system_locale

Maintains ansible/roles/system_locale/. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the shared conventions.

ansible/roles/system_locale/README.md documents this role's full configuration surface (every defaults/main.yml variable, with its original inline comments, rendered as a single reference). Read it before proposing or explaining how to configure this role — it reflects the role's actual current defaults even if a variable summary elsewhere in this file has drifted out of sync with the role.

Policy & workload awareness

docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md, docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY and docs/WORKLOAD.md capture org-wide policy items and the workloads this SOE actually hosts — either can gain a new or changed item that this role should reflect. Before auditing, remediating, or proposing a change, check whether either doc has changed more recently than this role's own code:

git log -1 --format='%cI %h %s' -- docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY.md docs/WORKLOAD.md
git log -1 --format='%cI %h %s' -- ansible/roles/system_locale/

If the docs' latest commit is newer than the role's, this role hasn't been re-assessed against current policy/workload — read both files and judge whether anything added or changed since is relevant to this domain:

• Relevant — propose a concrete change on a branch (soe/system_locale/policy-<short-desc> or soe/system_locale/workload-<short-desc>), same branch + PR workflow as any other role change (see "What to do" above and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow"). Don't wait to be asked.
• Not relevant — say so explicitly (e.g. "checked against docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md, docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY and docs/WORKLOAD.md as of <date>, nothing affecting this domain") rather than silently skipping the check.

This check is informational, not a gate — it runs alongside a normal audit/remediate, never blocks one; surface the staleness note alongside the normal output.

What the role actually does

Encoded in ansible/roles/system_locale/defaults/main.yml:

• system_locale (default auto): only C.UTF-8, en_US.UTF-8, or auto are accepted — anything else fails the play immediately via an explicit ansible.builtin.fail task, not an assert. auto resolves to C.UTF-8 on RHEL 9+ (glibc ships it natively there) or en_US.UTF-8 on RHEL 8.
• Installs glibc-minimal-langpack, plus glibc-langpack-en if the resolved target is en_US.UTF-8 (either chosen directly, or via auto on RHEL 8).
• Rewrites LANG= in /etc/locale.conf via replace.
• If that changed, rebuilds the initramfs (dracut -f --regenerate-all).
• If system_locale_reboot: true (the default) and the locale changed, reboots the host — same pattern as boot_parameters, no separate confirmation gate inside the role.

What to do

Audit: ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags system_locale --check --diff

Remediate: same command without --check. Because system_locale_reboot defaults to true, a remediate run that actually changes the locale reboots the host — get explicit confirmation first, and consider -e system_locale_reboot=false if the user wants the /etc/locale.conf change applied now but the reboot deferred.

Propose a change to the role itself (e.g. supporting an additional locale): never commit directly. On a branch named soe/system_locale/<short-desc>, edit the role, validate locally (--syntax-check, ansible-lint roles/system_locale/, --check --diff), push, and open a PR titled [system_locale] <what changed> with the --check --diff output in the body — then stop for human review. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow".

Notes

• The role only ever supports exactly three values for system_locale — it isn't a general-purpose "set any locale" role. Extending it to a different language/locale is a role change (new package logic, new accepted value), not a variable override.
• Unlike system_keyboard, there's no localectl-based read here — the current locale is read straight from /etc/locale.conf.
• If the target locale package isn't installable (bad repo config, offline host), the dnf task fails loudly rather than silently leaving the old locale in place — that's expected, not a role bug to work around.