English Customary Units¶

English customary units differ in various ways in different regions. In Britain a complex system of volume measurements featured different gallons for different materials such as a wine gallon and ale gallon that different by twenty percent. This complexity was swept away in 1824 by a reform that created an entirely new gallon, the British Imperial gallon defined as the volume occupied by ten pounds of water. Meanwhile in the USA the gallon is derived from the 1707 Winchester wine gallon, which is 231 cubic inches. These gallons differ by about twenty percent. By default if 'units' runs in the 'en_GB' locale you will get the British volume measures. If it runs in the 'en_US' locale you will get the US volume measures. In other locales the default values are the US definitions. If you wish to force different definitions then set the environment variable 'UNITS_ENGLISH' to either 'US' or 'GB' to set the desired definitions independent of the locale.

Before 1959, the value of a yard (and other units of measure defined in terms of it) differed slightly among English-speaking countries. In 1959, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa adopted the Canadian value of 1 yard = 0.9144 m (exactly), which was approximately halfway between the values used by the UK and the US; it had the additional advantage of making 1 inch = 2.54 cm (exactly). This new standard was termed the International Yard. Australia, Canada, and the UK then defined all customary lengths in terms of the International Yard (Australia did not define the furlong or rod); because many US land surveys were in terms of the pre-1959 units, the US continued to define customary surveyors' units (furlong, chain, rod, and link) in terms of the previous value for the foot, which was termed the US survey foot. The US defined a US survey mile as 5280 US survey feet, and defined a statute mile as a US survey mile. The US values for these units differ from the international values by about 2 ppm.

The 'units' program uses the international values for these units; the US values can be obtained by using either the 'US' or the 'survey' prefix. In either case, the simple familiar relationships among the units are maintained, e.g., 1 'furlong' = 660 'ft', and 1 'USfurlong' = 660 'USft', though the metric equivalents differ slightly between the two cases. The 'US' prefix or the 'survey' prefix can also be used to obtain the US survey mile and the value of the US yard prior to 1959, e.g., 'USmile' or 'surveymile' (but not 'USsurveymile'). To get the US value of the statute mile, use either 'USstatutemile' or 'USmile'.

Except for distances that extend over hundreds of miles (such as in the US State Plane Coordinate System), the differences in the miles are usually insignificant:

You have: 100 surveymile - 100 mile
You want: inch


        * 12.672025


        / 0.078913984

The pre-1959 UK values for these units can be obtained with the prefix 'UK'.

In the US, the acre is officially defined in terms of the US survey foot, but 'units' uses a definition based on the international foot. If you want the official US acre use 'USacre' and similarly use 'USacrefoot' for the official US version of that unit. The difference between these units is about 4 parts per million.

Operators¶

You can enter more complicated units by combining units with operations such as powers, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, and parentheses for grouping. You can use the customary symbols for these operators when 'units' is invoked with its default options. Additionally, 'units' supports some extensions, including high priority multiplication using a space, and a high priority numerical
division operator ('|') that can simplify some expressions.

Powers of units can be specified using the '^' character as shown in the following example, or by simple concatenation of a unit and its exponent: 'cm3' is equivalent to 'cm^3'; if the exponent is more than one digit, the '^' is required. An exponent like '2^3^2' is evaluated right to left as usual. The '^' operator has the second highest precedence. You can also use '**' as an exponent operator.

You have: cm^3
You want: gallons


        * 0.00026417205


        / 3785.4118
You have: arabicfoot * arabictradepound * force
You want: ft lbf  


        * 0.7296


        / 1.370614

You multiply units using a space or an asterisk ('*'). The example above shows both forms. You can divide units using the slash ('/') or with 'per'.

You have: furlongs per fortnight
You want: m/s  


        * 0.00016630986


        / 6012.8727

When a unit includes a prefix, exponent operators apply to the combination, so 'centimeter^3' gives cubic centimeters. If you separate the prefix from the unit with any multiplication operator, such as 'centi meter^3', then the prefix is treated as a separate unit, so the exponent does not apply. The second example would be a hundredth of a cubic meter, not a centimeter.

Multiplication using a space has a higher precedence than division using a slash and is evaluated left to right; in effect, the first '/' character marks the beginning of the denominator of a unit expression. This makes it simple to enter a quotient with several terms in the denominator: 'W / m^2 Hz'. If you multiply with '*' then you must group the terms in the denominator with parentheses: 'W / (m^2 * Hz)'.

