1--- 2layout: default 3title: ICU Data Build Tool 4nav_order: 1 5parent: ICU Data 6--- 7<!-- 8© 2019 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others. 9License & terms of use: http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html 10--> 11 12# ICU Data Build Tool 13{: .no_toc } 14 15## Contents 16{: .no_toc .text-delta } 17 181. TOC 19{:toc} 20 21--- 22 23## Overview 24 25ICU 64 provides a tool for configuring your ICU locale data file with finer 26granularity. This page explains how to use this tool to customize and reduce 27your data file size. 28 29## Overview: What is in the ICU data file? 30 31There are hundreds of **locales** supported in ICU (including script and 32region variants), and ICU supports many different **features**. For each 33locale and for each feature, data is stored in one or more data files. 34 35Those data files are compiled and then bundled into a `.dat` file called 36something like `icudt64l.dat`, which is little-endian data for ICU 64. This 37dat file is packaged into the `libicudata.so` on Linux or `libicudata.dll.a` 38on Windows. In ICU4J, it is bundled into a jar file named `icudata.jar`. 39 40At a high level, the size of the ICU data file corresponds to the 41cross-product of locales and features, except that not all features require 42locale-specific data, and not all locales require data for all features. The 43data file contents can be approximately visualized like this: 44 45<img alt="Features vs. Locales" src="../assets/features_locales.svg" style="max-width:600px" /> 46 47The `icudt64l.dat` file is 27 MiB uncompressed and 11 MiB gzipped. This file 48size is too large for certain use cases, such as bundling the data file into a 49smartphone app or an embedded device. This is something the ICU Data Build 50Tool aims to solve. 51 52## ICU Data Configuration File 53 54The ICU Data Build Tool enables you to write a configuration file that 55specifies what features and locales to include in a custom data bundle. 56 57The configuration file may be written in either [JSON](http://json.org/) or 58[Hjson](https://hjson.org/). To build ICU4C with custom data, set the 59`ICU_DATA_FILTER_FILE` environment variable when running `runConfigureICU` on 60Unix or when building the data package on Windows. For example: 61 62 ICU_DATA_FILTER_FILE=filters.json path/to/icu4c/source/runConfigureICU Linux 63 64**Important:** You *must* have the data sources in order to use the ICU Data 65Build Tool. Check for the file icu4c/source/data/locales/root.txt. If that file 66is missing, you need to download "icu4c-\*-data.zip", delete the old 67icu4c/source/data directory, and replace it with the data directory from the zip 68file. If there is a \*.dat file in icu4c/source/data/in, that file will be used 69even if you gave ICU custom filter rules. 70 71In order to use Hjson syntax, the `hjson` pip module must be installed on 72your system. You should also consider installing the `jsonschema` module to 73print messages when errors are found in your config file. 74 75 $ pip3 install --user hjson jsonschema 76 77To build ICU4J with custom data, you must first build ICU4C with custom data 78and then generate the JAR file. For more information, read 79[icu4j-readme.txt](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/source/data/icu4j-readme.txt). 80 81### Locale Slicing 82 83The simplest way to slice ICU data is by locale. The ICU Data Build Tool 84makes it easy to select your desired locales to suit a number of use cases. 85 86#### Filtering by Language Only 87 88Here is a *filters.json* file that builds ICU data with support for English, 89Chinese, and German, including *all* script and regional variants for those 90languages: 91 92 { 93 "localeFilter": { 94 "filterType": "language", 95 "includelist": [ 96 "en", 97 "de", 98 "zh" 99 ] 100 } 101 } 102 103The *filterType* "language" only supports slicing by entire languages. 104 105##### Terminology: Includelist, Excludelist, Whitelist, Blacklist 106 107Prior to ICU 68, use `"whitelist"` and `"blacklist"` instead of `"includelist"` 108and `"excludelist"`, respectively. ICU 68 allows all four terms. 