Problem upgrading Postgresql due to "The locale requested by the environment is invalid" error

Question

I am trying to upgrade a Postgresql 13 database to version 15 using the command pg_upgradecluster 13 main but it keeps failing with this message:

Stopping old cluster...
Restarting old cluster with restricted connections...
Notice: extra pg_ctl/postgres options given, bypassing systemctl for start operation
perl: warning: Setting locale failed.
perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:
    LANGUAGE = (unset),
    LC_ALL = (unset),
    LC_CTYPE = "UTF-8",
    LANG = "en_US.UTF-8"
    are supported and installed on your system.
perl: warning: Falling back to a fallback locale ("en_US.UTF-8").
Error: The locale requested by the environment is invalid:
  LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  LC_CTYPE: UTF-8
Error: Could not create target cluster

When I run the locale command, I get the following:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

I get the same values I do this:

sudo -u postgres -i
locale

The contents of /etc/default/locale:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

So where is LC_CTYPE: UTF-8 coming from?

I have executed dpkg-reconfigure locales as well, and only en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 is selected, and it's set as the default.

UPDATE: the following command worked:

env -i LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 pg_upgradecluster 13 main

But I am still very surprised why this is even necessary on a pretty standard Debian install?

You can try overriding it: env LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8" pg_upgradecluster 13 main. But perhaps it's complaining that en_US.UTF-8 itself isn't installed. You can check with sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales — robertklep
– robertklep, Commented Apr 7 at 9:50
I had executed dpkg-reconfigure locales as well, and only en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 is selected, and it's set as the default. It's just so weird that this override is even necessary, I have no idea where the error is coming from. — Kevin Renskers
– Kevin Renskers, Commented Apr 7 at 10:05
Nothing about locale in there. Also that should be visible when running locale, right? — Kevin Renskers
– Kevin Renskers, Commented Apr 7 at 10:41

Continuous Improvement · Accepted Answer · 2025-04-07 10:58:54Z

0

Question: where is LC_CTYPE: UTF-8 coming from?

The LC_CTYPE: UTF-8 can come from the current Postgresql 13 configurations/cluster.

For example,

admin@i-04aa762bacf0b8a27:/etc/postgresql/13/main$ sudo grep -r locale .
./postgresql.conf:lc_messages = 'C.UTF-8'                       # locale for system error message
./postgresql.conf:lc_monetary = 'C.UTF-8'                       # locale for monetary formatting
./postgresql.conf:lc_numeric = 'C.UTF-8'                        # locale for number formatting
./postgresql.conf:lc_time = 'C.UTF-8'                           # locale for time formatting

The pg_upgradecluster command has an option --locale. We can run

pg_upgradecluster --locale=en_US.UTF-8 13 main

to set the locale en_US.UTF-8 for the upgraded database cluster.

pg_upgradecluster documentation:

       --locale=locale
           Set the default locale for the upgraded database cluster. If this option is not specified, the locale
           is inherited from the old cluster.

Reference: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man8/pg_upgradecluster.8.html

edited Apr 7 at 10:58

answered Apr 7 at 10:14

Continuous Improvement

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3 Comments

Kevin Renskers Apr 8 at 8:55

Thanks! I'll try this out next time I have a window to do the upgrade, should be this week, and then I'll report back / mark as accepted answer.

Kevin Renskers Apr 9 at 9:57

Sadly this did not help, the error is still the same, notably the LC_CTYPE: UTF-8 part is still the problem.

Toby Speight Apr 10 at 6:59

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