A script allows to convert any file to utf-8 and send it content to stdout

convert-from-any-file-to-stdout-in-utf8

#!/bin/bash

FFN="$1"
filename=`basename "$FFN"`
encoding=$(uchardet "$FFN")
enc=`echo $encoding | sed 's#^x-mac-#mac#'`
cat "$FFN" | perl -pe 's/\r\n/\n/g' | perl -pe 's/\n\r/\n/g' | perl -pe 's/\r/\n/g' > "$FFN.out"
iconv -f $enc -t UTF-8 "$FFN.out"