109 110#### Filtering by Locale 111 112For more control, use *filterType* "locale". Here is a *filters.hjson* file that 113includes the same three languages as above, including regional variants, but 114only the default script (e.g., Simplified Han for Chinese): 115 116 localeFilter: { 117 filterType: locale 118 includelist: [ 119 en 120 de 121 zh 122 ] 123 } 124 125*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 126 127#### Adding Script Variants (includeScripts = true) 128 129You may set the *includeScripts* option to true to include all scripts for a 130language while using *filterType* "locale". This results in behavior similar 131to *filterType* "language". In the following JSON example, all scripts for 132Chinese are included: 133 134 { 135 "localeFilter": { 136 "filterType": "locale", 137 "includeScripts": true, 138 "includelist": [ 139 "en", 140 "de", 141 "zh" 142 ] 143 } 144 } 145 146*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 147 148If you wish to explicitly list the scripts, you may put the script code in the 149locale tag in the whitelist, and you do not need the *includeScripts* option 150enabled. For example, in Hjson, to include Han Traditional ***but not Han 151Simplified***: 152 153 localeFilter: { 154 filterType: locale 155 includelist: [ 156 en 157 de 158 zh_Hant 159 ] 160 } 161 162*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 163 164**Note:** the option *includeScripts* is only supported at the language level; 165i.e., in order to include all scripts for a particular language, you must 166specify the language alone, without a region tag. 167 168#### Removing Regional Variants (includeChildren = false) 169 170If you wish to enumerate exactly which regional variants you wish to support, 171you may use *filterType* "locale" with the *includeChildren* setting turned to 172false. The following *filters.hjson* file includes English (US), English 173(UK), German (Germany), and Chinese (China, Han Simplified), as well as their 174dependencies, *but not* other regional variants like English (Australia), 175German (Switzerland), or Chinese (Taiwan, Han Traditional): 176 177 localeFilter: { 178 filterType: locale 179 includeChildren: false 180 includelist: [ 181 en_US 182 en_GB 183 de_DE 184 zh_CN 185 ] 186 } 187 188*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 189 190Including dependencies, the above filter would include the following data files: 191 192- root.txt 193- en.txt 194- en_US.txt 195- en_001.txt 196- en_GB.txt 197- de.txt 198- de_DE.txt 199- zh.txt 200- zh_Hans.txt 201- zh_Hans_CN.txt 202- zh_CN.txt 203 204### File Slicing (coarse-grained features) 205 206ICU provides a lot of features, of which you probably need only a small subset 207for your application. Feature slicing is a powerful way to prune out data for 208any features you are not using. 209 210***CAUTION:*** When slicing by features, you must manually include all 211dependencies. For example, if you are formatting dates, you must include not 212only the date formatting data but also the number formatting data, since dates 213contain numbers. Expect to spend a fair bit of time debugging your feature 214filter to get it to work the way you expect it to. 215 216The data for many ICU features live in individual files. The ICU Data Build 217Tool puts puts similar *types* of files into categories. The following table 218summarizes the ICU data files and their corresponding features and categories: 219 220| Feature | Category ID(s) | Data Files <br/> ([icu4c/source/data](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/tree/master/icu4c/source/data)) | Resource Size <br/> (as of ICU 64) | 221|---|---|---|---| 222| Break Iteration | `"brkitr_rules"` <br/> `"brkitr_dictionaries"` <br/> `"brkitr_tree"` | brkitr/rules/\*.txt <br/> brkitr/dictionaries/\*.txt <br/> brkitr/\*.txt | 522 KiB <br/> **2.8 MiB** <br/> 14 KiB | 223| Charset Conversion | `"conversion_mappings"` | mappings/\*.ucm | **4.9 MiB** | 224| Collation <br/> *[more info](#collation-ucadata)* | `"coll_ucadata"` <br/> `"coll_tree"` | in/coll/ucadata-\*.icu <br/> coll/\*.txt | 511 KiB <br/> **2.8 MiB** | 225| Confusables | `"confusables"` | unidata/confusables\*.txt | 45 KiB | 226| Currencies | `"misc"` <br/> `"curr_supplemental"` <br/> `"curr_tree"` | misc/currencyNumericCodes.txt <br/> curr/supplementalData.txt <br/> curr/\*.txt | 3.1 KiB <br/> 27 KiB <br/> **2.5 MiB** | 227| Language Display <br/> Names | `"lang_tree"` | lang/\*.txt | **2.1 MiB** | 228| Language Tags | `"misc"` | misc/keyTypeData.txt <br/> misc/langInfo.txt <br/> misc/likelySubtags.txt <br/> misc/metadata.txt | 6.8 KiB <br/> 37 KiB <br/> 53 KiB <br/> 33 KiB | 229| Normalization | `"normalization"` | in/\*.nrm except in/nfc.nrm | 160 KiB | 230| Plural Rules | `"misc"` | misc/pluralRanges.txt <br/> misc/plurals.txt | 3.3 KiB <br/> 33 KiB | 231| Region Display <br/> Names | `"region_tree"` | region/\*.txt | **1.1 MiB** | 232| Rule-Based <br/> Number Formatting <br/> (Spellout, Ordinals) | `"rbnf_tree"` | rbnf/\*.txt | 538 KiB | 233| StringPrep | `"stringprep"` | sprep/\*.txt | 193 KiB | 234| Time Zones | `"misc"` <br/> `"zone_tree"` <br/> `"zone_supplemental"` | misc/metaZones.txt <br/> misc/timezoneTypes.txt <br/> misc/windowsZones.txt <br/> misc/zoneinfo64.txt <br/> zone/\*.txt <br/> zone/tzdbNames.txt | 41 KiB <br/> 20 KiB <br/> 22 KiB <br/> 151 KiB <br/> **2.7 MiB** <br/> 4.8 KiB | 235| Transliteration | `"translit"` | translit/\*.txt | 685 KiB | 236| Unicode Character <br/> Names | `"unames"` | in/unames.icu | 269 KiB | 237| Unicode Text Layout | `"ulayout"` | in/ulayout.icu | 14 KiB | 238| Units | `"unit_tree"` | unit/\*.txt | **1.7 MiB** | 239| **OTHER** | `"cnvalias"` <br/> `"misc"` <br/> `"locales_tree"` | mappings/convrtrs.txt <br/> misc/dayPeriods.txt <br/> misc/genderList.txt <br/> misc/numberingSystems.txt <br/> misc/supplementalData.txt <br/> locales/\*.txt | 63 KiB <br/> 19 KiB <br/> 0.5 KiB <br/> 5.6 KiB <br/> 228 KiB <br/> **2.4 MiB** | 240 241#### Additive and Subtractive Modes 242 243The ICU Data Build Tool allows two strategies for selecting features: 244*additive* mode and *subtractive* mode. 245 246The default is to use subtractive mode. This means that all ICU data is 247included, and your configurations can remove or change data from that baseline. 248Additive mode means that you start with an *empty* ICU data file, and you must 249explicitly add the data required for your application. 250 251There are two concrete differences between additive and subtractive mode: 252 253| | Additive | Subtractive | 254|-------------------------|-------------|-------------| 255| Default Feature Filter | `"exclude"` | `"include"` | 256| Default Resource Filter | `"-/"`, `"+/%%ALIAS"`, `"+/%%Parent"` | `"+/"` | 257 258To enable additive mode, add the following setting to your filter file: 259 260 strategy: "additive" 261 262**Caution:** If using `"-/"` or similar top-level exclusion rules, be aware of 263the fields `"+/%%Parent"` and `"+/%%ALIAS"`, which are required in locale tree 264resource bundles. Excluding these paths may cause unexpected locale fallback 265behavior. 266 267#### Filter Types 268 269You may list *filters* for each category in the *featureFilters* section of 270your config file. What follows are examples of the possible types of filters. 271 272##### Inclusion Filter 273 274To include a category, use the string `"include"` as your filter. 275 276 featureFilters: { 277 locales_tree: include 278 } 279 280If the category is a locale tree (ends with `_tree`), the inclusion filter 281resolves to the `localeFilter`; for more information, see the section 282"Locale-Tree Categories." Otherwise, the inclusion filter causes all files in 283the category to be included. 284 285**NOTE:** When subtractive mode is used (default), all categories implicitly 286start with `"include"` as their filter. 287 288##### Exclusion Filter 289 290To exclude an entire category, use *filterType* "exclude". For example, to 291exclude all confusables data: 292 293 featureFilters: { 294 confusables: { 295 filterType: exclude 296 } 297 } 298 299Since ICU 65, you can also write simply: 300 301 featureFilters: { 302 confusables: exclude 303 } 304 305**NOTE:** When additive mode is used, all categories implicitly start with 306`"exclude"` as their filter. 