default_internal

Returns default internal encoding. Strings will be transcoded to the default internal encoding in the following places if the default internal encoding is not nil:

• CSV

• Etc.sysconfdir and Etc.systmpdir

• File data read from disk

• File names from Dir

• Integer#chr

• String#inspect and Regexp#inspect

• Strings returned from Readline

• Strings returned from SDBM

• Time#zone

• Values from ENV

• Values in ARGV including $PROGRAM_NAME

Additionally String#encode and String#encode! use the default internal encoding if no encoding is given.

The locale encoding (__ENCODING__), not default_internal, is used as the encoding of created strings.

Encoding::default_internal is initialized by the source file’s internal_encoding or -E option.