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SDK_SG200x_V2/ramdisk/sysroot/sysroot-glibc-linaro-2.23-2017.05-aarch64-linux-gnu/usr/share/info/libc.info-3
carbon 0545e9dc6d init version 2024-05-07 
commit d1edce71135cc6d98c0a4b5729774542b676e769
Author: sophgo-forum-service <forum_service@sophgo.com>
Date:   Fri Mar 15 16:07:33 2024 +0800

    [fix] recommend using ssh method to clone repo.
    [fix] fix sensor driver repo branch name.
2024-05-07 19:36:36 +08:00

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This is libc.info, produced by makeinfo version 5.2 from libc.texinfo.
This file documents the GNU C Library.
This is ‘The GNU C Library Reference Manual’, for version 2.23.
Copyright © 1993–2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being “Free Software Needs Free Documentation” and
“GNU Lesser General Public License”, the Front-Cover texts being “A GNU
Manual”, and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation
License".
(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and
modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF supports it in
developing GNU and promoting software freedom.”
INFO-DIR-SECTION Software libraries
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Libc: (libc). C library.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU C library functions and macros
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* ALTWERASE: (libc)Local Modes.
* ARGP_ERR_UNKNOWN: (libc)Argp Parser Functions.
* ARG_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* BC_BASE_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BC_DIM_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BC_SCALE_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BC_STRING_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BRKINT: (libc)Input Modes.
* BUFSIZ: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* CCTS_OFLOW: (libc)Control Modes.
* CHILD_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* CIGNORE: (libc)Control Modes.
* CLK_TCK: (libc)Processor Time.
* CLOCAL: (libc)Control Modes.
* CLOCKS_PER_SEC: (libc)CPU Time.
* COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* CPU_CLR: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_ISSET: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_SET: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_SETSIZE: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_ZERO: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CREAD: (libc)Control Modes.
* CRTS_IFLOW: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS5: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS6: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS7: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS8: (libc)Control Modes.
* CSIZE: (libc)Control Modes.
* CSTOPB: (libc)Control Modes.
* DES_FAILED: (libc)DES Encryption.
* DTTOIF: (libc)Directory Entries.
* E2BIG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EACCES: (libc)Error Codes.
* EADDRINUSE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EADDRNOTAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EADV: (libc)Error Codes.
* EAFNOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EAGAIN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EALREADY: (libc)Error Codes.
* EAUTH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBACKGROUND: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADF: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADFD: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADMSG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADR: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADRPC: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADRQC: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADSLT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBFONT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBUSY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECANCELED: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECHILD: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECHO: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOCTL: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOE: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOK: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOKE: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHONL: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOPRT: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHRNG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECOMM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECONNABORTED: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECONNREFUSED: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECONNRESET: (libc)Error Codes.
* ED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDEADLK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDEADLOCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDESTADDRREQ: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDIED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDOM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDOTDOT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDQUOT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EEXIST: (libc)Error Codes.
* EFAULT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EFBIG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EFTYPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EGRATUITOUS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EGREGIOUS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EHOSTDOWN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EHOSTUNREACH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EHWPOISON: (libc)Error Codes.
* EIDRM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EIEIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EILSEQ: (libc)Error Codes.
* EINPROGRESS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EINTR: (libc)Error Codes.
* EINVAL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EISCONN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EISDIR: (libc)Error Codes.
* EISNAM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EKEYEXPIRED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EKEYREJECTED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EKEYREVOKED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL2HLT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL2NSYNC: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL3HLT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL3RST: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBACC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBBAD: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBEXEC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBMAX: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBSCN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELNRNG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELOOP: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMEDIUMTYPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMFILE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMLINK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMSGSIZE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMULTIHOP: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENAMETOOLONG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENEEDAUTH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENETDOWN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENETRESET: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENETUNREACH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENFILE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOANO: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOBUFS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOCSI: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENODATA: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENODEV: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOENT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOEXEC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOKEY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOLCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOLINK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOMEDIUM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOMEM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOMSG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENONET: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOPKG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOPROTOOPT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSPC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSR: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSTR: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSYS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTBLK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTCONN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTDIR: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTEMPTY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTNAM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTRECOVERABLE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTSOCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTSUP: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTTY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTUNIQ: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENXIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EOF: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* EOPNOTSUPP: (libc)Error Codes.
* EOVERFLOW: (libc)Error Codes.
* EOWNERDEAD: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPERM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPFNOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPIPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROCLIM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROCUNAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROGMISMATCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROGUNAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROTO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROTONOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROTOTYPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EQUIV_CLASS_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* ERANGE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EREMCHG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EREMOTE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EREMOTEIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* ERESTART: (libc)Error Codes.
* ERFKILL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EROFS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ERPCMISMATCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESHUTDOWN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESOCKTNOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESPIPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESRCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESRMNT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESTALE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESTRPIPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETIME: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETIMEDOUT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETOOMANYREFS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETXTBSY: (libc)Error Codes.
* EUCLEAN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EUNATCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EUSERS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EWOULDBLOCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EXDEV: (libc)Error Codes.
* EXFULL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EXIT_FAILURE: (libc)Exit Status.
* EXIT_SUCCESS: (libc)Exit Status.
* EXPR_NEST_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* FD_CLOEXEC: (libc)Descriptor Flags.
* FD_CLR: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_ISSET: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_SET: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_SETSIZE: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_ZERO: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FILENAME_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* FLUSHO: (libc)Local Modes.
* FOPEN_MAX: (libc)Opening Streams.
* FP_ILOGB0: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* FP_ILOGBNAN: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* F_DUPFD: (libc)Duplicating Descriptors.
* F_GETFD: (libc)Descriptor Flags.
* F_GETFL: (libc)Getting File Status Flags.
* F_GETLK: (libc)File Locks.
* F_GETOWN: (libc)Interrupt Input.
* F_OFD_GETLK: (libc)Open File Description Locks.
* F_OFD_SETLK: (libc)Open File Description Locks.
* F_OFD_SETLKW: (libc)Open File Description Locks.
* F_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* F_SETFD: (libc)Descriptor Flags.
* F_SETFL: (libc)Getting File Status Flags.
* F_SETLK: (libc)File Locks.
* F_SETLKW: (libc)File Locks.
* F_SETOWN: (libc)Interrupt Input.
* HUGE_VAL: (libc)Math Error Reporting.
* HUGE_VALF: (libc)Math Error Reporting.
* HUGE_VALL: (libc)Math Error Reporting.
* HUPCL: (libc)Control Modes.
* I: (libc)Complex Numbers.
* ICANON: (libc)Local Modes.
* ICRNL: (libc)Input Modes.
* IEXTEN: (libc)Local Modes.
* IFNAMSIZ: (libc)Interface Naming.
* IFTODT: (libc)Directory Entries.
* IGNBRK: (libc)Input Modes.
* IGNCR: (libc)Input Modes.
* IGNPAR: (libc)Input Modes.
* IMAXBEL: (libc)Input Modes.
* INADDR_ANY: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INADDR_BROADCAST: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INADDR_LOOPBACK: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INADDR_NONE: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INFINITY: (libc)Infinity and NaN.
* INLCR: (libc)Input Modes.
* INPCK: (libc)Input Modes.
* IPPORT_RESERVED: (libc)Ports.
* IPPORT_USERRESERVED: (libc)Ports.
* ISIG: (libc)Local Modes.
* ISTRIP: (libc)Input Modes.
* IXANY: (libc)Input Modes.
* IXOFF: (libc)Input Modes.
* IXON: (libc)Input Modes.
* LINE_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* LINK_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* L_ctermid: (libc)Identifying the Terminal.
* L_cuserid: (libc)Who Logged In.
* L_tmpnam: (libc)Temporary Files.
* MAXNAMLEN: (libc)Limits for Files.
* MAXSYMLINKS: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* MAX_CANON: (libc)Limits for Files.
* MAX_INPUT: (libc)Limits for Files.
* MB_CUR_MAX: (libc)Selecting the Conversion.
* MB_LEN_MAX: (libc)Selecting the Conversion.
* MDMBUF: (libc)Control Modes.
* MSG_DONTROUTE: (libc)Socket Data Options.
* MSG_OOB: (libc)Socket Data Options.
* MSG_PEEK: (libc)Socket Data Options.
* NAME_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* NAN: (libc)Infinity and NaN.
* NCCS: (libc)Mode Data Types.
* NGROUPS_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* NOFLSH: (libc)Local Modes.
* NOKERNINFO: (libc)Local Modes.
* NSIG: (libc)Standard Signals.
* NULL: (libc)Null Pointer Constant.
* ONLCR: (libc)Output Modes.
* ONOEOT: (libc)Output Modes.
* OPEN_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* OPOST: (libc)Output Modes.
* OXTABS: (libc)Output Modes.
* O_ACCMODE: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_APPEND: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_ASYNC: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_CREAT: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_EXCL: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_EXEC: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_EXLOCK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_FSYNC: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_IGNORE_CTTY: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NDELAY: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_NOATIME: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_NOCTTY: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NOLINK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NONBLOCK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NONBLOCK: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_NOTRANS: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_RDONLY: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_RDWR: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_READ: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_SHLOCK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_SYNC: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_TRUNC: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_WRITE: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_WRONLY: (libc)Access Modes.
* PARENB: (libc)Control Modes.
* PARMRK: (libc)Input Modes.
* PARODD: (libc)Control Modes.
* PATH_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* PA_FLAG_MASK: (libc)Parsing a Template String.
* PENDIN: (libc)Local Modes.
* PF_FILE: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* PF_INET6: (libc)Internet Namespace.
* PF_INET: (libc)Internet Namespace.
* PF_LOCAL: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* PF_UNIX: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* PIPE_BUF: (libc)Limits for Files.
* P_tmpdir: (libc)Temporary Files.
* RAND_MAX: (libc)ISO Random.
* RE_DUP_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* RLIM_INFINITY: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* R_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* SA_NOCLDSTOP: (libc)Flags for Sigaction.
* SA_ONSTACK: (libc)Flags for Sigaction.
* SA_RESTART: (libc)Flags for Sigaction.
* SEEK_CUR: (libc)File Positioning.
* SEEK_END: (libc)File Positioning.
* SEEK_SET: (libc)File Positioning.
* SIGABRT: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGALRM: (libc)Alarm Signals.
* SIGBUS: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGCHLD: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGCLD: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGCONT: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGEMT: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGFPE: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGHUP: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGILL: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGINFO: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGINT: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGIO: (libc)Asynchronous I/O Signals.
* SIGIOT: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGKILL: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGLOST: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIGPIPE: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIGPOLL: (libc)Asynchronous I/O Signals.
* SIGPROF: (libc)Alarm Signals.
* SIGQUIT: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGSEGV: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGSTOP: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGSYS: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGTERM: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGTRAP: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGTSTP: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGTTIN: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGTTOU: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGURG: (libc)Asynchronous I/O Signals.
* SIGUSR1: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGUSR2: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGVTALRM: (libc)Alarm Signals.
* SIGWINCH: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGXCPU: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIGXFSZ: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIG_ERR: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* SOCK_DGRAM: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_RAW: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_RDM: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_SEQPACKET: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_STREAM: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOL_SOCKET: (libc)Socket-Level Options.
* SSIZE_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* STREAM_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* SUN_LEN: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* S_IFMT: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISBLK: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISCHR: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISDIR: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISFIFO: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISLNK: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISREG: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISSOCK: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_TYPEISMQ: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_TYPEISSEM: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_TYPEISSHM: (libc)Testing File Type.
* TMP_MAX: (libc)Temporary Files.
* TOSTOP: (libc)Local Modes.
* TZNAME_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* VDISCARD: (libc)Other Special.
* VDSUSP: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VEOF: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VEOL2: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VEOL: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VERASE: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VINTR: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VKILL: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VLNEXT: (libc)Other Special.
* VMIN: (libc)Noncanonical Input.
* VQUIT: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VREPRINT: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VSTART: (libc)Start/Stop Characters.
* VSTATUS: (libc)Other Special.
* VSTOP: (libc)Start/Stop Characters.
* VSUSP: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VTIME: (libc)Noncanonical Input.
* VWERASE: (libc)Editing Characters.
* WCHAR_MAX: (libc)Extended Char Intro.
* WCHAR_MIN: (libc)Extended Char Intro.
* WCOREDUMP: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WEOF: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* WEOF: (libc)Extended Char Intro.
* WEXITSTATUS: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WIFEXITED: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WIFSIGNALED: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WIFSTOPPED: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WSTOPSIG: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WTERMSIG: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* W_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* X_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* _Complex_I: (libc)Complex Numbers.
* _Exit: (libc)Termination Internals.
* _IOFBF: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* _IOLBF: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* _IONBF: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* _Imaginary_I: (libc)Complex Numbers.
* _PATH_UTMP: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* _PATH_WTMP: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* _POSIX2_C_DEV: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_C_VERSION: (libc)Version Supported.
* _POSIX2_FORT_DEV: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_FORT_RUN: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_LOCALEDEF: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_SW_DEV: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED: (libc)Options for Files.
* _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX_NO_TRUNC: (libc)Options for Files.
* _POSIX_SAVED_IDS: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX_VDISABLE: (libc)Options for Files.
* _POSIX_VERSION: (libc)Version Supported.
* __fbufsize: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* __flbf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* __fpending: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* __fpurge: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* __freadable: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __freading: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __fsetlocking: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* __fwritable: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __fwriting: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __gconv_end_fct: (libc)glibc iconv Implementation.
* __gconv_fct: (libc)glibc iconv Implementation.
* __gconv_init_fct: (libc)glibc iconv Implementation.
* __ppc_get_timebase: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_get_timebase_freq: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_mdoio: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_mdoom: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_low: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_med: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_med_high: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_med_low: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_very_low: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_yield: (libc)PowerPC.
* __va_copy: (libc)Argument Macros.
* _exit: (libc)Termination Internals.
* _flushlbf: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* _tolower: (libc)Case Conversion.
* _toupper: (libc)Case Conversion.
* a64l: (libc)Encode Binary Data.
* abort: (libc)Aborting a Program.
* abs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* accept: (libc)Accepting Connections.
* access: (libc)Testing File Access.
* acos: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* acosf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* acosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* acoshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* acoshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* acosl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* addmntent: (libc)mtab.
* addseverity: (libc)Adding Severity Classes.
* adjtime: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* adjtimex: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* aio_cancel64: (libc)Cancel AIO Operations.
* aio_cancel: (libc)Cancel AIO Operations.
* aio_error64: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_error: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_fsync64: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_fsync: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_init: (libc)Configuration of AIO.
* aio_read64: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* aio_read: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* aio_return64: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_return: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_suspend64: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_suspend: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_write64: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* aio_write: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* alarm: (libc)Setting an Alarm.
* aligned_alloc: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* alloca: (libc)Variable Size Automatic.
* alphasort64: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* alphasort: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* argp_error: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argp_failure: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argp_help: (libc)Argp Help.
* argp_parse: (libc)Argp.
* argp_state_help: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argp_usage: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argz_add: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_add_sep: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_append: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_count: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_create: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_create_sep: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_delete: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_extract: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_insert: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_next: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_replace: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_stringify: (libc)Argz Functions.
* asctime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* asctime_r: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* asin: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* asinf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* asinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* asinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* asinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* asinl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* asprintf: (libc)Dynamic Output.
* assert: (libc)Consistency Checking.
* assert_perror: (libc)Consistency Checking.
* atan2: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atan2f: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atan2l: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atan: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atanf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* atanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* atanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* atanl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atexit: (libc)Cleanups on Exit.
* atof: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* atoi: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* atol: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* atoll: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* backtrace: (libc)Backtraces.
* backtrace_symbols: (libc)Backtraces.
* backtrace_symbols_fd: (libc)Backtraces.
* basename: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* basename: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* bcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* bcopy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* bind: (libc)Setting Address.
* bind_textdomain_codeset: (libc)Charset conversion in gettext.
* bindtextdomain: (libc)Locating gettext catalog.
* brk: (libc)Resizing the Data Segment.
* bsearch: (libc)Array Search Function.
* btowc: (libc)Converting a Character.
* bzero: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* cabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* cabsf: (libc)Absolute Value.
* cabsl: (libc)Absolute Value.
* cacos: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* cacosf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* cacosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cacoshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cacoshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cacosl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* calloc: (libc)Allocating Cleared Space.
* canonicalize_file_name: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* carg: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cargf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cargl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* casin: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* casinf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* casinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* casinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* casinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* casinl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catan: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catanf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* catanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* catanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* catanl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catclose: (libc)The catgets Functions.
* catgets: (libc)The catgets Functions.
* catopen: (libc)The catgets Functions.
* cbc_crypt: (libc)DES Encryption.
* cbrt: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cbrtf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cbrtl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ccos: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ccosf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ccosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ccoshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ccoshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ccosl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ceil: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* ceilf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* ceill: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* cexp: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cexpf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cexpl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cfgetispeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfgetospeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfmakeraw: (libc)Noncanonical Input.
* cfree: (libc)Freeing after Malloc.
* cfsetispeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfsetospeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfsetspeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* chdir: (libc)Working Directory.
* chmod: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* chown: (libc)File Owner.
* cimag: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cimagf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cimagl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* clearenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* clearerr: (libc)Error Recovery.
* clearerr_unlocked: (libc)Error Recovery.
* clock: (libc)CPU Time.
* clog10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clog10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clog10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clog: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clogf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clogl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* close: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* closedir: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* closelog: (libc)closelog.
* confstr: (libc)String Parameters.
* conj: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* conjf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* conjl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* connect: (libc)Connecting.
* copysign: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* copysignf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* copysignl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* cos: (libc)Trig Functions.
* cosf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* cosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* coshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* coshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cosl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* cpow: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cpowf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cpowl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cproj: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cprojf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cprojl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* creal: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* crealf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* creall: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* creat64: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* creat: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* crypt: (libc)crypt.
* crypt_r: (libc)crypt.
* csin: (libc)Trig Functions.
* csinf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* csinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* csinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* csinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* csinl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* csqrt: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* csqrtf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* csqrtl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ctan: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ctanf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ctanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ctanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ctanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ctanl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ctermid: (libc)Identifying the Terminal.
* ctime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* ctime_r: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* cuserid: (libc)Who Logged In.
* dcgettext: (libc)Translation with gettext.
* dcngettext: (libc)Advanced gettext functions.
* des_setparity: (libc)DES Encryption.
* dgettext: (libc)Translation with gettext.
* difftime: (libc)Elapsed Time.
* dirfd: (libc)Opening a Directory.
* dirname: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* div: (libc)Integer Division.
* dngettext: (libc)Advanced gettext functions.
* drand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* drand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* drem: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* dremf: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* dreml: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* dup2: (libc)Duplicating Descriptors.
* dup: (libc)Duplicating Descriptors.
* ecb_crypt: (libc)DES Encryption.
* ecvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* ecvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* encrypt: (libc)DES Encryption.
* encrypt_r: (libc)DES Encryption.
* endfsent: (libc)fstab.
* endgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* endhostent: (libc)Host Names.
* endmntent: (libc)mtab.
* endnetent: (libc)Networks Database.
* endnetgrent: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* endprotoent: (libc)Protocols Database.
* endpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* endservent: (libc)Services Database.
* endutent: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* endutxent: (libc)XPG Functions.
* envz_add: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_entry: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_get: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_merge: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_remove: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_strip: (libc)Envz Functions.
* erand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* erand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* erf: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfc: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfcf: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfcl: (libc)Special Functions.
* erff: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfl: (libc)Special Functions.
* err: (libc)Error Messages.
* errno: (libc)Checking for Errors.
* error: (libc)Error Messages.
* error_at_line: (libc)Error Messages.
* errx: (libc)Error Messages.
* execl: (libc)Executing a File.
* execle: (libc)Executing a File.
* execlp: (libc)Executing a File.
* execv: (libc)Executing a File.
* execve: (libc)Executing a File.
* execvp: (libc)Executing a File.
* exit: (libc)Normal Termination.
* exp10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp2: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp2f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp2l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expm1: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expm1f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expm1l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* fabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* fabsf: (libc)Absolute Value.
* fabsl: (libc)Absolute Value.
* fchdir: (libc)Working Directory.
* fchmod: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* fchown: (libc)File Owner.
* fclose: (libc)Closing Streams.
* fcloseall: (libc)Closing Streams.
* fcntl: (libc)Control Operations.
* fcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* fcvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* fdatasync: (libc)Synchronizing I/O.
* fdim: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fdimf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fdiml: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fdopen: (libc)Descriptors and Streams.
* fdopendir: (libc)Opening a Directory.
* feclearexcept: (libc)Status bit operations.
* fedisableexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* feenableexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* fegetenv: (libc)Control Functions.
* fegetexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* fegetexceptflag: (libc)Status bit operations.
* fegetround: (libc)Rounding.
* feholdexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* feof: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* feof_unlocked: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* feraiseexcept: (libc)Status bit operations.
* ferror: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* ferror_unlocked: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* fesetenv: (libc)Control Functions.
* fesetexceptflag: (libc)Status bit operations.
* fesetround: (libc)Rounding.
* fetestexcept: (libc)Status bit operations.
* feupdateenv: (libc)Control Functions.
* fflush: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* fflush_unlocked: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* fgetc: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* fgetgrent_r: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* fgetpos64: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fgetpos: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fgetpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* fgetpwent_r: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* fgets: (libc)Line Input.
* fgets_unlocked: (libc)Line Input.
* fgetwc: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetwc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetws: (libc)Line Input.
* fgetws_unlocked: (libc)Line Input.
* fileno: (libc)Descriptors and Streams.
* fileno_unlocked: (libc)Descriptors and Streams.
* finite: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* finitef: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* finitel: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* flockfile: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* floor: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* floorf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* floorl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* fma: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmaf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmal: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmax: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmaxf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmaxl: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmemopen: (libc)String Streams.
* fmin: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fminf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fminl: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmod: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* fmodf: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* fmodl: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* fmtmsg: (libc)Printing Formatted Messages.
* fnmatch: (libc)Wildcard Matching.
* fopen64: (libc)Opening Streams.
* fopen: (libc)Opening Streams.
* fopencookie: (libc)Streams and Cookies.
* fork: (libc)Creating a Process.
* forkpty: (libc)Pseudo-Terminal Pairs.
* fpathconf: (libc)Pathconf.