307 308##### File Name Filter 309 310To exclude certain files out of a category, use the file name filter, which is 311the default type of filter when *filterType* is not specified. For example, 312to include the Burmese break iteration dictionary but not any other 313dictionaries: 314 315 featureFilters: { 316 brkitr_dictionaries: { 317 includelist: [ 318 burmesedict 319 ] 320 } 321 } 322 323Do *not* include directories or file extensions. They will be added 324automatically for you. Note that all files in a particular category have the 325same directory and extension. 326 327You can use either `"includelist"` or `"excludelist"` for the file name filter. 328*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 329 330##### Regex Filter 331 332To exclude filenames matching a certain regular expression, use *filterType* 333"regex". For example, to reject the CJK-specific break iteration rules: 334 335 featureFilters: { 336 brkitr_rules: { 337 filterType: regex 338 excludelist: [ 339 ^.*_cj$ 340 ] 341 } 342 } 343 344The Python standard library [*re* 345module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html) is used for evaluating the 346regular expressions. In case the regular expression engine is changed in the 347future, however, you are encouraged to restrict yourself to a simple set of 348regular expression operators. 349 350As above, do not include directories or file extensions, and you can use 351either a whitelist or a blacklist. 352 353##### Union Filter 354 355You can combine the results of multiple filters with *filterType* "union". 356This filter matches files that match *at least one* of the provided filters. 357The syntax is: 358 359 { 360 filterType: union 361 unionOf: [ 362 { /* filter 1 */ }, 363 { /* filter 2 */ }, 364 // ... 365 ] 366 } 367 368This filter type is useful for combining "locale" filters with different 369includeScripts or includeChildren options. 370 371#### Locale-Tree Categories 372 373Several categories have the `_tree` suffix. These categories are for "locale 374trees": they contain locale-specific data. ***The [localeFilter configuration 375option](#slicing-data-by-locale) sets the default file filter for all `_tree` 376categories.*** 377 378If you want to include different locales for different locale file trees, you 379can override their filter in the *featureFilters* section of the config file. 380For example, to include only Italian data for currency symbols *instead of* 381the common locales specified in *localeFilter*, you can do the following: 382 383 featureFilters: 384 curr_tree: { 385 filterType: locale 386 includelist: [ 387 it 388 ] 389 } 390 } 391 392*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 393 394You can exclude an entire `_tree` category without affecting other categories. 395For example, to exclude region display names: 396 397 featureFilters: { 398 region_tree: { 399 filterType: exclude 400 } 401 } 402 403Note that you are able to use any of the other filter types for `_tree` 404categories, but you must be very careful that you are including all of the 405correct files. For example, `en_GB` requires `en_001`, and you must always 406include `root`. If you use the "language" or "locale" filter types, this 407logic is done for you. 408 409### Resource Bundle Slicing (fine-grained features) 410 411The third section of the ICU filter config file is *resourceFilters*. With 412this section, you can dive inside resource bundle files to remove even more 413data. 414 415You can apply resource filters to all locale tree categories as well as to 416categories that include resource bundles, such as the `"misc"` category. 417 418For example, consider measurement units. There is one unit file per locale (example: 419[en.txt](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/master/icu4c/source/data/unit/en.txt)), 420and that file contains data for all measurement units in CLDR. However, if 421you are only formatting distances, for example, you may need the data for only 422a small set of units. 