Comment 7 for bug 1382774

I just tried this scenario (de_DE.UTF-8 locally, ssh into machine with just en_US.UTF-8 available), and apt install postgresql succeeds and creates a cluster successfully which runs with en_US.UTF-8. But the more I look at the bug description (which isn't particularly clear) I have the feeling that we aren't talking about the postgresql package installation, but instead maas directly calls pg_createcluster? If so, how exactly does it do that?

The "disregard environment and only look at /etc/default/locale" workaround is done in postgresql-X.Y's postinst, i. e. it only applies to package installation time. If you call pg_createcluster directly as root in a broken environment it won't help you. Now, in theory that hackish workaround from postinst time could be moved direclty into pg_createcluster, but I veto that as this is established behaviour and I don't want to break cases where people call "LANG=xx_YY pg_createcluster" (see the help of --locale in help output and manpage).

So if in MAAS you also can't rely on the environment, a similar hack like https://alioth.debian.org/scm/loggerhead/pkg-postgresql/postgresql-common/trunk/view/head:/debian/maintscripts-functions#L40 might be required?