Unicode on Mac is insane. Mac OS X uses NFD while everything else uses NFC. This fixes that.

mac_utf8_insanity.md

convmv manpage

Install convmv if you don't have it

sudo apt-get install convmv

Convert all files in a directory from NFD to NFC:

convmv -r -f utf8 -t utf8 --nfc --notest .

Convert all files in a directory from NFC to NFD:

convmv -r -f utf8 -t utf8 --nfd --notest .

Hello Henk,

I wish you a merry Christmas !

Thanks for the command. I tried it. At first the command worked but no file title where changed, and no sync with the syno happened. Then it display a dquote>.
Terminal stuff is definitely not for me.

To summarize :

• mac2syn script is in the mac download folder : /Users/francois/Downloads/synology-scripts-master/mac-nfd-conversion/mac2syn
• The folder and all its subfolders to change NFD to NFC is /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/
• I created a "01. Test"sub folder in the "25. Test" Folder to simulate subfolders. (need it in the future as I will apply the command on all 01.\ Documents)
• The file "2008_03_26 - A voir à paris.rtf" is in the "01. Test" subfolder
• I CD the mac2syn foder (cd /Users/francois/Downloads/synology-scripts-master/mac-nfd-conversion/mac2syn)
• I enter your command without the */rtf to deal with all files : for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do mv -v -n ”$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done

Here is the result :
francois@Francoiss-MacBook-Air mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do mv -v -n ”$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done
for dquote> for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do mv -v -n ”$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done
mv: rename ”/Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/ /Users/francois/Documents/01. to /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/01.: No such file or directory
mv: rename Documents/25. to /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/25.: No such file or directory
mv: rename Test ; done
for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do mv -v -n ”/Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/ to /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/25. Test/: No such file or directory

Is the mac2syn and a rename command done for my need?

Thank you Henk,
François

Hi François, If you type for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do the variable f will only iterate through 1 value "/Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/", not the files within you need to type: for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/*.rft or for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/* if there are only rtf files there and no subdirectories and always use double quotes around "$f" because it contains spaces Cheers, Henk

…

On 26 Dec 2020, at 12:36, fguern ***@***.***> wrote: for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/

Got it.
I changed the double quotes and have an invalid argument this time:
francois@Francoiss-MacBook-Air mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done
mv: rename /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/ to /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/25. Test/: Invalid argument

The command seems to repeat the last folder. Is it the Dirname+basename command?

However, I found another command which copy an entire folder and change the nfd, without script: rsync -a --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/26.\ Test\ 2/
This one works. Even If it duplicate the files, I think it's a acceptable workaround. What do you think ?

Thank you,
François

the command doesnt' work because you didn't type the *.rtf behind the for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ see previous email. You are passing a directory path into the mac2syn script, not a list of files within that directory. try again:

…

***@***.*** mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/*.rtf ; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done On 26 Dec 2020, at 19:40, fguern ***@***.***> wrote: @fguern commented on this gist. Got it. I changed the double quotes and have an invalid argument this time: ***@***.*** mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ ; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done mv: rename /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/ to /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/25. Test/: Invalid argument The command seems to repeat the last folder. Is it the Dirname+basename command? However, I found another command which copy an entire folder and change the nfd, without script: rsync -a --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/ /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/26.\ Test\ 2/ This one works. Even If it duplicate the files, I think it's a acceptable workaround. What do you think ? Thank you, François — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/8448512#gistcomment-3573802>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AH35YYFB6LK45I2UQDUNTALSWYUZFANCNFSM4HRUSQ5Q>.

Hello Henk.

At this stage I see three solutions:

/////1 - Your script

-> This time, it's "not overwritten":
francois@Francoiss-MacBook-Air mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/*.rtf ; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done
/Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/2008_03_26 - A voir à paris.rtf not overwritten
Is it possible to have an entire folder+subfolders rename with your script?

//// 2 - James CONVMV command
-> I also tried the command above "convmv -r -f utf8 -t utf8 --nfc --notest" and I got a "wrong/unknown encoding" :
francois@Francoiss-MacBook-Air 25. Test % convmv -r -f enc -t enc utf8 --nfc --notest
wrong/unknown "from" encoding!

