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ICONV(1P) POSIX Programmer's Manual ICONV(1P)

PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on
Linux.

NAME
iconv - codeset conversion

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

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

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

iconv -l

DESCRIPTION
The iconv utility shall convert the encoding of characters in file from one codeset to another and write the results to
standard output.

When the options indicate that charmap files are used to specify the codesets (see OPTIONS), the codeset conversion shall
be accomplished by performing a logical join on the symbolic character names in the two charmaps. The implementation need
not support the use of charmap files for codeset conversion unless the POSIX2_LOCALEDEF symbol is defined on the system.

OPTIONS
The iconv utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax
Guidelines.

The following options shall be supported:

-c Omit any characters that are invalid in the codeset of the input file from the output. When -c is not used, the
results of encountering invalid characters in the input stream (either those that are not characters in the code-
set of the input file or that have no corresponding character in the codeset of the output file) shall be speci-
fied in the system documentation. The presence or absence of -c shall not affect the exit status of iconv.

-f fromcodeset

Identify the codeset of the input file. The implementation shall recognize the following two forms of the from-
codeset option-argument:

fromcode
The fromcode option-argument must not contain a slash character. It shall be interpreted as the name of one of
the codeset descriptions provided by the implementation in an unspecified format. Valid values of fromcode are
implementation-defined.

frommap
The frommap option-argument must contain a slash character. It shall be interpreted as the pathname of a charmap
file as defined in the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 6.4, Character Set Description
File. If the pathname does not represent a valid, readable charmap file, the results are undefined.

If this option is omitted, the codeset of the current locale shall be used.

-l Write all supported fromcode and tocode values to standard output in an unspecified format.

-s Suppress any messages written to standard error concerning invalid characters. When -s is not used, the results of
encountering invalid characters in the input stream (either those that are not valid characters in the codeset of
the input file or that have no corresponding character in the codeset of the output file) shall be specified in
the system documentation. The presence or absence of -s shall not affect the exit status of iconv.

-t tocodeset
Identify the codeset to be used for the output file. The implementation shall recognize the following two forms of
the tocodeset option-argument:

tocode
The semantics shall be equivalent to the -f fromcode option.

tomap
The semantics shall be equivalent to the tomap option.

If this option is omitted, the codeset of the current locale shall be used.

If either -f or -t represents a charmap file, but the other does not (or is omitted), or both -f and -t are omitted, the
results are undefined.

OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:

file A pathname of an input file. If no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '-', the standard input
shall be used.

STDIN
The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '-' .

INPUT FILES
The input file shall be a text file.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of iconv:

LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions
volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of international-
ization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)

LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-
byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments). During translation of the file, this variable is super-
seded by the use of the fromcode option-argument.

LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to stan-
dard error.

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

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.

STDOUT
When the -l option is used, the standard output shall contain all supported fromcode and tocode values, written in an
unspecified format.

When the -l option is not used, the standard output shall contain the sequence of characters read from the input files,
translated to the specified codeset. Nothing else shall be written to the standard output.

STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.

EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:

0 Successful completion.

>0 An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.

The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
The user must ensure that both charmap files use the same symbolic names for characters the two codesets have in common.

EXAMPLES
The following example converts the contents of file mail.x400 from the ISO/IEC 6937:1994 standard codeset to the
ISO/IEC 8859-1:1998 standard codeset, and stores the results in file mail.local:

iconv -f IS6937 -t IS8859 mail.x400 > mail.local

RATIONALE
The iconv utility can be used portably only when the user provides two charmap files as option-arguments. This is because
a single charmap provided by the user cannot reliably be joined with the names in a system-provided character set
description. The valid values for fromcode and tocode are implementation-defined and do not have to have any relation to
the charmap mechanisms. As an aid to interactive users, the -l option was adopted from the Plan 9 operating system. It
writes information concerning these implementation-defined values. The format is unspecified because there are many pos-
sible useful formats that could be chosen, such as a matrix of valid combinations of fromcode and tocode. The -l option
is not intended for shell script usage; conforming applications will have to use charmaps.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.