The higher precedence of the space operator may not always be advantageous. For example, 'm/s s/day' is equivalent to 'm / s s day' and has dimensions of length per time cubed. Similarly, '1/2 meter' refers to a unit of reciprocal length equivalent to 0.5/meter, perhaps not what you would intend if you entered that expression. The '*' operator is convenient for multiplying a sequence of quotients. With the '*' operator, the example above becomes 'm/s * s/day', which is equivalent to 'm/day'. Similarly, you could write '1/2 * meter' to get half a meter. Alternatively, parentheses can be used for grouping: you could write '(1/2) meter' to get half a meter. See Complicated Unit Expressions for an illustration of the various options.

The 'units' program supports another option for numerical fractions. You can indicate division of numbers with the vertical bar ('|'), so if you wanted half a meter you could write '1|2 meter'. This operator has the highest precedence, so you can write the square root of two thirds '2|3^1|2'. You cannot use the vertical bar to indicate division of non-numerical units (e.g., 'm|s' results in an error message).

You have: 1|2 inch
You want: cm


        * 1.27


        / 0.78740157

You can use parentheses for grouping:

You have: (1/2) kg / (kg/meter)
You want: league


        * 0.00010356166


        / 9656.0833

Sums and Differences of Units¶

Outside of the SI, it is sometimes desirable to add values of different units. You may also wish to use 'units' as a calculator that keeps track of units. Sums of conformable units are written with the '+' character, and differences with the '-' character.

You have: 2 hours + 23 minutes + 32 seconds
You want: seconds


        * 8612


        / 0.00011611705


    
You have: 12 ft + 3 in
You want: cm


        * 373.38


        / 0.0026782366
You have: 2 btu + 450 ft lbf
You want: btu


        * 2.5782804


        / 0.38785542

The expressions that are added or subtracted must reduce to identical expressions in primitive units, or an error message will be displayed:

You have: 12 printerspoint - 4 heredium


                                      ^
Illegal sum of non-conformable units

As usual, the precedence for '+' and '-' is lower than that of the other operators. A fractional quantity such as 2 1/2 cups can be given as '(2+1|2) cups'; the parentheses are necessary because multiplication has higher precedence than addition. If you omit the parentheses, 'units' attempts to add '2' and '1|2 cups', and you get an error message:

You have: 2+1|2 cups


                   ^
Illegal sum or difference of non-conformable units

The expression could also be correctly written as '(2+1/2) cups'. If you write '2 1|2 cups' the space is interpreted as multiplication so the result is the same as '1 cup'.

The '+' and '-' characters sometimes appears in exponents like '3.43e+8'. This leads to an ambiguity in an expression like '3e+2 yC'. The unit 'e' is a small unit of charge, so this can be regarded as equivalent to '(3e+2) yC' or '(3 e)+(2 yC)'. This ambiguity is resolved by always interpreting '+' and '-' as part of an exponent if possible.

Numbers as Units¶

For 'units', numbers are just another kind of unit. They can appear as many times as you like and in any order in a unit expression. For example, to find the volume of a box that is 2 ft by 3 ft by 12 ft in steres, you could do the following:

You have: 2 ft 3 ft 12 ft
You want: stere


        * 2.038813


        / 0.49048148


    
You have: $ 5 / yard
You want: cents / inch


        * 13.888889


        / 0.072

And the second example shows how the dollar sign in the units conversion can precede the five. Be careful: 'units' will interpret '$5' with no space as equivalent to 'dollar^5'.

Built-in Functions¶

Several built-in functions are provided: 'sin', 'cos', 'tan', 'ln', 'log', 'log2', 'exp', 'acos', 'atan' and 'asin'. The 'sin', 'cos', and 'tan' functions require either a dimensionless argument or an argument with dimensions of angle.

You have: sin(30 degrees)
You want: 


        Definition: 0.5
You have: sin(pi/2)
You want:  


        Definition: 1
You have: sin(3 kg)


                  ^
Unit not dimensionless

The other functions on the list require dimensionless arguments. The inverse trigonometric functions return arguments with dimensions of angle.

