SM_ENCODING_*

There are four SM_ENCODING_* environmental variables that can be set.

• SM_ENCODING_SHELL indicates the encoding used by the shell, primarily useful for specifying what encoding is used for command line arguments.

• SM_ENCODING_SYSTEM indicates the encoding used for internal interaction with the operating system.

  • Primarily dictates the encoding used for file system access.

  • Secondarily indicates the encoding used when internally accessing the environment.

• SM_ENCODING_INPUT indicates the encoding used by stdin.

• SM_ENCODING_OUTPUT indicates the encoding used by stdout and stderr.

  Tuning the SM_ENCODING_INPUT and SM_ENCODING_OUTPUT values is primarily useful if you are redirecting or piping text somewhere other than the shell.

  On UNIX the behavior is:

• If SM_ENCODING_SHELL is not set, then its value will default to "UTF-8."

• If SM_ENCODING_SYSTEM is not set, then its value will mirror SM_ENCODING_SHELL.

• If SM_ENCODING_INPUT is not set, then its value will mirror SM_ENCODING_SHELL.

• If SM_ENCODING_OUTPUT is not set, then its value will mirror SM_ENCODING_INPUT.

  Note:

  In UNIX it generally makes sense to set all four values identically.

  The following example sets the encoding to Shift_JIS.

  export SM_ENCODING_INPUT=Shift_JIS
  export SM_ENCODING_OUTPUT=Shift_JIS
  export SM_ENCODING_SHELL=SHIFT_JIS
  export SM_ENCODING_SYSTEM=Shift_JIS