manconv

manconv [options] {file...}

-q
    Be quiet; suppress warnings.

-v
    Be verbose; show which conversions are being performed.

-n
    Do not actually perform any conversions; only show what would be done.

-i
    Input encoding. If no encoding given, encoding will be tried to determine automatically.

-o
    Output encoding. If no encoding given, encoding will be tried to determine automatically.

-f
    Specify an alternative configuration file.

--version
    Display version information and exit.

--help
    Display this help message and exit.

The manconv command is a utility designed to convert manual pages from one encoding to another.
It is primarily used to handle character encoding issues when viewing or processing man pages that are not in the system's default encoding (usually UTF-8).
Man pages may be encoded in various character sets, particularly older ones such as ISO-8859-1. manconv facilitates displaying and using these pages correctly.

The tool relies on a configuration file (typically `/etc/man_db.conf` or a user-specific configuration) to define encoding mappings. It uses these mappings to convert man page source files to the terminal's expected encoding, ensuring proper display of special characters, accented letters, and other encoding-specific elements.
Essentially, manconv acts as a bridge between differently encoded man pages and the user's system, thus playing a key role in providing a usable manual documentation experience.

The effectiveness of manconv depends on the accuracy and completeness of the encoding mappings defined in its configuration file. Incorrect or missing mappings can lead to conversion errors or garbled output.

The default configuration file is `/etc/man_db.conf`.
This file contains sections that define the encodings recognized by manconv and the conversion rules to apply.
Users can also create custom configuration files to handle specific encoding needs.

manconv's development is closely tied to the evolution of the man-db suite, which provides tools for accessing and managing manual pages on Unix-like systems.
It arose from the need to handle the increasing diversity of character encodings used in man pages, allowing users to access documentation regardless of the original encoding.

man(1), iconv(1)