[Boost-users] [filesystem] using locales on Solaris with GCC

Subject: [Boost-users] [filesystem] using locales on Solaris with GCC
From: JonathonS (thejunkjon_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-09-19 15:44:38

Hi,

I am currently battling a buggy locale implementation (or lack
thereof) in GCC on Solaris, which is affecting my use of
boost::filesystem.

Please have a look at the following thread for more information regarding this:
http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-help/2009-09/msg00212.html

In short, Solaris/GCC has a huge limitation that it does not support
locales besides "C" or "POSIX".  I talked to the GCC folks regarding
this issue, and they said that at ONE time, GCC implemented the locale
support for Solaris, but over time, the code was not maintained and
therefore died :(

This is very unfortunate because after looking through the boost
filesystem code (boost/libs/filesystem/src/path.cpp), I found out that
it creates a default locale by invoking std::locale("")
(boost/libs/filesystem/src/path.cpp @ line 911) .  Therefore, if my
client sets the locale to anything but  "C" or "POSIX", when it tries
to create the default locale object via std::locale(""), it throws a
runtime exception which crashes my program.

So, my question is whether anyone knows of a work-around for this?

I came up with one idea, but it seems very hackish.  I can try to
construct a boost::filesystem::path object and try to catch the
exception thrown by std::locale("").  If the exception is thrown, I
can set the environment variable to "C" or "POSIX" and continue with
the program.

My other idea is to manually patch boost::filesystem::path to use the
following code to create the default locale. (again line 911 in
path.hpp)

try {
 use std::locale("") as the default locale;
} catch ( std::runtime_error& )
{
 // We were unable to construct a locale, now use the global locale.
 use std::locale() as the default locale;
}

using std::locale() as the default will *always* succeed since it will
just use whatever the current global locale is.  My concern with this,
is that I'll have to manually patch boost for this.

Thanks,
J