* fpclassify: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* fprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* fputc: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputs: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputs_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputwc: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputwc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputws: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputws_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fread: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* fread_unlocked: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* free: (libc)Freeing after Malloc.
* freopen64: (libc)Opening Streams.
* freopen: (libc)Opening Streams.
* frexp: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* frexpf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* frexpl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* fscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* fseek: (libc)File Positioning.
* fseeko64: (libc)File Positioning.
* fseeko: (libc)File Positioning.
* fsetpos64: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fsetpos: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fstat64: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* fstat: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* fsync: (libc)Synchronizing I/O.
* ftell: (libc)File Positioning.
* ftello64: (libc)File Positioning.
* ftello: (libc)File Positioning.
* ftruncate64: (libc)File Size.
* ftruncate: (libc)File Size.
* ftrylockfile: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* ftw64: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* ftw: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* funlockfile: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* futimes: (libc)File Times.
* fwide: (libc)Streams and I18N.
* fwprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* fwrite: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* fwrite_unlocked: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* fwscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* gamma: (libc)Special Functions.
* gammaf: (libc)Special Functions.
* gammal: (libc)Special Functions.
* gcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* get_avphys_pages: (libc)Query Memory Parameters.
* get_current_dir_name: (libc)Working Directory.
* get_nprocs: (libc)Processor Resources.
* get_nprocs_conf: (libc)Processor Resources.
* get_phys_pages: (libc)Query Memory Parameters.
* getauxval: (libc)Auxiliary Vector.
* getc: (libc)Character Input.
* getc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getchar: (libc)Character Input.
* getchar_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getcontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* getcwd: (libc)Working Directory.
* getdate: (libc)General Time String Parsing.
* getdate_r: (libc)General Time String Parsing.
* getdelim: (libc)Line Input.
* getdomainnname: (libc)Host Identification.
* getegid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* geteuid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getfsent: (libc)fstab.
* getfsfile: (libc)fstab.
* getfsspec: (libc)fstab.
* getgid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* getgrent_r: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* getgrgid: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrgid_r: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrnam: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrnam_r: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrouplist: (libc)Setting Groups.
* getgroups: (libc)Reading Persona.
* gethostbyaddr: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyaddr_r: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname2: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname2_r: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname_r: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostent: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostid: (libc)Host Identification.
* gethostname: (libc)Host Identification.
* getitimer: (libc)Setting an Alarm.
* getline: (libc)Line Input.
* getloadavg: (libc)Processor Resources.
* getlogin: (libc)Who Logged In.
* getmntent: (libc)mtab.
* getmntent_r: (libc)mtab.
* getnetbyaddr: (libc)Networks Database.
* getnetbyname: (libc)Networks Database.
* getnetent: (libc)Networks Database.
* getnetgrent: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* getnetgrent_r: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* getopt: (libc)Using Getopt.
* getopt_long: (libc)Getopt Long Options.
* getopt_long_only: (libc)Getopt Long Options.
* getpagesize: (libc)Query Memory Parameters.
* getpass: (libc)getpass.
* getpeername: (libc)Who is Connected.
* getpgid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* getpgrp: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* getpid: (libc)Process Identification.
* getppid: (libc)Process Identification.
* getpriority: (libc)Traditional Scheduling Functions.
* getprotobyname: (libc)Protocols Database.
* getprotobynumber: (libc)Protocols Database.
* getprotoent: (libc)Protocols Database.
* getpt: (libc)Allocation.
* getpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* getpwent_r: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* getpwnam: (libc)Lookup User.
* getpwnam_r: (libc)Lookup User.
* getpwuid: (libc)Lookup User.
* getpwuid_r: (libc)Lookup User.
* getrlimit64: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* getrlimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* getrusage: (libc)Resource Usage.
* gets: (libc)Line Input.
* getservbyname: (libc)Services Database.
* getservbyport: (libc)Services Database.
* getservent: (libc)Services Database.
* getsid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* getsockname: (libc)Reading Address.
* getsockopt: (libc)Socket Option Functions.
* getsubopt: (libc)Suboptions.
* gettext: (libc)Translation with gettext.
* gettimeofday: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* getuid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getumask: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* getutent: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutent_r: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutid: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutid_r: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutline: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutline_r: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutmp: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutmpx: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutxent: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutxid: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutxline: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getw: (libc)Character Input.
* getwc: (libc)Character Input.
* getwc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getwchar: (libc)Character Input.
* getwchar_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getwd: (libc)Working Directory.
* glob64: (libc)Calling Glob.
* glob: (libc)Calling Glob.
* globfree64: (libc)More Flags for Globbing.
* globfree: (libc)More Flags for Globbing.
* gmtime: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* gmtime_r: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* grantpt: (libc)Allocation.
* gsignal: (libc)Signaling Yourself.
* gtty: (libc)BSD Terminal Modes.
* hasmntopt: (libc)mtab.
* hcreate: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hcreate_r: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hdestroy: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hdestroy_r: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hsearch: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hsearch_r: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* htonl: (libc)Byte Order.
* htons: (libc)Byte Order.
* hypot: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* hypotf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* hypotl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* iconv: (libc)Generic Conversion Interface.
* iconv_close: (libc)Generic Conversion Interface.
* iconv_open: (libc)Generic Conversion Interface.
* if_freenameindex: (libc)Interface Naming.
* if_indextoname: (libc)Interface Naming.
* if_nameindex: (libc)Interface Naming.
* if_nametoindex: (libc)Interface Naming.
* ilogb: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ilogbf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ilogbl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* imaxabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* imaxdiv: (libc)Integer Division.
* in6addr_any: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* in6addr_loopback: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* index: (libc)Search Functions.
* inet_addr: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_aton: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_lnaof: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_makeaddr: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_netof: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_network: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_ntoa: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_ntop: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_pton: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* initgroups: (libc)Setting Groups.
* initstate: (libc)BSD Random.
* initstate_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* innetgr: (libc)Netgroup Membership.
* ioctl: (libc)IOCTLs.
* isalnum: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isalpha: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isascii: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isatty: (libc)Is It a Terminal.
* isblank: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* iscntrl: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isdigit: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isfinite: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isgraph: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isgreater: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* isgreaterequal: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* isinf: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isinff: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isinfl: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isless: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* islessequal: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* islessgreater: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* islower: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isnan: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnan: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnanf: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnanl: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnormal: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isprint: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* ispunct: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* issignaling: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isspace: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isunordered: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* isupper: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* iswalnum: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswalpha: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswblank: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswcntrl: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswctype: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswdigit: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswgraph: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswlower: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswprint: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswpunct: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswspace: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswupper: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswxdigit: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* isxdigit: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* j0: (libc)Special Functions.
* j0f: (libc)Special Functions.
* j0l: (libc)Special Functions.
* j1: (libc)Special Functions.
* j1f: (libc)Special Functions.
* j1l: (libc)Special Functions.
* jn: (libc)Special Functions.
* jnf: (libc)Special Functions.
* jnl: (libc)Special Functions.
* jrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* jrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* kill: (libc)Signaling Another Process.
* killpg: (libc)Signaling Another Process.
* l64a: (libc)Encode Binary Data.
* labs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* lcong48: (libc)SVID Random.
* lcong48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* ldexp: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* ldexpf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* ldexpl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* ldiv: (libc)Integer Division.
* lfind: (libc)Array Search Function.
* lgamma: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgamma_r: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammaf: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammaf_r: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammal: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammal_r: (libc)Special Functions.
* link: (libc)Hard Links.
* lio_listio64: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* lio_listio: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* listen: (libc)Listening.
* llabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* lldiv: (libc)Integer Division.
* llrint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llrintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llrintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llround: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llroundf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llroundl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* localeconv: (libc)The Lame Way to Locale Data.
* localtime: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* localtime_r: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* log10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log1p: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log1pf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log1pl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log2: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log2f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log2l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logb: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logbf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logbl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* login: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* login_tty: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* logl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logout: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* logwtmp: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* longjmp: (libc)Non-Local Details.
* lrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* lrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* lrint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lrintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lrintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lround: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lroundf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lroundl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lsearch: (libc)Array Search Function.
* lseek64: (libc)File Position Primitive.
* lseek: (libc)File Position Primitive.
* lstat64: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* lstat: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* lutimes: (libc)File Times.
* madvise: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* makecontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* mallinfo: (libc)Statistics of Malloc.
* malloc: (libc)Basic Allocation.
* mallopt: (libc)Malloc Tunable Parameters.
* mblen: (libc)Non-reentrant Character Conversion.
* mbrlen: (libc)Converting a Character.
* mbrtowc: (libc)Converting a Character.
* mbsinit: (libc)Keeping the state.
* mbsnrtowcs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* mbsrtowcs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* mbstowcs: (libc)Non-reentrant String Conversion.
* mbtowc: (libc)Non-reentrant Character Conversion.
* mcheck: (libc)Heap Consistency Checking.
* memalign: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* memccpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* memchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* memcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* memcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* memfrob: (libc)Trivial Encryption.
* memmem: (libc)Search Functions.
* memmove: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* mempcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* memrchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* memset: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* mkdir: (libc)Creating Directories.
* mkdtemp: (libc)Temporary Files.
* mkfifo: (libc)FIFO Special Files.
* mknod: (libc)Making Special Files.
* mkstemp: (libc)Temporary Files.
* mktemp: (libc)Temporary Files.
* mktime: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* mlock: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* mlockall: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* mmap64: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* mmap: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* modf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* modff: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* modfl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* mount: (libc)Mount-Unmount-Remount.
* mprobe: (libc)Heap Consistency Checking.
* mrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* mrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* mremap: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* msync: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* mtrace: (libc)Tracing malloc.
* munlock: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* munlockall: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* munmap: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* muntrace: (libc)Tracing malloc.
* nan: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nanf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nanl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nanosleep: (libc)Sleeping.
* nearbyint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* nearbyintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* nearbyintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* nextafter: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nextafterf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nextafterl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nexttoward: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nexttowardf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nexttowardl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nftw64: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* nftw: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* ngettext: (libc)Advanced gettext functions.
* nice: (libc)Traditional Scheduling Functions.
* nl_langinfo: (libc)The Elegant and Fast Way.
* nrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* nrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* ntohl: (libc)Byte Order.
* ntohs: (libc)Byte Order.
* ntp_adjtime: (libc)High Accuracy Clock.
* ntp_gettime: (libc)High Accuracy Clock.
* obstack_1grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_1grow_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_alignment_mask: (libc)Obstacks Data Alignment.
* obstack_alloc: (libc)Allocation in an Obstack.
* obstack_base: (libc)Status of an Obstack.
* obstack_blank: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_blank_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_chunk_size: (libc)Obstack Chunks.
* obstack_copy0: (libc)Allocation in an Obstack.
* obstack_copy: (libc)Allocation in an Obstack.
* obstack_finish: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_free: (libc)Freeing Obstack Objects.
* obstack_grow0: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_init: (libc)Preparing for Obstacks.
* obstack_int_grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_int_grow_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_next_free: (libc)Status of an Obstack.
* obstack_object_size: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_object_size: (libc)Status of an Obstack.
* obstack_printf: (libc)Dynamic Output.
* obstack_ptr_grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_ptr_grow_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_room: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_vprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* offsetof: (libc)Structure Measurement.
* on_exit: (libc)Cleanups on Exit.
* open64: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* open: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* open_memstream: (libc)String Streams.
* opendir: (libc)Opening a Directory.
* openlog: (libc)openlog.
* openpty: (libc)Pseudo-Terminal Pairs.
* parse_printf_format: (libc)Parsing a Template String.
* pathconf: (libc)Pathconf.
* pause: (libc)Using Pause.
* pclose: (libc)Pipe to a Subprocess.
* perror: (libc)Error Messages.
* pipe: (libc)Creating a Pipe.
* popen: (libc)Pipe to a Subprocess.
* posix_fallocate64: (libc)Storage Allocation.
* posix_fallocate: (libc)Storage Allocation.
* posix_memalign: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* pow10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pow10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pow10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pow: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* powf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* powl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pread64: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* pread: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* printf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* printf_size: (libc)Predefined Printf Handlers.
* printf_size_info: (libc)Predefined Printf Handlers.
* psignal: (libc)Signal Messages.
* pthread_getattr_default_np: (libc)Default Thread Attributes.
* pthread_getspecific: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* pthread_key_create: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* pthread_key_delete: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* pthread_setattr_default_np: (libc)Default Thread Attributes.
* pthread_setspecific: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* ptsname: (libc)Allocation.
* ptsname_r: (libc)Allocation.
* putc: (libc)Simple Output.
* putc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* putchar: (libc)Simple Output.
* putchar_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* putenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* putpwent: (libc)Writing a User Entry.
* puts: (libc)Simple Output.
* pututline: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* pututxline: (libc)XPG Functions.
* putw: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwc: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwchar: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwchar_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* pwrite64: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* pwrite: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* qecvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qecvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qfcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qfcvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qgcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qsort: (libc)Array Sort Function.
* raise: (libc)Signaling Yourself.
* rand: (libc)ISO Random.
* rand_r: (libc)ISO Random.
* random: (libc)BSD Random.
* random_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* rawmemchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* read: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* readdir64: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readdir64_r: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readdir: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readdir_r: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readlink: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* readv: (libc)Scatter-Gather.
* realloc: (libc)Changing Block Size.
* realpath: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* recv: (libc)Receiving Data.
* recvfrom: (libc)Receiving Datagrams.
* recvmsg: (libc)Receiving Datagrams.
* regcomp: (libc)POSIX Regexp Compilation.
* regerror: (libc)Regexp Cleanup.
* regexec: (libc)Matching POSIX Regexps.
* regfree: (libc)Regexp Cleanup.
* register_printf_function: (libc)Registering New Conversions.
* remainder: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* remainderf: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* remainderl: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* remove: (libc)Deleting Files.
* rename: (libc)Renaming Files.
* rewind: (libc)File Positioning.
* rewinddir: (libc)Random Access Directory.
* rindex: (libc)Search Functions.
* rint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rmdir: (libc)Deleting Files.
* round: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* roundf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* roundl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rpmatch: (libc)Yes-or-No Questions.
* sbrk: (libc)Resizing the Data Segment.
* scalb: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbln: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalblnf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalblnl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbn: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbnf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbnl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scandir64: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* scandir: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* scanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* sched_get_priority_max: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_get_priority_min: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_getaffinity: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* sched_getparam: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_getscheduler: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_rr_get_interval: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_setaffinity: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* sched_setparam: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_setscheduler: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_yield: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* secure_getenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* seed48: (libc)SVID Random.
* seed48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* seekdir: (libc)Random Access Directory.
* select: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* sem_close: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_destroy: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_getvalue: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_init: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_open: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_post: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_timedwait: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_trywait: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_unlink: (libc)Semaphores.
* sem_wait: (libc)Semaphores.
* semctl: (libc)Semaphores.
* semget: (libc)Semaphores.
* semop: (libc)Semaphores.
* semtimedop: (libc)Semaphores.
* send: (libc)Sending Data.
* sendmsg: (libc)Receiving Datagrams.
* sendto: (libc)Sending Datagrams.
* setbuf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* setbuffer: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* setcontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* setdomainname: (libc)Host Identification.
* setegid: (libc)Setting Groups.
* setenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* seteuid: (libc)Setting User ID.
* setfsent: (libc)fstab.
* setgid: (libc)Setting Groups.
* setgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* setgroups: (libc)Setting Groups.
* sethostent: (libc)Host Names.
* sethostid: (libc)Host Identification.
* sethostname: (libc)Host Identification.
* setitimer: (libc)Setting an Alarm.
* setjmp: (libc)Non-Local Details.
* setkey: (libc)DES Encryption.
* setkey_r: (libc)DES Encryption.
* setlinebuf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* setlocale: (libc)Setting the Locale.
* setlogmask: (libc)setlogmask.
* setmntent: (libc)mtab.
* setnetent: (libc)Networks Database.
* setnetgrent: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* setpgid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* setpgrp: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* setpriority: (libc)Traditional Scheduling Functions.
* setprotoent: (libc)Protocols Database.
* setpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* setregid: (libc)Setting Groups.
* setreuid: (libc)Setting User ID.
* setrlimit64: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* setrlimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* setservent: (libc)Services Database.
* setsid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* setsockopt: (libc)Socket Option Functions.
* setstate: (libc)BSD Random.
* setstate_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* settimeofday: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* setuid: (libc)Setting User ID.
* setutent: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* setutxent: (libc)XPG Functions.
* setvbuf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* shm_open: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* shm_unlink: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* shutdown: (libc)Closing a Socket.
* sigaction: (libc)Advanced Signal Handling.
* sigaddset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* sigaltstack: (libc)Signal Stack.
* sigblock: (libc)BSD Signal Handling.
* sigdelset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* sigemptyset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* sigfillset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* siginterrupt: (libc)BSD Signal Handling.
* sigismember: (libc)Signal Sets.
* siglongjmp: (libc)Non-Local Exits and Signals.
* sigmask: (libc)BSD Signal Handling.
* signal: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* signbit: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* significand: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* significandf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* significandl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* sigpause: (libc)BSD Signal Handling.
* sigpending: (libc)Checking for Pending Signals.
* sigprocmask: (libc)Process Signal Mask.
* sigsetjmp: (libc)Non-Local Exits and Signals.
* sigsetmask: (libc)BSD Signal Handling.
* sigstack: (libc)Signal Stack.
* sigsuspend: (libc)Sigsuspend.
* sin: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sincos: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sincosf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sincosl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sinf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* sinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* sinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* sinl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sleep: (libc)Sleeping.
* snprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* socket: (libc)Creating a Socket.
* socketpair: (libc)Socket Pairs.
* sprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* sqrt: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* sqrtf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* sqrtl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* srand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* srand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* srand: (libc)ISO Random.
* srandom: (libc)BSD Random.
* srandom_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* sscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* ssignal: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* stat64: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* stat: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* stime: (libc)Simple Calendar Time.
* stpcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* stpncpy: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* strcasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strcasestr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strcat: (libc)Concatenating Strings.
* strchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strchrnul: (libc)Search Functions.
* strcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strcoll: (libc)Collation Functions.
* strcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* strcspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* strdup: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* strdupa: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* strerror: (libc)Error Messages.
* strerror_r: (libc)Error Messages.
* strfmon: (libc)Formatting Numbers.
* strfry: (libc)strfry.
* strftime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* strlen: (libc)String Length.
* strncasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strncat: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* strncmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strncpy: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* strndup: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* strndupa: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* strnlen: (libc)String Length.
* strpbrk: (libc)Search Functions.
* strptime: (libc)Low-Level Time String Parsing.
* strrchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strsep: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* strsignal: (libc)Signal Messages.
* strspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* strstr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strtod: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* strtof: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* strtoimax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtok: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* strtok_r: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* strtol: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtold: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* strtoll: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoul: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoull: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoumax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtouq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strverscmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strxfrm: (libc)Collation Functions.
* stty: (libc)BSD Terminal Modes.
* swapcontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* swprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* swscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* symlink: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* sync: (libc)Synchronizing I/O.
* syscall: (libc)System Calls.
* sysconf: (libc)Sysconf Definition.
* sysctl: (libc)System Parameters.
* syslog: (libc)syslog; vsyslog.
* system: (libc)Running a Command.
* sysv_signal: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* tan: (libc)Trig Functions.
* tanf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* tanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* tanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* tanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* tanl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* tcdrain: (libc)Line Control.
* tcflow: (libc)Line Control.
* tcflush: (libc)Line Control.
* tcgetattr: (libc)Mode Functions.
* tcgetpgrp: (libc)Terminal Access Functions.
* tcgetsid: (libc)Terminal Access Functions.
* tcsendbreak: (libc)Line Control.
* tcsetattr: (libc)Mode Functions.
* tcsetpgrp: (libc)Terminal Access Functions.
* tdelete: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* tdestroy: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* telldir: (libc)Random Access Directory.
* tempnam: (libc)Temporary Files.
* textdomain: (libc)Locating gettext catalog.
* tfind: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* tgamma: (libc)Special Functions.
* tgammaf: (libc)Special Functions.
* tgammal: (libc)Special Functions.
* time: (libc)Simple Calendar Time.
* timegm: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* timelocal: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* times: (libc)Processor Time.
* tmpfile64: (libc)Temporary Files.
* tmpfile: (libc)Temporary Files.
* tmpnam: (libc)Temporary Files.
* tmpnam_r: (libc)Temporary Files.
* toascii: (libc)Case Conversion.
* tolower: (libc)Case Conversion.
* toupper: (libc)Case Conversion.
* towctrans: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* towlower: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* towupper: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* trunc: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* truncate64: (libc)File Size.
* truncate: (libc)File Size.
* truncf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* truncl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* tsearch: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* ttyname: (libc)Is It a Terminal.
* ttyname_r: (libc)Is It a Terminal.
* twalk: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* tzset: (libc)Time Zone Functions.
* ulimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* umask: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* umount2: (libc)Mount-Unmount-Remount.
* umount: (libc)Mount-Unmount-Remount.
* uname: (libc)Platform Type.
* ungetc: (libc)How Unread.
* ungetwc: (libc)How Unread.
* unlink: (libc)Deleting Files.
* unlockpt: (libc)Allocation.
* unsetenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* updwtmp: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* utime: (libc)File Times.
* utimes: (libc)File Times.
* utmpname: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* utmpxname: (libc)XPG Functions.
* va_arg: (libc)Argument Macros.
* va_copy: (libc)Argument Macros.
* va_end: (libc)Argument Macros.
* va_start: (libc)Argument Macros.
* valloc: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* vasprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* verr: (libc)Error Messages.
* verrx: (libc)Error Messages.
* versionsort64: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* versionsort: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* vfork: (libc)Creating a Process.
* vfprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vfscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vfwprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vfwscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vlimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* vprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vsnprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vsprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vsscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vswprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vswscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vsyslog: (libc)syslog; vsyslog.
* vtimes: (libc)Resource Usage.
* vwarn: (libc)Error Messages.
* vwarnx: (libc)Error Messages.
* vwprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vwscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* wait3: (libc)BSD Wait Functions.
* wait4: (libc)Process Completion.
* wait: (libc)Process Completion.
* waitpid: (libc)Process Completion.
* warn: (libc)Error Messages.
* warnx: (libc)Error Messages.
* wcpcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wcpncpy: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* wcrtomb: (libc)Converting a Character.
* wcscasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcscat: (libc)Concatenating Strings.
* wcschr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcschrnul: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcscmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcscoll: (libc)Collation Functions.
* wcscpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wcscspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsdup: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wcsftime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* wcslen: (libc)String Length.
* wcsncasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcsncat: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* wcsncmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcsncpy: (libc)Truncating Strings.
* wcsnlen: (libc)String Length.
* wcsnrtombs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* wcspbrk: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsrchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsrtombs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* wcsspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsstr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcstod: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* wcstof: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* wcstoimax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstok: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* wcstol: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstold: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* wcstoll: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstombs: (libc)Non-reentrant String Conversion.
* wcstoq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstoul: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstoull: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstoumax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstouq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcswcs: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsxfrm: (libc)Collation Functions.
* wctob: (libc)Converting a Character.
* wctomb: (libc)Non-reentrant Character Conversion.
* wctrans: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* wctype: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* wmemchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wmemcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wmemcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wmemmove: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wmempcpy: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wmemset: (libc)Copying Strings and Arrays.
* wordexp: (libc)Calling Wordexp.
* wordfree: (libc)Calling Wordexp.
* wprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* write: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* writev: (libc)Scatter-Gather.
* wscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* y0: (libc)Special Functions.
* y0f: (libc)Special Functions.
* y0l: (libc)Special Functions.
* y1: (libc)Special Functions.
* y1f: (libc)Special Functions.
* y1l: (libc)Special Functions.
* yn: (libc)Special Functions.
* ynf: (libc)Special Functions.
* ynl: (libc)Special Functions.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

