convmv

Converts File Names from One Encoding to Another

convmv is meant to help convert a directory tree and the contained files or a whole file system into a different encoding. It just converts the file names, not the content of the files. A special feature of convmv is that it also takes care of symlinks and converts the symlink target pointer in case the symlink target is converted. All this comes in very handy when converting from old 8-bit locales to UTF-8 locales. It is also possible to convert directories to UTF-8 that are already partly UTF-8 encoded. convmv is able to detect if certain files are UTF-8 encoded and skips them by default. To turn this behavior off, use the --nosmart switch. An interoperability issue that comes with UTF-8 locales is this: Linux and (most?) other Unix-like operating systems use the normalization form C (NFC) for UTF-8 encoding by default but do not enforce this. Darwin, the base of Macintosh OSX, enforces normalization form D (NFD), where a few characters are encoded in a different way. convmv is able to convert files to NFC or NFD, which aids in interoperability with such systems.