If you wish to take roots of units, you may use the 'sqrt' or 'cuberoot' functions. These functions require that the argument have the appropriate root. You can obtain higher roots by using fractional exponents:

You have: sqrt(acre)
You want: feet


        * 208.71074


        / 0.0047913202


    
You have: (400 W/m^2 / stefanboltzmann)^(1/4)
You have:


        Definition: 289.80882 K


    
You have: cuberoot(hectare)


                          ^
Unit not a root

Complicated Unit Expressions¶

The 'units' program is especially helpful in ensuring accuracy and dimensional consistency when converting lengthy unit expressions. For example, one form of the Darcy-Weisbach fluid-flow equation is

where Delta P is the pressure drop, rho is the mass density, f is the (dimensionless) friction factor, L is the length of the pipe, Q is the volumetric flow rate, and d is the pipe diameter. It might be desired to have the equation in the form

that accepted the user's normal units; for typical units used in the US, the required conversion could be something like

You have: (8/pi^2)(lbm/ft^3)ft(ft^3/s)^2(1/in^5)
You want: psi


        * 43.533969


        / 0.022970568

The parentheses allow individual terms in the expression to be entered naturally, as they might be read from the formula. Alternatively, the multiplication could be done with the '*' rather than a space; then parentheses are needed only around 'ft^3/s' because of its exponent:

You have: 8/pi^2 * lbm/ft^3 * ft * (ft^3/s)^2 /in^5
You want: psi


        * 43.533969


        / 0.022970568

Without parentheses, and using spaces for multiplication, the previous conversion would need to be entered as

You have: 8 lb ft ft^3 ft^3 / pi^2 ft^3 s^2 in^5
You want: psi


        * 43.533969


        / 0.022970568

Backwards Compatibility:¶

'*' and '-' The original 'units' assigned multiplication a higher precedence than division using the slash. This differs from the usual precedence rules, which give multiplication and division equal precedence, and can be confusing for people who think of units as a calculator.

The star operator ('*') included in this 'units' program has, by default, the same precedence as division, and hence follows the usual precedence rules. For backwards compatibility you can invoke 'units' with the '--oldstar' option. Then '*' has a higher precedence than division, and the same precedence as multiplication using the space.

Historically, the hyphen ('-') has been used in technical publications to indicate products of units, and the original 'units' program treated it as a multiplication operator. Because 'units' provides several other ways to obtain unit products, and because '-' is a subtraction operator in general algebraic expressions, 'units' treats the binary '-' as a subtraction operator by default. For backwards compatibility use the '--product' option, which causes 'units' to treat the binary '-' operator as a product operator. When '-' is a multiplication operator it has the same precedence as multiplication with a space, giving it a higher precedence than division.

When '-' is used as a unary operator it negates its operand. Regardless of the 'units' options, if '-' appears after '(' or after '+' then it will act as a negation operator. So you can always compute 20 degrees minus 12 minutes by entering '20 degrees + -12 arcmin'. You must use this construction when you define new units because you cannot know what options will be in force when your definition is processed.

Temperature Conversions¶

Conversions between temperatures are different from linear conversions between temperature increments—see the example below. The absolute temperature conversions are handled by units starting with 'temp', and you must use functional notation. The temperature-increment conversions are done using units starting with 'deg' and they do not require functional notation.

You have: tempF(45)
You want: tempC


        7.2222222
You have: 45 degF
You want: degC


        * 25


        / 0.04

Think of 'tempF(x)' not as a function but as a notation that indicates that x should have units of 'tempF' attached to it. See Defining Nonlinear Units. The first conversion shows that if it's 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside, it's 7.2 degrees Celsius. The second conversion indicates that a change of 45 degrees Fahrenheit corresponds to a change of 25 degrees Celsius. The conversion from 'tempF(x)' is to absolute temperature, so that

You have: tempF(45)
You want: degR


        * 504.67


        / 0.0019814929

gives the same result as

You have: tempF(45)
You want: tempR


        * 504.67


        / 0.0019814929

But if you convert 'tempF(x)' to 'degC', the output is probably not what you expect:

You have: tempF(45)
You want: degC


        * 280.37222


        / 0.0035666871

The result is the temperature in K, because 'degC' is defined as 'K', the Kelvin. For consistent results, use the 'tempX' units when converting to a temperature rather than converting a temperature increment.

