with other
default encodings using `initdb --encoding=<encoding> -D <location of data
directory>`.


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