Error "can't find a native toolchain" when using non-english locale

[skoehler]

Issue #10 has been closed, but I can't reopen it. The issue persists, and it's clearly related to locale settings and/or to using the wrong gcc command.

If GCC has been compiled with support for multiple locales, then the output of gcc -v or gcc --version depends on the locale. gprbuild should not assume a certain locale. Depending on the GCC distribution, gcc seems to lack support for locales and always answers in English. That should not be the assumption made by gprbuild.

As noted in Issue #10, gcc --version is clearly to be preferred over gcc -v when it comes to checking for GCC's version. At least the first line of gcc --version seems to not be locale dependent.

If you wish to continue to use gcc -v, you have to override the locale at least temporarily. The recommendation in Issue #10 is wrong. You should not use the LANG environment variable for that. The right tool here is the LC_MESSAGES variables which takes precedence over the LANG variable.

However, none of the above has been implemented, it seems. So the issue persists.

Here's the output of gcc -v and gcc --version on my system with different locales:

$ LC_MESSAGES=de_DE gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 13.1.1 20230429
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Dies ist freie Software; die Kopierbedingungen stehen in den Quellen. Es
gibt KEINE Garantie; auch nicht für MARKTGÄNGIGKEIT oder FÜR SPEZIELLE ZWECKE.

$ LC_MESSAGES=C gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 13.1.1 20230429
Copyright (C) 2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

$ LC_MESSAGES=de_DE gcc -v
Es werden eingebaute Spezifikationen verwendet.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/13.1.1/lto-wrapper
Ziel: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Konfiguriert mit: /build/gcc/src/gcc/configure --enable-languages=ada,c,c++,d,fortran,go,lto,objc,obj-c++ --enable-bootstrap --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=https://bugs.archlinux.org/ --with-build-config=bootstrap-lto --with-linker-hash-style=gnu --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-cet=auto --enable-checking=release --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-default-pie --enable-default-ssp --enable-gnu-indirect-function --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-libstdcxx-backtrace --enable-link-serialization=1 --enable-linker-build-id --enable-lto --enable-multilib --enable-plugin --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --disable-libssp --disable-libstdcxx-pch --disable-werror
Thread-Modell: posix
Unterstützte LTO-Kompressionsalgorithmen: zlib zstd
gcc-Version 13.1.1 20230429 (GCC) 

$ LC_MESSAGES=C gcc -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/13.1.1/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Configured with: /build/gcc/src/gcc/configure --enable-languages=ada,c,c++,d,fortran,go,lto,objc,obj-c++ --enable-bootstrap --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=https://bugs.archlinux.org/ --with-build-config=bootstrap-lto --with-linker-hash-style=gnu --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-cet=auto --enable-checking=release --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-default-pie --enable-default-ssp --enable-gnu-indirect-function --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-libstdcxx-backtrace --enable-link-serialization=1 --enable-linker-build-id --enable-lto --enable-multilib --enable-plugin --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --disable-libssp --disable-libstdcxx-pch --disable-werror
Thread model: posix
Supported LTO compression algorithms: zlib zstd
gcc version 13.1.1 20230429 (GCC) 

[skoehler]

Here's the output on Ubuntu:

# LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8 gcc-10 --version
gcc-10 (Ubuntu 10.4.0-7ubuntu1) 10.4.0
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Dies ist freie Software; die Kopierbedingungen stehen in den Quellen. Es
gibt KEINE Garantie; auch nicht für MARKTGÄNGIGKEIT oder FÜR SPEZIELLE ZWECKE.

# LC_MESSAGES=C gcc-10 --version
gcc-10 (Ubuntu 10.4.0-7ubuntu1) 10.4.0
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

# LC_MESSAGES=de_DE.UTF-8 gcc-10 -v
Es werden eingebaute Spezifikationen verwendet.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc-10
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/10/lto-wrapper
Ziel: x86_64-linux-gnu
Konfiguriert mit: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 10.4.0-7ubuntu1' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-10/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,go,brig,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++,m2 --prefix=/usr --with-gcc-major-version-only --program-suffix=-10 --program-prefix=x86_64-linux-gnu- --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --enable-bootstrap --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --with-default-libstdcxx-abi=new --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-vtable-verify --enable-plugin --enable-default-pie --with-system-zlib --enable-libphobos-checking=release --with-target-system-zlib=auto --enable-objc-gc=auto --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --enable-multilib --with-tune=generic --enable-offload-targets=hsa --without-cuda-driver --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu --with-build-config=bootstrap-lto-lean --enable-link-mutex
Thread-Modell: posix
Unterstützte LTO-Kompressionsalgorithmen: zlib zstd
gcc-Version 10.4.0 (Ubuntu 10.4.0-7ubuntu1) 

# LC_MESSAGES=C gcc-10 -v
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc-10
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/10/lto-wrapper
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Ubuntu 10.4.0-7ubuntu1' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-10/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,ada,c++,go,brig,d,fortran,objc,obj-c++,m2 --prefix=/usr --with-gcc-major-version-only --program-suffix=-10 --program-prefix=x86_64-linux-gnu- --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --enable-bootstrap --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --with-default-libstdcxx-abi=new --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-vtable-verify --enable-plugin --enable-default-pie --with-system-zlib --enable-libphobos-checking=release --with-target-system-zlib=auto --enable-objc-gc=auto --enable-multiarch --disable-werror --with-arch-32=i686 --with-abi=m64 --with-multilib-list=m32,m64,mx32 --enable-multilib --with-tune=generic --enable-offload-targets=hsa --without-cuda-driver --enable-checking=release --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-linux-gnu --target=x86_64-linux-gnu --with-build-config=bootstrap-lto-lean --enable-link-mutex
Thread model: posix
Supported LTO compression algorithms: zlib zstd
gcc version 10.4.0 (Ubuntu 10.4.0-7ubuntu1) 

[skoehler]

While I was correct that LC_MESSAGES takes priority over LANG, there is also LC_ALL that takes priority over LC_MESSAGES.

In other words: use LC_ALL=C in case you need locale dependent output.