Other Nonlinear Units¶

Some other examples of nonlinear units are numerous different ring sizes and wire gauges, the grit sizes used for abrasives, the decibel scale, shoe size, scales for the density of sugar (e.g. baume). The standard data file also supplies units for computing the area of a circle and the volume of a sphere. See the standard units data file for more details. Wire gauges with multiple zeroes are signified using negative numbers where two zeroes is '-1'. Alternatively, you can use the synonyms 'g00', 'g000', and so on that are defined in the standard units data file.

You have: wiregauge(11)
You want: inches


        * 0.090742002


        / 11.020255
You have: brwiregauge(g00)
You want: inches


        * 0.348


        / 2.8735632
You have: 1 mm
You want: wiregauge


        18.201919
You have: grit_P(600)
You want: grit_ansicoated


        342.76923

The last example shows the conversion from P graded sand paper, which is the European standard and may be marked ``P600'' on the back, to the USA standard.

You can compute the area of a circle using the nonlinear unit, 'circlearea'. You can also do this using the circularinch or circleinch. The next example shows two ways to compute the area of a circle with a five inch radius and one way to compute the volume of a sphere with a radius of one meter.

You have: circlearea(5 in)
You want: in2


        * 78.539816


        / 0.012732395
You have: 10^2 circleinch
You want: in2


        * 78.539816


        / 0.012732395
You have: spherevol(meter)
You want: ft3


        * 147.92573


        / 0.0067601492

Units Data Files¶

The units and prefixes that 'units' can convert are defined in the units data file, typically '/usr/share/units/definitions.units'. Although you can extend or modify this data file if you have appropriate user privileges, it's usually better to put extensions in separate files so that the definitions will be preserved when you update 'units'.

You can include additional data files in the units database using the '!include' command in the standard units data file. For example

!include    /usr/local/share/units/local.units

might be appropriate for a site-wide supplemental data file. The location of the '!include' statement in the standard units data file is important; later definitions replace earlier ones, so any definitions in an included file will override definitions before the '!include' statement in the standard units data file. With normal invocation, no warning is given about redefinitions; to ensure that you don't have an unintended redefinition, run 'units -c' after making changes to any units data file.

If you want to add your own units in addition to or in place of standard or site-wide supplemental units data files, you can include them in the '.units' file in your home directory. If this file exists it is read after the standard units data file, so that any definitions in this file will replace definitions of the same units in the standard data file or in files included from the standard data file. This file will not be read if any units files are specified on the command line. (Under Windows the personal units file is named 'unitdef.units'.)

The 'units' program first tries to determine your home directory from the 'HOME' environment variable. On systems running Microsoft Windows, if 'HOME' does not exist, 'units' attempts to find your home directory from 'HOMEDRIVE' and 'HOMEPATH'. Running 'units -V' will display the location and name of your personal units file.

You can specify an arbitrary file as your personal units data file with the 'MYUNITSFILE' environment variable; if this variable exists, its value is used without searching your home directory.

Defining New Units and Prefixes¶

A unit is specified on a single line by giving its name and an equivalence. Comments start with a '#' character, which can appear anywhere in a line. The backslash character ('\') acts as a continuation character if it appears as the last character on a line, making it possible to spread definitions out over several lines if desired. A file can be included by giving the command '!include' followed by the file's name. The '!' must be the first character on the line. The file will be sought in the same directory as the parent file unless you give a full path. The name of the file to be included cannot contain the comment character '#'.

Unit names must not contain any of the operator characters '+', '-', '*', '/', '|', '^', ';', '~', the comment character '#', or parentheses. They cannot begin or end with an underscore ('_'), a comma (',') or a decimal point ('.'). Names cannot begin with a digit, and if a name ends in a digit other than zero, the digit must be preceded by a string beginning with an underscore, and afterwards consisting only of digits, decimal points, or commas. For example, 'foo_2', 'foo_2,1', or 'foo_3.14' would be valid names but 'foo2' or 'foo_a2' would be invalid. You could define nitrous oxide as

N2O     nitrogen 2  + oxygen

but would need to define nitrogen dioxide as

NO_2    nitrogen + oxygen 2

Be careful to define new units in terms of old ones so that a reduction leads to the primitive units, which are marked with '!' characters. Dimensionless units are indicated by using the string '!dimensionless' for the unit definition.

When adding new units, be sure to use the '-c' option to check that the new units reduce properly. If you create a loop in the units definitions, then 'units' will hang when invoked with the '-c' option. You will need to use the '--check-verbose' option, which prints out each unit as it is checked. The program will still hang, but the last unit printed will be the unit that caused the infinite loop.

