BOMSTRIP(1)

💖 BOMSTRIP 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about bomstrip and bomstrip-files — the little duo that yeets the BOM sequence out of your UTF-8 files. no cap. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

bomstrip, bomstrip-files — strip the BOM sequence from UTF-8 files 🧚

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

bomstrip
bomstrip-files file ...

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So here's the tea. ☕

The bomstrip utility reads UTF-8 data from its standard input and copies it to its standard output, and along the way it strips the BOM (byte-order mark) from the beginning of the text if it's present. that's it. that's the whole job. and honestly? iconic.

there are no command-line options and no parameters. none. zero. she's a minimalist, she's booked and busy, she doesn't need your flags. 🫶

The bomstrip-files utility removes the UTF-8 BOM from the specified files, and it saves each file's original contents with a .bom extension — so your og files stay safe, no stress. 💖

She does this by using the bomstrip utility, trying to execute it as bomstrip. but hmm, what if bomstrip is installed under another name? or what if you want a more complex command? 😳 then you can just supply it in the BOMSTRIP environment variable. flexible queen behavior. 💅

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

✨ Strip the BOM, if present, from a text file:

bomstrip < bom.txt > nobom.txt

✨ Strip the BOM, if present, from all text files, backing them up with a .bom extension:

bomstrip-files *.txt

✨ Use the OCAML implementation of bomstrip:

env BOMSTRIP='ocaml bomstrip.ocaml' bomstrip-files *.txt

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

The bomstrip home page: https://www.ueber.net/who/mjl/projects/bomstrip/

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👑 HISTORY 👑

okay so this one has LORE. 📜

The bomstrip utility (in many languages, no less — she's multilingual) was written by Mechiel Lukkien, with implementations in various languages sent to him by others, including Andreas Gohr, Andrew Gerrand, Berteun Damman, Matthijs Bomhoff, Peter Pentchev, and Ruben Smelik. a whole ensemble cast fr fr. 🎭

The bomstrip-files utility and this manual page were written by Peter Pentchev in the hope that they reflect the behavior of all the bomstrip implementations in all languages. fingers crossed bestie, fingers crossed. 🤞

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🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

• Mechiel Lukkien ⟨mechiel@ueber.net⟩
• Peter Pentchev ⟨roam@ringlet.net⟩

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and that's the whole page, babe. 💜 if you were wondering who shipped this lil beauty — Debian, November 14, 2021 🎀 — mwah, sending you BOM-free kisses, go forth and strip those bytes. 💖✨