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ICONV(3) Library Functions Manual ICONV(3) NAME iconv - perform character set conversion SYNOPSIS #include <iconv.h> size_t iconv (iconv_t cd, const char* * inbuf, size_t * inbytesleft, char* * outbuf, size_t * outbytesleft); DESCRIPTION The argument cd must be a conversion descriptor created using the func- tion iconv_open. The main case is when inbuf is not NULL and *inbuf is not NULL. In this case, the iconv function converts the multibyte sequence starting at *inbuf to a multibyte sequence starting at *outbuf. At most *in- bytesleft bytes, starting at *inbuf, will be read. At most *out- bytesleft bytes, starting at *outbuf, will be written. The iconv function converts one multibyte character at a time, and for each character conversion it increments *inbuf and decrements *in- bytesleft by the number of converted input bytes, it increments *outbuf and decrements *outbytesleft by the number of converted output bytes, and it updates the conversion state contained in cd. If the character encoding of the input is stateful, the iconv function can also convert a sequence of input bytes to an update of the conversion state without producing any output bytes; such input is called a shift sequence. The conversion can stop for five reasons: 1. An invalid multibyte sequence is encountered in the input. In this case it sets errno to EILSEQ and returns (size_t)(-1). *inbuf is left pointing to the beginning of the invalid multibyte sequence. 2. A multibyte sequence is encountered that is valid but that cannot be translated to the character encoding of the output. This condition de- pends on the implementation and on the conversion descriptor. In the GNU C library and GNU libiconv, if cd was created without the suffix //TRANSLIT or //IGNORE or //NON_IDENTICAL_DISCARD, the conversion is strict: lossy conversions produce this condition. If the suffix //TRANSLIT was specified, transliteration can avoid this condition in some cases. In the musl C library, this condition cannot occur because a conversion to '*' is used as a fallback. In the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Solaris implementations of iconv, this condition cannot occur either, because a conversion to '?' is used as a fallback. When this condition is met, the iconv function sets errno to EILSEQ and returns (size_t)(-1). *inbuf is left pointing to the beginning of the uncon- vertible multibyte sequence. 3. The input byte sequence has been entirely converted, i.e. *in- bytesleft has gone down to 0. In this case iconv returns the number of non-reversible conversions performed during this call. 4. An incomplete multibyte sequence is encountered in the input, and the input byte sequence terminates after it. In this case it sets errno to EINVAL and returns (size_t)(-1). *inbuf is left pointing to the be- ginning of the incomplete multibyte sequence. 5. The output buffer has no more room for the next converted character. In this case it sets errno to E2BIG and returns (size_t)(-1). A different case is when inbuf is NULL or *inbuf is NULL, but outbuf is not NULL and *outbuf is not NULL. In this case, the iconv function at- tempts to set cd's conversion state to the initial state and store a corresponding shift sequence at *outbuf. At most *outbytesleft bytes, starting at *outbuf, will be written. If the output buffer has no more room for this reset sequence, it sets errno to E2BIG and returns (size_t)(-1). Otherwise it increments *outbuf and decrements *out- bytesleft by the number of bytes written. A third case is when inbuf is NULL or *inbuf is NULL, and outbuf is NULL or *outbuf is NULL. In this case, the iconv function sets cd's conversion state to the initial state. RETURN VALUE The iconv function returns the number of characters converted in a non- reversible way during this call; reversible conversions are not counted. In case of error, it sets errno and returns (size_t)(-1). ERRORS The following errors can occur, among others: E2BIG There is not sufficient room at *outbuf. EILSEQ An invalid multibyte sequence has been encountered in the input. EINVAL An incomplete multibyte sequence has been encountered in the in- put. CONFORMING TO POSIX:2024 NOTES In each series of calls to the iconv function, the last should be one with inbuf or *inbuf equal to NULL, in order to complete the conversion of any partially converted input. Although inbuf and outbuf are typed as const char ** and char **, re- spectively, this does not mean that the objects they point can be in- terpreted as C strings or as arrays of characters: the interpretation of character byte sequences is handled internally by the conversion functions. In some encodings, a zero byte may be a valid part of a multibyte character. The caller of the iconv function must ensure that the pointers passed to the function are suitable for accessing characters in the appropri- ate character set. For the encodings UCS-2-INTERNAL, UCS-4-INTERNAL, and wchar_t, this includes ensuring correct alignment. SEE ALSO iconv_open(3), iconvctl(3), iconv_close(3) GNU December 15, 2024 ICONV(3)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO
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