Disabling automatic conversion

Many commands that perform file input/output, by default, allow automatic conversion of tagged files. Some of these commands can disable automatic conversion using the -B option. The explicit use of the -B option on the command overrides any automatic conversion as well as any text conversion indicated by the _TEXT_CONV environment variable.

The -B option applies to the input text file that is processed by the command. Other files used by the command, such as a file list or configuration information, are not affected by the -B option. When a command allows the use of the standard input (stdin) in place of the input text file, the -B option will disable automatic conversion of the standard input (stdin) if it is not associated with a terminal.