Coding Systems

When Emacs reads or writes a file, and when Emacs sends text to a subprocess or receives text from a subprocess, it normally performs character code conversion and end-of-line conversion as specified by a particular coding system.

How to define a coding system is an arcane matter, and is not documented here.

• Basic Concepts of Coding Systems
• Encoding and I/O
• Coding Systems in Lisp
• User-Chosen Coding Systems
• Default Coding Systems
• Specifying a Coding System for One Operation
• Explicit Encoding and Decoding
• Terminal I/O Encoding