Manual: iconv

iconv(1)					   General Commands Manual					    iconv(1)

NAME
       iconv - convert text from one character encoding to another

SYNOPSIS
       iconv [options] [-f from-encoding] [-t to-encoding] [inputfile ...]

DESCRIPTION
       The  iconv  program  reads  in  text in one encoding and outputs the text in another encoding.  If no input files are
       given, or if it is given as a dash (-), iconv reads from standard input.	 If no output file is given, iconv writes to
       standard output.

       If no from-encoding is given, the default is derived from the current locale's character encoding.  If no to-encoding
       is given, the default is derived from the current locale's character encoding.

OPTIONS
       --from-code=from-encoding
       -f from-encoding
	      Use from-encoding for input characters.

       --to-code=to-encoding
       -t to-encoding
	      Use to-encoding for output characters.

	      If the string //IGNORE is appended to to-encoding, characters that cannot be converted are  discarded  and  an
	      error is printed after conversion.  (Characters that cannot be decoded are treated as an error with or without
	      this flag.)

	      If the string //TRANSLIT is appended to to-encoding, characters being converted are transliterated when needed
	      and  possible.   This means that when a character cannot be represented in the target character set, it can be
	      approximated through one or several similar looking characters.  Characters that are  outside  of	 the  target
	      character set and cannot be transliterated are replaced with a question mark (?) in the output.

       --list
       -l     List all known character set encodings.

       -c     Discard  characters  that cannot be converted instead of terminating when encountering such characters.  POSIX
	      requires that this option does not change the exit status of the program.

       --output=outputfile
       -o outputfile
	      Use outputfile for output.

       --silent
       -s     This option is ignored; it is provided only for compatibility.

       --verbose
	      Print progress information on standard error when processing multiple files.

       --help
       -?     Print a usage summary and exit.

       --usage
	      Print a short usage summary and exit.

       --version
       -V     Print the version number, license, and disclaimer of warranty for iconv.

EXIT STATUS
       Zero on success, nonzero on errors.

ENVIRONMENT
       Internally, the iconv program uses the iconv(3) function which in turn uses gconv modules (dynamically loaded  shared
       libraries)  to convert to and from a character set.  Before calling iconv(3), the iconv program must first allocate a
       conversion descriptor using iconv_open(3).  The operation of the latter function is influenced by the setting of	 the
       GCONV_PATH environment variable:

       •  If  GCONV_PATH  is  not set, iconv_open(3) loads the system gconv module configuration cache file created by icon‐
	  vconfig(8) and then, based on the configuration, loads the gconv modules needed to perform the conversion.  If the
	  system gconv module configuration cache file is not available then the system gconv module configuration  file  is
	  used.

       •  If  GCONV_PATH is defined (as a colon-separated list of pathnames), the system gconv module configuration cache is
	  not used.  Instead, iconv_open(3) first tries to load the configuration files	 by  searching	the  directories  in
	  GCONV_PATH in order, followed by the system default gconv module configuration file.	If a directory does not con‐
	  tain	a  gconv  module configuration file, any gconv modules that it may contain are ignored.	 If a directory con‐
	  tains a gconv module configuration file and it is determined that a module needed for this conversion is available
	  in the directory, then the needed module is loaded from that directory, the order being such that the first  suit‐
	  able module found in GCONV_PATH is used.  This allows users to use custom modules and even replace system-provided
	  modules by providing such modules in GCONV_PATH directories.

FILES
       /usr/lib/gconv
	      Usual default gconv module path.

       /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules
	      Usual system default gconv module configuration file.

       /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
	      Usual system gconv module configuration cache.

       Depending on the architecture, the above files may instead be located at directories with the path prefix /usr/lib64.

STANDARDS
       POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY
       POSIX.1-2001.

EXAMPLES
       Convert text from the ISO/IEC 8859-15 character encoding to UTF-8:

	   $ iconv -f ISO-8859-15 -t UTF-8 < input.txt > output.txt;

       The next example converts from UTF-8 to ASCII, transliterating when possible:

	   $ echo abc ß α € àḃç | iconv -f UTF-8 -t ASCII//TRANSLIT;
	   abc ss ? EUR abc

SEE ALSO
       locale(1), uconv(1), iconv(3), nl_langinfo(3), charsets(7), iconvconfig(8)

Linux man-pages 6.17					 2025-09-21						    iconv(1)