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

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