423 424Here is how you could include units of length in the "short" style but no 425other units: 426 427 resourceFilters: [ 428 { 429 categories: [ 430 unit_tree 431 ] 432 rules: [ 433 -/units 434 -/unitsNarrow 435 -/unitsShort 436 +/unitsShort/length 437 ] 438 } 439 ] 440 441Conceptually, the rules are applied from top to bottom. First, all data for 442all three styes of units are removed, and then the short length units are 443added back. 444 445**NOTE:** In subtractive mode, resource paths are *included* by default. In 446additive mode, resource paths are *excluded* by default. 447 448#### Wildcard Character 449 450You can use the wildcard character (`*`) to match a piece of the resource 451path. For example, to include length units for all three styles, you can do: 452 453 resourceFilters: [ 454 { 455 categories: [ 456 unit_tree 457 ] 458 rules: [ 459 -/units 460 -/unitsNarrow 461 -/unitsShort 462 +/*/length 463 ] 464 } 465 ] 466 467The wildcard must be the only character in its path segment. Future ICU 468versions may expand the syntax. 469 470#### Resource Filter for Specific File 471 472The resource filter object takes an optional *files* setting which accepts a 473file filter in the same syntax used above for file filtering. For example, if 474you wanted to apply a filter to misc/supplementalData.txt, you could do the 475following (this example removes calendar data): 476 477 resourceFilters: [ 478 { 479 categories: ["misc"] 480 files: { 481 includelist: ["supplementalData"] 482 } 483 rules: [ 484 -/calendarData 485 ] 486 } 487 ] 488 489*If using ICU 67 or earlier, see note above regarding allowed keywords.* 490 491#### Combining Multiple Resource Filter Specs 492 493You can also list multiple resource filter objects in the *resourceFilters* 494array; the filters are added from top to bottom. For example, here is an 495advanced configuration that includes "mile" for en-US and "kilometer" for 496en-CA; this also makes use of the *files* option: 497 498 resourceFilters: [ 499 { 500 categories: ["unit_tree"] 501 rules: [ 502 -/units 503 -/unitsNarrow 504 -/unitsShort 505 ] 506 }, 507 { 508 categories: ["unit_tree"] 509 files: { 510 filterType: locale 511 includelist: ["en_US"] 512 } 513 rules: [ 514 +/*/length/mile 515 ] 516 }, 517 { 518 categories: ["unit_tree"] 519 files: { 520 filterType: locale 521 includelist: ["en_CA"] 522 } 523 rules: [ 524 +/*/length/kilometer 525 ] 526 } 527 ] 528 529The above example would give en-US these resource filter rules: 530 531 -/units 532 -/unitsNarrow 533 -/unitsShort 534 +/*/length/mile 535 536and en-CA these resource filter rules: 537 538 -/units 539 -/unitsNarrow 540 -/unitsShort 541 +/*/length/kilometer 542 543In accordance with *filterType* "locale", the parent locales *en* and *root* 544would get both units; this is required since both en-US and en-CA may inherit 545from the parent locale: 546 547 -/units 548 -/unitsNarrow 549 -/unitsShort 550 +/*/length/mile 551 +/*/length/kilometer 552 553## Debugging Tips 554 555**Run Python directly:** If you do not want to wait for ./runConfigureICU to 556finish, you can directly re-generate the rules using your filter file with the 557following command line run from *iuc4c/source*. 558 559 $ PYTHONPATH=python python3 -m icutools.databuilder \ 560 --mode=gnumake --src_dir=data > data/rules.mk 561 562**Install jsonschema:** Install the `jsonschema` pip package to get warnings 563about problems with your filter file. 564 565**See what data is being used:** ICU is instrumented to allow you to trace 566which resources are used at runtime. This can help you determine what data you 567need to include. For more information, see [tracing.md](tracing.md). 568 569**Inspect data/rules.mk:** The Python script outputs the file *rules.mk* 570inside *iuc4c/source/data*. To see what is going to get built, you can inspect 571that file. First build ICU normally, and copy *rules.mk* to 572*rules_default.mk*. Then build ICU with your filter file. Now you can take the 573diff between *rules_default.mk* and *rules.mk* to see exactly what your filter 574file is removing. 