Terry J. Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> added the comment: locale.getlocale(category=LC_CTYPE) Returns the current setting for the given locale category as sequence containing language code, encoding. category may be one of the LC_* values except LC_ALL. It defaults to LC_CTYPE. Except for the code 'C', the language code corresponds to RFC 1766. language code and encoding may be None if their values cannot be determined. --- The non-standard 'C' language code is documented. I am not sure that 'current program setting' is an improvement, especially if details have changed. So closing as 'good enough' ---------- resolution: -> works for me stage: needs patch -> resolved status: open -> closed _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue12726> _______________________________________