NAME

iconv — codeset conversion utility

SYNOPSIS

iconv [-cs] -f from_name -t to_name [file ...]

iconv -f from_name [-cs] [-t to_name] [file ...]

iconv -t to_name [-cs] [-f from_name] [file ...]

iconv -l

DESCRIPTION

The iconv utility converts the codeset of file (or from standard input if no file is specified) from codeset from_name to codeset to_name and outputs the converted text on standard output.

The following options are available:

-c: Prevent output of any invalid characters. By default, iconv outputs an “invalid character” specified by the to_name codeset when it encounts a character which is valid in the from_name codeset but does not have a corresponding character in the to_name codeset.
-f: Specifies the source codeset name as from_name.
-l: Lists available codeset names. Note that not all combinations of from_name and to_name are valid.
-s: Silent. By default, iconv outputs the number of “invalid characters” to standard error if they exist. This option prevents this behaviour.
-t: Specifies the destination codeset name as to_name.

EXIT STATUS

The iconv utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

Convert file.txt from IBM273 to UTF-8 and save the result to converted.txt:

iconv -f IBM273 -t UTF-8 file.txt
  > converted.txt

STANDARDS

iconv conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”).

HISTORY

iconv first appeared in NetBSD 2.0, and made its appearance in FreeBSD 9.0.