iconv_open(3)

1ICONV_OPEN(3)              Linux Programmer's Manual             ICONV_OPEN(3)
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NAME

6       iconv_open - allocate descriptor for character set conversion
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <iconv.h>
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11       iconv_t iconv_open(const char *tocode, const char *fromcode);
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DESCRIPTION

14       The  iconv_open()  function  allocates a conversion descriptor suitable
15       for converting byte sequences from character encoding fromcode to char‐
16       acter encoding tocode.
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18       The values permitted for fromcode and tocode and the supported combina‐
19       tions are system-dependent.  For the GNU C library, the permitted  val‐
20       ues are listed by the iconv --list command, and all combinations of the
21       listed values are supported.  Furthermore the GNU C library and the GNU
22       libiconv library support the following two suffixes:
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24       //TRANSLIT
25              When the string "//TRANSLIT" is appended to tocode, translitera‐
26              tion is activated.  This means that when a character  cannot  be
27              represented  in the target character set, it can be approximated
28              through one or several similarly looking characters.
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30       //IGNORE
31              When the string "//IGNORE" is  appended  to  tocode,  characters
32              that  cannot  be represented in the target character set will be
33              silently discarded.
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35       The resulting conversion descriptor can be used with iconv(3) any  num‐
36       ber of times.  It remains valid until deallocated using iconv_close(3).
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38       A  conversion  descriptor  contains a conversion state.  After creation
39       using iconv_open(), the state is in the initial state.  Using  iconv(3)
40       modifies  the descriptor's conversion state.  (This implies that a con‐
41       version descriptor can not be used in multiple threads simultaneously.)
42       To bring the state back to the initial state, use iconv(3) with NULL as
43       inbuf argument.
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RETURN VALUE

46       The  iconv_open()  function  returns  a  freshly  allocated  conversion
47       descriptor.  In case of error, it sets errno and returns (iconv_t) -1.
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ERRORS

50       The following error can occur, among others:
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52       EINVAL The  conversion  from fromcode to tocode is not supported by the
53              implementation.
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VERSIONS

56       This function is available in glibc since version 2.1.
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CONFORMING TO

59       UNIX98, POSIX.1-2001.
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COLOPHON

65       This page is part of release 3.53 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
66       description  of  the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
67       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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71GNU                               2008-08-11                     ICONV_OPEN(3)