Answer for unknown source encoding type
based on @Sébastien RoccaSerra
python3.6
import os
from chardet import detect
# get file encoding type
def get_encoding_type(file):
with open(file, 'rb') as f:
rawdata = f.read()
return detect(rawdata)['encoding']
from_codec = get_encoding_type(srcfile)
# add try: except block for reliability
try:
with open(srcfile, 'r', encoding=from_codec) as f, open(trgfile, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as e:
text = f.read() # for small files, for big use chunks
e.write(text)
os.remove(srcfile) # remove old encoding file
os.rename(trgfile, srcfile) # rename new encoding
except UnicodeDecodeError:
print('Decode Error')
except UnicodeEncodeError:
print('Encode Error')