If you define any units that contain '+' characters, carefully check them because the '-c' option will not catch non-conformable sums. Be careful with the '-' operator as well. When used as a binary operator, the '-' character can perform addition or multiplication depending on the options used to invoke 'units'. To ensure consistent behavior use '-' only as a unary negation operator when writing units definitions. To multiply two units leave a space or use the '*' operator with care, recalling that it has two possible precedence values and may require parentheses to ensure consistent behavior. To compute the difference of 'foo' and 'bar' write 'foo+(-bar)' or even 'foo+-bar'.

Here is an example of a short data file that defines some basic units:

m       !               # The meter is a primitive unit
sec     !               # The second is a primitive unit
rad     !dimensionless  # A dimensionless primitive unit
micro-  1e-6            # Define a prefix
minute  60 sec          # A minute is 60 seconds
hour    60 min          # An hour is 60 minutes
inch    0.0254 m        # Inch defined in terms of meters
ft      12 inches       # The foot defined in terms of inches
mile    5280 ft         # And the mile

A unit that ends with a '-' character is a prefix. If a prefix definition contains any '/' characters, be sure they are protected by parentheses. If you define 'half- 1/2' then 'halfmeter' would be equivalent to '1 / (2 meter)'.

Defining Nonlinear Units¶

Some unit conversions of interest are nonlinear; for example, temperature conversions between the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales cannot be done by simply multiplying by conversion factors.

When you give a linear unit definition such as 'inch 2.54 cm' you are providing information that 'units' uses to convert values in inches into primitive units of meters. For nonlinear units, you give a functional definition that provides the same information.

Nonlinear units are represented using a functional notation. It is best to regard this notation not as a function call but as a way of adding units to a number, much the same way that writing a linear unit name after a number adds units to that number. Internally, nonlinear units are defined by a pair of functions that convert to and from linear units in the data file, so that an eventual conversion to primitive units is possible.

Here is an example nonlinear unit definition:

tempF(x) units=[1;K] (x+(-32)) degF + stdtemp ; \


                     (tempF+(-stdtemp))/degF + 32

A nonlinear unit definition comprises a unit name, a dummy parameter name, two functions, and two corresponding units. The functions tell 'units' how to convert to and from the new unit. In order to produce valid results, the arguments of these functions need to have the correct dimensions. To facilitate error checking, you may optionally indicate units for these arguments.

The definition begins with the unit name followed immediately (with no spaces) by a '(' character. In parentheses is the name of the parameter. Next is an optional specification of the units required by the functions in this definition. In the example above, the 'tempF' function requires an input argument conformable with '1'. For normal nonlinear units definitions the forward function will always take a dimensionless argument. The inverse function requires an input argument conformable with 'K'. In general the inverse function will need units that match the quantity measured by your nonlinear unit. The purpose of the expression in brackets to enable 'units' to perform error checking on function arguments, and also to assign units to range and domain specifications, which are described later.

Next the function definitions appear. In the example above, the 'tempF' function is defined by

tempF(x) = (x+(-32)) degF + stdtemp

This gives a rule for converting 'x' in the units 'tempF' to linear units of absolute temperature, which makes it possible to convert from tempF to other units.

In order to make conversions to Fahrenheit possible, you must give a rule for the inverse conversions. The inverse will be 'x(tempF)' and its definition appears after a ';' character. In our example, the inverse is

x(tempF) = (tempF+(-stdtemp))/degF + 32

This inverse definition takes an absolute temperature as its argument and converts it to the Fahrenheit temperature. The inverse can be omitted by leaving out the ';' character, but then conversions to the unit will be impossible. If the inverse is omitted then the '--check' option will display a warning. It is up to you to calculate and enter the correct inverse function to obtain proper conversions. The '--check' option tests the inverse at one point and prints an error if it is not valid there, but this is not a guarantee that your inverse is correct.

