MANCONV(1) Manual pager utils MANCONV(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

manconv - convert manual page from one encoding to another

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**manconv** **-f** \[*from-code*\[:*from-code*...]] **-t** *to-code* \[**-dqhV**] \[*filename*]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**manconv** converts a manual page from one encoding to another, like **iconv**. Unlike **iconv**, it can try multiple possible input encodings in sequence. This is useful for manual pages installed in directories without an explicit encoding declaration, since they may be in UTF-8 or in a legacy character set.

If an encoding declaration is found on the first line of the manual page, that declaration overrides any input encodings specified on **manconv**'s command line. Encoding declarations have the following form:

```
'\" -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
```

or (if manual page preprocessors are also to be declared):

```
'\" t -*- coding: ISO-8859-1 -*-
```

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

[**-f** *encodings*, **--from-code** *encodings*](#f)

Try each of *encodings* (a colon-separated list) in sequence as the input encoding. The default is to guess likely input encodings based on the file name.

[**-t** *encoding*, **--to-code** *encoding*](#t)

Convert the manual page to *encoding*.

[**-q**, **--quiet**](#q)

Do not issue error messages when the page cannot be converted.

[**-d**, **--debug**](#d)

Print debugging information.

[**-h**, **--help**](#h)

Print a help message and exit.

[**-V**, **--version**](#V)

Display version information.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[*iconv*(1)](/man/os/man-db/iconv.1), [*man*(1)](/man/os/man-db/man.1), [*man-recode*(1)](/man/os/man-db/man-recode.1)

# [AUTHOR](#AUTHOR)

```
Colin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org).
```

# [BUGS](#BUGS)

https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db/-/issues  
https://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=man-db

2025-05-02 2.13.1

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Document: manconv(1) from man-db 2.13.1-r56 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://gitlab.com/man-db/man-db