File: libc.info, Node: Multibyte Conversion Example, Prev: Converting Strings, Up: Restartable multibyte conversion
6.3.5 A Complete Multibyte Conversion Example
---------------------------------------------
The example programs given in the last sections are only brief and do
not contain all the error checking, etc. Presented here is a complete
and documented example. It features the ‘mbrtowc’ function but it
should be easy to derive versions using the other functions.
int
file_mbsrtowcs (int input, int output)
{
/* Note the use of ‘MB_LEN_MAX’.
‘MB_CUR_MAX’ cannot portably be used here. */
char buffer[BUFSIZ + MB_LEN_MAX];
mbstate_t state;
int filled = 0;
int eof = 0;
/* Initialize the state. */
memset (&state, '\0', sizeof (state));
while (!eof)
{
ssize_t nread;
ssize_t nwrite;
char *inp = buffer;
wchar_t outbuf[BUFSIZ];
wchar_t *outp = outbuf;
/* Fill up the buffer from the input file. */
nread = read (input, buffer + filled, BUFSIZ);
if (nread < 0)
{
perror ("read");
return 0;
}
/* If we reach end of file, make a note to read no more. */
if (nread == 0)
eof = 1;
/* ‘filled’ is now the number of bytes in ‘buffer’. */
filled += nread;
/* Convert those bytes to wide characters–as many as we can. */
while (1)
{
size_t thislen = mbrtowc (outp, inp, filled, &state);
/* Stop converting at invalid character;
this can mean we have read just the first part
of a valid character. */
if (thislen == (size_t) -1)
break;
/* We want to handle embedded NUL bytes
but the return value is 0. Correct this. */
if (thislen == 0)
thislen = 1;
/* Advance past this character. */
inp += thislen;
filled -= thislen;
++outp;
}
/* Write the wide characters we just made. */
nwrite = write (output, outbuf,
(outp - outbuf) * sizeof (wchar_t));
if (nwrite < 0)
{
perror ("write");
return 0;
}
/* See if we have a _real_ invalid character. */
if ((eof && filled > 0) || filled >= MB_CUR_MAX)
{
error (0, 0, "invalid multibyte character");
return 0;
}
/* If any characters must be carried forward,
put them at the beginning of ‘buffer’. */
if (filled > 0)
memmove (buffer, inp, filled);
}
return 1;
}

File: libc.info, Node: Non-reentrant Conversion, Next: Generic Charset Conversion, Prev: Restartable multibyte conversion, Up: Character Set Handling
6.4 Non-reentrant Conversion Function
=====================================
The functions described in the previous chapter are defined in Amendment 1
to ISO C90, but the original ISO C90 standard also contained functions
for character set conversion. The reason that these original functions
are not described first is that they are almost entirely useless.
The problem is that all the conversion functions described in the
original ISO C90 use a local state. Using a local state implies that
multiple conversions at the same time (not only when using threads)
cannot be done, and that you cannot first convert single characters and
then strings since you cannot tell the conversion functions which state
to use.
These original functions are therefore usable only in a very limited
set of situations. One must complete converting the entire string
before starting a new one, and each string/text must be converted with
the same function (there is no problem with the library itself; it is
guaranteed that no library function changes the state of any of these
functions). *For the above reasons it is highly requested that the
functions described in the previous section be used in place of
non-reentrant conversion functions.*
* Menu:
* Non-reentrant Character Conversion:: Non-reentrant Conversion of Single
Characters.
* Non-reentrant String Conversion:: Non-reentrant Conversion of Strings.
* Shift State:: States in Non-reentrant Functions.

File: libc.info, Node: Non-reentrant Character Conversion, Next: Non-reentrant String Conversion, Up: Non-reentrant Conversion
6.4.1 Non-reentrant Conversion of Single Characters
---------------------------------------------------
-- Function: int mbtowc (wchar_t *restrict RESULT, const char *restrict
STRING, size_t SIZE)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘mbtowc’ (“multibyte to wide character”) function when called
with non-null STRING converts the first multibyte character
beginning at STRING to its corresponding wide character code. It
stores the result in ‘*RESULT’.
‘mbtowc’ never examines more than SIZE bytes. (The idea is to
supply for SIZE the number of bytes of data you have in hand.)
‘mbtowc’ with non-null STRING distinguishes three possibilities:
the first SIZE bytes at STRING start with valid multibyte
characters, they start with an invalid byte sequence or just part
of a character, or STRING points to an empty string (a null
character).
For a valid multibyte character, ‘mbtowc’ converts it to a wide
character and stores that in ‘*RESULT’, and returns the number of
bytes in that character (always at least 1 and never more than
SIZE).
For an invalid byte sequence, ‘mbtowc’ returns -1. For an empty
string, it returns 0, also storing ‘'\0'’ in ‘*RESULT’.
If the multibyte character code uses shift characters, then
‘mbtowc’ maintains and updates a shift state as it scans. If you
call ‘mbtowc’ with a null pointer for STRING, that initializes the
shift state to its standard initial value. It also returns nonzero
if the multibyte character code in use actually has a shift state.
*Note Shift State::.
-- Function: int wctomb (char *STRING, wchar_t WCHAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘wctomb’ (“wide character to multibyte”) function converts the
wide character code WCHAR to its corresponding multibyte character
sequence, and stores the result in bytes starting at STRING. At
most ‘MB_CUR_MAX’ characters are stored.
‘wctomb’ with non-null STRING distinguishes three possibilities for
WCHAR: a valid wide character code (one that can be translated to a
multibyte character), an invalid code, and ‘L'\0'’.
Given a valid code, ‘wctomb’ converts it to a multibyte character,
storing the bytes starting at STRING. Then it returns the number
of bytes in that character (always at least 1 and never more than
‘MB_CUR_MAX’).
If WCHAR is an invalid wide character code, ‘wctomb’ returns -1.
If WCHAR is ‘L'\0'’, it returns ‘0’, also storing ‘'\0'’ in
‘*STRING’.
If the multibyte character code uses shift characters, then
‘wctomb’ maintains and updates a shift state as it scans. If you
call ‘wctomb’ with a null pointer for STRING, that initializes the
shift state to its standard initial value. It also returns nonzero
if the multibyte character code in use actually has a shift state.
*Note Shift State::.
Calling this function with a WCHAR argument of zero when STRING is
not null has the side-effect of reinitializing the stored shift
state _as well as_ storing the multibyte character ‘'\0'’ and
returning 0.
Similar to ‘mbrlen’ there is also a non-reentrant function that
computes the length of a multibyte character. It can be defined in
terms of ‘mbtowc’.
-- Function: int mblen (const char *STRING, size_t SIZE)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘mblen’ function with a non-null STRING argument returns the
number of bytes that make up the multibyte character beginning at
STRING, never examining more than SIZE bytes. (The idea is to
supply for SIZE the number of bytes of data you have in hand.)
The return value of ‘mblen’ distinguishes three possibilities: the
first SIZE bytes at STRING start with valid multibyte characters,
they start with an invalid byte sequence or just part of a
character, or STRING points to an empty string (a null character).
For a valid multibyte character, ‘mblen’ returns the number of
bytes in that character (always at least ‘1’ and never more than
SIZE). For an invalid byte sequence, ‘mblen’ returns -1. For an
empty string, it returns 0.
If the multibyte character code uses shift characters, then ‘mblen’
maintains and updates a shift state as it scans. If you call
‘mblen’ with a null pointer for STRING, that initializes the shift
state to its standard initial value. It also returns a nonzero
value if the multibyte character code in use actually has a shift
state. *Note Shift State::.
The function ‘mblen’ is declared in ‘stdlib.h’.

File: libc.info, Node: Non-reentrant String Conversion, Next: Shift State, Prev: Non-reentrant Character Conversion, Up: Non-reentrant Conversion
6.4.2 Non-reentrant Conversion of Strings
-----------------------------------------
For convenience the ISO C90 standard also defines functions to convert
entire strings instead of single characters. These functions suffer
from the same problems as their reentrant counterparts from Amendment 1
to ISO C90; see *note Converting Strings::.
-- Function: size_t mbstowcs (wchar_t *WSTRING, const char *STRING,
size_t SIZE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘mbstowcs’ (“multibyte string to wide character string”)
function converts the null-terminated string of multibyte
characters STRING to an array of wide character codes, storing not
more than SIZE wide characters into the array beginning at WSTRING.
The terminating null character counts towards the size, so if SIZE
is less than the actual number of wide characters resulting from
STRING, no terminating null character is stored.
The conversion of characters from STRING begins in the initial
shift state.
If an invalid multibyte character sequence is found, the ‘mbstowcs’
function returns a value of -1. Otherwise, it returns the number
of wide characters stored in the array WSTRING. This number does
not include the terminating null character, which is present if the
number is less than SIZE.
Here is an example showing how to convert a string of multibyte
characters, allocating enough space for the result.
wchar_t *
mbstowcs_alloc (const char *string)
{
size_t size = strlen (string) + 1;
wchar_t *buf = xmalloc (size * sizeof (wchar_t));
size = mbstowcs (buf, string, size);
if (size == (size_t) -1)
return NULL;
buf = xrealloc (buf, (size + 1) * sizeof (wchar_t));
return buf;
}
-- Function: size_t wcstombs (char *STRING, const wchar_t *WSTRING,
size_t SIZE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘wcstombs’ (“wide character string to multibyte string”)
function converts the null-terminated wide character array WSTRING
into a string containing multibyte characters, storing not more
than SIZE bytes starting at STRING, followed by a terminating null
character if there is room. The conversion of characters begins in
the initial shift state.
The terminating null character counts towards the size, so if SIZE
is less than or equal to the number of bytes needed in WSTRING, no
terminating null character is stored.
If a code that does not correspond to a valid multibyte character
is found, the ‘wcstombs’ function returns a value of -1.
Otherwise, the return value is the number of bytes stored in the
array STRING. This number does not include the terminating null
character, which is present if the number is less than SIZE.

File: libc.info, Node: Shift State, Prev: Non-reentrant String Conversion, Up: Non-reentrant Conversion
6.4.3 States in Non-reentrant Functions
---------------------------------------
In some multibyte character codes, the _meaning_ of any particular byte
sequence is not fixed; it depends on what other sequences have come
earlier in the same string. Typically there are just a few sequences
that can change the meaning of other sequences; these few are called
"shift sequences" and we say that they set the "shift state" for other
sequences that follow.
To illustrate shift state and shift sequences, suppose we decide that
the sequence ‘0200’ (just one byte) enters Japanese mode, in which pairs
of bytes in the range from ‘0240’ to ‘0377’ are single characters, while
‘0201’ enters Latin-1 mode, in which single bytes in the range from
‘0240’ to ‘0377’ are characters, and interpreted according to the ISO
Latin-1 character set. This is a multibyte code that has two
alternative shift states (“Japanese mode” and “Latin-1 mode”), and two
shift sequences that specify particular shift states.
When the multibyte character code in use has shift states, then
‘mblen’, ‘mbtowc’, and ‘wctomb’ must maintain and update the current
shift state as they scan the string. To make this work properly, you
must follow these rules:
• Before starting to scan a string, call the function with a null
pointer for the multibyte character address—for example, ‘mblen
(NULL, 0)’. This initializes the shift state to its standard
initial value.
• Scan the string one character at a time, in order. Do not “back
up” and rescan characters already scanned, and do not intersperse
the processing of different strings.
Here is an example of using ‘mblen’ following these rules:
void
scan_string (char *s)
{
int length = strlen (s);
/* Initialize shift state. */
mblen (NULL, 0);
while (1)
{
int thischar = mblen (s, length);
/* Deal with end of string and invalid characters. */
if (thischar == 0)
break;
if (thischar == -1)
{
error ("invalid multibyte character");
break;
}
/* Advance past this character. */
s += thischar;
length -= thischar;
}
}
The functions ‘mblen’, ‘mbtowc’ and ‘wctomb’ are not reentrant when
using a multibyte code that uses a shift state. However, no other
library functions call these functions, so you don’t have to worry that
the shift state will be changed mysteriously.

File: libc.info, Node: Generic Charset Conversion, Prev: Non-reentrant Conversion, Up: Character Set Handling
6.5 Generic Charset Conversion
==============================
The conversion functions mentioned so far in this chapter all had in
common that they operate on character sets that are not directly
specified by the functions. The multibyte encoding used is specified by
the currently selected locale for the ‘LC_CTYPE’ category. The wide
character set is fixed by the implementation (in the case of the GNU C
Library it is always UCS-4 encoded ISO 10646.
This has of course several problems when it comes to general
character conversion:
• For every conversion where neither the source nor the destination
character set is the character set of the locale for the ‘LC_CTYPE’
category, one has to change the ‘LC_CTYPE’ locale using
‘setlocale’.
Changing the ‘LC_CTYPE’ locale introduces major problems for the
rest of the programs since several more functions (e.g., the
character classification functions, *note Classification of
Characters::) use the ‘LC_CTYPE’ category.
• Parallel conversions to and from different character sets are not
possible since the ‘LC_CTYPE’ selection is global and shared by all
threads.
• If neither the source nor the destination character set is the
character set used for ‘wchar_t’ representation, there is at least
a two-step process necessary to convert a text using the functions
above. One would have to select the source character set as the
multibyte encoding, convert the text into a ‘wchar_t’ text, select
the destination character set as the multibyte encoding, and
convert the wide character text to the multibyte (= destination)
character set.
Even if this is possible (which is not guaranteed) it is a very
tiring work. Plus it suffers from the other two raised points even
more due to the steady changing of the locale.
The XPG2 standard defines a completely new set of functions, which
has none of these limitations. They are not at all coupled to the
selected locales, and they have no constraints on the character sets
selected for source and destination. Only the set of available
conversions limits them. The standard does not specify that any
conversion at all must be available. Such availability is a measure of
the quality of the implementation.
In the following text first the interface to ‘iconv’ and then the
conversion function, will be described. Comparisons with other
implementations will show what obstacles stand in the way of portable
applications. Finally, the implementation is described in so far as
might interest the advanced user who wants to extend conversion
capabilities.
* Menu:
* Generic Conversion Interface:: Generic Character Set Conversion Interface.
* iconv Examples:: A complete ‘iconv’ example.
* Other iconv Implementations:: Some Details about other ‘iconv’
Implementations.
* glibc iconv Implementation:: The ‘iconv’ Implementation in the GNU C
library.