575 576**Inspect the output:** After a `make clean` and `make` with a new *rules.mk*, 577you can look inside the directory *icu4c/source/data/out* to see the files 578that got built. 579 580**Inspect the compiled resource filter rules:** If you are using a resource 581filter, the resource filter rules get compiled for each individual locale 582inside *icu4c/source/data/out/tmp/filters*. You can look at those files to see 583what filter rules are being applied to each individual locale. 584 585**Run genrb in verbose mode:** For debugging a resource filter, you can run 586genrb in verbose mode to see which resources got stripped. To do this, first 587inspect the make output and find a command line like this: 588 589 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=../lib:../stubdata:../tools/ctestfw:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH ../bin/genrb --filterDir ./out/tmp/filters/unit_tree -s ./unit -d ./out/build/icudt64l/unit/ -i ./out/build/icudt64l --usePoolBundle ./out/build/icudt64l/unit/ -k en.txt 590 591Copy that command line and re-run it from *icu4c/source/data* with the `-v` 592flag added to the end. The command will print out exactly which resource paths 593are being included and excluded as well as a model of the filter rules applied 594to this file. 595 596**Inspect .res files with derb:** The `derb` tool can convert .res files back 597to .txt files after filtering. For example, to convert the above unit res file 598back to a txt file, you can run this command from *icu4c/source*: 599 600 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=lib bin/derb data/out/build/icudt64l/unit/en.res 601 602That will produce a file *en.txt* in your current directory, which is the 603original *data/unit/en.txt* but after resource filters were applied. 604 605*Tip:* derb expects your res files to be rooted in a directory named 606`icudt64l` (corresponding to your current ICU version and endianness). If your 607files are not in such a directory, derb fails with U_MISSING_RESOURCE_ERROR. 608 609**Put complex rules first** and **use the wildcard `*` sparingly:** The order 610of the filter rules matters a great deal in how effective your data size 611reduction can be, and the wildcard `*` can sometimes produce behavior that is 612tricky to reason about. For example, these three lists of filter rules look 613similar on first glance but actually produce different output: 614 615<table> 616<tr> 617<th>Unit Resource Filter Rules</th> 618<th>Unit Resource Size</th> 619<th>Commentary</th> 620<th>Result</th> 621</tr> 622<tr><td><pre> 623-/*/* 624+/*/digital 625-/*/digital/*/dnam 626-/durationUnits 627-/units 628-/unitsNarrow 629</pre></td><td>77 KiB</td><td> 630First, remove all unit types. Then, add back digital units across all unit 631widths. Then, remove display names from digital units. Then, remove duration 632unit patterns and long and narrow forms. 633</td><td> 634Digital units in short form are included; all other units are removed. 635</td></tr> 636<tr><td><pre> 637-/durationUnits 638-/units 639-/unitsNarrow 640-/*/* 641+/*/digital 642-/*/digital/*/dnam 643</pre></td><td>125 KiB</td><td> 644First, remove duration unit patterns and long and narrow forms. Then, remove 645all unit types. Then, add back digital units across all unit widths. Then, 646remove display names from digital units. 647</td><td> 648Digital units are included <em>in all widths</em>; all other units are removed. 649</td></tr> 650<tr><td><pre> 651-/*/* 652+/*/digital 653-/*/*/*/dnam 654-/durationUnits 655-/units 656-/unitsNarrow 657</pre></td><td>191 KiB</td><td> 658First, remove all unit types. Then, add back digital units across all unit 659widths. Then, remove display names from all units. Then, remove duration unit 660patterns and long and narrow forms. 