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Archisman Panigrahi
Asked: 2024-08-11 20:25:23 +0800 CST

How to open a single app in a particular language while the system language is English?

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I am a developer of Safe Eyes (an app that reminds you to blink eyes to prevent eye strain), and someone requested a feature that they want to open the app in Spanish, while the system language for all other apps is set to be English.

The app has already been translated to many languages, and would change its language if the system language is changed to Spanish.

When the Spanish language pack is already installed, is there any way the app can be launched in a Spanish while the system language is still English? Maybe with some environment variable while running the app?

In case you need to test the app to provide an answer, you can use the official PPA in Ubuntu 24.04 (or use the package from official repositories on previous versions of Ubuntu), as the official repository version in broken in 24.04:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:safeeyes-team/safeeyes

And sudo apt install safeeyes

application-development

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Enable Spanish Locale

    Go to Settings > System > Region and Languages > Manage Installed Language > Install / Remove Languages. Select Spanish.

    Region and Language Settings

    Use the LANG Variable to start Safe Eyes from the terminal:

    LANG=es_ES.UTF-8 safeeyes

    The configuration should now be in Spanish:

    Safe Eyes config in Spanish

    The breaks should also be in Spanish:

    enter image description here

    Make Spanish the default

    Open the app called Startup Applications and look for Safe Eyes:

    enter image description here

    Select Safe Eyes from the left panel and Click on the Edit button on the right. Add LANG=es_ES.UTF-8 to the Command section before safeeyes as shown below:

    enter image description here

    Save and close the app. Logout and log back in to automatically start Safe Eyes in Spanish.

    Hope this helps

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