VT-IS-UTF8(1)          Linux User's Manual          VT-IS-UTF8(1)

NAME
       vt-is-UTF8 - check whether current VT is in UTF8- or byte-
       mode.

SYNOPSIS
       vt-is-UTF8 [-h|--help] [-V|--version] [-q|--quiet]

DESCRIPTION
       vt-is-UTF8 checks whether the current VT is in UTF8  mode,
       by  writing  (and  erasing  afterwards) a 3-byte-long UTF8
       sequence, and looking how much chars  where  displayed  by
       the console driver.

       A  message  telling  in  which mode the console is is then
       written to  stdout  (except  if  the  --quiet  option  was
       given).

       If  the --quiet option is not given, the value returned is
       1 if an error occurs, else 0.

OPTIONS
       -h --help
              display version number, a short  help  message  and
              exit.

       -V --version
              display version number and exit.

       do  not print on stdout in with mode we are, but return
              the state as
              exit-status  1  if in UTF8-mode, 0 if in byte-mode.
              In case of error, 0 is returned and  a  message  is
              displayed on stderr.

BUGS
       The  check  should  be done by directly asking the kernel,
       which is not possible as of kernels 2.0.x.

       As of kernel 2.0.35,  the  byte-mode  is  sometimes  erro-
       neously  detected  as  UTF8-mode,  after  switching from a
       512-chars font to a 256-chars font.  This  is  probably  a
       console-driver bug.

SEE ALSO
       unicode_start(1), unicode_stop(1).

Console tools              10 Aug 1998                          1