tcs command to convert encoding

Question

I'm trying to use the tcs command to convert the encoding of some files, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

$ file ascii.txt
ascii.txt: ASCII text

$ tcs -f ascii -t utf ascii.txt > f2.txt

$ file f2.txt
f2.txt: ASCII text

Any idea why the new file isn't in UTF encoding?

a) file uses only the initial bytes, b) Text that uses only valid ASCII characters would have the same encoding in UTF-8 and ASCII, iirc.\ — muru, Jan 30 '17 at 10:19

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 30 '17 at 10:43

1

in plaintext files the encoding file is presenting to you depends on the content.

as long as it has no utf-8 special characters (umlauts or similar) file will show ascii, as soon as there is an ä for example, the enconding changes to utf-8.

contrary to @muru's comment I could not find a limit testing it up to 60k of text file with an ä at the last line.

answered Jan 30 '17 at 10:43

Phillip -Zyan K Lee- Stockmann

2,353

Ok, "initial" might be an understatement, it reads about 100K. – muru Jan 30 '17 at 11:15

tcs command to convert encoding

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