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PROLOG

       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of
       this interface may differ (consult 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  POSIX.1‐2008,  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 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
                 −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 fromcodeset 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 POSIX.1‐2008, 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 −f frommap 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  POSIX.1‐2008,  Section  8.2,
                 Internationalization  Variables  for  the  precedence  of   internationalization
                 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 superseded  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 standard 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 6937:2001
       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  possible  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.

       The iconv utility may support the conversion between ASCII and EBCDIC-based encodings, but
       is not required to do so. In an XSI-compliant implementation, the dd utility is  the  only
       method guaranteed to support conversion between these two character sets.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       dd, gencat

       The  Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 6.4, Character Set Description File,
       Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and  reproduced  in  electronic  form  from  IEEE  Std
       1003.1,  2013  Edition,  Standard  for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
       Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013  by  the
       Institute  of  Electrical  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc and The Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the  event  of  any
       discrepancy  between  this  version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the
       original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The  original  Standard
       can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any  typographical  or  formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have
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