man > iconv(1)

iconv(1)                               General Commands Manual                              iconv(1)

NAME
       iconv - convert text from one character encoding to another

SYNOPSIS
       iconv [options] [-f from-encoding] [-t to-encoding] [inputfile]...

DESCRIPTION
       The iconv program reads in text in one encoding and outputs the text in another encoding.  If
       no  input  files are given, or if it is given as a dash (-), iconv reads from standard input.
       If no output file is given, iconv writes to standard output.

       If no from-encoding is given, the default is derived from the current locale's character  en‐
       coding.  If no to-encoding is given, the default is derived from the current locale's charac‐
       ter encoding.

OPTIONS
       --from-code=from-encoding
       -f from-encoding
              Use from-encoding for input characters.

       --to-code=to-encoding
       -t to-encoding
              Use to-encoding for output characters.

              If the string //IGNORE is appended to to-encoding, characters that cannot be converted
              are discarded and an error is printed after conversion.

              If  the  string  //TRANSLIT is appended to to-encoding, characters being converted are
              transliterated when needed and possible.  This means that when a character  cannot  be
              represented in the target character set, it can be approximated through one or several
              similar  looking  characters.  Characters that are outside of the target character set
              and cannot be transliterated are replaced with a question mark (?) in the output.

       --list
       -l     List all known character set encodings.

       -c     Silently discard characters that cannot be converted instead of terminating  when  en‐
              countering such characters.

       --output=outputfile
       -o outputfile
              Use outputfile for output.

       --silent
       -s     This option is ignored; it is provided only for compatibility.

       --verbose
              Print progress information on standard error when processing multiple files.

       --help
       -?     Print a usage summary and exit.

       --usage
              Print a short usage summary and exit.

       --version
       -V     Print the version number, license, and disclaimer of warranty for iconv.

EXIT STATUS
       Zero on success, nonzero on errors.

ENVIRONMENT
       Internally,  the  iconv  program  uses the iconv(3) function which in turn uses gconv modules
       (dynamically loaded shared libraries) to convert to and from a character set.  Before calling
       iconv(3), the iconv program must first allocate a conversion descriptor using  iconv_open(3).
       The  operation of the latter function is influenced by the setting of the GCONV_PATH environ‐
       ment variable:

       •  If GCONV_PATH is not set, iconv_open(3) loads the system gconv module configuration  cache
          file  created by iconvconfig(8) and then, based on the configuration, loads the gconv mod‐
          ules needed to perform the conversion.  If the system  gconv  module  configuration  cache
          file is not available then the system gconv module configuration file is used.

       •  If GCONV_PATH is defined (as a colon-separated list of pathnames), the system gconv module
          configuration  cache is not used.  Instead, iconv_open(3) first tries to load the configu‐
          ration files by searching the directories in GCONV_PATH in order, followed by  the  system
          default  gconv  module configuration file.  If a directory does not contain a gconv module
          configuration file, any gconv modules that it may contain are  ignored.   If  a  directory
          contains  a  gconv module configuration file and it is determined that a module needed for
          this conversion is available in the directory, then the needed module is loaded from  that
          directory,  the  order  being  such  that the first suitable module found in GCONV_PATH is
          used.  This allows users to use custom modules and even replace system-provided modules by
          providing such modules in GCONV_PATH directories.

FILES
       /usr/lib/gconv
              Usual default gconv module path.

       /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules
              Usual system default gconv module configuration file.

       /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
              Usual system gconv module configuration cache.

       Depending on the architecture, the above files may instead be located at directories with the
       path prefix /usr/lib64.

STANDARDS
       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY
       POSIX.1-2001.

EXAMPLES
       Convert text from the ISO/IEC 8859-15 character encoding to UTF-8:

           $ iconv -f ISO-8859-15 -t UTF-8 < input.txt > output.txt

       The next example converts from UTF-8 to ASCII, transliterating when possible:

           $ echo abc ß α € àḃç | iconv -f UTF-8 -t ASCII//TRANSLIT
           abc ss ? EUR abc

SEE ALSO
       locale(1), uconv(1), iconv(3), nl_langinfo(3), charsets(7), iconvconfig(8)

Linux man-pages 6.7                          2024-01-28                                     iconv(1)