emacs: Specify Coding
22.7 Specifying a File’s Coding System
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If Emacs recognizes the encoding of a file incorrectly, you can reread
the file using the correct coding system with ‘C-x <RET> r’
(‘revert-buffer-with-coding-system’). This command prompts for the
coding system to use. To see what coding system Emacs actually used to
decode the file, look at the coding system mnemonic letter near the left
edge of the mode line (
Mode Line), or type ‘C-h C’
(‘describe-coding-system’).
You can specify the coding system for a particular file in the file
itself, using the ‘-*-...-*-’ construct at the beginning, or a local
variables list at the end (File Variables). You do this by
defining a value for the “variable” named ‘coding’. Emacs does not
really have a variable ‘coding’; instead of setting a variable, this
uses the specified coding system for the file. For example, ‘-*-mode:
C; coding: latin-1;-*-’ specifies use of the Latin-1 coding system, as
well as C mode. When you specify the coding explicitly in the file,
that overrides ‘file-coding-system-alist’.
Info Catalog
emacs: Recognize Coding
emacs: International
emacs: Output Coding