INLINE-DETOX(1) General Commands Manual INLINE-DETOX(1)

inline-detox — clean up filenames (stream-based)

inline-detox [-f configfile] [-s sequence] [-v]

inline-detox [-f configfile] [-s sequence] [-v] file ...

inline-detox [-L] [-f configfile] [-v]

inline-detox [-h | --help]

inline-detox [-V]

The inline-detox utility generates new filenames to make them easier to work with under Unix and Unix-like operating systems. It replaces characters that make it hard to type out a filename with dashes and underscores. It also provides transliteration-based filters, converting ISO 8859-1 or UTF-8 to ASCII, in part or in whole. An additional filter unescapes CGI-escaped filenames.

inline-detox reads filename(s) from the input stream and writes the updated filename(s) to the output stream.

If a filename is passed on the command line, inline-detox reads this file and processes each line before writing it to the output stream.

Running detox --inline is identical to running inline-detox.

inline-detox is driven by a configurable series of filters, called a sequence. Sequences are covered in more detail in detoxrc(5) and are discoverable with the -L option. The default sequence will run the safe and wipeup filters. Other examples of pre-configured sequences are iso8859_1 and utf_8, which both provide transliteration to ASCII and then finish with the safe and wipeup filters.

configfile
Use configfile instead of the default configuration files for loading translation sequences. No other config file will be parsed.
, --help
Display helpful information.
List the currently available sequences. When paired with -v this option shows what filters are used in each sequence and any properties applied to the filters.
sequence
Use sequence instead of default.
Be verbose about which files are being renamed.
Show the current version of inline-detox.

/etc/detoxrc
The system-wide detoxrc file.
~/.detoxrc
A user's personal detoxrc. Normally it extends the system-wide detoxrc, unless -f has been specified, in which case, it is ignored.
/usr/share/detox/cp1252.tbl
The provided CP-1252 transliteration table.
/usr/share/detox/iso8859_1.tbl
The provided ISO 8859-1 transliteration table.
/usr/share/detox/safe.tbl
The provided safe character translation table.
/usr/share/detox/unicode.tbl
The provided Unicode transliteration table, used by the UTF-8 filter.
/usr/share/detox/unidecode.tbl
An additional Unicode tranlsiteration table, based on Text::Unidecode(3pm).

echo Foo Bar | inline-detox -s lower -v
Will run the sequence lower, listing any changes and returning the result to the output stream.

detox(1), Text::Unidecode(3pm), detox.tbl(5), detoxrc(5), ascii(7), iso_8859-1(7), unicode(7), utf-8(7)

inline-detox was originally designed to clean up files that I had received from friends which had been created using other operating systems. It's trivial to create a filename with spaces, parenthesis, brackets, and ampersands under some operating systems. These have special meaning within FreeBSD and Linux, and cause problems when you go to access them. I created inline-detox to clean up these files.

Version 2.0 stepped back from transliteration out of the box, instead focusing on ease of use. The primary motivations for this were user-provided feedback, and the fact that many modern Unix-like OSs use UTF-8 as their primary character set. Transliterating from UTF-8 to ASCII in this scenario is lossy and pointless.

inline-detox was written by Doug Harple.

February 24, 2021 Debian