<s>
In	O
Unix	B-Application
and	O
Unix-like	B-Operating_System
operating	I-Operating_System
systems	I-Operating_System
,	O
iconv	B-Language
(	O
an	O
abbreviation	O
of	O
internationalization	B-General_Concept
conversion	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
command-line	O
program	B-Application
and	O
a	O
standardized	O
application	B-Application
programming	I-Application
interface	I-Application
(	O
API	B-Application
)	O
used	O
to	O
convert	O
between	O
different	O
character	B-General_Concept
encodings	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Initially	O
appearing	O
on	O
the	O
HP-UX	B-Application
operating	O
system	O
,	O
iconv( )	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
utility	O
was	O
standardized	O
within	O
XPG4	O
and	O
is	O
part	O
of	O
the	O
Single	O
UNIX	B-Application
Specification	O
(	O
SUS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
Linux	B-Application
distributions	I-Application
provide	O
an	O
implementation	O
,	O
either	O
from	O
the	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
Standard	O
C	O
Library	O
(	O
included	O
since	O
version	O
2.1	O
,	O
February	O
1999	O
)	O
,	O
or	O
the	O
more	O
traditional	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
libiconv	B-Language
,	O
for	O
systems	O
based	O
on	O
other	O
Standard	O
C	O
Libraries	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
iconv	B-Language
function	O
on	O
both	O
is	O
licensed	O
as	O
LGPL	B-Application
,	O
so	O
it	O
is	O
linkable	O
with	O
closed	O
source	O
applications	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
the	O
libraries	O
,	O
the	O
iconv	B-Language
utility	O
is	O
licensed	O
under	O
GPL	B-License
in	O
both	O
implementations	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
libiconv	B-Language
implementation	O
is	O
portable	O
,	O
and	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
on	O
various	O
UNIX-like	B-Operating_System
and	O
non-UNIX	O
systems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
uconv	B-Device
utility	O
from	O
International	B-Application
Components	I-Application
for	I-Application
Unicode	I-Application
provides	O
an	O
iconv-compatible	O
command-line	O
syntax	O
for	O
transcoding	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Currently	O
,	O
over	O
a	O
hundred	O
different	O
character	B-General_Concept
encodings	I-General_Concept
are	O
supported	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Under	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Windows	I-Application
,	O
the	O
iconv	B-Language
library	O
and	O
the	O
utility	O
is	O
provided	O
by	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
's	O
libiconv	B-Language
found	O
in	O
Cygwin	B-Language
and	O
GnuWin32	B-Language
environments	O
;	O
there	O
is	O
also	O
a	O
"	O
purely	O
Win32	O
"	O
implementation	O
called	O
"	O
win-iconv	O
"	O
that	O
uses	O
Windows	O
 '	O
built-in	O
routines	O
for	O
conversion	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
iconv	B-Language
function	O
is	O
also	O
available	O
for	O
many	O
programming	O
languages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
command	B-Application
has	O
also	O
been	O
ported	O
to	O
the	O
IBM	B-Application
i	I-Application
operating	O
system	O
.	O
</s>
