Provided by: detox_2.0.0-3ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
detox — clean up filenames
SYNOPSIS
detox [-f configfile] [-n | --dry-run] [-r] [-s sequence] [--special] [-v] file ...
detox [-L] [-f configfile] [-v]
detox [-h | --help]
detox [-V]
DESCRIPTION
The detox utility renames files to make them easier to work with under Unix and Unix-like operating
systems. It replaces characters that make it hard to type out a filename with dashes and underscores.
It also provides transliteration-based filters, converting ISO 8859-1 or UTF-8 to ASCII, in part or in
whole. An additional filter unescapes CGI-escaped filenames.
Sequences
detox is driven by a configurable series of filters, called a sequence. Sequences are covered in more
detail in detoxrc(5) and are discoverable with the -L option. The default sequence will run the safe and
wipeup filters. Other examples of pre-configured sequences are iso8859_1 and utf_8, which both provide
transliteration to ASCII and then finish with the safe and wipeup filters.
Options
-f configfile
Use configfile instead of the default configuration files for loading translation sequences.
No other config file will be parsed.
-h, --help Display helpful information.
--inline Run in inline mode. See inline-detox(1) for more details.
-L List the currently available sequences. When paired with -v this option shows what filters
are used in each sequence and any properties applied to the filters.
-n, --dry-run
Doesn't actually change anything. This implies the -v option.
-r Recurse into subdirectories. Any file or directory that starts with a period, such as .git/
or .cache/, will be ignored during recursion unless specified on the command line. Also, any
file or directory specified in the ignore section of the config file will be ignored during
recursion.
-s sequence
Use sequence instead of default.
--special Works on special files (including links). Normally detox ignores these files. detox will
not recurse into symlinks that point at directories.
-v Be verbose about which files are being renamed.
-V Show the current version of detox.
FILES
/etc/detoxrc
The system-wide detoxrc file.
~/.detoxrc A user's personal detoxrc. Normally it extends the system-wide detoxrc, unless -f has been
specified, in which case, it is ignored.
/usr/share/detox/cp1252.tbl
The provided CP-1252 transliteration table.
/usr/share/detox/iso8859_1.tbl
The provided ISO 8859-1 transliteration table.
/usr/share/detox/safe.tbl
The provided safe character translation table.
/usr/share/detox/unicode.tbl
The provided Unicode transliteration table, used by the UTF-8 filter.
/usr/share/detox/unidecode.tbl
An additional Unicode tranlsiteration table, based on Text::Unidecode(3pm).
EXAMPLES
detox -s lower -r -v -n /tmp/new_files
Will run the sequence lower recursively, listing any changes, without changing anything, on
the files of /tmp/new_files.
detox -f my_detoxrc -L -v
Will list the sequences within my_detoxrc, showing their filters and options.
SEE ALSO
inline-detox(1), Text::Unidecode(3pm), detox.tbl(5), detoxrc(5), ascii(7), iso_8859-1(7), unicode(7),
utf-8(7)
HISTORY
detox was originally designed to clean up files that I had received from friends which had been created
using other operating systems. It's trivial to create a filename with spaces, parenthesis, brackets, and
ampersands under some operating systems. These have special meaning within FreeBSD and Linux, and cause
problems when you go to access them. I created detox to clean up these files.
Version 2.0 stepped back from transliteration out of the box, instead focusing on ease of use. The
primary motivations for this were user-provided feedback, and the fact that many modern Unix-like OSs use
UTF-8 as their primary character set. Transliterating from UTF-8 to ASCII in this scenario is lossy and
pointless.
AUTHORS
detox was written by Doug Harple.
CAVEATS
If, after the translation of a filename is finished, a file already exists with that same name, detox
will not rename the file.
Debian February 24, 2021 DETOX(1)