---
name: "vt-is-UTF8"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "console-tools"
version: "1:0.2.3dbs-70"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/vt-is-UTF8"
---

# vt-is-UTF8(1)

check whether current VT is in UTF8- or byte-mode.

## NAME

vt-is-UTF8 - check whether current VT is in UTF8- or byte-mode.

## SYNOPSIS

**vt-is-UTF8 \[***-h***\|***--help***\] \[***-V***\|***--version***\] \[***-q***\|***--quiet***\]**

## DESCRIPTION

**vt-is-UTF8** checks whether the current VT is in UTF8 mode, by writing (and erasing afterwards) a 3-byte-long UTF8 sequence, and looking how much chars where displayed by the console driver.

A message telling in which mode the console is is then written to stdout (except if the *--quiet* option was given).

If the  *--quiet* option is not given, the value returned is 1 if an error occurs, else 0.

## OPTIONS

- *-h --help*

  display version number, a short help message and exit.

- *-V --version*

  display version number and exit.

- *-q --quiet*

  do not print on stdout in with mode we are, but return the state as exit-status 1 if in UTF8-mode, 0 if in byte-mode. In case of error, 0 is returned and a message is displayed on stderr.

## BUGS

The check should be done by directly asking the kernel, which is not possible as of kernels 2.0.x.

As of kernel 2.0.35, the byte-mode is sometimes erroneously detected as UTF8-mode, after switching from a 512-chars font to a 256-chars font.  This is probably a console-driver bug.

## SEE ALSO

[**unicode\_start**(1)](/unicode_start/1.md), [**unicode\_stop**(1)](/unicode_stop/1.md).