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LUIT(1)			    General Commands Manual		       LUIT(1)

NAME
       luit - Locale and ISO 2022 support for Unicode terminals

SYNOPSIS
       luit [ options ]	[ -- ] [ program [ args	] ]

DESCRIPTION
       Luit is a filter	that can be run	between	an arbitrary application and a
       UTF-8  terminal	emulator.  It will convert application output from the
       locale's	encoding into UTF-8, and convert  terminal  input  from	 UTF-8
       into the	locale's encoding.

       Luit  reads its input from the child process, i.e., an application run-
       ning in the terminal.  Luit writes its output to	the terminal.  The two
       (input and output) can have different encodings.

       An application may also request switching to a different	output	encod-
       ing  using ISO 2022 and ISO 6429	escape sequences.  Use of this feature
       is discouraged: multilingual applications should	 be  modified  to  di-
       rectly generate UTF-8 instead.

       Luit  is	 usually  invoked transparently	by the terminal	emulator.  For
       information about running luit from the command line, see EXAMPLES  be-
       low.

OPTIONS
       -V     Print luit's version and quit.

       -alias filename
	      the locale alias file
	      (default:	/usr/local/lib/X11/locale/locale.alias).

       -argv0 name
	      Set the child's name (as passed in argv[0]).

       -c     Function	as  a simple converter from standard input to standard
	      output.

       -encoding encoding
	      Set up luit to use encoding rather than the current locale's en-
	      coding.

       -g0 charset
	      Set the output charset initially selected	in  G0.	  The  default
	      depends on the locale, but is usually ASCII.

       -g1 charset
	      Set  the	output	charset	initially selected in G1.  The default
	      depends on the locale.

       -g2 charset
	      Set the output charset initially selected	in  G2.	  The  default
	      depends on the locale.

       -g3 charset
	      Set  the	output	charset	initially selected in G3.  The default
	      depends on the locale.

       -gl gn Set the initial assignment of GL in the  output.	 The  argument
	      should  be  one of g0, g1, g2 or g3.  The	default	depends	on the
	      locale, but is usually g0.

       -gr gk Set the initial assignment of GR in the output.  The default de-
	      pends on the locale, and is usually g2 except for	 EUC  locales,
	      where it is g1.

       -h     Display  a  usage	and options message on the standard output and
	      quit.

       -ilog filename
	      Log into filename	all the	bytes received from the	child.

       -k7    Generate seven-bit characters for	keyboard input.

       -kg0 charset
	      Set the input charset initially selected in G0.  The default de-
	      pends on the locale, but is usually ASCII.

       -kg1 charset
	      Set the input charset initially selected in G1.  The default de-
	      pends on the locale.

       -kg2 charset
	      Set the input charset initially selected in G2.  The default de-
	      pends on the locale.

       -kg3 charset
	      Set the input charset initially selected in G3.  The default de-
	      pends on the locale.

       -kgl gn
	      Set the initial assignment of GL in  the	input.	 The  argument
	      should  be  one of g0, g1, g2 or g3.  The	default	depends	on the
	      locale, but is usually g0.

       -kgr gk
	      Set the initial assignment of GR in the input.  The default  de-
	      pends  on	 the locale, and is usually g2 except for EUC locales,
	      where it is g1.

       -kls   Generate locking shifts (SO/SI) for keyboard input.

       +kss   Disable generation of single-shifts for keyboard input.

       +kssgr Use GL codes after a single shift	for keyboard  input.   By  de-
	      fault, GR	codes are generated after a single shift when generat-
	      ing eight-bit keyboard input.

       -list  List the supported charsets and encodings, then quit.  Luit uses
	      its internal tables for this, which are based on the fontenc li-
	      brary.

       -list-builtin
	      List  the	 built-in  encodings used as a fallback	when data from
	      iconv or fontenc is missing.

	      This option relies on luit being configured to use iconv,	 since
	      the  fontenc  library  does not supply a list of built-in	encod-
	      ings.

       -list-fontenc
	      List the encodings provided by ".enc" files originally  distrib-
	      uted with	the fontenc library.

       -list-iconv
	      List  the	 encodings and locales supported by the	iconv library.
	      Luit adapts its internal tables of fontenc names to iconv	encod-
	      ings.

	      To make scripting	simpler, luit ignores spaces, underscores  and
	      ASCII  minus-signs  (dash) embedded in the names.	 Luit also ig-
	      nores case when matching charset and encoding names.

	      This option lists	only the encodings which are  associated  with
	      the  locales  supported  on  the	current	operating system.  The
	      portable iconv application provides a list of its	supported  en-
	      codings  with  the -l option.  Other implementations may provide
	      similar functionality.  There is no  portable  library  call  by
	      which an application can obtain the same information.

       -olog filename
	      Log into filename	all the	bytes sent to the terminal emulator.

       +ols   Disable interpretation of	locking	shifts in application output.

       +osl   Disable  interpretation  of character set	selection sequences in
	      application output.

       +oss   Disable interpretation of	single shifts in application output.

       +ot    Disable interpretation of	all sequences and pass	all  sequences
	      in  application output to	the terminal unchanged.	 This may lead
	      to interesting results.

       -p     In startup, establish  a	handshake  between  parent  and	 child
	      processes.  This is needed for some older	systems, e.g., to suc-
	      cessfully	copy the terminal settings to the pseudo-terminal.

       -prefer list
	      Set  the	lookup-order preference	for character set information.
	      The parameter is a comma-separated list of  keywords.   The  de-
	      fault order (listing all keywords) is

		     fontenc,builtin,iconv,posix

	      The default order	uses fontenc first because this	allows luit to
	      start more rapidly (about	0.1 seconds) than using	iconv for com-
	      plex  encodings  such  as	eucJP.	However, you may find that the
	      iconv implementation is more  accurate  or  complete.   In  that
	      case,  you  can use the -show-iconv option to obtain a text file
	      which can	be used	as an encoding with the	fontenc	configuration.

