Change language of system and error messages in PostgreSQL

Question

Is it possible to change the language of system messages from PostgreSQL?

In MSSQL for instance this is possible with the SQL statement SET LANGUAGE.

Milen A. Radev · Answer 1 · 2008-10-10T19:43:39.437

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SET lc_messages TO 'en_US.UTF-8';

More info on requirements and limitations here.

edited Oct 10 '08 at 19:43

answered Oct 10 '08 at 15:46

Milen A. Radev

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Unfortunately this does not seem to have any effect when the database server is installed on Windows. – Benno Richters Oct 13 '08 at 11:05
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According to this bug report - http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-bugs/2008-05/msg00134.php, you're right. Have you tried to change the 'lc_messages' setting directly in the postgresql.conf and to restart? – Milen A. Radev Oct 13 '08 at 21:16
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Now, after reading the mentioned thread in the archives, the only way to change the language of the system messages seems to be to change the OS locale. – Milen A. Radev Oct 13 '08 at 21:23
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Appears to have been fixed. Command now works on Windows (Server 2008 R2, PostgreSQL 9.0.3) – dirkb Aug 29 '11 at 17:51
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Note that "Only superusers can change this setting", so it may be worth reminding one can log as superuser e.g. with `sudo -u postgres psql`. – Skippy le Grand Gourou Sep 15 '14 at 17:21
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This might not work for some installations as `en_US.UTF-8` locale might not be available. Safer solution is to use `SET lc_messages TO 'C';` (which also means English). Use `locale -l` in shell to test for available locale. – Nux Mar 21 '16 at 18:38
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It doesn't seem to make it permanent to me on PostgreSQL 9.4, I had to change this setting in the postgresql.conf – Bruno Medeiros Mar 29 '16 at 23:31
Just want to add that Postgres should be built with NLS support. – ololobus Mar 06 '19 at 09:29

score 37 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 28 '19 at 18:25

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For me neither Milen A. Radev's nor user1's answer worked - editing PostgreSQL\11\data\postgresql.conf had absolutely no effect. Even after setting lc_messages = 'random value' PostgreSQL would still start.

What helped was to delete PostgreSQL\11\share\locale\*\LC_MESSAGES, after that I finally got English messages.

answered Jun 28 '19 at 18:25

AndreKR

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This helped me. I deleted the entrie LC_MESSAGES folder and i got english messages. – Pho Jul 15 '19 at 09:38
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PGSQL 11 / Win 10 x64, I had to reload the server configuration and then it worked. Thanks – Benj Oct 03 '19 at 11:31
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I had to rename locale folder to locale_ and restart postgres, then it worked, thanks. Nothing else worked for me neither. – Liebster Kamerad Sep 17 '20 at 17:24
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Just delete or rename the `locale` folder, and it worked like a charm! – Donald33 Nevermore Aug 19 '21 at 00:57

user1 · Answer 3 · 2017-02-27T23:09:31.337

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Milen's answer didn't work for me.

I got it working by modifying a file postgresql.conf. If you're on Linux, write:

sudo find / -iname postgresql.conf

I had mine in /var/lib/pgsql/data. Then edit the file and search for a variable lc_messages and change it to your preferred language, e.g. 'en_US.UTF-8'.

If PostgreSQL stops working and you check in its log that you have an error that looks like this:

invalid value for parameter "lc_messages": "en_US.UTF-8"

You have to edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment line with encoding from the error message (e.g. en_US.UTF-8). Then you have to run locale-gen (as root) to update the locales. Finally, to check if the locale is set you can run locale -a.

Or, if you want the language to be English, you can just set lc_messages = 'C'.

edited Feb 27 '17 at 23:09

answered May 03 '16 at 08:01

user1

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Mine was in `/etc/postgresql/9.5/main/postgresql.conf` on an Ubuntu 14.04 with postgresql installed from the official PostgreSQL PPA. Leaving it here for the benefit of others. – LeoRochael Sep 29 '16 at 13:30
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On `windows` e.g. `C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\9.5\data` – Beat Nov 11 '16 at 10:44
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`lc_messages = 'C'` works great :-). Seems like most universal (working on Windows and Linux). – Nux Apr 21 '21 at 11:16

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 11 '19 at 15:19

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In my case (on Windows Server 2019) I managed to change language by creating a system environment variable "LC_MESSAGES" with value "English":

setx LC_MESSAGES English /m

(Solution taken from here)

answered Dec 11 '19 at 15:19

Birgit Vera Schmidt

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I tried this solution first since it was fast and easy to verify. I can say it worked and I didn't need to try the other solutions. I'm working on Windows 10. – OmriYaHoo Jul 18 '20 at 20:47

invzbl3 · Answer 5 · 2021-11-04T01:32:08.903

I've reproduced the same issue with naming of PostgreSQL error messages which were specifically displayed in Intellij IDEA similar to:

the only solution for me was renaming C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\13\share\locale folder to another default name.

then as result changed to:

To be noticed: it wasn't related to Intellij Idea configurations at all, because I tested different answers (and other non-related to IDE answers), e.g., like:

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 12 '22 at 09:52

only change postgresql.conf is not working on windows10，the following method is fine for me，is very simple but work:

change lc_message = en_US.UTF-8, in postgresql.conf;
delete all files in fold: \share\locale, expect es fold or the language you want to keep;
restart pg service and then you will find that is what you want!

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 07 '23 at 13:20

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I simply deleted the LC_MESSAGE folder from

C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\14\share\locale\<LANGUAGE YOU WANT TO GET RID OF>\LC_MESSAGE

and re-log in to psql

answered Jan 07 '23 at 13:20

27P

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Change language of system and error messages in PostgreSQL

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