Iconv
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iconv is a computer program and a standardized API used to convert between different character encodings.
See also: List of Unix programs
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iconv API
The iconv API is the standard programming interface for converting character strings from one charater encoding to another under Unix and Unix-like computing platforms. Initially appearing on the HP-UX operating system, it got standardized within XPG4 and may be even part of the IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition POSIX spec.
All recent Linux distributions contain an excellent free implementation of iconv() as part of the GNU glibc which is the base of any recent Linux system.
To use it, the GNU glibc locales need to be installed, which is provided as a separate package, named glibc-locale usually, and is normally installed by default.
Compability
Under Windows, the iconv binary (and thus, likely also the API) is provided by the Cygwin and GnuWin32 environments.
Iconv is also one of the libaries supported by PHP[1] (also under Windows using a dll), so it is possible to use iconv() from a PHP program.
iconv is also required by libxml, so any application which uses libxml also requires iconv.
See also
External links
- extensive iconv() HP-UX manual page with example code
- iconv() OpenGroup Standards page
- Online interface to the iconv program
Implementations of the iconv API:
- GNU libiconv, a free iconv implementation, licensed under the LGPL
- FreeBSD port of iconv, under FreeBSD license (assumed)