File: libc.info, Node: Generic Conversion Interface, Next: iconv Examples, Up: Generic Charset Conversion
6.5.1 Generic Character Set Conversion Interface
------------------------------------------------
This set of functions follows the traditional cycle of using a resource:
open–use–close. The interface consists of three functions, each of
which implements one step.
Before the interfaces are described it is necessary to introduce a
data type. Just like other open–use–close interfaces the functions
introduced here work using handles and the ‘iconv.h’ header defines a
special type for the handles used.
-- Data Type: iconv_t
This data type is an abstract type defined in ‘iconv.h’. The user
must not assume anything about the definition of this type; it must
be completely opaque.
Objects of this type can get assigned handles for the conversions
using the ‘iconv’ functions. The objects themselves need not be
freed, but the conversions for which the handles stand for have to.
The first step is the function to create a handle.
-- Function: iconv_t iconv_open (const char *TOCODE, const char
*FROMCODE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘iconv_open’ function has to be used before starting a
conversion. The two parameters this function takes determine the
source and destination character set for the conversion, and if the
implementation has the possibility to perform such a conversion,
the function returns a handle.
If the wanted conversion is not available, the ‘iconv_open’
function returns ‘(iconv_t) -1’. In this case the global variable
‘errno’ can have the following values:
‘EMFILE’
The process already has ‘OPEN_MAX’ file descriptors open.
‘ENFILE’
The system limit of open file is reached.
‘ENOMEM’
Not enough memory to carry out the operation.
‘EINVAL’
The conversion from FROMCODE to TOCODE is not supported.
It is not possible to use the same descriptor in different threads
to perform independent conversions. The data structures associated
with the descriptor include information about the conversion state.
This must not be messed up by using it in different conversions.
An ‘iconv’ descriptor is like a file descriptor as for every use a
new descriptor must be created. The descriptor does not stand for
all of the conversions from FROMSET to TOSET.
The GNU C Library implementation of ‘iconv_open’ has one
significant extension to other implementations. To ease the
extension of the set of available conversions, the implementation
allows storing the necessary files with data and code in an
arbitrary number of directories. How this extension must be
written will be explained below (*note glibc iconv
Implementation::). Here it is only important to say that all
directories mentioned in the ‘GCONV_PATH’ environment variable are
considered only if they contain a file ‘gconv-modules’. These
directories need not necessarily be created by the system
administrator. In fact, this extension is introduced to help users
writing and using their own, new conversions. Of course, this does
not work for security reasons in SUID binaries; in this case only
the system directory is considered and this normally is
‘PREFIX/lib/gconv’. The ‘GCONV_PATH’ environment variable is
examined exactly once at the first call of the ‘iconv_open’
function. Later modifications of the variable have no effect.
The ‘iconv_open’ function was introduced early in the X/Open
Portability Guide, version 2. It is supported by all commercial
Unices as it is required for the Unix branding. However, the
quality and completeness of the implementation varies widely. The
‘iconv_open’ function is declared in ‘iconv.h’.
The ‘iconv’ implementation can associate large data structure with
the handle returned by ‘iconv_open’. Therefore, it is crucial to free
all the resources once all conversions are carried out and the
conversion is not needed anymore.
-- Function: int iconv_close (iconv_t CD)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘iconv_close’ function frees all resources associated with the
handle CD, which must have been returned by a successful call to
the ‘iconv_open’ function.
If the function call was successful the return value is 0.
Otherwise it is -1 and ‘errno’ is set appropriately. Defined error
are:
‘EBADF’
The conversion descriptor is invalid.
The ‘iconv_close’ function was introduced together with the rest of
the ‘iconv’ functions in XPG2 and is declared in ‘iconv.h’.
The standard defines only one actual conversion function. This has,
therefore, the most general interface: it allows conversion from one
buffer to another. Conversion from a file to a buffer, vice versa, or
even file to file can be implemented on top of it.
-- Function: size_t iconv (iconv_t CD, char **INBUF, size_t
*INBYTESLEFT, char **OUTBUF, size_t *OUTBYTESLEFT)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:cd | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe corrupt |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘iconv’ function converts the text in the input buffer
according to the rules associated with the descriptor CD and stores
the result in the output buffer. It is possible to call the
function for the same text several times in a row since for
stateful character sets the necessary state information is kept in
the data structures associated with the descriptor.
The input buffer is specified by ‘*INBUF’ and it contains
‘*INBYTESLEFT’ bytes. The extra indirection is necessary for
communicating the used input back to the caller (see below). It is
important to note that the buffer pointer is of type ‘char’ and the
length is measured in bytes even if the input text is encoded in
wide characters.
The output buffer is specified in a similar way. ‘*OUTBUF’ points
to the beginning of the buffer with at least ‘*OUTBYTESLEFT’ bytes
room for the result. The buffer pointer again is of type ‘char’
and the length is measured in bytes. If OUTBUF or ‘*OUTBUF’ is a
null pointer, the conversion is performed but no output is
available.
If INBUF is a null pointer, the ‘iconv’ function performs the
necessary action to put the state of the conversion into the
initial state. This is obviously a no-op for non-stateful
encodings, but if the encoding has a state, such a function call
might put some byte sequences in the output buffer, which perform
the necessary state changes. The next call with INBUF not being a
null pointer then simply goes on from the initial state. It is
important that the programmer never makes any assumption as to
whether the conversion has to deal with states. Even if the input
and output character sets are not stateful, the implementation
might still have to keep states. This is due to the implementation
chosen for the GNU C Library as it is described below. Therefore
an ‘iconv’ call to reset the state should always be performed if
some protocol requires this for the output text.
The conversion stops for one of three reasons. The first is that
all characters from the input buffer are converted. This actually
can mean two things: either all bytes from the input buffer are
consumed or there are some bytes at the end of the buffer that
possibly can form a complete character but the input is incomplete.
The second reason for a stop is that the output buffer is full.
And the third reason is that the input contains invalid characters.
In all of these cases the buffer pointers after the last successful
conversion, for input and output buffer, are stored in INBUF and
OUTBUF, and the available room in each buffer is stored in
INBYTESLEFT and OUTBYTESLEFT.
Since the character sets selected in the ‘iconv_open’ call can be
almost arbitrary, there can be situations where the input buffer
contains valid characters, which have no identical representation
in the output character set. The behavior in this situation is
undefined. The _current_ behavior of the GNU C Library in this
situation is to return with an error immediately. This certainly
is not the most desirable solution; therefore, future versions will
provide better ones, but they are not yet finished.
If all input from the input buffer is successfully converted and
stored in the output buffer, the function returns the number of
non-reversible conversions performed. In all other cases the
return value is ‘(size_t) -1’ and ‘errno’ is set appropriately. In
such cases the value pointed to by INBYTESLEFT is nonzero.
‘EILSEQ’
The conversion stopped because of an invalid byte sequence in
the input. After the call, ‘*INBUF’ points at the first byte
of the invalid byte sequence.
‘E2BIG’
The conversion stopped because it ran out of space in the
output buffer.
‘EINVAL’
The conversion stopped because of an incomplete byte sequence
at the end of the input buffer.
‘EBADF’
The CD argument is invalid.
The ‘iconv’ function was introduced in the XPG2 standard and is
declared in the ‘iconv.h’ header.
The definition of the ‘iconv’ function is quite good overall. It
provides quite flexible functionality. The only problems lie in the
boundary cases, which are incomplete byte sequences at the end of the
input buffer and invalid input. A third problem, which is not really a
design problem, is the way conversions are selected. The standard does
not say anything about the legitimate names, a minimal set of available
conversions. We will see how this negatively impacts other
implementations, as demonstrated below.

File: libc.info, Node: iconv Examples, Next: Other iconv Implementations, Prev: Generic Conversion Interface, Up: Generic Charset Conversion
6.5.2 A complete ‘iconv’ example
--------------------------------
The example below features a solution for a common problem. Given that
one knows the internal encoding used by the system for ‘wchar_t’
strings, one often is in the position to read text from a file and store
it in wide character buffers. One can do this using ‘mbsrtowcs’, but
then we run into the problems discussed above.
int
file2wcs (int fd, const char *charset, wchar_t *outbuf, size_t avail)
{
char inbuf[BUFSIZ];
size_t insize = 0;
char *wrptr = (char *) outbuf;
int result = 0;
iconv_t cd;
cd = iconv_open ("WCHAR_T", charset);
if (cd == (iconv_t) -1)
{
/* Something went wrong. */
if (errno == EINVAL)
error (0, 0, "conversion from '%s' to wchar_t not available",
charset);
else
perror ("iconv_open");
/* Terminate the output string. */
*outbuf = L'\0';
return -1;
}
while (avail > 0)
{
size_t nread;
size_t nconv;
char *inptr = inbuf;
/* Read more input. */
nread = read (fd, inbuf + insize, sizeof (inbuf) - insize);
if (nread == 0)
{
/* When we come here the file is completely read.
This still could mean there are some unused
characters in the ‘inbuf’. Put them back. */
if (lseek (fd, -insize, SEEK_CUR) == -1)
result = -1;
/* Now write out the byte sequence to get into the
initial state if this is necessary. */
iconv (cd, NULL, NULL, &wrptr, &avail);
break;
}
insize += nread;
/* Do the conversion. */
nconv = iconv (cd, &inptr, &insize, &wrptr, &avail);
if (nconv == (size_t) -1)
{
/* Not everything went right. It might only be
an unfinished byte sequence at the end of the
buffer. Or it is a real problem. */
if (errno == EINVAL)
/* This is harmless. Simply move the unused
bytes to the beginning of the buffer so that
they can be used in the next round. */
memmove (inbuf, inptr, insize);
else
{
/* It is a real problem. Maybe we ran out of
space in the output buffer or we have invalid
input. In any case back the file pointer to
the position of the last processed byte. */
lseek (fd, -insize, SEEK_CUR);
result = -1;
break;
}
}
}
/* Terminate the output string. */
if (avail >= sizeof (wchar_t))
*((wchar_t *) wrptr) = L'\0';
if (iconv_close (cd) != 0)
perror ("iconv_close");
return (wchar_t *) wrptr - outbuf;
}
This example shows the most important aspects of using the ‘iconv’
functions. It shows how successive calls to ‘iconv’ can be used to
convert large amounts of text. The user does not have to care about
stateful encodings as the functions take care of everything.
An interesting point is the case where ‘iconv’ returns an error and
‘errno’ is set to ‘EINVAL’. This is not really an error in the
transformation. It can happen whenever the input character set contains
byte sequences of more than one byte for some character and texts are
not processed in one piece. In this case there is a chance that a
multibyte sequence is cut. The caller can then simply read the
remainder of the takes and feed the offending bytes together with new
character from the input to ‘iconv’ and continue the work. The internal
state kept in the descriptor is _not_ unspecified after such an event as
is the case with the conversion functions from the ISO C standard.
The example also shows the problem of using wide character strings
with ‘iconv’. As explained in the description of the ‘iconv’ function
above, the function always takes a pointer to a ‘char’ array and the
available space is measured in bytes. In the example, the output buffer
is a wide character buffer; therefore, we use a local variable WRPTR of
type ‘char *’, which is used in the ‘iconv’ calls.
This looks rather innocent but can lead to problems on platforms that
have tight restriction on alignment. Therefore the caller of ‘iconv’
has to make sure that the pointers passed are suitable for access of
characters from the appropriate character set. Since, in the above
case, the input parameter to the function is a ‘wchar_t’ pointer, this
is the case (unless the user violates alignment when computing the
parameter). But in other situations, especially when writing generic
functions where one does not know what type of character set one uses
and, therefore, treats text as a sequence of bytes, it might become
tricky.

File: libc.info, Node: Other iconv Implementations, Next: glibc iconv Implementation, Prev: iconv Examples, Up: Generic Charset Conversion
6.5.3 Some Details about other ‘iconv’ Implementations
------------------------------------------------------
This is not really the place to discuss the ‘iconv’ implementation of
other systems but it is necessary to know a bit about them to write
portable programs. The above mentioned problems with the specification
of the ‘iconv’ functions can lead to portability issues.
The first thing to notice is that, due to the large number of
character sets in use, it is certainly not practical to encode the
conversions directly in the C library. Therefore, the conversion
information must come from files outside the C library. This is usually
done in one or both of the following ways:
• The C library contains a set of generic conversion functions that
can read the needed conversion tables and other information from
data files. These files get loaded when necessary.
This solution is problematic as it requires a great deal of effort
to apply to all character sets (potentially an infinite set). The
differences in the structure of the different character sets is so
large that many different variants of the table-processing
functions must be developed. In addition, the generic nature of
these functions make them slower than specifically implemented
functions.
• The C library only contains a framework that can dynamically load
object files and execute the conversion functions contained
therein.
This solution provides much more flexibility. The C library itself
contains only very little code and therefore reduces the general
memory footprint. Also, with a documented interface between the C
library and the loadable modules it is possible for third parties
to extend the set of available conversion modules. A drawback of
this solution is that dynamic loading must be available.
Some implementations in commercial Unices implement a mixture of
these possibilities; the majority implement only the second solution.
Using loadable modules moves the code out of the library itself and
keeps the door open for extensions and improvements, but this design is
also limiting on some platforms since not many platforms support dynamic
loading in statically linked programs. On platforms without this
capability it is therefore not possible to use this interface in
statically linked programs. The GNU C Library has, on ELF platforms, no
problems with dynamic loading in these situations; therefore, this point
is moot. The danger is that one gets acquainted with this situation and
forgets about the restrictions on other systems.
A second thing to know about other ‘iconv’ implementations is that
the number of available conversions is often very limited. Some
implementations provide, in the standard release (not special
international or developer releases), at most 100 to 200 conversion
possibilities. This does not mean 200 different character sets are
supported; for example, conversions from one character set to a set of
10 others might count as 10 conversions. Together with the other
direction this makes 20 conversion possibilities used up by one
character set. One can imagine the thin coverage these platform
provide. Some Unix vendors even provide only a handful of conversions,
which renders them useless for almost all uses.
This directly leads to a third and probably the most problematic
point. The way the ‘iconv’ conversion functions are implemented on all
known Unix systems and the availability of the conversion functions from
character set A to B and the conversion from B to C does _not_ imply
that the conversion from A to C is available.
This might not seem unreasonable and problematic at first, but it is
a quite big problem as one will notice shortly after hitting it. To
show the problem we assume to write a program that has to convert from A
to C. A call like
cd = iconv_open ("C", "A");
fails according to the assumption above. But what does the program do
now? The conversion is necessary; therefore, simply giving up is not an
option.
This is a nuisance. The ‘iconv’ function should take care of this.
But how should the program proceed from here on? If it tries to convert
to character set B, first the two ‘iconv_open’ calls
cd1 = iconv_open ("B", "A");
and
cd2 = iconv_open ("C", "B");
will succeed, but how to find B?
Unfortunately, the answer is: there is no general solution. On some
systems guessing might help. On those systems most character sets can
convert to and from UTF-8 encoded ISO 10646 or Unicode text. Beside
this only some very system-specific methods can help. Since the
conversion functions come from loadable modules and these modules must
be stored somewhere in the filesystem, one _could_ try to find them and
determine from the available file which conversions are available and
whether there is an indirect route from A to C.
This example shows one of the design errors of ‘iconv’ mentioned
above. It should at least be possible to determine the list of
available conversion programmatically so that if ‘iconv_open’ says there
is no such conversion, one could make sure this also is true for
indirect routes.

