iconv(1)

NAME

iconv — codeset conversion

SYNOPSIS

iconv [-cs] -f frommap -t tomap [file]...

iconv [-cs] -f fromcode [-t tocode] [file]...

iconv [-cs] -t tocode [-f fromcode] [file]...

iconv -l

DESCRIPTION

The iconv command converts the encoding of characters in the input files from one codeset to another, and writes the results to standard output. If no input files are given, iconv reads from standard input. If - appears as an input file name, the iconv command reads standard input at that point. -- can be used to delimit the end of options (see getopt(3C)).

Options

The iconv command recognizes the following options:

-c: Omit any characters that are invalid in the codeset of the input file from the output. This is the default.
-f fromcode: Identify the codeset corresponding to option argument fromcode as the codeset that the input will be converted "from". The fromcode option argument must not contain a slash character. If this option is omitted, the codeset of the current locale will be used.
-f frommap: The frommap option argument must contain a slash character. It is interpreted as the path name of a charmap file which is parsed to determine the codeset name defined in the charmap file.
-l: Write all the supported fromcode and tocode values to standard output as defined in the iconv configuration files, /usr/lib/nls/iconv/system.config.iconv or /usr/lib/nls/iconv/config.iconv. See iconv(3C) for details.
-s: Suppress any error messages written to standard error concerning invalid characters. The presence or absence of -s does not affect the exit status of iconv.
-t tocode: Identify the codeset corresponding to option argument tocode as the codeset that the input will be converted "to". The tocode option argument must not contain a slash character. If this option is omitted, the codeset of the current locale will be used.
-t tomap: The tomap option argument must contain a slash character. It is interpreted as the path name of a charmap file which is parsed to determine the codeset name defined in the charmap file.

The fromcode and tocode names can be any of the base and alias names listed in the iconv configuration files, /usr/lib/nls/iconv/system.config.iconv or /usr/lib/nls/iconv/config.iconv. See iconv(3C) for details and the configuration files for a list of supported codeset names.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

LANG provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the default value of "C" (see lang(5)) is used. If any of the internationalization variables contains an invalid setting, the iconv command will behave as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ(5).

Setting LC_ALL to a non-empty string value overrides the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE determines the interpretation of text as single and/or multi-byte characters, the classification of characters as printable, and the characters matched by character class expressions in regular expressions. During translation of the file, this variable is superseded by the use of the fromcode option argument.

LC_MESSAGES determines the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and informative messages written to standard output.

NLSPATH determines the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.

International Code Set Support

Single and multi-byte character codesets are supported.

RETURN VALUE

iconv returns the following values:

0: Successful completion.
>0: An error occurred.

EXAMPLES

Convert the contents of file foo from codeset Roman8 to ISO 8859/1 and store the results in file bar.

iconv -f roman8 -t iso8859_1 foo > bar 

WARNINGS

If an input character does not have a valid equivalent in the codeset selected by the -t option (the "to" codeset), it is mapped to the "galley character", if it has been defined for that conversion (see genxlt(1) and iconv(3C)).

If an input character does not belong to the codeset selected by the -f option (the "from" codeset), the command terminates.

FILES

/usr/lib/nls/iconv/config.iconv: User customizable iconv configuration file.
/usr/lib/nls/iconv/system.config.iconv: System iconv configuration file, containing code names supported by the operating system

AUTHOR

iconv was developed by HP.

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

iconv: XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, UNIX 2003