///// 3 - Rsync local copy with NFC
-> No apparent problem, except the copy of 10Go
rsync -a --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/02.\ Administratif /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/02.\ Administratif\ nfc

What's your expert advise? Is it worth it to try to make the script or the convmv command work?
Thanks

Noe that the basics of script # 1 work, you can omit the -n option of the mv command Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPhone

…

Op 28 dec. 2020 om 00:27 heeft fguern ***@***.***> het volgende geschreven: ***@***.*** commented on this gist. Hello Henk. At this stage I see three solutions: /////1 - Your script -> This time, it's "not overwritten": ***@***.*** mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/*.rtf ; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/2008_03_26 - A voir à paris.rtf not overwritten Is it possible to have an entire folder+subfolders rename with your script? //// 2 - James CONVMV command -> I also tried the command above "convmv -r -f utf8 -t utf8 --nfc --notest" and I got a "wrong/unknown encoding" : ***@***.*** 25. Test % convmv -r -f enc -t enc utf8 --nfc --notest wrong/unknown "from" encoding! ///// 3 - Rsync local copy with NFC -> No apparent problem, except the copy of 10Go rsync -a --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/02.\ Administratif /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/02.\ Administratif\ nfc What's your expert advise? Is it worth it to try to make the script or the convmv command work? Thanks — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

and for the subdirectories, replace one or more levels of the directories in 'for i in ...' with */*.rtf, */*/*.rtf, */*/*/*.rtf etc. or use find <directory> -type f -name '*.rtf' -print | while read f ; do instead of the for i in ... ; do

…

On 28 Dec 2020, at 12:53, Henk den Bok ***@***.***> wrote: Noe that the basics of script # 1 work, you can omit the -n option of the mv command Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPhone > Op 28 dec. 2020 om 00:27 heeft fguern ***@***.***> het volgende geschreven: > > ***@***.*** commented on this gist. > Hello Henk. > > At this stage I see three solutions: > > /////1 - Your script > > -> This time, it's "not overwritten": > ***@***.*** mac-nfd-conversion % for f in /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/25.\ Test/*.rtf ; do mv -v -n "$f" "$(dirname "$f")/$(./mac2syn <<< "$(basename "$f")")" ; done > /Users/francois/Documents/01. Documents/25. Test/2008_03_26 - A voir à paris.rtf not overwritten > Is it possible to have an entire folder+subfolders rename with your script? > > //// 2 - James CONVMV command > -> I also tried the command above "convmv -r -f utf8 -t utf8 --nfc --notest" and I got a "wrong/unknown encoding" : > ***@***.*** 25. Test % convmv -r -f enc -t enc utf8 --nfc --notest > wrong/unknown "from" encoding! > > ///// 3 - Rsync local copy with NFC > -> No apparent problem, except the copy of 10Go > rsync -a --iconv=utf-8-mac,utf-8 /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/02.\ Administratif /Users/francois/Documents/01.\ Documents/02.\ Administratif\ nfc > > What's your expert advise? Is it worth it to try to make the script or the convmv command work? > Thanks > > — > You are receiving this because you commented. > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/8448512#gistcomment-3574562>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AH35YYFDO6SKYCDWF2537ZDSW67HBANCNFSM4HRUSQ5Q>. >

God bless you! 🙌

Great. Thanks a lot!

So i just upgraded to a new used intel-based macbook pro (aka mbp). I reformatted the internal SDD to use APFS and i'm seeing the exact symptoms defined here when i use VLC to view downloaded french video mp4 files with matching subtitle vtt filenames that have unicode characters in the filenames themselves! VLC plays the mp4 fine but it can't locate and autoload the vtt file with the same exact filename except for the extension! If there are no unicode "french" characters in the filenames it all works fine. But all files whether they had unicode "French" characters or not worked great on my old mbp with an older version of VLC and a NON-APFS file system.

In fact if i mount my external NTFS drive with a huge library of previously downloaded french video mp4 and vtt files on the new mbp (using an NTFS driver to mount the drive of course), the new VLC recognizes and plays these OLD files normally.

BUT on the new mbp, VLC will not autorecognzie the coinciding and same exact vtt filename as it's equivalent mp4 when the filename contains unicode french chars when i download new files via youtube-dl onto the internal SDD formatted as APFS

If i copy these new download files to the usb attached NTFS drive they then magically work they way i expect from VLC on the new mbp! :) If i then copy them back to the new mbp internal SDD with APFS, they also work the way i expect :) This seems to indicate that the NTFS filesystem changes the fileNAME encoding when the file is copied to it and that copying back to APFS somehow does NOT change that new encoding!???

I have a huge collection and am constantly adding to and maintaining it.

Is there any way to just set what your scripts are doing at the filesystem or even system level? Or going forward will i have to always run a post download script on every new filename to convert the unicode flavor used so that my mac / vlc can recognize them?!

Thanks

yup, that is exactly the madness with having two allowed but different character encodings for, say, the è (e-accent-grave)
the simple way to make sure both the media file and the vtt/srt file uses the same file name encoding is:

for i in *.mp4 ; do
mv -vn "$i" "$(syn2mac <<< "$i")"
done

and do the same for the subtitle files. You'll probably get a lot of "same file" warnings from mv on those files that were already in the target encoding.

Very nice tip!
On my Mac, I used brew install convmv, BTW.

You saved my day. Thank you!

Take a look at https://github.com/cr0sh/jaso for a faster alternative written in Rust.

$ brew install simnalamburt/x/jaso
$ jaso .
DONE; 100 files in 1.111529301 seconds