man > piconv(1)

PICONV(1)                         Perl Programmers Reference Guide                         PICONV(1)

NAME
       piconv -- iconv(1), reinvented in perl

SYNOPSIS
         piconv [-f from_encoding] [-t to_encoding]
                [-p|--perlqq|--htmlcref|--xmlcref] [-C N|-c] [-D] [-S scheme]
                [-s string|file...]
         piconv -l
         piconv -r encoding_alias
         piconv -h

DESCRIPTION
       piconv is perl version of iconv, a character encoding converter widely available for various
       Unixen today.  This script was primarily a technology demonstrator for Perl 5.8.0, but you
       can use piconv in the place of iconv for virtually any case.

       piconv converts the character encoding of either STDIN or files specified in the argument and
       prints out to STDOUT.

       Here is the list of options.  Some options can be in short format (-f) or long (--from) one.

       -f,--from from_encoding
           Specifies  the  encoding  you  are  converting  from.   Unlike  iconv, this option can be
           omitted.  In such cases, the current locale is used.

       -t,--to to_encoding
           Specifies the encoding you are converting to.  Unlike iconv, this option can be  omitted.
           In such cases, the current locale is used.

           Therefore, when both -f and -t are omitted, piconv just acts like cat.

       -s,--string string
           uses string instead of file for the source of text.

       -l,--list
           Lists  all  available encodings, one per line, in case-insensitive order.  Note that only
           the canonical names are listed; many aliases exist.  For example,  the  names  are  case-
           insensitive,   and   many  standard  and  common  aliases  work,  such  as  "latin1"  for
           "ISO-8859-1",  or  "ibm850"  instead  of  "cp850",  or  "winlatin1"  for  "cp1252".   See
           Encode::Supported for a full discussion.

       -r,--resolve encoding_alias
           Resolve encoding_alias to Encode canonical encoding name.

       -C,--check N
           Check  the  validity  of the stream if N = 1.  When N = -1, something interesting happens
           when it encounters an invalid character.

       -c  Same as "-C 1".

       -p,--perlqq
           Transliterate characters missing in encoding to \x{HHHH} where HHHH  is  the  hexadecimal
           Unicode code point.

       --htmlcref
           Transliterate  characters  missing in encoding to &#NNN; where NNN is the decimal Unicode
           code point.

       --xmlcref
           Transliterate characters missing in encoding to &#xHHHH; where HHHH  is  the  hexadecimal
           Unicode code point.

       -h,--help
           Show usage.

       -D,--debug
           Invokes debugging mode.  Primarily for Encode hackers.

       -S,--scheme scheme
           Selects which scheme is to be used for conversion.  Available schemes are as follows:

           from_to
               Uses Encode::from_to for conversion.  This is the default.

           decode_encode
               Input strings are decode()d then encode()d.  A straight two-step implementation.

           perlio
               The new perlIO layer is used.  NI-S' favorite.

               You  should  use this option if you are using UTF-16 and others which linefeed is not
               $/.

           Like the -D option, this is also for Encode hackers.

SEE ALSO
       iconv(1) locale(3) Encode Encode::Supported Encode::Alias PerlIO

perl v5.38.2                                 2026-08-18                                    PICONV(1)