If you wish to make synonyms for nonlinear units, you still need to define both the forward and inverse functions. Inverse functions can be obtained using the '~' operator. So to create a synonym for 'tempF' you could write

fahrenheit(x) units=[1;K] tempF(x); ~tempF(fahrenheit)

You may define a function whose range and domain do not cover all of the real numbers. In this case 'units' can handle errors better if you specify an appropriate range and domain. You specify the range and domain as shown below.

baume(d) units=[1;g/cm^3] domain=[0,130.5] range=[1,10] \


         (145/(145-d)) g/cm^3 ; (baume+-g/cm^3) 145 / baume

In this example the domain is specified after the 'domain=' with the endpoints given in brackets. One of the end points can be omitted to get an interval that goes to infinity. So the range could be specified as nonnegative by writing 'range=[0,]'. Both the range and domain are optional and can appear independently and in any order along with the 'units' specification. The values in the range and domain are attached to the units given in the 'units' specification. If you don't specify the units then the parameter inputs are reduced to primitive units for the numeric comparison to the values you give in the range or domain. In this case you should only use 'range' or 'domain' if the endpoints are zero and infinity.

Specifying the range and domain allows 'units' to perform better error checking and give more helpful error messages when you invoke nonlinear units conversions outside of their bounds. It also enables the '-c' option to find a point in the domain to use for its point check of your inverse definition.

You may occasionally wish to define a function that operates on units. This can be done using a nonlinear unit definition. For example, the definition below provides conversion between radius and the area of a circle. This definition requires a length as input and produces an area as output, as indicated by the 'units=' specification. Specifying the range as the nonnegative numbers can prevent cryptic error messages.

circlearea(r) units=[m;m^2] range=[0,]   pi r^2 ; sqrt(circlearea/pi)

Sometimes you may be interested in a piecewise linear unit such as many wire gauges. Piecewise linear units can be defined by specifying conversions to linear units on a list of points. Conversion at other points will be done by linear interpolation. A partial definition of zinc gauge is

zincgauge[in] 1 0.002, 10 0.02, 15 0.04, 19 0.06, 23 0.1

In this example, 'zincgauge' is the name of the piecewise linear unit. The definition of such a unit is indicated by the embedded '[' character. After the bracket, you should indicate the units to be attached to the numbers in the table. No spaces can appear before the ']' character, so a definition like 'foo[kg meters]' is illegal; instead write 'foo[kg*meters]'. The definition of the unit consists of a list of pairs optionally separated by commas. This list defines a function for converting from the piecewise linear unit to linear units. The first item in each pair is the function argument; the second item is the value of the function at that argument (in the units specified in brackets). In this example, we define 'zincgauge' at five points. For example, we set 'zincgauge(1)' equal to '0.002 in'. Definitions like this may be more readable if written using continuation characters as

zincgauge[in] \


     1 0.002  \


    10 0.02   \


    15 0.04   \


    19 0.06   \


    23 0.1

With the preceding definition, the following conversion can be performed:

You have: zincgauge(10)
You want: in


    * 0.02


    / 50
You have: .01 inch
You want: zincgauge


    5

If you define a piecewise linear unit that is not strictly monotonic, then the inverse will not be well defined. If the inverse is requested for such a unit, 'units' will return the smallest inverse. The '--check' option will print a warning if a non-monotonic piecewise linear unit is encountered.

Defining Unit List Aliases¶

Unit list aliases are treated differently from unit definitions, because they are a data entry shorthand rather than a true definition for a new unit. A unit list alias definition begins with '!unitlist' and includes the alias and the definition; for example, the aliases included in the standard units data file are

!unitlist   hms     hr;min;sec
!unitlist   time    year;day;hr;min;sec
!unitlist   dms     deg;arcmin;arcsec
!unitlist   ftin    ft;in;1|8 in
!unitlist   usvol   cup;3|4 cup;2|3 cup;1|2 cup;1|3 cup;1|4 cup;\


                    tbsp;tsp;1|2 tsp;1|4 tsp;1|8 tsp

Unit list aliases are only for unit lists, so the definition must include a ';'. Unit list aliases can never be combined with units or other unit list aliases, so the definition of 'time' shown above could not have been shortened to 'year;day;hms'. As usual, be sure to run 'units --check' to ensure that the units listed in unit list aliases are conformable.

Locale¶

A locale is a subset of a user's environment that indicates the user's language and country, and some attendant preferences, such as the formatting of dates. The 'units' program attempts to determine the locale from the POSIX setlocale function; if this cannot be done, 'units' examines the environment variables 'LC_CTYPE' and 'LANG'. On POSIX systems, a locale is of the form language'_'country, where language is the two-character code from ISO 639-1 and country is the two-character code from ISO 3166-1; language is lower case and country is upper case. For example, the POSIX locale for the United Kingdom is 'en_GB'.