	      This option relies on luit being configured to use iconv,	 since
	      the fontenc library does not provide this	choice.

       -show-builtin encoding
	      Show  a  built-in	 encoding,  e.g., from a ".enc"	file using the
	      ".enc" format.

	      This option relies on luit being configured to use iconv,	 since
	      the  fontenc  library  does not supply a list of built-in	encod-
	      ings.

       -show-fontenc encoding
	      Show a given encoding, e.g., from	a ".enc" file using the	".enc"
	      format.  If luit is configured to	use the	 fontenc  library,  it
	      obtains  the  information	 using	that  library.	Otherwise luit
	      reads the	file directly.

	      Some of fontenc's	encodings are built  into  the	library.   The
	      fontenc  library	uses  those in preference to an	external file.
	      Use the -show-builtin option to provide similar information when
	      luit is configured to use	iconv.

       -show-iconv encoding
	      Show a given encoding, using the ".enc" format.  If luit is con-
	      figured to use iconv, it obtains the information using that  in-
	      terface.	If iconv cannot	supply the information,	luit may use a
	      built-in table.

       -t     Initialize  luit	using the locale and command-line options, but
	      do not open a pty	connection.  This option is used  for  testing
	      luit's  configuration.   It  will	exit with success if no	errors
	      were detected.  Repeat the -t option to cause  warning  messages
	      to be treated as errors.

       -v     Be  verbose.   Repeating the option, e.g., "-v -v" makes it more
	      verbose.	Luit does not use getopt, so "-vv" does	not work.

       -x     Exit as soon as the child	dies.  This may	 cause	luit  to  lose
	      data at the end of the child's output.

       --     End of options.

ENVIRONMENT
       Luit uses these environment variables:

       FONT_ENCODINGS_DIRECTORY
	      overrides	 the location of the "encodings.dir" file, which lists
	      encodings	in external ".enc" files.

       LC_ALL

       LC_CTYPE

       LANG   During initialization, luit calls	 setlocale  to	check  if  the
	      user's  locale  is supported by the operating system.  If	setlo-
	      cale returns a failure, luit looks instead at these variables in
	      succession to obtain any clues from the user's  environment  for
	      locale preference.

       NCURSES_NO_UTF8_ACS
	      Luit sets	this to	tell ncurses to	not rely upon VT100 SI/SO con-
	      trols for	line-drawing.

       SHELL  This is normally set by shells other than	the Bourne shell, as a
	      convention.   Luit  will	use this value (rather than the	user's
	      entry in /etc/passwd) to decide  which  shell  to	 execute.   If
	      SHELL is not set,	luit executes /bin/sh.

FILES
       /usr/local/lib/X11/locale/locale.alias
	      The file mapping locales to locale encodings.

BUGS
   Limitations
       None  of	this complexity	should be necessary.  Stateless	UTF-8 through-
       out the system is the way to go.

       Charsets	with a non-trivial intermediary	byte are not yet supported.

       Selecting alternate sets	of control characters  is  not	supported  and
       will never be.

   Security
       On  systems  with  SVR4	("Unix-98") ptys (Linux	version	2.2 and	later,
       SVR4), luit should be run as the	invoking user.

       On systems without SVR4 ("Unix-98") ptys	(notably BSD  variants),  run-
       ning  luit  as an ordinary user will leave the tty world-writable; this
       is a security hole, and luit will generate a warning (but still	accept
       to  run).   A  possible solution	is to make luit	suid root; luit	should
       drop privileges sufficiently early to make  this	 safe.	 However,  the
       startup code has	not been exhaustively audited, and the author takes no
       responsibility for any resulting	security issues.

       Luit  will  refuse  to  run if it is installed setuid and cannot	safely
       drop privileges.

EXAMPLES
       The most	typical	use of luit is to adapt	an instance of	XTerm  to  the
       locale's	encoding.  Current versions of XTerm invoke luit automatically
       when  it	 is  needed.  If you are using an older	release	of XTerm, or a
       different terminal emulator, you	may invoke luit	manually:

	      $	xterm -u8 -e luit

       If you are running in a UTF-8 locale but	need to	access	a  remote  ma-
       chine  that  doesn't support UTF-8, luit	can adapt the remote output to
       your terminal:

	      $	LC_ALL=fr_FR luit ssh legacy-machine

       Luit is also useful with	applications that hard-wire an	encoding  that
       is  different  from  the	one normally used on the system	or want	to use
       legacy escape sequences for multilingual	output.	 In  particular,  ver-
       sions  of Emacs that do not speak UTF-8 well can	use luit for multilin-
       gual output:

	      $	luit -encoding 'ISO 8859-1' emacs -nw

       And then, in Emacs,

	      M-x set-terminal-coding-system RET iso-2022-8bit-ss2 RET

AUTHORS
       Luit was	written	by Juliusz  Chroboczek	<jch@pps.jussieu.fr>  for  the
       XFree86 project.

       Thomas E. Dickey	has maintained luit for	use by xterm since 2006.

SEE ALSO
       These are portable:

          xterm(1),

          ncurses(3X).

       These are Linux-specific:

          unicode(1),

          utf-8(1),

          charsets(1).

       These are particularly useful:

          Character Code Structure and	Extension Techniques (ISO 2022,	ECMA-35)

          Control Functions for Coded Character Sets (ISO 6429, ECMA-48)

          http://czyborra.com/charsets/

				X Window System			       LUIT(1)

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