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Name

iconv_open - code conversion allocation function

Synopsis

#include <iconv.h>

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

MT-Level

MT-Safe

Description

The iconv_open() function returns a conversion descriptor that describes a conversion from the codeset specified by the string pointed to by the fromcode argument to the codeset specified by the string pointed to by the tocode argument. For state-dependent encodings, the conversion descriptor will be in a codeset-dependent initial shift state, ready for immediate use with the iconv(3) function.

Settings of fromcode and tocode and their permitted combinations are implementation-dependent.

A conversion descriptor remains valid in a process until that process closes it.

Return Values

Upon successful completion iconv_open() returns a conversion descriptor for use on subsequent calls to iconv(). Otherwise, iconv_open() returns (iconv_t) -1 and sets errno to indicate the error.

Errors

The iconv_open function may fail if:
EMFILE
{OPEN_MAX} files descriptors are currently open in the calling process.
ENFILE
Too many files are currently open in the system.
ENOMEM
Insufficient storage space is available.
EINVAL
The conversion specified by fromcode and tocode is not supported by the implementation.

See Also

iconv(3) , iconv_close(3) , malloc(3C)

Notes

iconv_open() uses malloc(3C) to allocate space for internal buffer areas. iconv_open() may fail if there is insufficient storage space to accommodate these buffers.

Portable applications must assume that conversion descriptors are not valid after a call to one of the exec functions.

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