NAME

translit - translates characters

SYNOPSIS

translit [ options ] from_string to_string [file1 ... filen]

DESCRIPTION

Translit performs a character substitution, changing the characters specified in the from_string to the corresponding characters in the to_string. Since the mapping is done one to one, the from_string must be equal to or larger than the to_string. If the from_string is larger, the end of the from set is mapped to the last character of the to set.

The files are not modified, all output is written to standard out. If no files are specified, translit reads from standard input.

OPTIONS

-help: Prints a short summary of the translit options and exists.
-version: Prints the translit version number string and exists.
-c: Complement the set of values specified by from_string.
-d: Delete all occurrences of input characters that are specified in from_string.
-s: Replace instances of repeated characters that are specified in from_string with a single character. If the -d option has also been specified, the character set is taken from to_string.

OPERANDS

The following notations of characters are supported:

c       Any single byte character not described below
\ddd    Represents octal notations of characters
\\      Represents the backslash
\a      Represents the audible bell
\b      Represents the backspace character
\f      Represents the formfeed character
\n      Represents the newline character
\r      Represents the carriage return character
\t      Represents the tab character
\v      Represents the vertical tab character

NOTES

When the to_string is smaller than the from_string, multiple occurrences of the folded characters are not generated. Translating all letters, white space and punctuation, to X's, for example, will cause only a single X to appear on the output stream.

If the to_string is empty, all occurrences of input characters that are specified in from_string are deleted and produce no output.

You can use reverse ranges,

: translit [a-z] [z-a]

will change every a to z and every z to a and so forth.

If an ordinary digit in the octal range is following an octal sequence, the octal sequence must use three octal digits.