Iconv

iconv
Original author(s)	Hewlett-Packard
Developer(s)	Various open-source and commercial developers
Repository	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/libiconv.git
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like, Microsoft Windows, IBM i
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Command
License	libiconv: LGPL; iconv: GPL; win-iconv: Public domain

Short description: Standard UNIX utility

In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, iconv (an abbreviation of internationalization conversion)^[2] is a command-line program^[3] and a standardized application programming interface (API)^[4] used to convert between different character encodings. "It can convert from any of these encodings to any other, through Unicode conversion."^[5]

History

Initially appearing on the HP-UX operating system,^[6]iconv() as well as the utility was standardized within XPG4 and is part of the Single UNIX Specification (SUS).

Implementations

Most Linux distributions provide an implementation, either from the GNU Standard C Library (included since version 2.1, February 1999), or the more traditional GNU libiconv, for systems based on other Standard C Libraries.

The iconv function^[7] on both is licensed as LGPL, so it is linkable with closed source applications.

Unlike the libraries, the iconv utility is licensed under GPL in both implementations.^[8] The GNU libiconv implementation is portable, and can be used on various UNIX-like and non-UNIX systems. Version 0.3 dates from December 1999.

The uconv utility from International Components for Unicode provides an iconv-compatible command-line syntax for transcoding.

Most BSD systems use NetBSD's implementation, first appeared in December 2004.

Support

Currently, over a hundred different character encodings are supported.^[5]

Ports

Under Microsoft Windows, the iconv library and the utility is provided by GNU's libiconv found in Cygwin^[9] and GnuWin32^[10] environments; there is also a "purely Win32" implementation called "win-iconv" that uses Windows' built-in routines for conversion.^[11] The iconv function is also available for many programming languages.

The iconv command has also been ported to the IBM i operating system.^[12]

Usage

stdin can be converted from ISO-8859-1 to current locale and output to stdout using:^[13]

iconv -f iso-8859-1

An input file infile can be converted from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8 and output to output file outfile using:

iconv -f iso-8859-1 -t utf-8 <infile> -o <outfile>

References

↑ "win-iconv/readme.txt at master · win-iconv/win-iconv · GitHub". https://github.com/win-iconv/win-iconv/blob/master/readme.txt.
↑ "R: Convert Character Vector between Encodings". http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su07/R/html/base/html/iconv.html.
↑ "iconv". http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/iconv.html.
↑ "iconv". http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/iconv.html.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 "libiconv - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)". https://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/.
↑ "iconv(3C)". http://docstore.mik.ua/manuals/hp-ux/en/B2355-60130/iconv.3C.html.
↑ "glibc: iconv/iconv.c". https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=iconv/iconv.c. ^{[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]}
↑ "glibc: iconv/iconv_prog.c". https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=iconv/iconv_prog.c. ^{[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]}
↑ "Cygwin Package Search: libiconv". https://cygwin.com/cgi-bin2/package-grep.cgi?grep=libiconv.
↑ "LibIconv for Windows". http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libiconv.htm.
↑ "win32-iconv". https://github.com/win-iconv/win-iconv.
↑ IBM. "IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell" (in en). https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_74/rzahz/rzahzpdf.pdf?view=kc.
↑ "IBM Knowledge Center". http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_53/com.ibm.aix.cmds/doc/aixcmds3/iconv.htm.

External links

iconv() OpenGroup Standards page
GNU libiconv, code
win_iconv

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconv. Read more

[1] "win-iconv/readme.txt at master · win-iconv/win-iconv · GitHub". https://github.com/win-iconv/win-iconv/blob/master/readme.txt.

[2] "R: Convert Character Vector between Encodings". http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su07/R/html/base/html/iconv.html.

[3] "iconv". http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/iconv.html.

[4] "iconv". http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/iconv.html.

[gnulibiconv-5] 5.0 ^5.1 "libiconv - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)". https://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/.

[6] "iconv(3C)". http://docstore.mik.ua/manuals/hp-ux/en/B2355-60130/iconv.3C.html.

[7] "glibc: iconv/iconv.c". https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=iconv/iconv.c. ^{[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]}

[8] "glibc: iconv/iconv_prog.c". https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob;f=iconv/iconv_prog.c. ^{[yes|permanent dead link|dead link}}]}

[cygwin-libiconv-search-9] "Cygwin Package Search: libiconv". https://cygwin.com/cgi-bin2/package-grep.cgi?grep=libiconv.

[gnuwin32-libiconv-10] "LibIconv for Windows". http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/libiconv.htm.

[win-iconv-11] "win32-iconv". https://github.com/win-iconv/win-iconv.

[12] IBM. "IBM System i Version 7.2 Programming Qshell" (in en). https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_74/rzahz/rzahzpdf.pdf?view=kc.

[13] "IBM Knowledge Center". http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_aix_53/com.ibm.aix.cmds/doc/aixcmds3/iconv.htm.

v t e Unix command-line interface programs and shell builtins
File system	cat chmod chown chgrp cksum cmp cp dd du df file fuser ln ls mkdir mv pax pwd rm rmdir split tee touch type umask
Processes	at bg crontab fg kill nice ps time
User environment	env exit logname mesg talk tput uname who write
Text processing	awk basename comm csplit cut diff dirname ed ex fold head iconv join m4 more nl paste patch printf sed sort strings tail tr uniq vi wc xargs
Shell builtins	alias cd echo test unset wait
Searching	find grep
Documentation	man
Software development	ar ctags lex make nm strip yacc
Miscellaneous	bc cal expr lp od sleep true and false
Categories Standard Unix programs Unix SUS2008 utilities List