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
character encoding tocode.
The values permitted for fromcode and tocode and the supported
combinations are system-dependent. For the GNU C library, the
permitted values 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,
transliteration 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
number 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. (This implies that a
conversion descriptor can not be used in multiple threads
simultaneously.) 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.
CONFORMING TO
UNIX98, POSIX.1-2001.
SEE ALSO
iconv(1), iconv(3), iconv_close(3)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A
description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.