File: libc.info, Node: glibc iconv Implementation, Prev: Other iconv Implementations, Up: Generic Charset Conversion
6.5.4 The ‘iconv’ Implementation in the GNU C Library
-----------------------------------------------------
After reading about the problems of ‘iconv’ implementations in the last
section it is certainly good to note that the implementation in the GNU
C Library has none of the problems mentioned above. What follows is a
step-by-step analysis of the points raised above. The evaluation is
based on the current state of the development (as of January 1999). The
development of the ‘iconv’ functions is not complete, but basic
functionality has solidified.
The GNU C Library’s ‘iconv’ implementation uses shared loadable
modules to implement the conversions. A very small number of
conversions are built into the library itself but these are only rather
trivial conversions.
All the benefits of loadable modules are available in the GNU C
Library implementation. This is especially appealing since the
interface is well documented (see below), and it, therefore, is easy to
write new conversion modules. The drawback of using loadable objects is
not a problem in the GNU C Library, at least on ELF systems. Since the
library is able to load shared objects even in statically linked
binaries, static linking need not be forbidden in case one wants to use
‘iconv’.
The second mentioned problem is the number of supported conversions.
Currently, the GNU C Library supports more than 150 character sets. The
way the implementation is designed the number of supported conversions
is greater than 22350 (150 times 149). If any conversion from or to a
character set is missing, it can be added easily.
Particularly impressive as it may be, this high number is due to the
fact that the GNU C Library implementation of ‘iconv’ does not have the
third problem mentioned above (i.e., whenever there is a conversion from
a character set A to B and from B to C it is always possible to convert
from A to C directly). If the ‘iconv_open’ returns an error and sets
‘errno’ to ‘EINVAL’, there is no known way, directly or indirectly, to
perform the wanted conversion.
Triangulation is achieved by providing for each character set a
conversion from and to UCS-4 encoded ISO 10646. Using ISO 10646 as an
intermediate representation it is possible to "triangulate" (i.e.,
convert with an intermediate representation).
There is no inherent requirement to provide a conversion to ISO 10646
for a new character set, and it is also possible to provide other
conversions where neither source nor destination character set is
ISO 10646. The existing set of conversions is simply meant to cover all
conversions that might be of interest.
All currently available conversions use the triangulation method
above, making conversion run unnecessarily slow. If, for example,
somebody often needs the conversion from ISO-2022-JP to EUC-JP, a
quicker solution would involve direct conversion between the two
character sets, skipping the input to ISO 10646 first. The two
character sets of interest are much more similar to each other than to
ISO 10646.
In such a situation one easily can write a new conversion and provide
it as a better alternative. The GNU C Library ‘iconv’ implementation
would automatically use the module implementing the conversion if it is
specified to be more efficient.
6.5.4.1 Format of ‘gconv-modules’ files
.......................................
All information about the available conversions comes from a file named
‘gconv-modules’, which can be found in any of the directories along the
‘GCONV_PATH’. The ‘gconv-modules’ files are line-oriented text files,
where each of the lines has one of the following formats:
• If the first non-whitespace character is a ‘#’ the line contains
only comments and is ignored.
• Lines starting with ‘alias’ define an alias name for a character
set. Two more words are expected on the line. The first word
defines the alias name, and the second defines the original name of
the character set. The effect is that it is possible to use the
alias name in the FROMSET or TOSET parameters of ‘iconv_open’ and
achieve the same result as when using the real character set name.
This is quite important as a character set has often many different
names. There is normally an official name but this need not
correspond to the most popular name. Beside this many character
sets have special names that are somehow constructed. For example,
all character sets specified by the ISO have an alias of the form
‘ISO-IR-NNN’ where NNN is the registration number. This allows
programs that know about the registration number to construct
character set names and use them in ‘iconv_open’ calls. More on
the available names and aliases follows below.
• Lines starting with ‘module’ introduce an available conversion
module. These lines must contain three or four more words.
The first word specifies the source character set, the second word
the destination character set of conversion implemented in this
module, and the third word is the name of the loadable module. The
filename is constructed by appending the usual shared object suffix
(normally ‘.so’) and this file is then supposed to be found in the
same directory the ‘gconv-modules’ file is in. The last word on
the line, which is optional, is a numeric value representing the
cost of the conversion. If this word is missing, a cost of 1 is
assumed. The numeric value itself does not matter that much; what
counts are the relative values of the sums of costs for all
possible conversion paths. Below is a more precise description of
the use of the cost value.
Returning to the example above where one has written a module to
directly convert from ISO-2022-JP to EUC-JP and back. All that has to
be done is to put the new module, let its name be ISO2022JP-EUCJP.so, in
a directory and add a file ‘gconv-modules’ with the following content in
the same directory:
module ISO-2022-JP// EUC-JP// ISO2022JP-EUCJP 1
module EUC-JP// ISO-2022-JP// ISO2022JP-EUCJP 1
To see why this is sufficient, it is necessary to understand how the
conversion used by ‘iconv’ (and described in the descriptor) is
selected. The approach to this problem is quite simple.
At the first call of the ‘iconv_open’ function the program reads all
available ‘gconv-modules’ files and builds up two tables: one containing
all the known aliases and another that contains the information about
the conversions and which shared object implements them.
6.5.4.2 Finding the conversion path in ‘iconv’
..............................................
The set of available conversions form a directed graph with weighted
edges. The weights on the edges are the costs specified in the
‘gconv-modules’ files. The ‘iconv_open’ function uses an algorithm
suitable for search for the best path in such a graph and so constructs
a list of conversions that must be performed in succession to get the
transformation from the source to the destination character set.
Explaining why the above ‘gconv-modules’ files allows the ‘iconv’
implementation to resolve the specific ISO-2022-JP to EUC-JP conversion
module instead of the conversion coming with the library itself is
straightforward. Since the latter conversion takes two steps (from
ISO-2022-JP to ISO 10646 and then from ISO 10646 to EUC-JP), the cost is
1+1 = 2. The above ‘gconv-modules’ file, however, specifies that the
new conversion modules can perform this conversion with only the cost of
1.
A mysterious item about the ‘gconv-modules’ file above (and also the
file coming with the GNU C Library) are the names of the character sets
specified in the ‘module’ lines. Why do almost all the names end in
‘//’? And this is not all: the names can actually be regular
expressions. At this point in time this mystery should not be revealed,
unless you have the relevant spell-casting materials: ashes from an
original DOS 6.2 boot disk burnt in effigy, a crucifix blessed by St.
Emacs, assorted herbal roots from Central America, sand from Cebu, etc.
Sorry! *The part of the implementation where this is used is not yet
finished. For now please simply follow the existing examples. It’ll
become clearer once it is. –drepper*
A last remark about the ‘gconv-modules’ is about the names not ending
with ‘//’. A character set named ‘INTERNAL’ is often mentioned. From
the discussion above and the chosen name it should have become clear
that this is the name for the representation used in the intermediate
step of the triangulation. We have said that this is UCS-4 but actually
that is not quite right. The UCS-4 specification also includes the
specification of the byte ordering used. Since a UCS-4 value consists
of four bytes, a stored value is affected by byte ordering. The
internal representation is _not_ the same as UCS-4 in case the byte
ordering of the processor (or at least the running process) is not the
same as the one required for UCS-4. This is done for performance
reasons as one does not want to perform unnecessary byte-swapping
operations if one is not interested in actually seeing the result in
UCS-4. To avoid trouble with endianness, the internal representation
consistently is named ‘INTERNAL’ even on big-endian systems where the
representations are identical.
6.5.4.3 ‘iconv’ module data structures
......................................
So far this section has described how modules are located and considered
to be used. What remains to be described is the interface of the
modules so that one can write new ones. This section describes the
interface as it is in use in January 1999. The interface will change a
bit in the future but, with luck, only in an upwardly compatible way.
The definitions necessary to write new modules are publicly available
in the non-standard header ‘gconv.h’. The following text, therefore,
describes the definitions from this header file. First, however, it is
necessary to get an overview.
From the perspective of the user of ‘iconv’ the interface is quite
simple: the ‘iconv_open’ function returns a handle that can be used in
calls to ‘iconv’, and finally the handle is freed with a call to
‘iconv_close’. The problem is that the handle has to be able to
represent the possibly long sequences of conversion steps and also the
state of each conversion since the handle is all that is passed to the
‘iconv’ function. Therefore, the data structures are really the
elements necessary to understanding the implementation.
We need two different kinds of data structures. The first describes
the conversion and the second describes the state etc. There are really
two type definitions like this in ‘gconv.h’.
-- Data type: struct __gconv_step
This data structure describes one conversion a module can perform.
For each function in a loaded module with conversion functions
there is exactly one object of this type. This object is shared by
all users of the conversion (i.e., this object does not contain any
information corresponding to an actual conversion; it only
describes the conversion itself).
‘struct __gconv_loaded_object *__shlib_handle’
‘const char *__modname’
‘int __counter’
All these elements of the structure are used internally in the
C library to coordinate loading and unloading the shared. One
must not expect any of the other elements to be available or
initialized.
‘const char *__from_name’
‘const char *__to_name’
‘__from_name’ and ‘__to_name’ contain the names of the source
and destination character sets. They can be used to identify
the actual conversion to be carried out since one module might
implement conversions for more than one character set and/or
direction.
‘gconv_fct __fct’
‘gconv_init_fct __init_fct’
‘gconv_end_fct __end_fct’
These elements contain pointers to the functions in the
loadable module. The interface will be explained below.
‘int __min_needed_from’
‘int __max_needed_from’
‘int __min_needed_to’
‘int __max_needed_to;’
These values have to be supplied in the init function of the
module. The ‘__min_needed_from’ value specifies how many
bytes a character of the source character set at least needs.
The ‘__max_needed_from’ specifies the maximum value that also
includes possible shift sequences.
The ‘__min_needed_to’ and ‘__max_needed_to’ values serve the
same purpose as ‘__min_needed_from’ and ‘__max_needed_from’
but this time for the destination character set.
It is crucial that these values be accurate since otherwise
the conversion functions will have problems or not work at
all.
‘int __stateful’
This element must also be initialized by the init function.
‘int __stateful’ is nonzero if the source character set is
stateful. Otherwise it is zero.
‘void *__data’
This element can be used freely by the conversion functions in
the module. ‘void *__data’ can be used to communicate extra
information from one call to another. ‘void *__data’ need not
be initialized if not needed at all. If ‘void *__data’
element is assigned a pointer to dynamically allocated memory
(presumably in the init function) it has to be made sure that
the end function deallocates the memory. Otherwise the
application will leak memory.
It is important to be aware that this data structure is shared
by all users of this specification conversion and therefore
the ‘__data’ element must not contain data specific to one
specific use of the conversion function.
-- Data type: struct __gconv_step_data
This is the data structure that contains the information specific
to each use of the conversion functions.
‘char *__outbuf’
‘char *__outbufend’
These elements specify the output buffer for the conversion
step. The ‘__outbuf’ element points to the beginning of the
buffer, and ‘__outbufend’ points to the byte following the
last byte in the buffer. The conversion function must not
assume anything about the size of the buffer but it can be
safely assumed the there is room for at least one complete
character in the output buffer.
Once the conversion is finished, if the conversion is the last
step, the ‘__outbuf’ element must be modified to point after
the last byte written into the buffer to signal how much
output is available. If this conversion step is not the last
one, the element must not be modified. The ‘__outbufend’
element must not be modified.
‘int __is_last’
This element is nonzero if this conversion step is the last
one. This information is necessary for the recursion. See
the description of the conversion function internals below.
This element must never be modified.
‘int __invocation_counter’
The conversion function can use this element to see how many
calls of the conversion function already happened. Some
character sets require a certain prolog when generating
output, and by comparing this value with zero, one can find
out whether it is the first call and whether, therefore, the
prolog should be emitted. This element must never be
modified.
‘int __internal_use’
This element is another one rarely used but needed in certain
situations. It is assigned a nonzero value in case the
conversion functions are used to implement ‘mbsrtowcs’ et.al.
(i.e., the function is not used directly through the ‘iconv’
interface).
This sometimes makes a difference as it is expected that the
‘iconv’ functions are used to translate entire texts while the
‘mbsrtowcs’ functions are normally used only to convert single
strings and might be used multiple times to convert entire
texts.
But in this situation we would have problem complying with
some rules of the character set specification. Some character
sets require a prolog, which must appear exactly once for an
entire text. If a number of ‘mbsrtowcs’ calls are used to
convert the text, only the first call must add the prolog.
However, because there is no communication between the
different calls of ‘mbsrtowcs’, the conversion functions have
no possibility to find this out. The situation is different
for sequences of ‘iconv’ calls since the handle allows access
to the needed information.
The ‘int __internal_use’ element is mostly used together with
‘__invocation_counter’ as follows:
if (!data->__internal_use
&& data->__invocation_counter == 0)
/* Emit prolog. */
…
This element must never be modified.
‘mbstate_t *__statep’
The ‘__statep’ element points to an object of type ‘mbstate_t’
(*note Keeping the state::). The conversion of a stateful
character set must use the object pointed to by ‘__statep’ to
store information about the conversion state. The ‘__statep’
element itself must never be modified.
‘mbstate_t __state’
This element must _never_ be used directly. It is only part
of this structure to have the needed space allocated.
6.5.4.4 ‘iconv’ module interfaces
.................................
With the knowledge about the data structures we now can describe the
conversion function itself. To understand the interface a bit of
knowledge is necessary about the functionality in the C library that
loads the objects with the conversions.
It is often the case that one conversion is used more than once
(i.e., there are several ‘iconv_open’ calls for the same set of
character sets during one program run). The ‘mbsrtowcs’ et.al.
functions in the GNU C Library also use the ‘iconv’ functionality, which
increases the number of uses of the same functions even more.
Because of this multiple use of conversions, the modules do not get
loaded exclusively for one conversion. Instead a module once loaded can
be used by an arbitrary number of ‘iconv’ or ‘mbsrtowcs’ calls at the
same time. The splitting of the information between conversion-
function-specific information and conversion data makes this possible.
The last section showed the two data structures used to do this.
This is of course also reflected in the interface and semantics of
the functions that the modules must provide. There are three functions
that must have the following names:
‘gconv_init’
The ‘gconv_init’ function initializes the conversion function
specific data structure. This very same object is shared by all
conversions that use this conversion and, therefore, no state
information about the conversion itself must be stored in here. If
a module implements more than one conversion, the ‘gconv_init’
function will be called multiple times.
‘gconv_end’
The ‘gconv_end’ function is responsible for freeing all resources
allocated by the ‘gconv_init’ function. If there is nothing to do,
this function can be missing. Special care must be taken if the
module implements more than one conversion and the ‘gconv_init’
function does not allocate the same resources for all conversions.
‘gconv’
This is the actual conversion function. It is called to convert
one block of text. It gets passed the conversion step information
initialized by ‘gconv_init’ and the conversion data, specific to
this use of the conversion functions.
There are three data types defined for the three module interface
functions and these define the interface.
-- Data type: int (*__gconv_init_fct) (struct __gconv_step *)
This specifies the interface of the initialization function of the
module. It is called exactly once for each conversion the module
implements.
As explained in the description of the ‘struct __gconv_step’ data
structure above the initialization function has to initialize parts
of it.
‘__min_needed_from’
‘__max_needed_from’
‘__min_needed_to’
‘__max_needed_to’
These elements must be initialized to the exact numbers of the
minimum and maximum number of bytes used by one character in
the source and destination character sets, respectively. If
the characters all have the same size, the minimum and maximum
values are the same.
‘__stateful’
This element must be initialized to a nonzero value if the
source character set is stateful. Otherwise it must be zero.
If the initialization function needs to communicate some
information to the conversion function, this communication can
happen using the ‘__data’ element of the ‘__gconv_step’ structure.
But since this data is shared by all the conversions, it must not
be modified by the conversion function. The example below shows
how this can be used.
#define MIN_NEEDED_FROM 1
#define MAX_NEEDED_FROM 4
#define MIN_NEEDED_TO 4
#define MAX_NEEDED_TO 4
int
gconv_init (struct __gconv_step *step)
{
/* Determine which direction. */
struct iso2022jp_data *new_data;
enum direction dir = illegal_dir;
enum variant var = illegal_var;
int result;
if (__strcasecmp (step->__from_name, "ISO-2022-JP//") == 0)
{
dir = from_iso2022jp;
var = iso2022jp;
}
else if (__strcasecmp (step->__to_name, "ISO-2022-JP//") == 0)
{
dir = to_iso2022jp;
var = iso2022jp;
}
else if (__strcasecmp (step->__from_name, "ISO-2022-JP-2//") == 0)
{
dir = from_iso2022jp;
var = iso2022jp2;
}
else if (__strcasecmp (step->__to_name, "ISO-2022-JP-2//") == 0)
{
dir = to_iso2022jp;
var = iso2022jp2;
}
result = __GCONV_NOCONV;
if (dir != illegal_dir)
{
new_data = (struct iso2022jp_data *)
malloc (sizeof (struct iso2022jp_data));
result = __GCONV_NOMEM;
if (new_data != NULL)
{
new_data->dir = dir;
new_data->var = var;
step->__data = new_data;
if (dir == from_iso2022jp)
{
step->__min_needed_from = MIN_NEEDED_FROM;
step->__max_needed_from = MAX_NEEDED_FROM;
step->__min_needed_to = MIN_NEEDED_TO;
step->__max_needed_to = MAX_NEEDED_TO;
}
else
{
step->__min_needed_from = MIN_NEEDED_TO;
step->__max_needed_from = MAX_NEEDED_TO;
step->__min_needed_to = MIN_NEEDED_FROM;
step->__max_needed_to = MAX_NEEDED_FROM + 2;
}
/* Yes, this is a stateful encoding. */
step->__stateful = 1;
result = __GCONV_OK;
}
}
return result;
}
The function first checks which conversion is wanted. The module
from which this function is taken implements four different
conversions; which one is selected can be determined by comparing
the names. The comparison should always be done without paying
attention to the case.
Next, a data structure, which contains the necessary information
about which conversion is selected, is allocated. The data
structure ‘struct iso2022jp_data’ is locally defined since, outside
the module, this data is not used at all. Please note that if all
four conversions this modules supports are requested there are four
data blocks.
One interesting thing is the initialization of the ‘__min_’ and
‘__max_’ elements of the step data object. A single ISO-2022-JP
character can consist of one to four bytes. Therefore the
‘MIN_NEEDED_FROM’ and ‘MAX_NEEDED_FROM’ macros are defined this
way. The output is always the ‘INTERNAL’ character set (aka UCS-4)
and therefore each character consists of exactly four bytes. For
the conversion from ‘INTERNAL’ to ISO-2022-JP we have to take into
account that escape sequences might be necessary to switch the
character sets. Therefore the ‘__max_needed_to’ element for this
direction gets assigned ‘MAX_NEEDED_FROM + 2’. This takes into
account the two bytes needed for the escape sequences to single the
switching. The asymmetry in the maximum values for the two
directions can be explained easily: when reading ISO-2022-JP text,
escape sequences can be handled alone (i.e., it is not necessary to
process a real character since the effect of the escape sequence
can be recorded in the state information). The situation is
different for the other direction. Since it is in general not
known which character comes next, one cannot emit escape sequences
to change the state in advance. This means the escape sequences
that have to be emitted together with the next character.
Therefore one needs more room than only for the character itself.
The possible return values of the initialization function are:
‘__GCONV_OK’
The initialization succeeded
‘__GCONV_NOCONV’
The requested conversion is not supported in the module. This
can happen if the ‘gconv-modules’ file has errors.
‘__GCONV_NOMEM’
Memory required to store additional information could not be
allocated.
The function called before the module is unloaded is significantly
easier. It often has nothing at all to do; in which case it can be left
out completely.
-- Data type: void (*__gconv_end_fct) (struct gconv_step *)
The task of this function is to free all resources allocated in the
initialization function. Therefore only the ‘__data’ element of
the object pointed to by the argument is of interest. Continuing
the example from the initialization function, the finalization
function looks like this:
void
gconv_end (struct __gconv_step *data)
{
free (data->__data);
}
The most important function is the conversion function itself, which
can get quite complicated for complex character sets. But since this is
not of interest here, we will only describe a possible skeleton for the
conversion function.
-- Data type: int (*__gconv_fct) (struct __gconv_step *, struct
__gconv_step_data *, const char **, const char *, size_t *,
int)
The conversion function can be called for two basic reason: to
convert text or to reset the state. From the description of the
‘iconv’ function it can be seen why the flushing mode is necessary.
What mode is selected is determined by the sixth argument, an
integer. This argument being nonzero means that flushing is
selected.
Common to both modes is where the output buffer can be found. The
information about this buffer is stored in the conversion step
data. A pointer to this information is passed as the second
argument to this function. The description of the ‘struct
__gconv_step_data’ structure has more information on the conversion
step data.
What has to be done for flushing depends on the source character
set. If the source character set is not stateful, nothing has to
be done. Otherwise the function has to emit a byte sequence to
bring the state object into the initial state. Once this all
happened the other conversion modules in the chain of conversions
have to get the same chance. Whether another step follows can be
determined from the ‘__is_last’ element of the step data structure
to which the first parameter points.
The more interesting mode is when actual text has to be converted.
The first step in this case is to convert as much text as possible
from the input buffer and store the result in the output buffer.
The start of the input buffer is determined by the third argument,
which is a pointer to a pointer variable referencing the beginning
of the buffer. The fourth argument is a pointer to the byte right
after the last byte in the buffer.
The conversion has to be performed according to the current state
if the character set is stateful. The state is stored in an object
pointed to by the ‘__statep’ element of the step data (second
argument). Once either the input buffer is empty or the output
buffer is full the conversion stops. At this point, the pointer
variable referenced by the third parameter must point to the byte
following the last processed byte (i.e., if all of the input is
consumed, this pointer and the fourth parameter have the same
value).
What now happens depends on whether this step is the last one. If
it is the last step, the only thing that has to be done is to
update the ‘__outbuf’ element of the step data structure to point
after the last written byte. This update gives the caller the
information on how much text is available in the output buffer. In
addition, the variable pointed to by the fifth parameter, which is
of type ‘size_t’, must be incremented by the number of characters
(_not bytes_) that were converted in a non-reversible way. Then,
the function can return.
In case the step is not the last one, the later conversion
functions have to get a chance to do their work. Therefore, the
appropriate conversion function has to be called. The information
about the functions is stored in the conversion data structures,
passed as the first parameter. This information and the step data
are stored in arrays, so the next element in both cases can be
found by simple pointer arithmetic:
int
gconv (struct __gconv_step *step, struct __gconv_step_data *data,
const char **inbuf, const char *inbufend, size_t *written,
int do_flush)
{
struct __gconv_step *next_step = step + 1;
struct __gconv_step_data *next_data = data + 1;
…
The ‘next_step’ pointer references the next step information and
‘next_data’ the next data record. The call of the next function
therefore will look similar to this:
next_step->__fct (next_step, next_data, &outerr, outbuf,
written, 0)
But this is not yet all. Once the function call returns the
conversion function might have some more to do. If the return
value of the function is ‘__GCONV_EMPTY_INPUT’, more room is
available in the output buffer. Unless the input buffer is empty
the conversion, functions start all over again and process the rest
of the input buffer. If the return value is not
‘__GCONV_EMPTY_INPUT’, something went wrong and we have to recover
from this.
A requirement for the conversion function is that the input buffer
pointer (the third argument) always point to the last character
that was put in converted form into the output buffer. This is
trivially true after the conversion performed in the current step,
but if the conversion functions deeper downstream stop prematurely,
not all characters from the output buffer are consumed and,
therefore, the input buffer pointers must be backed off to the
right position.
Correcting the input buffers is easy to do if the input and output
character sets have a fixed width for all characters. In this
situation we can compute how many characters are left in the output
buffer and, therefore, can correct the input buffer pointer
appropriately with a similar computation. Things are getting
tricky if either character set has characters represented with
variable length byte sequences, and it gets even more complicated
if the conversion has to take care of the state. In these cases
the conversion has to be performed once again, from the known state
before the initial conversion (i.e., if necessary the state of the
conversion has to be reset and the conversion loop has to be
executed again). The difference now is that it is known how much
input must be created, and the conversion can stop before
converting the first unused character. Once this is done the input
buffer pointers must be updated again and the function can return.
One final thing should be mentioned. If it is necessary for the
conversion to know whether it is the first invocation (in case a
prolog has to be emitted), the conversion function should increment
the ‘__invocation_counter’ element of the step data structure just
before returning to the caller. See the description of the ‘struct
__gconv_step_data’ structure above for more information on how this
can be used.
The return value must be one of the following values:
‘__GCONV_EMPTY_INPUT’
All input was consumed and there is room left in the output
buffer.
‘__GCONV_FULL_OUTPUT’
No more room in the output buffer. In case this is not the
last step this value is propagated down from the call of the
next conversion function in the chain.
‘__GCONV_INCOMPLETE_INPUT’
The input buffer is not entirely empty since it contains an
incomplete character sequence.
The following example provides a framework for a conversion
function. In case a new conversion has to be written the holes in
this implementation have to be filled and that is it.
int
gconv (struct __gconv_step *step, struct __gconv_step_data *data,
const char **inbuf, const char *inbufend, size_t *written,
int do_flush)
{
struct __gconv_step *next_step = step + 1;
struct __gconv_step_data *next_data = data + 1;
gconv_fct fct = next_step->__fct;
int status;
/* If the function is called with no input this means we have
to reset to the initial state. The possibly partly
converted input is dropped. */
if (do_flush)
{
status = __GCONV_OK;
/* Possible emit a byte sequence which put the state object
into the initial state. */
/* Call the steps down the chain if there are any but only
if we successfully emitted the escape sequence. */
if (status == __GCONV_OK && ! data->__is_last)
status = fct (next_step, next_data, NULL, NULL,
written, 1);
}
else
{
/* We preserve the initial values of the pointer variables. */
const char *inptr = *inbuf;
char *outbuf = data->__outbuf;
char *outend = data->__outbufend;
char *outptr;
do
{
/* Remember the start value for this round. */
inptr = *inbuf;
/* The outbuf buffer is empty. */
outptr = outbuf;
/* For stateful encodings the state must be safe here. */
/* Run the conversion loop. ‘status’ is set
appropriately afterwards. */
/* If this is the last step, leave the loop. There is
nothing we can do. */
if (data->__is_last)
{
/* Store information about how many bytes are
available. */
data->__outbuf = outbuf;
/* If any non-reversible conversions were performed,
add the number to ‘*written’. */
break;
}
/* Write out all output that was produced. */
if (outbuf > outptr)
{
const char *outerr = data->__outbuf;
int result;
result = fct (next_step, next_data, &outerr,
outbuf, written, 0);
if (result != __GCONV_EMPTY_INPUT)
{
if (outerr != outbuf)
{
/* Reset the input buffer pointer. We
document here the complex case. */
size_t nstatus;
/* Reload the pointers. */
*inbuf = inptr;
outbuf = outptr;
/* Possibly reset the state. */
/* Redo the conversion, but this time
the end of the output buffer is at
‘outerr’. */
}
/* Change the status. */
status = result;
}
else
/* All the output is consumed, we can make
another run if everything was ok. */
if (status == __GCONV_FULL_OUTPUT)
status = __GCONV_OK;
}
}
while (status == __GCONV_OK);
/* We finished one use of this step. */
++data->__invocation_counter;
}
return status;
}
This information should be sufficient to write new modules. Anybody
doing so should also take a look at the available source code in the GNU
C Library sources. It contains many examples of working and optimized
modules.

