iconv(3)

ICONV(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   ICONV(1)

NAME

     iconv - character set conversion

SYNOPSIS

     iconv [OPTION...] [-f encoding] [-t encoding] [inputfile ...]
     iconv -l

DESCRIPTION

     The iconv program converts text from one encoding to another
     encoding.   More  precisely,  it  converts from the encoding
     given for the -f option to the encoding  given  for  the  -t
     option.  Either  of these encodings defaults to the encoding
     of the current locale. All the inputfiles are read and  con-
     verted in turn; if no inputfile is given, the standard input
     is used. The converted text is printed to standard output.

     The  encodings  permitted  are  system  dependent.  For  the
     libiconv    implementation,   they   are   listed   in   the
     iconv_open(3) manual page.

     Options controlling the input and output format:

     -f encoding, --from-code=encoding
          Specifies the encoding of the input.

     -t encoding, --to-code=encoding
          Specifies the encoding of the output.

     Options controlling conversion problems:

     -c   When this option is given, characters  that  cannot  be
          converted are silently discarded, instead of leading to
          a conversion error.

     --unicode-subst=formatstring
          When this option is given, Unicode characters that can-
          not  be represented in the target encoding are replaced
          with a placeholder string that is constructed from  the
          given  formatstring, applied to the Unicode code point.
          The formatstring must be a format string  in  the  same
          format  as for the printf command or the printf() func-
          tion, taking either no argument or exactly one unsigned
          integer argument.

     --byte-subst=formatstring
          When this option is given, bytes in the input that  are
          not  valid  in  the source encoding are replaced with a
          placeholder string that is constructed from  the  given
          formatstring,  applied to the byte's value. The format-
          string must be a format string in the  same  format  as
          for the printf command or the printf() function, taking
          either no argument  or  exactly  one  unsigned  integer

GNU                Last change: March 31, 2007                  1

ICONV(1)                 USER COMMANDS                   ICONV(1)

          argument.

     --widechar-subst=formatstring
          When this option is given, wide characters in the input
          that  are not valid in the source encoding are replaced
          with a placeholder string that is constructed from  the
          given  formatstring,  applied  to the byte's value. The
          formatstring must be a format string in the same format
          as  for  the  printf  command or the printf() function,
          taking either  no  argument  or  exactly  one  unsigned
          integer argument.

     Options controlling error output:

     -s, --silent
          When this option is given, error messages about invalid
          or unconvertible characters are omitted, but the actual
          converted text is unaffected.

     The iconv -l or iconv --list command lists the names of  the
     supported  encodings,  in a system dependent format. For the
     libiconv implementation, the  names  are  printed  in  upper
     case,  separated by whitespace, and alias names of an encod-
     ing are listed on the same line as the encoding itself.

EXAMPLES

     iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8
          converts input  from  the  old  West-European  encoding
          ISO-8859-1 to Unicode.

     iconv -f KOI8-R --byte-subst="<0x%x>"
                     --unicode-subst="<U+%04X>"
          converts input from the old Russian encoding KOI8-R  to
          the  locale  encoding,  substituting  an  angle bracket
          notation with hexadecimal numbers for invalid bytes and
          for valid but unconvertible characters.

     iconv --list
          lists the supported encodings.

CONFORMING TO

     POSIX:2001

SEE ALSO

     iconv_open(3), locale(7)

GNU                Last change: March 31, 2007                  2