ICONV(3) BSD Library Functions Manual ICONV(3)NAME
iconv_open, iconv_close, iconv — codeset conversion functions
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <iconv.h>
iconv_t
iconv_open(const char *dstname, const char *srcname);
int
iconv_close(iconv_t cd);
size_t
iconv(iconv_t cd, char ** restrict src, size_t * restrict srcleft,
char ** restrict dst, size_t * restrict dstleft);
DESCRIPTION
The iconv_open() function opens a converter from the codeset srcname to
the codeset dstname and returns its descriptor.
The iconv_close() function closes the specified converter cd.
The iconv() function converts the string in the buffer *src of length
*srcleft bytes and stores the converted string in the buffer *dst of size
*dstleft bytes. After calling iconv(), the values pointed to by src,
srcleft, dst, and dstleft are updated as follows:
*src Pointer to the byte just after the last character fetched.
*srcleft Number of remaining bytes in the source buffer.
*dst Pointer to the byte just after the last character stored.
*dstleft Number of remainder bytes in the destination buffer.
If the string pointed to by *src contains a byte sequence which is not a
valid character in the source codeset, the conversion stops just after
the last successful conversion. If the output buffer is too small to
store the converted character, the conversion also stops in the same way.
In these cases, the values pointed to by src, srcleft, dst, and dstleft
are updated to the state just after the last successful conversion.
If the string pointed to by *src contains a character which is valid
under the source codeset but can not be converted to the destination
codeset, the character is replaced by an “invalid character” which
depends on the destination codeset, e.g., ‘?’, and the conversion is con‐
tinued. iconv() returns the number of such “invalid conversions”.
There are two special cases of iconv():
src == NULL || *src == NULL
If the source and/or destination codesets are stateful, iconv()
places these into their initial state.
If both dst and *dst are non-NULL, iconv() stores the shift
sequence for the destination switching to the initial state in the
buffer pointed to by *dst. The buffer size is specified by the
value pointed to by dstleft as above. iconv() will fail if the
buffer is too small to store the shift sequence.
On the other hand, dst or *dst may be NULL. In this case, the
shift sequence for the destination switching to the initial state
is discarded.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion of iconv_open(), it returns a conversion
descriptor. Otherwise, iconv_open() returns (iconv_t)-1 and sets errno
to indicate the error.
Upon successful completion of iconv_close(), it returns 0. Otherwise,
iconv_close() returns -1 and sets errno to indicate the error.
Upon successful completion of iconv(), it returns the number of “invalid”
conversions. Otherwise, iconv() returns (size_t)-1 and sets errno to
indicate the error.
ERRORS
The iconv_open() function may cause an error in the following cases:
[ENOMEM] Memory is exhausted.
[EINVAL] There is no converter specified by srcname and
dstname.
The iconv_close() function may cause an error in the following case:
[EBADF] The conversion descriptor specified by cd is invalid.
The iconv() function may cause an error in the following cases:
[EBADF] The conversion descriptor specified by cd is invalid.
[EILSEQ] The string pointed to by *src contains a byte sequence
which does not describe a valid character of the
source codeset.
[E2BIG] The output buffer pointed to by *dst is too small to
store the result string.
[EINVAL] The string pointed to by *src terminates with an
incomplete character or shift sequence.
SEE ALSOiconv(1)STANDARDSiconv_open(), iconv_close(), and iconv() conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
(“POSIX.1”).
BUGS
If iconv() is aborted due to the occurrence of some error, the “invalid
conversion” count mentioned above is unfortunately lost.
BSD August 1, 2004 BSD