File: libc.info, Node: Locales, Next: Message Translation, Prev: Character Set Handling, Up: Top
7 Locales and Internationalization
**********************************
Different countries and cultures have varying conventions for how to
communicate. These conventions range from very simple ones, such as the
format for representing dates and times, to very complex ones, such as
the language spoken.
"Internationalization" of software means programming it to be able to
adapt to the user’s favorite conventions. In ISO C,
internationalization works by means of "locales". Each locale specifies
a collection of conventions, one convention for each purpose. The user
chooses a set of conventions by specifying a locale (via environment
variables).
All programs inherit the chosen locale as part of their environment.
Provided the programs are written to obey the choice of locale, they
will follow the conventions preferred by the user.
* Menu:
* Effects of Locale:: Actions affected by the choice of
locale.
* Choosing Locale:: How the user specifies a locale.
* Locale Categories:: Different purposes for which you can
select a locale.
* Setting the Locale:: How a program specifies the locale
with library functions.
* Standard Locales:: Locale names available on all systems.
* Locale Names:: Format of system-specific locale names.
* Locale Information:: How to access the information for the locale.
* Formatting Numbers:: A dedicated function to format numbers.
* Yes-or-No Questions:: Check a Response against the locale.

File: libc.info, Node: Effects of Locale, Next: Choosing Locale, Up: Locales
7.1 What Effects a Locale Has
=============================
Each locale specifies conventions for several purposes, including the
following:
• What multibyte character sequences are valid, and how they are
interpreted (*note Character Set Handling::).
• Classification of which characters in the local character set are
considered alphabetic, and upper- and lower-case conversion
conventions (*note Character Handling::).
• The collating sequence for the local language and character set
(*note Collation Functions::).
• Formatting of numbers and currency amounts (*note General
Numeric::).
• Formatting of dates and times (*note Formatting Calendar Time::).
• What language to use for output, including error messages (*note
Message Translation::).
• What language to use for user answers to yes-or-no questions (*note
Yes-or-No Questions::).
• What language to use for more complex user input. (The C library
doesn’t yet help you implement this.)
Some aspects of adapting to the specified locale are handled
automatically by the library subroutines. For example, all your program
needs to do in order to use the collating sequence of the chosen locale
is to use ‘strcoll’ or ‘strxfrm’ to compare strings.
Other aspects of locales are beyond the comprehension of the library.
For example, the library can’t automatically translate your program’s
output messages into other languages. The only way you can support
output in the user’s favorite language is to program this more or less
by hand. The C library provides functions to handle translations for
multiple languages easily.
This chapter discusses the mechanism by which you can modify the
current locale. The effects of the current locale on specific library
functions are discussed in more detail in the descriptions of those
functions.

File: libc.info, Node: Choosing Locale, Next: Locale Categories, Prev: Effects of Locale, Up: Locales
7.2 Choosing a Locale
=====================
The simplest way for the user to choose a locale is to set the
environment variable ‘LANG’. This specifies a single locale to use for
all purposes. For example, a user could specify a hypothetical locale
named ‘espana-castellano’ to use the standard conventions of most of
Spain.
The set of locales supported depends on the operating system you are
using, and so do their names, except that the standard locale called ‘C’
or ‘POSIX’ always exist. *Note Locale Names::.
In order to force the system to always use the default locale, the
user can set the ‘LC_ALL’ environment variable to ‘C’.
A user also has the option of specifying different locales for
different purposes—in effect, choosing a mixture of multiple locales.
*Note Locale Categories::.
For example, the user might specify the locale ‘espana-castellano’
for most purposes, but specify the locale ‘usa-english’ for currency
formatting. This might make sense if the user is a Spanish-speaking
American, working in Spanish, but representing monetary amounts in US
dollars.
Note that both locales ‘espana-castellano’ and ‘usa-english’, like
all locales, would include conventions for all of the purposes to which
locales apply. However, the user can choose to use each locale for a
particular subset of those purposes.

File: libc.info, Node: Locale Categories, Next: Setting the Locale, Prev: Choosing Locale, Up: Locales
7.3 Locale Categories
=====================
The purposes that locales serve are grouped into "categories", so that a
user or a program can choose the locale for each category independently.
Here is a table of categories; each name is both an environment variable
that a user can set, and a macro name that you can use as the first
argument to ‘setlocale’.
The contents of the environment variable (or the string in the second
argument to ‘setlocale’) has to be a valid locale name. *Note Locale
Names::.
‘LC_COLLATE’
This category applies to collation of strings (functions ‘strcoll’
and ‘strxfrm’); see *note Collation Functions::.
‘LC_CTYPE’
This category applies to classification and conversion of
characters, and to multibyte and wide characters; see *note
Character Handling::, and *note Character Set Handling::.
‘LC_MONETARY’
This category applies to formatting monetary values; see *note
General Numeric::.
‘LC_NUMERIC’
This category applies to formatting numeric values that are not
monetary; see *note General Numeric::.
‘LC_TIME’
This category applies to formatting date and time values; see *note
Formatting Calendar Time::.
‘LC_MESSAGES’
This category applies to selecting the language used in the user
interface for message translation (*note The Uniforum approach::;
*note Message catalogs a la X/Open::) and contains regular
expressions for affirmative and negative responses.
‘LC_ALL’
This is not a category; it is only a macro that you can use with
‘setlocale’ to set a single locale for all purposes. Setting this
environment variable overwrites all selections by the other ‘LC_*’
variables or ‘LANG’.
‘LANG’
If this environment variable is defined, its value specifies the
locale to use for all purposes except as overridden by the
variables above.
When developing the message translation functions it was felt that
the functionality provided by the variables above is not sufficient.
For example, it should be possible to specify more than one locale name.
Take a Swedish user who better speaks German than English, and a program
whose messages are output in English by default. It should be possible
to specify that the first choice of language is Swedish, the second
German, and if this also fails to use English. This is possible with
the variable ‘LANGUAGE’. For further description of this GNU extension
see *note Using gettextized software::.

File: libc.info, Node: Setting the Locale, Next: Standard Locales, Prev: Locale Categories, Up: Locales
7.4 How Programs Set the Locale
===============================
A C program inherits its locale environment variables when it starts up.
This happens automatically. However, these variables do not
automatically control the locale used by the library functions, because ISO C
says that all programs start by default in the standard ‘C’ locale. To
use the locales specified by the environment, you must call ‘setlocale’.
Call it as follows:
setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
to select a locale based on the user choice of the appropriate
environment variables.
You can also use ‘setlocale’ to specify a particular locale, for
general use or for a specific category.
The symbols in this section are defined in the header file
‘locale.h’.
-- Function: char * setlocale (int CATEGORY, const char *LOCALE)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe const:locale env | AS-Unsafe init lock
heap corrupt | AC-Unsafe init corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The function ‘setlocale’ sets the current locale for category
CATEGORY to LOCALE.
If CATEGORY is ‘LC_ALL’, this specifies the locale for all
purposes. The other possible values of CATEGORY specify an single
purpose (*note Locale Categories::).
You can also use this function to find out the current locale by
passing a null pointer as the LOCALE argument. In this case,
‘setlocale’ returns a string that is the name of the locale
currently selected for category CATEGORY.
The string returned by ‘setlocale’ can be overwritten by subsequent
calls, so you should make a copy of the string (*note Copying
Strings and Arrays::) if you want to save it past any further calls
to ‘setlocale’. (The standard library is guaranteed never to call
‘setlocale’ itself.)
You should not modify the string returned by ‘setlocale’. It might
be the same string that was passed as an argument in a previous
call to ‘setlocale’. One requirement is that the CATEGORY must be
the same in the call the string was returned and the one when the
string is passed in as LOCALE parameter.
When you read the current locale for category ‘LC_ALL’, the value
encodes the entire combination of selected locales for all
categories. If you specify the same “locale name” with ‘LC_ALL’ in
a subsequent call to ‘setlocale’, it restores the same combination
of locale selections.
To be sure you can use the returned string encoding the currently
selected locale at a later time, you must make a copy of the
string. It is not guaranteed that the returned pointer remains
valid over time.
When the LOCALE argument is not a null pointer, the string returned
by ‘setlocale’ reflects the newly-modified locale.
If you specify an empty string for LOCALE, this means to read the
appropriate environment variable and use its value to select the
locale for CATEGORY.
If a nonempty string is given for LOCALE, then the locale of that
name is used if possible.
The effective locale name (either the second argument to
‘setlocale’, or if the argument is an empty string, the name
obtained from the process environment) must be valid locale name.
*Note Locale Names::.
If you specify an invalid locale name, ‘setlocale’ returns a null
pointer and leaves the current locale unchanged.
Here is an example showing how you might use ‘setlocale’ to
temporarily switch to a new locale.
#include <stddef.h>
#include <locale.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
void
with_other_locale (char *new_locale,
void (*subroutine) (int),
int argument)
{
char *old_locale, *saved_locale;
/* Get the name of the current locale. */
old_locale = setlocale (LC_ALL, NULL);
/* Copy the name so it won’t be clobbered by ‘setlocale’. */
saved_locale = strdup (old_locale);
if (saved_locale == NULL)
fatal ("Out of memory");
/* Now change the locale and do some stuff with it. */
setlocale (LC_ALL, new_locale);
(*subroutine) (argument);
/* Restore the original locale. */
setlocale (LC_ALL, saved_locale);
free (saved_locale);
}
*Portability Note:* Some ISO C systems may define additional locale
categories, and future versions of the library will do so. For
portability, assume that any symbol beginning with ‘LC_’ might be
defined in ‘locale.h’.

File: libc.info, Node: Standard Locales, Next: Locale Names, Prev: Setting the Locale, Up: Locales
7.5 Standard Locales
====================
The only locale names you can count on finding on all operating systems
are these three standard ones:
‘"C"’
This is the standard C locale. The attributes and behavior it
provides are specified in the ISO C standard. When your program
starts up, it initially uses this locale by default.
‘"POSIX"’
This is the standard POSIX locale. Currently, it is an alias for
the standard C locale.
‘""’
The empty name says to select a locale based on environment
variables. *Note Locale Categories::.
Defining and installing named locales is normally a responsibility of
the system administrator at your site (or the person who installed the
GNU C Library). It is also possible for the user to create private
locales. All this will be discussed later when describing the tool to
do so.
If your program needs to use something other than the ‘C’ locale, it
will be more portable if you use whatever locale the user specifies with
the environment, rather than trying to specify some non-standard locale
explicitly by name. Remember, different machines might have different
sets of locales installed.

File: libc.info, Node: Locale Names, Next: Locale Information, Prev: Standard Locales, Up: Locales
7.6 Locale Names
================
The following command prints a list of locales supported by the system:
locale -a
*Portability Note:* With the notable exception of the standard locale
names ‘C’ and ‘POSIX’, locale names are system-specific.
Most locale names follow XPG syntax and consist of up to four parts:
LANGUAGE[_TERRITORY[.CODESET]][@MODIFIER]
Beside the first part, all of them are allowed to be missing. If the
full specified locale is not found, less specific ones are looked for.
The various parts will be stripped off, in the following order:
1. codeset
2. normalized codeset
3. territory
4. modifier
For example, the locale name ‘de_AT.iso885915@euro’ denotes a
German-language locale for use in Austria, using the ISO-8859-15
(Latin-9) character set, and with the Euro as the currency symbol.
In addition to locale names which follow XPG syntax, systems may
provide aliases such as ‘german’. Both categories of names must not
contain the slash character ‘/’.
If the locale name starts with a slash ‘/’, it is treated as a path
relative to the configured locale directories; see ‘LOCPATH’ below. The
specified path must not contain a component ‘..’, or the name is
invalid, and ‘setlocale’ will fail.
*Portability Note:* POSIX suggests that if a locale name starts with
a slash ‘/’, it is resolved as an absolute path. However, the GNU C
Library treats it as a relative path under the directories listed in
‘LOCPATH’ (or the default locale directory if ‘LOCPATH’ is unset).
Locale names which are longer than an implementation-defined limit
are invalid and cause ‘setlocale’ to fail.
As a special case, locale names used with ‘LC_ALL’ can combine
several locales, reflecting different locale settings for different
categories. For example, you might want to use a U.S. locale with ISO
A4 paper format, so you set ‘LANG’ to ‘en_US.UTF-8’, and ‘LC_PAPER’ to
‘de_DE.UTF-8’. In this case, the ‘LC_ALL’-style combined locale name is
LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8;LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8;LC_PAPER=de_DE.UTF-8;…
followed by other category settings not shown here.
The path used for finding locale data can be set using the ‘LOCPATH’
environment variable. This variable lists the directories in which to
search for locale definitions, separated by a colon ‘:’.
The default path for finding locale data is system specific. A
typical value for the ‘LOCPATH’ default is:
/usr/share/locale
The value of ‘LOCPATH’ is ignored by privileged programs for security
reasons, and only the default directory is used.

File: libc.info, Node: Locale Information, Next: Formatting Numbers, Prev: Locale Names, Up: Locales
7.7 Accessing Locale Information
================================
There are several ways to access locale information. The simplest way
is to let the C library itself do the work. Several of the functions in
this library implicitly access the locale data, and use what information
is provided by the currently selected locale. This is how the locale
model is meant to work normally.
As an example take the ‘strftime’ function, which is meant to nicely
format date and time information (*note Formatting Calendar Time::).
Part of the standard information contained in the ‘LC_TIME’ category is
the names of the months. Instead of requiring the programmer to take
care of providing the translations the ‘strftime’ function does this all
by itself. ‘%A’ in the format string is replaced by the appropriate
weekday name of the locale currently selected by ‘LC_TIME’. This is an
easy example, and wherever possible functions do things automatically in
this way.
But there are quite often situations when there is simply no function
to perform the task, or it is simply not possible to do the work
automatically. For these cases it is necessary to access the
information in the locale directly. To do this the C library provides
two functions: ‘localeconv’ and ‘nl_langinfo’. The former is part of ISO C
and therefore portable, but has a brain-damaged interface. The second
is part of the Unix interface and is portable in as far as the system
follows the Unix standards.
* Menu:
* The Lame Way to Locale Data:: ISO C’s ‘localeconv’.
* The Elegant and Fast Way:: X/Open’s ‘nl_langinfo’.

File: libc.info, Node: The Lame Way to Locale Data, Next: The Elegant and Fast Way, Up: Locale Information
7.7.1 ‘localeconv’: It is portable but …
----------------------------------------
Together with the ‘setlocale’ function the ISO C people invented the
‘localeconv’ function. It is a masterpiece of poor design. It is
expensive to use, not extendable, and not generally usable as it
provides access to only ‘LC_MONETARY’ and ‘LC_NUMERIC’ related
information. Nevertheless, if it is applicable to a given situation it
should be used since it is very portable. The function ‘strfmon’
formats monetary amounts according to the selected locale using this
information.
-- Function: struct lconv * localeconv (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:localeconv locale | AS-Unsafe |
AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘localeconv’ function returns a pointer to a structure whose
components contain information about how numeric and monetary
values should be formatted in the current locale.
You should not modify the structure or its contents. The structure
might be overwritten by subsequent calls to ‘localeconv’, or by
calls to ‘setlocale’, but no other function in the library
overwrites this value.
-- Data Type: struct lconv
‘localeconv’’s return value is of this data type. Its elements are
described in the following subsections.
If a member of the structure ‘struct lconv’ has type ‘char’, and the
value is ‘CHAR_MAX’, it means that the current locale has no value for
that parameter.
* Menu:
* General Numeric:: Parameters for formatting numbers and
currency amounts.
* Currency Symbol:: How to print the symbol that identifies an
amount of money (e.g. ‘$’).
* Sign of Money Amount:: How to print the (positive or negative) sign
for a monetary amount, if one exists.

File: libc.info, Node: General Numeric, Next: Currency Symbol, Up: The Lame Way to Locale Data
7.7.1.1 Generic Numeric Formatting Parameters
.............................................
These are the standard members of ‘struct lconv’; there may be others.
‘char *decimal_point’
‘char *mon_decimal_point’
These are the decimal-point separators used in formatting
non-monetary and monetary quantities, respectively. In the ‘C’
locale, the value of ‘decimal_point’ is ‘"."’, and the value of
‘mon_decimal_point’ is ‘""’.
‘char *thousands_sep’
‘char *mon_thousands_sep’
These are the separators used to delimit groups of digits to the
left of the decimal point in formatting non-monetary and monetary
quantities, respectively. In the ‘C’ locale, both members have a
value of ‘""’ (the empty string).
‘char *grouping’
‘char *mon_grouping’
These are strings that specify how to group the digits to the left
of the decimal point. ‘grouping’ applies to non-monetary
quantities and ‘mon_grouping’ applies to monetary quantities. Use
either ‘thousands_sep’ or ‘mon_thousands_sep’ to separate the digit
groups.
Each member of these strings is to be interpreted as an integer
value of type ‘char’. Successive numbers (from left to right) give
the sizes of successive groups (from right to left, starting at the
decimal point.) The last member is either ‘0’, in which case the
previous member is used over and over again for all the remaining
groups, or ‘CHAR_MAX’, in which case there is no more grouping—or,
put another way, any remaining digits form one large group without
separators.
For example, if ‘grouping’ is ‘"\04\03\02"’, the correct grouping
for the number ‘123456787654321’ is ‘12’, ‘34’, ‘56’, ‘78’, ‘765’,
‘4321’. This uses a group of 4 digits at the end, preceded by a
group of 3 digits, preceded by groups of 2 digits (as many as
needed). With a separator of ‘,’, the number would be printed as
‘12,34,56,78,765,4321’.
A value of ‘"\03"’ indicates repeated groups of three digits, as
normally used in the U.S.
In the standard ‘C’ locale, both ‘grouping’ and ‘mon_grouping’ have
a value of ‘""’. This value specifies no grouping at all.
‘char int_frac_digits’
‘char frac_digits’
These are small integers indicating how many fractional digits (to
the right of the decimal point) should be displayed in a monetary
value in international and local formats, respectively. (Most
often, both members have the same value.)
In the standard ‘C’ locale, both of these members have the value
‘CHAR_MAX’, meaning “unspecified”. The ISO standard doesn’t say
what to do when you find this value; we recommend printing no
fractional digits. (This locale also specifies the empty string
for ‘mon_decimal_point’, so printing any fractional digits would be
confusing!)

File: libc.info, Node: Currency Symbol, Next: Sign of Money Amount, Prev: General Numeric, Up: The Lame Way to Locale Data
7.7.1.2 Printing the Currency Symbol
....................................
These members of the ‘struct lconv’ structure specify how to print the
symbol to identify a monetary value—the international analog of ‘$’ for
US dollars.
Each country has two standard currency symbols. The "local currency
symbol" is used commonly within the country, while the "international
currency symbol" is used internationally to refer to that country’s
currency when it is necessary to indicate the country unambiguously.
For example, many countries use the dollar as their monetary unit,
and when dealing with international currencies it’s important to specify
that one is dealing with (say) Canadian dollars instead of U.S. dollars
or Australian dollars. But when the context is known to be Canada,
there is no need to make this explicit—dollar amounts are implicitly
assumed to be in Canadian dollars.
‘char *currency_symbol’
The local currency symbol for the selected locale.
In the standard ‘C’ locale, this member has a value of ‘""’ (the
empty string), meaning “unspecified”. The ISO standard doesn’t say
what to do when you find this value; we recommend you simply print
the empty string as you would print any other string pointed to by
this variable.
‘char *int_curr_symbol’
The international currency symbol for the selected locale.
The value of ‘int_curr_symbol’ should normally consist of a
three-letter abbreviation determined by the international standard
‘ISO 4217 Codes for the Representation of Currency and Funds’,
followed by a one-character separator (often a space).
In the standard ‘C’ locale, this member has a value of ‘""’ (the
empty string), meaning “unspecified”. We recommend you simply
print the empty string as you would print any other string pointed
to by this variable.
‘char p_cs_precedes’
‘char n_cs_precedes’
‘char int_p_cs_precedes’
‘char int_n_cs_precedes’
These members are ‘1’ if the ‘currency_symbol’ or ‘int_curr_symbol’
strings should precede the value of a monetary amount, or ‘0’ if
the strings should follow the value. The ‘p_cs_precedes’ and
‘int_p_cs_precedes’ members apply to positive amounts (or zero),
and the ‘n_cs_precedes’ and ‘int_n_cs_precedes’ members apply to
negative amounts.
In the standard ‘C’ locale, all of these members have a value of
‘CHAR_MAX’, meaning “unspecified”. The ISO standard doesn’t say
what to do when you find this value. We recommend printing the
currency symbol before the amount, which is right for most
countries. In other words, treat all nonzero values alike in these
members.
The members with the ‘int_’ prefix apply to the ‘int_curr_symbol’
while the other two apply to ‘currency_symbol’.
‘char p_sep_by_space’
‘char n_sep_by_space’
‘char int_p_sep_by_space’
‘char int_n_sep_by_space’
These members are ‘1’ if a space should appear between the
‘currency_symbol’ or ‘int_curr_symbol’ strings and the amount, or
‘0’ if no space should appear. The ‘p_sep_by_space’ and
‘int_p_sep_by_space’ members apply to positive amounts (or zero),
and the ‘n_sep_by_space’ and ‘int_n_sep_by_space’ members apply to
negative amounts.
In the standard ‘C’ locale, all of these members have a value of
‘CHAR_MAX’, meaning “unspecified”. The ISO standard doesn’t say
what you should do when you find this value; we suggest you treat
it as 1 (print a space). In other words, treat all nonzero values
alike in these members.
The members with the ‘int_’ prefix apply to the ‘int_curr_symbol’
while the other two apply to ‘currency_symbol’. There is one
specialty with the ‘int_curr_symbol’, though. Since all legal
values contain a space at the end the string one either printf this
space (if the currency symbol must appear in front and must be
separated) or one has to avoid printing this character at all
(especially when at the end of the string).

