1 files changed, 12 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/libbb/unicode.c b/libbb/unicode.c
index 35e88d307..2e5dd5adc 100644
--- a/libbb/unicode.c
+++ b/libbb/unicode.c
@@ -28,8 +28,19 @@ void FAST_FUNC reinit_unicode(const char *LANG)
         static const char unicode_0x394[] = { 0xce, 0x94, 0 };
         size_t width;
 
+        /* We pass "" instead of "C" because some libc's have
+         * non-ASCII default locale for setlocale("") call
+         * (this allows users of such libc to have Unicoded
+         * system without having to mess with env).
+         *
+         * We set LC_CTYPE because (a) we may be called with $LC_CTYPE
+         * value in LANG, not with $LC_ALL, (b) internationalized
+         * LC_NUMERIC and LC_TIME are more PITA than benefit
+         * (for one, some utilities have hard time with comma
+         * used as a fractional separator).
+         */
 //TODO: avoid repeated calls by caching last string?
-        setlocale(LC_ALL, (LANG && LANG[0]) ? LANG : "C");
+        setlocale(LC_CTYPE, LANG ? LANG : "");
 
         /* In unicode, this is a one character string */
 // can use unicode_strlen(string) too, but otherwise unicode_strlen() is unused
@@ -42,8 +53,6 @@ void FAST_FUNC init_unicode(void)
         /* Some people set only $LC_CTYPE, not $LC_ALL, because they want
          * only Unicode to be activated on their system, not the whole
          * shebang of wrong decimal points, strange date formats and so on.
-         *
-         * TODO? Maybe we should use LC_CTYPE instead of LC_ALL in setlocale()?
          */
         if (unicode_status == UNICODE_UNKNOWN) {
                 char *s = getenv("LC_ALL");