# Change a file's encoding

Control / exec

A variant of [Run an external command](https://meridian.online/operations/run-an-external-command).

Rewrite a file in another character encoding, line-ending convention or representation.

Page: <https://meridian.online/operations/run-an-external-command/change-file-encoding>

## Status

Not built yet.

arcform does not do this yet; it would live in how a Protocol runs. [Its place on the roadmap](https://meridian.online/roadmap#run-an-external-command)

## What other tools call it

Meridian's classification; an independent blind rating agreed on 95.7% of 324 rows (variant, version 3).

- Apache Hop: [`Change file encoding`](https://hop.apache.org/manual/latest/pipeline/transforms/changefileencoding.html) (read 2026-09-27)
- Apache Hop: [`Convert file between Windows and Unix`](https://hop.apache.org/manual/latest/workflow/actions/dostounix.html) (read 2026-09-27)
- Pentaho Data Integration: [`Change file encoding`](https://docs.pentaho.com/pdia-data-integration/9.3-data-integration/pdi-transformation-steps-reference-overview) (read 2026-09-27)
- Talend: [`tChangeFileEncoding`](https://help.qlik.com/talend/en-US/components/8.0/formatting/formatting-component) (read 2026-09-27)
- Talend: [`tHConvertFile`](https://help.qlik.com/talend/en-US/components/8.0/data-mapping/data-mapping-component) (read 2026-09-27)