cmd:recode 

dos2unix and unix2dos  (scripts)
recode     create alias:
                  alias dos2unix='recode ibmpc..lat1'
                  alias unix2dos='recode lat1..ibmpc'

European chars to ascii 

better:

recode -f latin1..text

or:

recode -f latin1..ascii

documented on: 2005.08.19