Locale
Since Musl does not implement most of the locale features that glibc implements, Unicode support is disabled by default. Enable Unicode support, if you need them.
Unicode support
To fix unicode defaults:
# sed -i 's/#unicode="NO"/#unicode="NO"\nunicode="YES"/' /etc/rc.conf
For a properly configured console with Unicode support, change and enable console font.
Reboot after making the above change, for it to take effect.
musl-locales package
The musl-locales package provides translations with varying degrees of completion. The below command installs a limited set of locales (languages) for musl (C library) generated console messages.
# apk add musl-locales
The musl-locales package also provides locale command. To list defined locales:
locale -a
This package includes a file /etc/profile.d/00locale.sh. You'll need to re-login or source it manually for locales to work.
Copy the default locale settings file /etc/profile.d/20locale.sh to a custom override file:
# cp /etc/profile.d/20locale.sh /etc/profile.d/20locale.sh.sh
Now custom override file can be edited with nano /etc/profile.d/locale.sh.sh.
Language support
To pull in the translation packages for all installed packages:
# apk add lang
To list available hunspell dictionary packages, so that you relevant language dictionary can be added:
# apk list "hunspell*"
To list translation packages for your specific(xy) language:
# apk list "*-xy" "*-xy-*"
For example, to list translation packages for Portuguese(pt) language:
# apk list "*-pt" "*-pt-*"