iconv(1) User Commands iconv(1)NAMEiconv - code set conversion utility
SYNOPSISiconv [-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 converts the characters or sequences of characters in
file from one code set to another and writes the results to standard
output. If no conversion exists for a particular character, an imple‐
mentation-defined conversion is performed on this character.
The list of supported conversions and the locations of the associated
conversion tables are provided in the iconv(5) manual page.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-c Omits 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 depend on the specified codesets for the
conversion. Invalid characters can be either those that
are not valid characters in the codeset of the input
file or those that have no corresponding character in
the codeset of the output file. The presence or absence
of -c does not affect the exit status of iconv. When
fromcode is specified for the fromcodeset of the -f
option or tocode is specified for the tocodeset of the
-t option, the specification of -c may be ignored.
-f fromcodeset Identifies the code set of the input file. The follow‐
ing two forms of the fromcodeset option-argument are
recognized:
fromcode The fromcode option-argument must not
contain a slash (/) character. It is
interpreted as the name of one of the
codeset descriptions.
frommap The frommap option-argument must con‐
tain a slash character. It is inter‐
preted as the pathname of a charmap
file as defined in charmap(5). 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 is used.
-l Writes all supported fromcode and tocode values to
standard output.
-s Suppresses any messages written to standard error con‐
cerning invalid characters. When -s is not used, the
results of encountering invalid characters in the input
stream depend on the specified codesets for the conver‐
sion. Invalid characters can be either those that are
not valid characters in the codeset of the input file
or those that have no corresponding character in the
codeset of the output file. The presence or absence of
-s does not affect the exit status of iconv. When from‐
code is specified for the fromcodeset of the -f
option or tocode is specified for the tocodeset of the
-t option, the specification of -s may be ignored.
-t tocodeset Identifies the code set used for the output file. The
following two forms of the tocodeset option-argument
are recognized:
tocode The tocode option-argument must not
contain a slash (/) character. It is
interpreted as the name of one of the
codeset descriptions.
tomap The tomap option-argument must contain
a slash character. It is interpreted as
the pathname of a charmap file as
defined in charmap(5). If the pathname
does not represent a valid, readable
charmap file, the results are unde‐
fined.
If this option is omitted, the codeset of the current
locale is used.
If either -f or -t represents a charmap file but the other does not, or
is omitted, or if both -f and -t are omitted, iconv fails as an error.
OPERANDS
The following operands are supported:
file A path name of an input file. If no file operands are
specified, or if a file operand is '-', the standard
input is used.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: Converting and storing files
The following example converts the contents of file mail1 from code set
8859 to 646fr and stores the results in file mail.local:
example% iconv-f 8859 -t 646fr mail1 > mail.local
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
that affect the execution of iconv: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MES‐
SAGES, and NLSPATH.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
1 An error has occurred.
FILES
/usr/lib/iconv/iconv_data
list of conversions supported by conversion tables
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcsu │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Standard │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOiconv(3C), iconv_open(3C), attributes(5), charmap(5), environ(5),
iconv(5), iconv_unicode(5), standards(5)NOTES
Make sure that both charmap files use the same symbolic names for char‐
acters the two codesets have in common.
The output format of the -l option is unspecified. The -l option is not
intended for shell script usage.
When fromcode or tocode is specified for the codeset conversion, iconv
uses the iconv_open(3C) function. If iconv_open(3C) fails to open the
specified codeset conversion, iconv searches for an appropriate conver‐
sion table. As for the supported codeset conversion by iconv_open(3C),
please refer to iconv(5) and iconv_locale(5).
SunOS 5.10 14 Nov 2003 iconv(1)
