localedef --add-to-archive doesn't follow symbolic links, thus if you have any locale with symlinked files to save disk space, for example: /usr/share/locale/pt_BR/LC_CTYPE -> ../ISO-8859-1/LC_CTYPE "localedef --add-to-archive /usr/share/locale/pt_BR" will not work, because current locarchive.c code doesn't consider symlink case. diff -p -up glibc-2.11.1/locale/programs/locarchive.c.orig glibc-2.11.1/locale/programs/locarchive.c --- glibc-2.11.1/locale/programs/locarchive.c.orig 2010-04-08 14:10:46.515770746 -0300 +++ glibc-2.11.1/locale/programs/locarchive.c 2010-04-08 14:11:55.587520585 -0300 @@ -1323,7 +1323,7 @@ add_locales_to_archive (nlist, list, rep char fullname[fnamelen + 2 * strlen (d->d_name) + 7]; #ifdef _DIRENT_HAVE_D_TYPE - if (d_type == DT_UNKNOWN) + if (d_type == DT_UNKNOWN || d_type == DT_LNK) #endif { strcpy (stpcpy (stpcpy (fullname, fname), "/"),