1ICONV(1) Linux User Manual ICONV(1)
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6 iconv - convert text from one character encoding to another
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9 iconv [options] [-f from-encoding] [-t to-encoding] [inputfile]...
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12 The iconv program reads in text in one encoding and outputs the text in
13 another encoding. If no input files are given, or if it is given as a
14 dash (-), iconv reads from standard input. If no output file is given,
15 iconv writes to standard output.
16 If no from-encoding is given, the default is derived from the current
18 locale's character encoding. If no to-encoding is given, the default
19 is derived from the current locale's character encoding.
20
22 -f from-encoding, --from-code=from-encoding
23 Use from-encoding for input characters.
24 -t to-encoding, --to-code=to-encoding
26 Use to-encoding for output characters.
27 If the string //IGNORE is appended to to-encoding, characters
29 that cannot be converted are discarded and an error is printed
30 after conversion.
31 If the string //TRANSLIT is appended to to-encoding, characters
33 being converted are transliterated when needed and possible.
34 This means that when a character cannot be represented in the
35 target character set, it can be approximated through one or sev‐
36 eral similar looking characters. Characters that are outside of
37 the target character set and cannot be transliterated are
38 replaced with a question mark (?) in the output.
39 -l, --list
41 List all known character set encodings.
42 -c Silently discard characters that cannot be converted instead of
44 terminating when encountering such characters.
45 -o outputfile, --output=outputfile
47 Use outputfile for output.
48 -s, --silent
50 This option is ignored; it is provided only for compatibility.
51 --verbose
53 Print progress information on standard error when processing
54 multiple files.
55 -?, --help
57 Print a usage summary and exit.
58 --usage
60 Print a short usage summary and exit.
61 -V, --version
63 Print the version number, license, and disclaimer of warranty
64 for iconv.
65
67 Zero on success, nonzero on errors.
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70 Internally, the iconv program uses the iconv(3) function which in turn
71 uses gconv modules (dynamically loaded shared libraries) to convert to
72 and from a character set. Before calling iconv(3), the iconv program
73 must first allocate a conversion descriptor using iconv_open(3). The
74 operation of the latter function is influenced by the setting of the
75 GCONV_PATH environment variable:
76 * If GCONV_PATH is not set, iconv_open(3) loads the system gconv mod‐
78 ule configuration cache file created by iconvconfig(8) and then,
79 based on the configuration, loads the gconv modules needed to per‐
80 form the conversion. If the system gconv module configuration cache
81 file is not available then the system gconv module configuration
82 file is used.
83 * If GCONV_PATH is defined (as a colon-separated list of pathnames),
85 the system gconv module configuration cache is not used. Instead,
86 iconv_open(3) first tries to load the configuration files by search‐
87 ing the directories in GCONV_PATH in order, followed by the system
88 default gconv module configuration file. If a directory does not
89 contain a gconv module configuration file, any gconv modules that it
90 may contain are ignored. If a directory contains a gconv module
91 configuration file and it is determined that a module needed for
92 this conversion is available in the directory, then the needed mod‐
93 ule is loaded from that directory, the order being such that the
94 first suitable module found in GCONV_PATH is used. This allows
95 users to use custom modules and even replace system-provided modules
96 by providing such modules in GCONV_PATH directories.
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99 /usr/lib/gconv
100 Usual default gconv module path.
101 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules
103 Usual system default gconv module configuration file.
104 /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
106 Usual system gconv module configuration cache.
107
109 POSIX.1-2001.
110
112 Convert text from the ISO 8859-15 character encoding to UTF-8:
113 $ iconv -f ISO-8859-15 -t UTF-8 < input.txt > output.txt
115 The next example converts from UTF-8 to ASCII, transliterating when
117 possible:
118 $ echo abc ß α € àḃç | iconv -f UTF-8 -t ASCII//TRANSLIT
120 abc ss ? EUR abc
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123 locale(1), uconv(1), iconv(3), nl_langinfo(3), charsets(7), iconvcon‐
124 fig(8)
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127 This page is part of release 5.07 of the Linux man-pages project. A
128 description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
129 latest version of this page, can be found at
130 https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
131GNU 2020-06-09 ICONV(1)