NAME

       sd_bus_path_encode, sd_bus_path_encode_many, sd_bus_path_decode, sd_bus_path_decode_many -
       Convert an external identifier into an object path and back

SYNOPSIS

       #include <systemd/sd-bus.h>

       int sd_bus_path_encode(const char *prefix, const char *external_id, char **ret_path);

       int sd_bus_path_encode_many(char **out, const char *path_template, ...);

       int sd_bus_path_decode(const char *path, const char *prefix, char **ret_external_id);

       int sd_bus_path_decode_many(const char *path, const char *path_template, ...);

DESCRIPTION

       sd_bus_path_encode() and sd_bus_path_decode() convert external identifier strings into
       object paths and back. These functions are useful to map application-specific string
       identifiers of any kind into bus object paths in a simple, reversible and safe way.

       sd_bus_path_encode() takes a bus path prefix and an external identifier string as
       arguments, plus a place to store the returned bus path string. The bus path prefix must be
       a valid bus path, starting with a slash "/", and not ending in one. The external
       identifier string may be in any format, may be the empty string, and has no restrictions
       on the charset — however, it must always be NUL-terminated. The returned string will be
       the concatenation of the bus path prefix plus an escaped version of the external
       identifier string. This operation may be reversed with sd_bus_decode(). It is recommended
       to only use external identifiers that generally require little escaping to be turned into
       valid bus path identifiers (for example, by sticking to a 7-bit ASCII character set), in
       order to ensure the resulting bus path is still short and easily processed.

       sd_bus_path_decode() reverses the operation of sd_bus_path_encode() and thus regenerates
       an external identifier string from a bus path. It takes a bus path and a prefix string,
       plus a place to store the returned external identifier string. If the bus path does not
       start with the specified prefix, 0 is returned and the returned string is set to NULL.
       Otherwise, the string following the prefix is unescaped and returned in the external
       identifier string.

       The escaping used will replace all characters which are invalid in a bus object path by
       "_", followed by a hexadecimal value. As a special case, the empty string will be replaced
       by a lone "_".

       sd_bus_path_encode_many() works like its counterpart sd_bus_path_encode(), but takes a
       path template as argument and encodes multiple labels according to its embedded
       directives. For each "%" character found in the template, the caller must provide a string
       via varargs, which will be encoded and embedded at the position of the "%" character. Any
       other character in the template is copied verbatim into the encoded path.

       sd_bus_path_decode_many() does the reverse of sd_bus_path_encode_many(). It decodes the
       passed object path according to the given path template. For each "%" character in the
       template, the caller must provide an output storage ("char **") via varargs. The decoded
       label will be stored there. Each "%" character will only match the current label. It will
       never match across labels. Furthermore, only a single directive is allowed per label. If
       "NULL" is passed as output storage, the label is verified but not returned to the caller.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, sd_bus_path_encode() returns positive or 0, and a valid bus path in the return
       argument. On success, sd_bus_path_decode() returns a positive value if the prefixed
       matched, or 0 if it did not. If the prefix matched, the external identifier is returned in
       the return parameter. If it did not match, NULL is returned in the return parameter. On
       failure, a negative errno-style error number is returned by either function. The returned
       strings must be free(3)'d by the caller.

NOTES

       sd_bus_path_encode() and sd_bus_path_decode() are available as a shared library, which can
       be compiled and linked to with the libsystemd pkg-config(1) file.

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), sd-bus(3), free(3)