661</td><td> 662Digital units in short form are included, as is the <em>tree structure</em> 663for all other units, even though the other units have no real data. 664</td></tr> 665</table> 666 667By design, empty tree structure is retained in the unit bundle. This is 668because there are numerous instances in ICU data where the presence of an 669empty tree carries meaning. However, it means that you must be careful when 670building resource filter rules in order to achieve the optimal data bundle 671size. 672 673Using the `-v` option in genrb (described above) is helpful when debugging 674these types of issues. 675 676## Other Features of the ICU Data Build Tool 677 678While data filtering is the primary reason the ICU Data Build Tool was 679developed, there are there are additional use cases. 680 681### Running Data Build without Configure/Make 682 683You can build the dat file outside of the ICU build system by directly 684invoking the Python icutools.databuilder. Run the following command to see the 685help text for the CLI tool: 686 687 $ PYTHONPATH=path/to/icu4c/source/python python3 -m icutools.databuilder --help 688 689### Collation UCAData 690 691For using collation (sorting and searching) in any language, the "root" 692collation data file must be included. It provides the Unicode CLDR default 693sort order for all code points, and forms the basis for language-specific 694tailorings as well as for custom collators built at runtime. 695 696There are two versions of the root collation data file: 697 698- ucadata-unihan.txt (compiled size: 511 KiB) 699- ucadata-implicithan.txt (compiled size: 178 KiB) 700 701The unihan version sorts Han characters in radical-stroke order according to 702Unicode, which is a somewhat useful default sort order, especially for use 703with non-CJK languages. The implicithan version sorts Han characters in the 704order of their Unicode assignment, which is similar to radical-stroke order 705for common characters but arbitrary for others. For more information, see 706[UTS #10 §10.1.3](https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr10/#Implicit_Weights). 707 708By default, the unihan version is used. The unihan version of the data file 709is much larger than that for implicithan, so if you need collation but also 710small data, then you may want to select the implicithan version. To use the 711implicithan version, put the following setting in your *filters.json* file: 712 713 { 714 "collationUCAData": "implicithan" 715 } 716 717### Disable Pool Bundle 718 719By default, ICU uses a "pool bundle" to store strings shared between locales. 720This saves space and is recommended for most users. However, when developing 721a system where locale data files may be added "on the fly" and not included in 722the original ICU distribution, those additional data files may not be able to 723use a pool bundle due to name collisions with the existing pool bundle. 724 725To disable the pool bundle in the current ICU build, put the following setting 726in your *filters.json* file: 727 728 { 729 "usePoolBundle": false 730 } 731 732### File Substitution 733 734Using the configuration file, you can perform whole-file substitutions. For 735example, suppose you want to replace the transliteration rules for 736*Zawgyi_my*. You could create a directory called `my_icu_substitutions` 737containing your new `Zawgyi_my.txt` rule file, and then put this in your 738configuration file: 739 740 fileReplacements: { 741 directory: "/path/to/my_icu_substitutions" 742 replacements: [ 743 { 744 src: "Zawgyi_my.txt" 745 dest: "translit/Zawgyi_my.txt" 746 }, 747 "misc/dayPeriods.txt" 748 ] 749 } 750 751`directory` should either be an absolute path, or a path starting with one of 752the following, and it should not contain a trailing slash: 753 754- "$SRC" for the *icu4c/source/data* directory in the source tree 755- "$FILTERS" for the directory containing filters.json 756- "$CWD" for your current working directory 757 758When the entry in the `replacements` array is an object, the `src` and `dest` 759fields indicate, for each file in the source directory (`src`), what file in 760the ICU hierarchy it should replace (`dest`). When the entry is a string, the 761same relative path is used for both `src` and `dest`. 762 763Whole-file substitution happens before all other filters are applied. 764