recode ☆

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Description:
Convert character set (charsets)

Type: Formula | Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: encoding character-set text-processing internationalization cli conversion

Install: brew install recode

About:
Recode is a command-line utility that converts text files between different character sets and encodings. It handles complex transformations between various character sets, including ISO-8859 series, UTF-8, and legacy encodings. The tool is particularly valuable for processing files from different international sources or migrating legacy data to modern standards.

Key Features:

Supports conversion between dozens of character encodings
Can process multiple files or standard input/output streams
Handles recoding of text within structured formats like HTML or XML
Provides automatic detection of input encoding
Offers fine-grained control over conversion behavior

Use Cases:

Converting legacy text files from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8 for web applications
Processing internationalization files with mixed character encodings
Fixing encoding issues in data imported from older systems
Batch processing multiple text files during migration projects

Alternatives:

iconv – Standard GNU utility, more widely available but with fewer advanced features for complex recoding scenarios
uconv – ICU-based converter with Unicode focus, better for complex Unicode transformations

Version History

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