File: libc.info, Node: Sign of Money Amount, Prev: Currency Symbol, Up: The Lame Way to Locale Data
7.7.1.3 Printing the Sign of a Monetary Amount
..............................................
These members of the ‘struct lconv’ structure specify how to print the
sign (if any) of a monetary value.
‘char *positive_sign’
‘char *negative_sign’
These are strings used to indicate positive (or zero) and negative
monetary quantities, respectively.
In the standard ‘C’ locale, both of these members have a value of
‘""’ (the empty string), meaning “unspecified”.
The ISO standard doesn’t say what to do when you find this value;
we recommend printing ‘positive_sign’ as you find it, even if it is
empty. For a negative value, print ‘negative_sign’ as you find it
unless both it and ‘positive_sign’ are empty, in which case print
‘-’ instead. (Failing to indicate the sign at all seems rather
unreasonable.)
‘char p_sign_posn’
‘char n_sign_posn’
‘char int_p_sign_posn’
‘char int_n_sign_posn’
These members are small integers that indicate how to position the
sign for nonnegative and negative monetary quantities,
respectively. (The string used by the sign is what was specified
with ‘positive_sign’ or ‘negative_sign’.) The possible values are
as follows:
‘0’
The currency symbol and quantity should be surrounded by
parentheses.
‘1’
Print the sign string before the quantity and currency symbol.
‘2’
Print the sign string after the quantity and currency symbol.
‘3’
Print the sign string right before the currency symbol.
‘4’
Print the sign string right after the currency symbol.
‘CHAR_MAX’
“Unspecified”. Both members have this value in the standard
‘C’ locale.
The ISO standard doesn’t say what you should do when the value is
‘CHAR_MAX’. We recommend you print the sign after the currency
symbol.
The members with the ‘int_’ prefix apply to the ‘int_curr_symbol’
while the other two apply to ‘currency_symbol’.

File: libc.info, Node: The Elegant and Fast Way, Prev: The Lame Way to Locale Data, Up: Locale Information
7.7.2 Pinpoint Access to Locale Data
------------------------------------
When writing the X/Open Portability Guide the authors realized that the
‘localeconv’ function is not enough to provide reasonable access to
locale information. The information which was meant to be available in
the locale (as later specified in the POSIX.1 standard) requires more
ways to access it. Therefore the ‘nl_langinfo’ function was introduced.
-- Function: char * nl_langinfo (nl_item ITEM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The ‘nl_langinfo’ function can be used to access individual
elements of the locale categories. Unlike the ‘localeconv’
function, which returns all the information, ‘nl_langinfo’ lets the
caller select what information it requires. This is very fast and
it is not a problem to call this function multiple times.
A second advantage is that in addition to the numeric and monetary
formatting information, information from the ‘LC_TIME’ and
‘LC_MESSAGES’ categories is available.
The type ‘nl_type’ is defined in ‘nl_types.h’. The argument ITEM
is a numeric value defined in the header ‘langinfo.h’. The X/Open
standard defines the following values:
‘CODESET’
‘nl_langinfo’ returns a string with the name of the coded
character set used in the selected locale.
‘ABDAY_1’
‘ABDAY_2’
‘ABDAY_3’
‘ABDAY_4’
‘ABDAY_5’
‘ABDAY_6’
‘ABDAY_7’
‘nl_langinfo’ returns the abbreviated weekday name. ‘ABDAY_1’
corresponds to Sunday.
‘DAY_1’
‘DAY_2’
‘DAY_3’
‘DAY_4’
‘DAY_5’
‘DAY_6’
‘DAY_7’
Similar to ‘ABDAY_1’ etc., but here the return value is the
unabbreviated weekday name.
‘ABMON_1’
‘ABMON_2’
‘ABMON_3’
‘ABMON_4’
‘ABMON_5’
‘ABMON_6’
‘ABMON_7’
‘ABMON_8’
‘ABMON_9’
‘ABMON_10’
‘ABMON_11’
‘ABMON_12’
The return value is abbreviated name of the month. ‘ABMON_1’
corresponds to January.
‘MON_1’
‘MON_2’
‘MON_3’
‘MON_4’
‘MON_5’
‘MON_6’
‘MON_7’
‘MON_8’
‘MON_9’
‘MON_10’
‘MON_11’
‘MON_12’
Similar to ‘ABMON_1’ etc., but here the month names are not
abbreviated. Here the first value ‘MON_1’ also corresponds to
January.
‘AM_STR’
‘PM_STR’
The return values are strings which can be used in the
representation of time as an hour from 1 to 12 plus an am/pm
specifier.
Note that in locales which do not use this time representation
these strings might be empty, in which case the am/pm format
cannot be used at all.
‘D_T_FMT’
The return value can be used as a format string for ‘strftime’
to represent time and date in a locale-specific way.
‘D_FMT’
The return value can be used as a format string for ‘strftime’
to represent a date in a locale-specific way.
‘T_FMT’
The return value can be used as a format string for ‘strftime’
to represent time in a locale-specific way.
‘T_FMT_AMPM’
The return value can be used as a format string for ‘strftime’
to represent time in the am/pm format.
Note that if the am/pm format does not make any sense for the
selected locale, the return value might be the same as the one
for ‘T_FMT’.
‘ERA’
The return value represents the era used in the current
locale.
Most locales do not define this value. An example of a locale
which does define this value is the Japanese one. In Japan,
the traditional representation of dates includes the name of
the era corresponding to the then-emperor’s reign.
Normally it should not be necessary to use this value
directly. Specifying the ‘E’ modifier in their format strings
causes the ‘strftime’ functions to use this information. The
format of the returned string is not specified, and therefore
you should not assume knowledge of it on different systems.
‘ERA_YEAR’
The return value gives the year in the relevant era of the
locale. As for ‘ERA’ it should not be necessary to use this
value directly.
‘ERA_D_T_FMT’
This return value can be used as a format string for
‘strftime’ to represent dates and times in a locale-specific
era-based way.
‘ERA_D_FMT’
This return value can be used as a format string for
‘strftime’ to represent a date in a locale-specific era-based
way.
‘ERA_T_FMT’
This return value can be used as a format string for
‘strftime’ to represent time in a locale-specific era-based
way.
‘ALT_DIGITS’
The return value is a representation of up to 100 values used
to represent the values 0 to 99. As for ‘ERA’ this value is
not intended to be used directly, but instead indirectly
through the ‘strftime’ function. When the modifier ‘O’ is
used in a format which would otherwise use numerals to
represent hours, minutes, seconds, weekdays, months, or weeks,
the appropriate value for the locale is used instead.
‘INT_CURR_SYMBOL’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_curr_symbol’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘CURRENCY_SYMBOL’
‘CRNCYSTR’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘currency_symbol’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘CRNCYSTR’ is a deprecated alias still required by Unix98.
‘MON_DECIMAL_POINT’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘mon_decimal_point’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘MON_THOUSANDS_SEP’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘mon_thousands_sep’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘MON_GROUPING’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘mon_grouping’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘POSITIVE_SIGN’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘positive_sign’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘NEGATIVE_SIGN’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘negative_sign’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_FRAC_DIGITS’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_frac_digits’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘FRAC_DIGITS’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘frac_digits’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘P_CS_PRECEDES’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘p_cs_precedes’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘P_SEP_BY_SPACE’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘p_sep_by_space’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘N_CS_PRECEDES’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘n_cs_precedes’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘N_SEP_BY_SPACE’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘n_sep_by_space’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘P_SIGN_POSN’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘p_sign_posn’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘N_SIGN_POSN’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘n_sign_posn’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_P_CS_PRECEDES’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_p_cs_precedes’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_P_SEP_BY_SPACE’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_p_sep_by_space’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_N_CS_PRECEDES’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_n_cs_precedes’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_N_SEP_BY_SPACE’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_n_sep_by_space’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_P_SIGN_POSN’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_p_sign_posn’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘INT_N_SIGN_POSN’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘int_n_sign_posn’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘DECIMAL_POINT’
‘RADIXCHAR’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘decimal_point’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
The name ‘RADIXCHAR’ is a deprecated alias still used in
Unix98.
‘THOUSANDS_SEP’
‘THOUSEP’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘thousands_sep’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
The name ‘THOUSEP’ is a deprecated alias still used in Unix98.
‘GROUPING’
The same as the value returned by ‘localeconv’ in the
‘grouping’ element of the ‘struct lconv’.
‘YESEXPR’
The return value is a regular expression which can be used
with the ‘regex’ function to recognize a positive response to
a yes/no question. The GNU C Library provides the ‘rpmatch’
function for easier handling in applications.
‘NOEXPR’
The return value is a regular expression which can be used
with the ‘regex’ function to recognize a negative response to
a yes/no question.
‘YESSTR’
The return value is a locale-specific translation of the
positive response to a yes/no question.
Using this value is deprecated since it is a very special case
of message translation, and is better handled by the message
translation functions (*note Message Translation::).
The use of this symbol is deprecated. Instead message
translation should be used.
‘NOSTR’
The return value is a locale-specific translation of the
negative response to a yes/no question. What is said for
‘YESSTR’ is also true here.
The use of this symbol is deprecated. Instead message
translation should be used.
The file ‘langinfo.h’ defines a lot more symbols but none of them
is official. Using them is not portable, and the format of the
return values might change. Therefore we recommended you not use
them.
Note that the return value for any valid argument can be used for
in all situations (with the possible exception of the am/pm time
formatting codes). If the user has not selected any locale for the
appropriate category, ‘nl_langinfo’ returns the information from
the ‘"C"’ locale. It is therefore possible to use this function as
shown in the example below.
If the argument ITEM is not valid, a pointer to an empty string is
returned.
An example of ‘nl_langinfo’ usage is a function which has to print a
given date and time in a locale-specific way. At first one might think
that, since ‘strftime’ internally uses the locale information, writing
something like the following is enough:
size_t
i18n_time_n_data (char *s, size_t len, const struct tm *tp)
{
return strftime (s, len, "%X %D", tp);
}
The format contains no weekday or month names and therefore is
internationally usable. Wrong! The output produced is something like
‘"hh:mm:ss MM/DD/YY"’. This format is only recognizable in the USA.
Other countries use different formats. Therefore the function should be
rewritten like this:
size_t
i18n_time_n_data (char *s, size_t len, const struct tm *tp)
{
return strftime (s, len, nl_langinfo (D_T_FMT), tp);
}
Now it uses the date and time format of the locale selected when the
program runs. If the user selects the locale correctly there should
never be a misunderstanding over the time and date format.

File: libc.info, Node: Formatting Numbers, Next: Yes-or-No Questions, Prev: Locale Information, Up: Locales
7.8 A dedicated function to format numbers
==========================================
We have seen that the structure returned by ‘localeconv’ as well as the
values given to ‘nl_langinfo’ allow you to retrieve the various pieces
of locale-specific information to format numbers and monetary amounts.
We have also seen that the underlying rules are quite complex.
Therefore the X/Open standards introduce a function which uses such
locale information, making it easier for the user to format numbers
according to these rules.
-- Function: ssize_t strfmon (char *S, size_t MAXSIZE, const char
*FORMAT, …)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘strfmon’ function is similar to the ‘strftime’ function in
that it takes a buffer, its size, a format string, and values to
write into the buffer as text in a form specified by the format
string. Like ‘strftime’, the function also returns the number of
bytes written into the buffer.
There are two differences: ‘strfmon’ can take more than one
argument, and, of course, the format specification is different.
Like ‘strftime’, the format string consists of normal text, which
is output as is, and format specifiers, which are indicated by a
‘%’. Immediately after the ‘%’, you can optionally specify various
flags and formatting information before the main formatting
character, in a similar way to ‘printf’:
• Immediately following the ‘%’ there can be one or more of the
following flags:
‘=F’
The single byte character F is used for this field as the
numeric fill character. By default this character is a
space character. Filling with this character is only
performed if a left precision is specified. It is not
just to fill to the given field width.
‘^’
The number is printed without grouping the digits
according to the rules of the current locale. By default
grouping is enabled.
‘+’, ‘(’
At most one of these flags can be used. They select
which format to represent the sign of a currency amount.
By default, and if ‘+’ is given, the locale equivalent of
+/- is used. If ‘(’ is given, negative amounts are
enclosed in parentheses. The exact format is determined
by the values of the ‘LC_MONETARY’ category of the locale
selected at program runtime.
‘!’
The output will not contain the currency symbol.
‘-’
The output will be formatted left-justified instead of
right-justified if it does not fill the entire field
width.
The next part of a specification is an optional field width. If no
width is specified 0 is taken. During output, the function first
determines how much space is required. If it requires at least as
many characters as given by the field width, it is output using as
much space as necessary. Otherwise, it is extended to use the full
width by filling with the space character. The presence or absence
of the ‘-’ flag determines the side at which such padding occurs.
If present, the spaces are added at the right making the output
left-justified, and vice versa.
So far the format looks familiar, being similar to the ‘printf’ and
‘strftime’ formats. However, the next two optional fields
introduce something new. The first one is a ‘#’ character followed
by a decimal digit string. The value of the digit string specifies
the number of _digit_ positions to the left of the decimal point
(or equivalent). This does _not_ include the grouping character
when the ‘^’ flag is not given. If the space needed to print the
number does not fill the whole width, the field is padded at the
left side with the fill character, which can be selected using the
‘=’ flag and by default is a space. For example, if the field
width is selected as 6 and the number is 123, the fill character is
‘*’ the result will be ‘***123’.
The second optional field starts with a ‘.’ (period) and consists
of another decimal digit string. Its value describes the number of
characters printed after the decimal point. The default is
selected from the current locale (‘frac_digits’, ‘int_frac_digits’,
see *note General Numeric::). If the exact representation needs
more digits than given by the field width, the displayed value is
rounded. If the number of fractional digits is selected to be
zero, no decimal point is printed.
As a GNU extension, the ‘strfmon’ implementation in the GNU C
Library allows an optional ‘L’ next as a format modifier. If this
modifier is given, the argument is expected to be a ‘long double’
instead of a ‘double’ value.
Finally, the last component is a format specifier. There are three
specifiers defined:
‘i’
Use the locale’s rules for formatting an international
currency value.
‘n’
Use the locale’s rules for formatting a national currency
value.
‘%’
Place a ‘%’ in the output. There must be no flag, width
specifier or modifier given, only ‘%%’ is allowed.
As for ‘printf’, the function reads the format string from left to
right and uses the values passed to the function following the
format string. The values are expected to be either of type
‘double’ or ‘long double’, depending on the presence of the
modifier ‘L’. The result is stored in the buffer pointed to by S.
At most MAXSIZE characters are stored.
The return value of the function is the number of characters stored
in S, including the terminating ‘NULL’ byte. If the number of
characters stored would exceed MAXSIZE, the function returns -1 and
the content of the buffer S is unspecified. In this case ‘errno’
is set to ‘E2BIG’.
A few examples should make clear how the function works. It is
assumed that all the following pieces of code are executed in a program
which uses the USA locale (‘en_US’). The simplest form of the format is
this:
strfmon (buf, 100, "@%n@%n@%n@", 123.45, -567.89, 12345.678);
The output produced is
"@$123.45@-$567.89@$12,345.68@"
We can notice several things here. First, the widths of the output
numbers are different. We have not specified a width in the format
string, and so this is no wonder. Second, the third number is printed
using thousands separators. The thousands separator for the ‘en_US’
locale is a comma. The number is also rounded. .678 is rounded to .68
since the format does not specify a precision and the default value in
the locale is 2. Finally, note that the national currency symbol is
printed since ‘%n’ was used, not ‘i’. The next example shows how we can
align the output.
strfmon (buf, 100, "@%=*11n@%=*11n@%=*11n@", 123.45, -567.89, 12345.678);
The output this time is:
"@ $123.45@ -$567.89@ $12,345.68@"
Two things stand out. Firstly, all fields have the same width
(eleven characters) since this is the width given in the format and
since no number required more characters to be printed. The second
important point is that the fill character is not used. This is correct
since the white space was not used to achieve a precision given by a ‘#’
modifier, but instead to fill to the given width. The difference
becomes obvious if we now add a width specification.
strfmon (buf, 100, "@%=*11#5n@%=*11#5n@%=*11#5n@",
123.45, -567.89, 12345.678);
The output is
"@ $***123.45@-$***567.89@ $12,456.68@"
Here we can see that all the currency symbols are now aligned, and
that the space between the currency sign and the number is filled with
the selected fill character. Note that although the width is selected
to be 5 and 123.45 has three digits left of the decimal point, the space
is filled with three asterisks. This is correct since, as explained
above, the width does not include the positions used to store thousands
separators. One last example should explain the remaining
functionality.
strfmon (buf, 100, "@%=0(16#5.3i@%=0(16#5.3i@%=0(16#5.3i@",
123.45, -567.89, 12345.678);
This rather complex format string produces the following output:
"@ USD 000123,450 @(USD 000567.890)@ USD 12,345.678 @"
The most noticeable change is the alternative way of representing
negative numbers. In financial circles this is often done using
parentheses, and this is what the ‘(’ flag selected. The fill character
is now ‘0’. Note that this ‘0’ character is not regarded as a numeric
zero, and therefore the first and second numbers are not printed using a
thousands separator. Since we used the format specifier ‘i’ instead of
‘n’, the international form of the currency symbol is used. This is a
four letter string, in this case ‘"USD "’. The last point is that since
the precision right of the decimal point is selected to be three, the
first and second numbers are printed with an extra zero at the end and
the third number is printed without rounding.

File: libc.info, Node: Yes-or-No Questions, Prev: Formatting Numbers, Up: Locales
7.9 Yes-or-No Questions
=======================
Some non GUI programs ask a yes-or-no question. If the messages
(especially the questions) are translated into foreign languages, be
sure that you localize the answers too. It would be very bad habit to
ask a question in one language and request the answer in another, often
English.
The GNU C Library contains ‘rpmatch’ to give applications easy access
to the corresponding locale definitions.
-- Function: int rpmatch (const char *RESPONSE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The function ‘rpmatch’ checks the string in RESPONSE whether or not
it is a correct yes-or-no answer and if yes, which one. The check
uses the ‘YESEXPR’ and ‘NOEXPR’ data in the ‘LC_MESSAGES’ category
of the currently selected locale. The return value is as follows:
‘1’
The user entered an affirmative answer.
‘0’
The user entered a negative answer.
‘-1’
The answer matched neither the ‘YESEXPR’ nor the ‘NOEXPR’
regular expression.
This function is not standardized but available beside in the GNU C
Library at least also in the IBM AIX library.
This function would normally be used like this:
…
/* Use a safe default. */
_Bool doit = false;
fputs (gettext ("Do you really want to do this? "), stdout);
fflush (stdout);
/* Prepare the ‘getline’ call. */
line = NULL;
len = 0;
while (getline (&line, &len, stdin) >= 0)
{
/* Check the response. */
int res = rpmatch (line);
if (res >= 0)
{
/* We got a definitive answer. */
if (res > 0)
doit = true;
break;
}
}
/* Free what ‘getline’ allocated. */
free (line);
Note that the loop continues until a read error is detected or until
a definitive (positive or negative) answer is read.

