How to change encoding for an already opened file?

[anton-kaidalov]

First, thanks A LOT to the micro devs for creating and maintaining it. A truly wonderful piece of software with a lot of care.

I have files saved in various text encodings. I have a habit of opening them in the Midnight Commander mcedit and, in case it hasn't recognized the encoding correctly, adjusting it quickly with a hotkey, e.g. "Alt-e, c" for a quick switch to UTF-8.

Now I'm in the process of migrating to micro from mcedit.

I see micro mentioning "utf-8" in the status line, but I haven't found a way of changing it, if the file is not UTF-8.

Does micro have a key binding for that?

[Andriamanitra]

You can change the encoding with a command like set encoding utf-16le (to change the global setting) or setlocal encoding utf-8 (to change the setting for current buffer). I think the only times micro uses the encoding is when opening or saving a file – it won't automatically re-interpret the current file with the selected encoding. If you want to do that you can set up a keybinding that runs two commands sequentially:

$HOME/.config/micro/bindings.json:

{
    "<Alt-e><c>": "command:setlocal encoding utf-8,command:reopen"
}

[anton-kaidalov]

@Andriamanitra Thanks much for your answer! I particularly liked that you used my mentioned key combination in your sample :) Is this a regular level of friendliness and attention to details in the micro community? :)

Let me try the commands you suggest.

In the meantime: where in the documentation a regular user could find this? I really struggled searching for anything like "encod".

Also, those "set" and "setlocal" — I'm trying to study them a bit by calling "help" on them, but micro simply tells "Sorry, no help for set/setlocal". What help could I read on them?

[anton-kaidalov]

One more thing: you used the term "current buffer". What does that mean in micro? A full opened file, or something like a selection, or even the clipboard contents?..

[Andriamanitra]

@Andriamanitra Thanks much for your answer! I particularly liked that you used my mentioned key combination in your sample :) Is this a regular level of friendliness and attention to details in the micro community? :)

You're welcome! Unfortunately the community is somewhat inactive which can make it difficult to get answers to questions, but I try to do my part to help where I can.

Also, those "set" and "setlocal" — I'm trying to study them a bit by calling "help" on them, but micro simply tells "Sorry, no help for set/setlocal". What help could I read on them?

help tutorial mentions them briefly, and help options has a section that goes into more detail.

One more thing: you used the term "current buffer". What does that mean in micro? A full opened file, or something like a selection, or even the clipboard contents?..

Micro has tabs, each of which can be split (with vpslit or hsplit) into one or more bufpanes, each of which holds one buffer. Typically a buffer holds the contents of a file that you opened but there are a couple of other kinds of buffers, for example the log buffer that you can open with log.