* [Detect encoding](#detect-encoding)
* [Special chars](#special-chars)
* [Re-encode](#re-encode)

---

# Detect encoding

Text file encoding can be identified using for example `file -b <file-path>` or in vim
with `:set fileencoding`

Here's an example of encoding that will fully work with dotdrop:
```bash
$ file -b <some-file>
UTF-8 Unicode text, with escape sequences
```

and another that will mislead the `compare` command and return false/inaccurate results:
```bash
$ file -b <some-file>
ISO-8859 text, with escape sequences
```

# Special chars

## CRLF

The use of dotfiles with DOS/Windows line ending (CRLF, `\r\n`) will result in
the comparison (`compare`) returning a difference while there is none.
This is due to Jinja2 stripping CRLF.

One solution is to use `dos2unix` to re-format the dotfiles before adding them                                                       to dotdrop.

See https://github.com/deadc0de6/dotdrop/issues/42.

## Non-unicode chars

Jinja2 is not able to process non-unicode chars (http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/2.10/api/). This means that dotfiles using non-unicode chars can still be fully managed by dotdrop however when comparing the local file with the one stored in dotdrop, `compare` will return a difference even if there is none.

Either replace the non-unicode chars (see below [Re-encode](re-encode)) or accept the fact the comparison shows a difference while there's none.

See https://github.com/deadc0de6/dotdrop/issues/42.

# Re-encode

To change an existing file's encoding, you can use `recode UTF-8 <filename>` (see [recode](https://linux.die.net/man/1/recode)) or in vim `:set fileencoding=utf-8`.