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

NAME

     iconv_open - allocate descriptor for character set conversion

SYNOPSIS

     #include <iconv.h>

     iconv_t iconv_open(const char *tocode, const char *fromcode);

DESCRIPTION

     The  iconv_open()  function  allocates a conversion descriptor suitable
     for converting byte sequences from character encoding fromcode to char-
     acter encoding tocode.

     The values permitted for fromcode and tocode and the supported combina-
     tions are system-dependent.  For the GNU C library, the permitted  val-
     ues are listed by the iconv --list command, and all combinations of the
     listed values are supported.  Furthermore the GNU C library and the GNU
     libiconv library support the following two suffixes:

     //TRANSLIT
            When the string "//TRANSLIT" is appended to tocode, translitera-
            tion is activated.  This means that when a character  cannot  be
            represented  in the target character set, it can be approximated
            through one or several similarly looking characters.

     //IGNORE
            When the string "//IGNORE" is  appended  to  tocode,  characters
            that  cannot  be represented in the target character set will be
            silently discarded.

     The resulting conversion descriptor can be used with iconv(3) any  num-
     ber of times.  It remains valid until deallocated using iconv_close(3).

     A conversion descriptor contains a conversion  state.   After  creation
     using  iconv_open(), the state is in the initial state.  Using iconv(3)
     modifies the descriptor's conversion state.  To bring the state back to
     the initial state, use iconv(3) with NULL as inbuf argument.

RETURN VALUE

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

ERRORS

     The following error can occur, among others:

     EINVAL The  conversion  from fromcode to tocode is not supported by the
            implementation.

VERSIONS

     This function is available in glibc since version 2.1.

ATTRIBUTES

     For  an  explanation  of  the  terms  used   in   this   section,   see
     attributes(7).

     +-------------+---------------+----------------+
     |Interface    | Attribute     | Value          |
     +-------------+---------------+----------------+
     |iconv_open() | Thread safety | MT-Safe locale |
     +-------------+---------------+----------------+

CONFORMING TO

     POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SUSv2.