On systems running Microsoft Windows, the value returned by setlocale() is different from that on POSIX systems; 'units' attempts to map the Windows value to a POSIX value by means of a table in the file 'locale.map' in the same directory, typically '/usr/local/share/units', as the default units data files. The file includes entries for many combinations of language and country, and can be extended to include other combinations. The 'locale.map' comprises two tab-separated columns; each entry is of the form

Windows-locale   POSIX-locale

where POSIX-locale is as described above, and Windows-locale typically spells out both the language and country. For example, the entry for the United States is

English_United States   en_US

You can force 'units' to run in a desired locale by using the '-l' option.

In order to create unit definitions for a particular locale you begin a block of definitions in a unit datafile with '!locale' followed by a locale name. The '!' must be the first character on the line. The 'units' program reads the following definitions only if the current locale matches. You end the block of localized units with '!endlocale'. Here is an example, which defines the British gallon.

!locale en_GB
gallon       4.54609 liter
!endlocale

Additional Localization¶

Sometimes the locale isn't sufficient to determine unit preferences. There could be regional preferences, or a company could have specific preferences. Though probably uncommon, such differences could arise with the choice of English customary units outside of English-speaking countries. To address this, 'units' allows specifying definitions that depend on environment variable settings. The environment variables can be controled based on the current locale, or the user can set them to force a particular group of definitions.

A conditional block of definitions in a units data file begins with either '!var' or '!varnot' following by an environment variable name and then a space separated list of values. The leading '!' must appear in the first column of a units data file, and the conditional block is terminated by '!endvar'. Definitions in blocks beginning with '!var' are executed only if the environment variable is exactly equal to one of the listed values. Definitions in blocks beginning with '!varnot' are executed only if the environment variable does not equal any of the list values.

The inch has long been a customary measure of length in many places. The word comes from the latin uncia meaning ``one twelfth,'' referring to its relationship with the foot. By the 20th century, the inch was officially defined in English-speaking countries relative to the yard, but until 1959, the yard differed slightly among those countries. In France the customary inch, which was displaced in 1799 by the meter, had a different length based on a french foot. These customary definitions could be accomodated as follows:

!var INCH_UNIT usa 
yard          3600|3937 m
!endvar
!var INCH_UNIT canada
yard          0.9144 meter
!endvar
!var INCH_UNIT uk
yard          0.91439841 meter
!endvar
!var INCH_UNIT canada uk usa
foot          1|3 yard
inch          1|12 foot
!endvar
!var INCH_UNIT france
foot          144|443.296 m
inch          1|12 foot
line          1|12 inch
!endvar
!varnot INCH_UNIT usa uk france canada
!message Unknown value for INCH_UNIT
!endvar

When 'units' reads the above definitions it will check the environment variable 'INCH_UNIT' and load only the definitions for the appropriate section. If 'INCH_UNIT' is unset or is not set to one of the four values listed then 'units' will run the last block. In this case that block uses the '!message' command to display a warning message. Alternatively that block could set default values.

In order to create default values that are overridden by user settings the data file can use the '!set' command, which sets an environment variable only if it is not already set; these settings are only for the current 'units' invocation and do not persist. So if the example above were preceded by '!set INCH_UNIT france' then this would make 'france' the default value for 'INCH_UNIT'. If the user had set the variable in the environment before invoking 'units', then 'units' would use the user's value.

To link these settings to the user's locale you combine the '!set' command with the '!locale' command. If you wanted to combine the above example with suitable locales you could do by preceding the above definition with the following:

!locale en_US
!set INCH_UNIT usa
!endlocale
!locale en_GB
!set INCH_UNIT uk
!endlocale
!locale en_CA
!set INCH_UNIT canada
!endlocale
!locale fr_FR
!set INCH_UNIT france
!endlocale
!set INCH_UNIT france

These definitions set the overall default for 'INCH_UNIT' to 'france' and set default values for four locales appropriately. The overall default setting comes last so that it only applies when 'INCH_UNIT' was not set by one of the other commands or by the user.

If the variable given after '!var' or '!varnot' is undefined then 'units' prints an error message and ignores the definitions that follow. Use '!set' to create defaults to prevent this situation from arising. The '-c' option only checks the definitions that are active for the current environment and locale, so when adding new definitions take care to check that all cases give rise to a well defined set of definitions.