CharsetDecoder not working on linux machine

Question

Following does not work on linux machine.

        Charset charset = Charset.forName("UTF-8");
        CharsetDecoder decoder = charset.newDecoder();

        try {
            FileOutputStream fo = new FileOutputStream("hi.txt");
            PrintStream ps = new PrintStream(fo);
            String msgBody = "ΣYMMETOXH";
            ps.println(decoder.decode(ByteBuffer.wrap(decoder.decode(ByteBuffer.wrap(msgBody.getBytes())).toString().getBytes())));
            ps.close();
            fo.close();
        } catch (CharacterCodingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

This code works on windows. What can be the issue? On linux machine decoder does not decode the string.

Answer 1

The problem is that you're using String.getBytes() at least once, possibly twice (your enormously long line is hard to read; using several statements would make it easier to understand). That doesn't specify an encoding, so it'll use the platform default encoding. At that point, you've got a platform dependency... hence the problem.

It's not at all clear what you're trying to achieve, but if you're looking for reasons for platform-specific behaviour, that's the first thing to look at.

Oh, and creating a PrintStream like that will have the same issue... create an OutputStreamWriter with a specific encoding instead.