> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.glesys.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.glesys.com/products/compute/guides-for-server-management/converting-files-from-iso-8859-1-to-utf-8.md).

# Converting files from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8

***

Many websites are still encoded in ISO‑8859‑1. If you want to convert all the text in a file from ISO‑8859‑1 to UTF‑8, you can use the **iconv** utility, which is included in most Linux distributions.

The following command converts a single file from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8:

{% code title="Command" %}

```
iconv -f iso-8859-1 -t utf-8 file1 > file2
```

{% endcode %}

The script below converts all text files (PHP, JS, CSS, HTML, and TXT) within a directory from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8. The script should be executed from outside the directory to convert; it will then create a new directory with the prefix `utf8.`. For example, if you were to run `./iconvall.sh www/`, it would create `utf8.www` in the current working directory, where all text files are converted, and non-text files are copied. The directory structure in `utf8.www` will be identical to `www`.

The script looks like this:

{% code title="iconvall.sh" %}

```bash
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 1 ]
then
        echo "Script requires one argument, the folder to be converted from iso to utf."
        exit
fi

mkdir utf8.$1
cd utf8.$1
(cd ../$1; find -type d ! -name .) | xargs mkdir
cd ..
for i in `find $1 -type f -print`;
do
            #converts text files
            if [[ $i == *.php ]] || [[ $i == *.js ]] || [[ $i == *.css ]] || [[ $i == *.html ]] || [[ $i == *.txt ]]
            then
            echo "[CONVERT]: $i";
            iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 $i -o utf8.$i;
            else
                echo "[COPY]: $i";
                cp $i utf8.$i
            fi
done
```

{% endcode %}

## Example

<pre data-title="Multiple commands and output. Commands are highlighted."><code><strong>./iconvall.sh www
</strong>[CONVERT]: www/index.html
[CONVERT]: www/subfolder/anothertext.txt
[COPY]: www/subfolder/anotherimage.jpg
[COPY]: www/image.jpg
[CONVERT]: www/story.txt
<strong>ls
</strong>iconvall.sh  utf8.www  www
<strong>tree
</strong>.
├── iconvall.sh
├── utf8.www
│   ├── image.jpg
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── story.txt
│   └── subfolder
│       ├── anotherimage.jpg
│       └── anothertext.txt
└── www
    ├── image.jpg
    ├── index.html
    ├── story.txt
    └── subfolder
        ├── anotherimage.jpg
        └── anothertext.txt

5 directories, 11 files
</code></pre>