Open Notepad++ via command line with a certain character set

PeterJones

@cyclingcat ,

As far as I can tell, there are no documented command line arguments to select the encoding.

However, Settings > Preferences > MISC (see docs) allows you to disable automatic encoding detection. That, possibly in conjunction with the New Document’s Encoding options , might be able to help.

If that’s not sufficient, you can read our FAQ on feature requests. Personally, I think a command-line option to select an encoding is more useful than some of the command-line options. If you do submit a feature request, please paste the link in this thread, so others reading this topic can find out the status of the request.

(Also, is it possible to set Robocopy to output UTF-8 or UCS-2 LE or some other modern Unicode encoding, rather than the antiquated 8bit OEM-850? In modern computing, using old encodings rather than full Unicode is just asking for trouble.)

whitecat

I’m using the robocopy command line option /UNILOG to write the log file, but it seems to be broken - it doesn’t really write Unicode. Reconfiguring Notepad++ just for the sake of correctly displaying the robocopy logfile is not an option for me, because Notepad++ is my standard editor for nearly everything.

There can never be too many command line options though, so I’d strongly vote for a possibility to indicate the character set/encoding when opening a file. I’ve just created Github issue #8082 for this.

datatraveller1

@whitecat The AutoCodepage plugin might be useful for you.

whitecat

@datatraveller1,

indeed, this solves my specific problem. Thank you for this hint. I had to modify my script though, now the logfile gets written into a file with a special extension (.log850) which I configured in the plugin.

But the general problem remains - what to do with files from applications with given extensions? I would consider such a command line option as very useful.

Alan Kilborn

@whitecat said in Open Notepad++ via command line with a certain character set:

But the general problem remains … I would consider such a command line option as very useful.

How would you envision such a command line syntax?

notepad++ yourfile.ext -charset="OEM 850"

datatraveller1

I would find this option which could be named
-charset or maybe more “mordern” -encoding
also very useful, so I upvoted your Github issue #8082

whitecat

@datatraveller1
@Alan-Kilborn

Notepad++ is capable of opening several files at once via command line, so the syntax could be enhanced in order to support opening different files with different charsets:

notepad++ yourfile1.ext -charset="OEM 850" yourfile2.ext -charset="UTF-8 BOM"

(or similar).

Alan Kilborn

@whitecat said in Open Notepad++ via command line with a certain character set:

notepad++ yourfile1.ext -charset=“OEM 850” yourfile2.ext -charset=“UTF-8 BOM”

That syntax feels “not quite right”.

Given the current possible command line is defined like this:

notepad++ [–help] [-multiInst] [-noPlugin] [-lLanguage] [-udl=“My UDL Name”] [-LlangCode] [-nLineNumber] [-cColumnNumber] [-pPosition] [-xLeftPos] [-yTopPos] [-monitor] [-nosession] [-notabbar] [-ro] [-systemtray] [-loadingTime] [-alwaysOnTop] [-openSession] [-r] [-qn=“Easter egg name” | -qt=“a text to display.” | -qf=“D:\my quote.txt”] [-qSpeed1|2|3] [-quickPrint] [-settingsDir=“d:\your settings dir”] [-openFoldersAsWorkspace] [-titleAdd=“additional title bar text”][filePath]

See how filePath is the last thing, and things BEFORE it affect it, e.g. -nLineNumber?

IMO, it makes more sense to have your proposed command line work as follows:

notepad++ yourfile1.ext -charset="OEM 850" yourfile2.ext -charset="UTF-8 BOM" yourfile3.ext yourfile4.ext

yourfile1.ext would not be affected by any -charset influence
yourfile2.ext would be opened and its encoding set to OEM 850
yourfile3.ext would be opened and its encoding set to UTF-8 BOM
yourfile4.ext would be opened and its encoding set to UTF-8 BOM

whitecat

@Alan-Kilborn

Yepp - you’re right, this would be more consistent.

datatraveller1

I’m wondering who decides if this feature request is implemented? Is there a particular procedure for a feature request?

Alan Kilborn

@datatraveller1 said in Open Notepad++ via command line with a certain character set:

I’m wondering who decides if this feature request is implemented? Is there a particular procedure for a feature request?

So the feature request is now an “issue”, which means it can get developer attention. The main author of Notepad++ can work on it, which gives it about a 100% to be accepted into the codebase, when complete. Or, someone else can work on it, and even if they finish a nice implementation on it, there is no guarantee that the author will accept it into the codebase. Or…nothing will ever happen on it (there are a lot of open bug issues, and a lot of other feature request issues).

datatraveller1

@Alan-Kilborn ok, I understand. Thank you!

Alan Kilborn

Earlier I had said:

IMO, it makes more sense to have your proposed command line work as follows:

notepad++ yourfile1.ext -charset=“OEM 850” yourfile2.ext -charset=“UTF-8 BOM” yourfile3.ext yourfile4.txt

While that’s an idyllic command line, logically, it doesn’t really suit how Notepad++ currently works; example:

notepad++ -multiInst -n15 yourfile1.txt -n10 yourfile2.txt

While this will open “yourfile1.txt” at line 15, it will NOT open “yourfile2.txt” at line 10.

But this:

notepad++ -multiInst -n15 yourfile1.txt yourfile2.txt

will open both files at line 15.

So I think it is reasonable to allow only one -charset=... on a command line, that affects all following files; example:

notepad++ yourfile1.ext -charset="UTF-8 BOM" yourfile3.ext yourfile4.txt <-- contains only ONE charset directive.

If a second -charset is encountered on the command-line, it would be ignored.