# File I O

Programmers need to understand character encoding arguments in TERR.

The functions for creating connections (such as `file` and `socketConnection`) have an encoding argument that specifies a character encoding for the connection. Characters are converted to or from that encoding when writing to or reading from the connection.

You can use the option `--console-encoding` and the function `terrUtils::setConsoleEncoding` to set the encoding for console reading or writing to `stdin` and `stdout`.