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How can I setup Emacs to be able to display the content of an old file that contains non-ASCII 8-bit characters that we encoded using a code-page my system does not seem to support?

I have a file that has most probably been written in Germany in the days of 8-bit extended ASCII and Emacs does not display those characters properly. I was thinking I code tell Emacs to try various encoding and see if text would show up. Encoding like Windows 1250 code-page or some others.

Can this be done in Emacs?

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  • You should also try iso-8859-1. C-x RET c iso8859-1 RET C-x C-f <filename> RET should open it with that coding system. The coding system is indicated on the mode line at left as 1: .With some experience, you can tell what coding system was used, when you open the file with M-x find-file literally or with od -c from the command line and looking at the non-ascii chars.
    – NickD
    Nov 2, 2021 at 21:02
  • The file I'm testing this with is a DOS-line termination file. It is identified as iso-8859-1. I presume that file was created with a pre-Unicode coding system most probably in a German speaking country.
    – PRouleau
    Nov 2, 2021 at 21:38
  • I found out that loading the file in Firefox detects the encoding, which turned out to be GBK (simplified chinese). Knowing the encoding I can then use the method you described to open the file with GBK encoding and then I can tried to read the Chinese just fine ;-)
    – PRouleau
    Nov 2, 2021 at 21:51
  • @Nick if you turn your answer in using the universal-coding-system-argument command into an answer I'll accept it.
    – PRouleau
    Nov 2, 2021 at 22:04
  • I'll try, but it's going to take me a few days: writing a good answer is different from throwing out crazy suggestions in a comment :-)
    – NickD
    Nov 3, 2021 at 3:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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M-x set-buffer-file-coding-system and select the desired coding system.

This is, by default, bound to C-x RET f.

Notice that C-x RET is a prefix map. For more info, C-x RET C-h (or equivalently C-x C-m C-h).

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  • Thanks. The docstring of that command states Make CODING-SYSTEM used for communicating with other X clients. Is this only meant to be used on Emacs running in graphics mode over X-Windows, or is this just an obsolete description?
    – PRouleau
    Nov 2, 2021 at 20:28
  • After reading the docstring of set-selection-coding-system, it seems that X is relevant for clipboard support and related functionality. I can give a better answer, please check the edited version.
    – aadcg
    Nov 2, 2021 at 20:45

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