Batch convert latin-1 files to utf-8 using iconv

You shouldn't use ls like that and a for loop is not appropriate either. Also, the destination directory should be outside the source directory.

mkdir /path/to/destination
find . -type f -exec iconv -f iso-8859-1 -t utf-8 "{}" -o /path/to/destination/"{}" \;

No need for a loop. The -type f option includes files and excludes directories.

Edit:

The OS X version of iconv doesn't have the -o option. Try this:

find . -type f -exec bash -c 'iconv -f iso-8859-1 -t utf-8 "{}" > /path/to/destination/"{}"' \;

This converts all files with the .php filename extension - in the current directory and its subdirectories - preserving the directory structure:

    find . -name "*.php" -exec sh -c "iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 {} > {}.utf8"  \; -exec mv "{}".utf8 "{}" \;

Notes:

To get a list of files that will be targeted beforehand, just run the command without the -exec flags (like this: find . -name "*.php"). Making a backup is a good idea.

Using sh like this allows piping and redirecting with -exec, which is necessary because not all versions of iconv support the -o flag.

Adding .utf8 to the filename of the output and then removing it might seem strange but it is necessary. Using the same name for output and input files can cause the following problems:

• For large files (around 30 KB in my experience) it causes core dump (or termination by signal 7)

• Some versions of iconv seem to create the output-file before they read the input file, which means that if the input and output files have the same name, the input file is overwritten with an empty file before it is read.

Some good answers, but I found this a lot easier in my case with a nested directory of hundreds of files to convert:

WARNING: This will write the files in place, so make a backup

$ vim $(find . -type f)

# in vim, go into command mode (:)
:set nomore
:bufdo set fileencoding=utf8 | w