Using iconv to convert from UTF-16BE to UTF-8 without BOM

Question

I'm trying to convert a UTF-16BE encoded file (byte order mark: 0xFE 0xFF) to UTF-8 using iconv like so:

iconv -f UTF-16BE -t UTF-8 myfile.txt

The resulting output, however, has the UTF-8 byte order mark (0xEF 0xBB 0xBF) and that is not what I need. Is there a way to tell iconv (or is there an equivalent encoding) to not put a BOM in the UTF-8 result?

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 20 '12 at 01:47

23

Experiment shows that indicating UTF-16 rather than UTF-16BE does what you want:

iconv -f UTF-16 -t UTF-8 myfile.txt

answered Jul 20 '12 at 01:47

Keith Thompson

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Works but still curious why it works that way. My experiments also lead me this way but thanks for trying it out. – Edward Samson Jul 20 '12 at 02:43

Using iconv to convert from UTF-16BE to UTF-8 without BOM

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