DB2 Version 9.7 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows
Installing DB2 Servers > Before you install > Supported DB2 interface languages >

Changing the DB2 interface language (Linux and UNIX®)

The interface language of the DB2® product is the language that appears in messages, help, and graphical tool interfaces. When installing your DB2 product, you have the option of installing support for one or more languages. If, at some time after installation, you want to change the interface language to one of the other installed interface languages, use the steps outlined in this task.

Do not confuse languages supported by the DB2 product with languages supported by the DB2 interface. Languages supported by the DB2 product, that is, languages that data can exist in, are a superset of languages supported by the DB2 interface.

Support for the DB2 interface language you want to use must be installed on your system. DB2 interface language support is selected and installed when you install DB2 using the DB2 Setup wizard. If you change the interface language of the DB2 product to a supported interface language that has not been installed, the DB2 interface language will default to the operating system language. If the operating system language is not supported, English is used as the DB2 interface language.

DB2 interface language support is selected and installed when you install your DB2 product using the DB2 Setup wizard or by using the National Language Package.

To check which public locales are available in your system, run the $ locale -a command.

To change the DB2 interface language, set the LANG environment variable to the locale you want.


For bourne (sh), korn (ksh), and bash shells: 

   LANG=<locale>
   export LANG

For C shell: 

   setenv LANG <locale>

For example, to interface with the DB2 product in French, you must have the French language support installed and you must set the LANG environment variable to a French locale, for example, fr_FR.

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