<s>
luit	B-Device
is	O
a	O
utility	B-Application
program	I-Application
used	O
to	O
translate	O
the	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
of	O
a	O
computer	B-Application
program	I-Application
so	O
that	O
its	O
output	O
can	O
be	O
displayed	O
correctly	O
on	O
a	O
terminal	B-Application
emulator	I-Application
that	O
uses	O
a	O
different	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Whereas	O
iconv	B-Language
converts	O
the	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
of	O
strings	O
or	O
text	B-General_Concept
files	I-General_Concept
at	B-General_Concept
rest	I-General_Concept
,	O
luit	B-Device
converts	O
the	O
input	O
and	O
output	O
of	O
programs	O
running	O
interactively	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
main	O
purpose	O
of	O
luit	B-Device
is	O
to	O
allow	O
"	O
legacy	O
"	O
applications	O
that	O
use	O
character	B-General_Concept
sets	I-General_Concept
other	O
than	O
UTF-8	O
to	O
work	O
with	O
contemporary	O
terminal	B-Application
emulators	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
luit	B-Device
may	O
be	O
required	O
today	O
when	O
connecting	O
to	O
a	O
"	O
legacy	O
"	O
host	O
that	O
only	O
supports	O
an	O
older	O
encoding	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
ISO	O
8859-1	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
instead	O
of	O
running	O
"	O
ssh	B-Protocol
legacy-machine	O
"	O
,	O
a	O
user	O
may	O
have	O
to	O
run	O
""	O
to	O
properly	O
render	O
French	O
accented	O
characters	O
on	O
a	O
UTF-8	O
terminal	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
luit	B-Device
is	O
also	O
used	O
to	O
properly	O
render	O
the	O
output	O
of	O
applications	O
that	O
use	O
ISO	O
2022	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
switching	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
ISO	O
2022	O
is	O
an	O
older	O
standard	O
that	O
allowed	O
an	O
application	O
to	O
"	O
switch	O
"	O
between	O
different	O
fonts	O
,	O
e.g.	O
,	O
to	O
mix	O
line-drawing	O
characters	O
with	O
text	O
or	O
to	O
display	O
text	O
in	O
multiple	O
languages	O
and	O
character	B-General_Concept
sets	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Examples	O
of	O
programs	O
that	O
require	O
translation	O
to	O
run	O
correctly	O
on	O
a	O
UTF-8	O
terminal	O
include	O
earlier	O
versions	O
of	O
emacs/MULE	O
,	O
and	O
programs	O
that	O
use	O
ISO	O
2022	O
shift	O
sequences	O
in	O
ANSI	O
escape	O
codes	O
that	O
switch	O
to	O
an	O
alternate	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
in	O
order	O
to	O
draw	O
line-drawing	O
characters	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
luit	B-Device
is	O
invoked	O
automatically	O
by	O
xterm	B-Language
when	O
necessary	O
to	O
translate	O
program	O
output	O
into	O
UTF-8	O
,	O
for	O
programs	O
running	O
on	O
a	O
local	O
computer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
When	O
connecting	O
remotely	O
to	O
another	O
computer	O
,	O
the	O
user	O
must	O
run	O
luit	B-Device
directly	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
luit	B-Device
interprets	O
application	O
output	O
according	O
to	O
the	O
locale	O
's	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
with	O
ISO	O
2022	O
shifts	O
and	O
ECMA-48	O
escape	O
sequences	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
If	O
an	O
application	O
is	O
speaking	O
a	O
different	O
language	O
than	O
the	O
locale	O
's	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
(	O
one	O
that	O
may	O
have	O
matched	O
the	O
terminal	B-Application
emulator	I-Application
's	O
expectations	O
in	O
the	O
absence	O
of	O
luit	B-Device
)	O
,	O
luit	B-Device
can	O
misinterpret	O
the	O
application	O
's	O
output	O
and	O
produce	O
corrupted	O
output	O
to	O
the	O
terminal	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
luit	B-Device
was	O
written	O
in	O
2001	O
by	O
Juliusz	O
Chroboczek	O
,	O
when	O
major	O
Linux	B-Application
distributions	I-Application
began	O
migrating	O
to	O
the	O
Unicode	O
character	B-General_Concept
set	I-General_Concept
from	O
"	O
legacy	O
"	O
encodings	O
such	O
as	O
ISO	O
8859-1	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
has	O
since	O
become	O
a	O
widely	O
installed	O
base	O
utility	O
,	O
present	O
on	O
more	O
than	O
half	O
of	O
all	O
Linux	B-Application
computer	O
systems	O
by	O
some	O
estimates	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
also	O
part	O
of	O
IBM	B-Application
's	I-Application
AIX	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
There	O
are	O
two	O
versions	O
of	O
luit	B-Device
:	O
one	O
maintained	O
by	O
Thomas	B-Application
Dickey	I-Application
as	O
part	O
of	O
xterm	B-Language
,	O
and	O
another	O
formerly	O
updated	O
by	O
Freedesktop.org	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Some	O
Linux	B-Application
distributions	I-Application
ship	O
the	O
latter	O
version	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
their	O
X11	B-Operating_System
utilities	O
package	O
.	O
</s>