File: libc.info, Node: Message Translation, Next: Searching and Sorting, Prev: Locales, Up: Top
8 Message Translation
*********************
The program’s interface with the user should be designed to ease the
user’s task. One way to ease the user’s task is to use messages in
whatever language the user prefers.
Printing messages in different languages can be implemented in
different ways. One could add all the different languages in the source
code and choose among the variants every time a message has to be
printed. This is certainly not a good solution since extending the set
of languages is cumbersome (the code must be changed) and the code
itself can become really big with dozens of message sets.
A better solution is to keep the message sets for each language in
separate files which are loaded at runtime depending on the language
selection of the user.
The GNU C Library provides two different sets of functions to support
message translation. The problem is that neither of the interfaces is
officially defined by the POSIX standard. The ‘catgets’ family of
functions is defined in the X/Open standard but this is derived from
industry decisions and therefore not necessarily based on reasonable
decisions.
As mentioned above the message catalog handling provides easy
extendibility by using external data files which contain the message
translations. I.e., these files contain for each of the messages used
in the program a translation for the appropriate language. So the tasks
of the message handling functions are
• locate the external data file with the appropriate translations
• load the data and make it possible to address the messages
• map a given key to the translated message
The two approaches mainly differ in the implementation of this last
step. Decisions made in the last step influence the rest of the design.
* Menu:
* Message catalogs a la X/Open:: The ‘catgets’ family of functions.
* The Uniforum approach:: The ‘gettext’ family of functions.

File: libc.info, Node: Message catalogs a la X/Open, Next: The Uniforum approach, Up: Message Translation
8.1 X/Open Message Catalog Handling
===================================
The ‘catgets’ functions are based on the simple scheme:
Associate every message to translate in the source code with a
unique identifier. To retrieve a message from a catalog file
solely the identifier is used.
This means for the author of the program that s/he will have to make
sure the meaning of the identifier in the program code and in the
message catalogs are always the same.
Before a message can be translated the catalog file must be located.
The user of the program must be able to guide the responsible function
to find whatever catalog the user wants. This is separated from what
the programmer had in mind.
All the types, constants and functions for the ‘catgets’ functions
are defined/declared in the ‘nl_types.h’ header file.
* Menu:
* The catgets Functions:: The ‘catgets’ function family.
* The message catalog files:: Format of the message catalog files.
* The gencat program:: How to generate message catalogs files which
can be used by the functions.
* Common Usage:: How to use the ‘catgets’ interface.

File: libc.info, Node: The catgets Functions, Next: The message catalog files, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.1 The ‘catgets’ function family
-----------------------------------
-- Function: nl_catd catopen (const char *CAT_NAME, int FLAG)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘catopen’ function tries to locate the message data file names
CAT_NAME and loads it when found. The return value is of an opaque
type and can be used in calls to the other functions to refer to
this loaded catalog.
The return value is ‘(nl_catd) -1’ in case the function failed and
no catalog was loaded. The global variable ERRNO contains a code
for the error causing the failure. But even if the function call
succeeded this does not mean that all messages can be translated.
Locating the catalog file must happen in a way which lets the user
of the program influence the decision. It is up to the user to
decide about the language to use and sometimes it is useful to use
alternate catalog files. All this can be specified by the user by
setting some environment variables.
The first problem is to find out where all the message catalogs are
stored. Every program could have its own place to keep all the
different files but usually the catalog files are grouped by
languages and the catalogs for all programs are kept in the same
place.
To tell the ‘catopen’ function where the catalog for the program
can be found the user can set the environment variable ‘NLSPATH’ to
a value which describes her/his choice. Since this value must be
usable for different languages and locales it cannot be a simple
string. Instead it is a format string (similar to ‘printf’’s). An
example is
/usr/share/locale/%L/%N:/usr/share/locale/%L/LC_MESSAGES/%N
First one can see that more than one directory can be specified
(with the usual syntax of separating them by colons). The next
things to observe are the format string, ‘%L’ and ‘%N’ in this
case. The ‘catopen’ function knows about several of them and the
replacement for all of them is of course different.
‘%N’
This format element is substituted with the name of the
catalog file. This is the value of the CAT_NAME argument
given to ‘catgets’.
‘%L’
This format element is substituted with the name of the
currently selected locale for translating messages. How this
is determined is explained below.
‘%l’
(This is the lowercase ell.) This format element is
substituted with the language element of the locale name. The
string describing the selected locale is expected to have the
form ‘LANG[_TERR[.CODESET]]’ and this format uses the first
part LANG.
‘%t’
This format element is substituted by the territory part TERR
of the name of the currently selected locale. See the
explanation of the format above.
‘%c’
This format element is substituted by the codeset part CODESET
of the name of the currently selected locale. See the
explanation of the format above.
‘%%’
Since ‘%’ is used in a meta character there must be a way to
express the ‘%’ character in the result itself. Using ‘%%’
does this just like it works for ‘printf’.
Using ‘NLSPATH’ allows arbitrary directories to be searched for
message catalogs while still allowing different languages to be
used. If the ‘NLSPATH’ environment variable is not set, the
default value is
PREFIX/share/locale/%L/%N:PREFIX/share/locale/%L/LC_MESSAGES/%N
where PREFIX is given to ‘configure’ while installing the GNU C
Library (this value is in many cases ‘/usr’ or the empty string).
The remaining problem is to decide which must be used. The value
decides about the substitution of the format elements mentioned
above. First of all the user can specify a path in the message
catalog name (i.e., the name contains a slash character). In this
situation the ‘NLSPATH’ environment variable is not used. The
catalog must exist as specified in the program, perhaps relative to
the current working directory. This situation in not desirable and
catalogs names never should be written this way. Beside this, this
behavior is not portable to all other platforms providing the
‘catgets’ interface.
Otherwise the values of environment variables from the standard
environment are examined (*note Standard Environment::). Which
variables are examined is decided by the FLAG parameter of
‘catopen’. If the value is ‘NL_CAT_LOCALE’ (which is defined in
‘nl_types.h’) then the ‘catopen’ function use the name of the
locale currently selected for the ‘LC_MESSAGES’ category.
If FLAG is zero the ‘LANG’ environment variable is examined. This
is a left-over from the early days where the concept of the locales
had not even reached the level of POSIX locales.
The environment variable and the locale name should have a value of
the form ‘LANG[_TERR[.CODESET]]’ as explained above. If no
environment variable is set the ‘"C"’ locale is used which prevents
any translation.
The return value of the function is in any case a valid string.
Either it is a translation from a message catalog or it is the same
as the STRING parameter. So a piece of code to decide whether a
translation actually happened must look like this:
{
char *trans = catgets (desc, set, msg, input_string);
if (trans == input_string)
{
/* Something went wrong. */
}
}
When an error occurred the global variable ERRNO is set to
EBADF
The catalog does not exist.
ENOMSG
The set/message tuple does not name an existing element in the
message catalog.
While it sometimes can be useful to test for errors programs
normally will avoid any test. If the translation is not available
it is no big problem if the original, untranslated message is
printed. Either the user understands this as well or s/he will
look for the reason why the messages are not translated.
Please note that the currently selected locale does not depend on a
call to the ‘setlocale’ function. It is not necessary that the locale
data files for this locale exist and calling ‘setlocale’ succeeds. The
‘catopen’ function directly reads the values of the environment
variables.
-- Function: char * catgets (nl_catd CATALOG_DESC, int SET, int
MESSAGE, const char *STRING)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The function ‘catgets’ has to be used to access the massage catalog
previously opened using the ‘catopen’ function. The CATALOG_DESC
parameter must be a value previously returned by ‘catopen’.
The next two parameters, SET and MESSAGE, reflect the internal
organization of the message catalog files. This will be explained
in detail below. For now it is interesting to know that a catalog
can consists of several set and the messages in each thread are
individually numbered using numbers. Neither the set number nor
the message number must be consecutive. They can be arbitrarily
chosen. But each message (unless equal to another one) must have
its own unique pair of set and message number.
Since it is not guaranteed that the message catalog for the
language selected by the user exists the last parameter STRING
helps to handle this case gracefully. If no matching string can be
found STRING is returned. This means for the programmer that
• the STRING parameters should contain reasonable text (this
also helps to understand the program seems otherwise there
would be no hint on the string which is expected to be
returned.
• all STRING arguments should be written in the same language.
It is somewhat uncomfortable to write a program using the ‘catgets’
functions if no supporting functionality is available. Since each
set/message number tuple must be unique the programmer must keep lists
of the messages at the same time the code is written. And the work
between several people working on the same project must be coordinated.
We will see some how these problems can be relaxed a bit (*note Common
Usage::).
-- Function: int catclose (nl_catd CATALOG_DESC)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe corrupt mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘catclose’ function can be used to free the resources
associated with a message catalog which previously was opened by a
call to ‘catopen’. If the resources can be successfully freed the
function returns ‘0’. Otherwise it return ‘−1’ and the global
variable ERRNO is set. Errors can occur if the catalog descriptor
CATALOG_DESC is not valid in which case ERRNO is set to ‘EBADF’.

File: libc.info, Node: The message catalog files, Next: The gencat program, Prev: The catgets Functions, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.2 Format of the message catalog files
-----------------------------------------
The only reasonable way the translate all the messages of a function and
store the result in a message catalog file which can be read by the
‘catopen’ function is to write all the message text to the translator
and let her/him translate them all. I.e., we must have a file with
entries which associate the set/message tuple with a specific
translation. This file format is specified in the X/Open standard and
is as follows:
• Lines containing only whitespace characters or empty lines are
ignored.
• Lines which contain as the first non-whitespace character a ‘$’
followed by a whitespace character are comment and are also
ignored.
• If a line contains as the first non-whitespace characters the
sequence ‘$set’ followed by a whitespace character an additional
argument is required to follow. This argument can either be:
− a number. In this case the value of this number determines
the set to which the following messages are added.
− an identifier consisting of alphanumeric characters plus the
underscore character. In this case the set get automatically
a number assigned. This value is one added to the largest set
number which so far appeared.
How to use the symbolic names is explained in section *note
Common Usage::.
It is an error if a symbol name appears more than once. All
following messages are placed in a set with this number.
• If a line contains as the first non-whitespace characters the
sequence ‘$delset’ followed by a whitespace character an additional
argument is required to follow. This argument can either be:
− a number. In this case the value of this number determines
the set which will be deleted.
− an identifier consisting of alphanumeric characters plus the
underscore character. This symbolic identifier must match a
name for a set which previously was defined. It is an error
if the name is unknown.
In both cases all messages in the specified set will be removed.
They will not appear in the output. But if this set is later again
selected with a ‘$set’ command again messages could be added and
these messages will appear in the output.
• If a line contains after leading whitespaces the sequence ‘$quote’,
the quoting character used for this input file is changed to the
first non-whitespace character following the ‘$quote’. If no
non-whitespace character is present before the line ends quoting is
disable.
By default no quoting character is used. In this mode strings are
terminated with the first unescaped line break. If there is a
‘$quote’ sequence present newline need not be escaped. Instead a
string is terminated with the first unescaped appearance of the
quote character.
A common usage of this feature would be to set the quote character
to ‘"’. Then any appearance of the ‘"’ in the strings must be
escaped using the backslash (i.e., ‘\"’ must be written).
• Any other line must start with a number or an alphanumeric
identifier (with the underscore character included). The following
characters (starting after the first whitespace character) will
form the string which gets associated with the currently selected
set and the message number represented by the number and identifier
respectively.
If the start of the line is a number the message number is obvious.
It is an error if the same message number already appeared for this
set.
If the leading token was an identifier the message number gets
automatically assigned. The value is the current maximum messages
number for this set plus one. It is an error if the identifier was
already used for a message in this set. It is OK to reuse the
identifier for a message in another thread. How to use the
symbolic identifiers will be explained below (*note Common
Usage::). There is one limitation with the identifier: it must not
be ‘Set’. The reason will be explained below.
The text of the messages can contain escape characters. The usual
bunch of characters known from the ISO C language are recognized
(‘\n’, ‘\t’, ‘\v’, ‘\b’, ‘\r’, ‘\f’, ‘\\’, and ‘\NNN’, where NNN is
the octal coding of a character code).
*Important:* The handling of identifiers instead of numbers for the
set and messages is a GNU extension. Systems strictly following the
X/Open specification do not have this feature. An example for a message
catalog file is this:
$ This is a leading comment.
$quote "
$set SetOne
1 Message with ID 1.
two " Message with ID \"two\", which gets the value 2 assigned"
$set SetTwo
$ Since the last set got the number 1 assigned this set has number 2.
4000 "The numbers can be arbitrary, they need not start at one."
This small example shows various aspects:
• Lines 1 and 9 are comments since they start with ‘$’ followed by a
whitespace.
• The quoting character is set to ‘"’. Otherwise the quotes in the
message definition would have to be left away and in this case the
message with the identifier ‘two’ would loose its leading
whitespace.
• Mixing numbered messages with message having symbolic names is no
problem and the numbering happens automatically.
While this file format is pretty easy it is not the best possible for
use in a running program. The ‘catopen’ function would have to parser
the file and handle syntactic errors gracefully. This is not so easy
and the whole process is pretty slow. Therefore the ‘catgets’ functions
expect the data in another more compact and ready-to-use file format.
There is a special program ‘gencat’ which is explained in detail in the
next section.
Files in this other format are not human readable. To be easy to use
by programs it is a binary file. But the format is byte order
independent so translation files can be shared by systems of arbitrary
architecture (as long as they use the GNU C Library).
Details about the binary file format are not important to know since
these files are always created by the ‘gencat’ program. The sources of
the GNU C Library also provide the sources for the ‘gencat’ program and
so the interested reader can look through these source files to learn
about the file format.

File: libc.info, Node: The gencat program, Next: Common Usage, Prev: The message catalog files, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.3 Generate Message Catalogs files
-------------------------------------
The ‘gencat’ program is specified in the X/Open standard and the GNU
implementation follows this specification and so processes all correctly
formed input files. Additionally some extension are implemented which
help to work in a more reasonable way with the ‘catgets’ functions.
The ‘gencat’ program can be invoked in two ways:
`gencat [OPTION]… [OUTPUT-FILE [INPUT-FILE]…]`
This is the interface defined in the X/Open standard. If no
INPUT-FILE parameter is given input will be read from standard input.
Multiple input files will be read as if they are concatenated. If
OUTPUT-FILE is also missing, the output will be written to standard
output. To provide the interface one is used to from other programs a
second interface is provided.
`gencat [OPTION]… -o OUTPUT-FILE [INPUT-FILE]…`
The option ‘-o’ is used to specify the output file and all file
arguments are used as input files.
Beside this one can use ‘-’ or ‘/dev/stdin’ for INPUT-FILE to denote
the standard input. Corresponding one can use ‘-’ and ‘/dev/stdout’ for
OUTPUT-FILE to denote standard output. Using ‘-’ as a file name is
allowed in X/Open while using the device names is a GNU extension.
The ‘gencat’ program works by concatenating all input files and then
*merge* the resulting collection of message sets with a possibly
existing output file. This is done by removing all messages with
set/message number tuples matching any of the generated messages from
the output file and then adding all the new messages. To regenerate a
catalog file while ignoring the old contents therefore requires to
remove the output file if it exists. If the output is written to
standard output no merging takes place.
The following table shows the options understood by the ‘gencat’
program. The X/Open standard does not specify any option for the
program so all of these are GNU extensions.
‘-V’
‘--version’
Print the version information and exit.
‘-h’
‘--help’
Print a usage message listing all available options, then exit
successfully.
‘--new’
Do never merge the new messages from the input files with the old
content of the output files. The old content of the output file is
discarded.
‘-H’
‘--header=name’
This option is used to emit the symbolic names given to sets and
messages in the input files for use in the program. Details about
how to use this are given in the next section. The NAME parameter
to this option specifies the name of the output file. It will
contain a number of C preprocessor ‘#define’s to associate a name
with a number.
Please note that the generated file only contains the symbols from
the input files. If the output is merged with the previous content
of the output file the possibly existing symbols from the file(s)
which generated the old output files are not in the generated
header file.

File: libc.info, Node: Common Usage, Prev: The gencat program, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.4 How to use the ‘catgets’ interface
----------------------------------------
The ‘catgets’ functions can be used in two different ways. By following
slavishly the X/Open specs and not relying on the extension and by using
the GNU extensions. We will take a look at the former method first to
understand the benefits of extensions.
8.1.4.1 Not using symbolic names
................................
Since the X/Open format of the message catalog files does not allow
symbol names we have to work with numbers all the time. When we start
writing a program we have to replace all appearances of translatable
strings with something like
catgets (catdesc, set, msg, "string")
CATGETS is retrieved from a call to ‘catopen’ which is normally done
once at the program start. The ‘"string"’ is the string we want to
translate. The problems start with the set and message numbers.
In a bigger program several programmers usually work at the same time
on the program and so coordinating the number allocation is crucial.
Though no two different strings must be indexed by the same tuple of
numbers it is highly desirable to reuse the numbers for equal strings
with equal translations (please note that there might be strings which
are equal in one language but have different translations due to
difference contexts).
The allocation process can be relaxed a bit by different set numbers
for different parts of the program. So the number of developers who
have to coordinate the allocation can be reduced. But still lists must
be keep track of the allocation and errors can easily happen. These
errors cannot be discovered by the compiler or the ‘catgets’ functions.
Only the user of the program might see wrong messages printed. In the
worst cases the messages are so irritating that they cannot be
recognized as wrong. Think about the translations for ‘"true"’ and
‘"false"’ being exchanged. This could result in a disaster.
8.1.4.2 Using symbolic names
............................
The problems mentioned in the last section derive from the fact that:
1. the numbers are allocated once and due to the possibly frequent use
of them it is difficult to change a number later.
2. the numbers do not allow to guess anything about the string and
therefore collisions can easily happen.
By constantly using symbolic names and by providing a method which
maps the string content to a symbolic name (however this will happen)
one can prevent both problems above. The cost of this is that the
programmer has to write a complete message catalog file while s/he is
writing the program itself.
This is necessary since the symbolic names must be mapped to numbers
before the program sources can be compiled. In the last section it was
described how to generate a header containing the mapping of the names.
E.g., for the example message file given in the last section we could
call the ‘gencat’ program as follow (assume ‘ex.msg’ contains the
sources).
gencat -H ex.h -o ex.cat ex.msg
This generates a header file with the following content:
#define SetTwoSet 0x2 /* ex.msg:8 */
#define SetOneSet 0x1 /* ex.msg:4 */
#define SetOnetwo 0x2 /* ex.msg:6 */
As can be seen the various symbols given in the source file are
mangled to generate unique identifiers and these identifiers get numbers
assigned. Reading the source file and knowing about the rules will
allow to predict the content of the header file (it is deterministic)
but this is not necessary. The ‘gencat’ program can take care for
everything. All the programmer has to do is to put the generated header
file in the dependency list of the source files of her/his project and
to add a rules to regenerate the header of any of the input files
change.
One word about the symbol mangling. Every symbol consists of two
parts: the name of the message set plus the name of the message or the
special string ‘Set’. So ‘SetOnetwo’ means this macro can be used to
access the translation with identifier ‘two’ in the message set
‘SetOne’.
The other names denote the names of the message sets. The special
string ‘Set’ is used in the place of the message identifier.
If in the code the second string of the set ‘SetOne’ is used the C
code should look like this:
catgets (catdesc, SetOneSet, SetOnetwo,
" Message with ID \"two\", which gets the value 2 assigned")
Writing the function this way will allow to change the message number
and even the set number without requiring any change in the C source
code. (The text of the string is normally not the same; this is only
for this example.)
8.1.4.3 How does to this allow to develop
.........................................
To illustrate the usual way to work with the symbolic version numbers
here is a little example. Assume we want to write the very complex and
famous greeting program. We start by writing the code as usual:
#include <stdio.h>
int
main (void)
{
printf ("Hello, world!\n");
return 0;
}
Now we want to internationalize the message and therefore replace the
message with whatever the user wants.
#include <nl_types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "msgnrs.h"
int
main (void)
{
nl_catd catdesc = catopen ("hello.cat", NL_CAT_LOCALE);
printf (catgets (catdesc, SetMainSet, SetMainHello,
"Hello, world!\n"));
catclose (catdesc);
return 0;
}
We see how the catalog object is opened and the returned descriptor
used in the other function calls. It is not really necessary to check
for failure of any of the functions since even in these situations the
functions will behave reasonable. They simply will be return a
translation.
What remains unspecified here are the constants ‘SetMainSet’ and
‘SetMainHello’. These are the symbolic names describing the message.
To get the actual definitions which match the information in the catalog
file we have to create the message catalog source file and process it
using the ‘gencat’ program.
$ Messages for the famous greeting program.
$quote "
$set Main
Hello "Hallo, Welt!\n"
Now we can start building the program (assume the message catalog
source file is named ‘hello.msg’ and the program source file ‘hello.c’):
% gencat -H msgnrs.h -o hello.cat hello.msg
% cat msgnrs.h
#define MainSet 0x1 /* hello.msg:4 */
#define MainHello 0x1 /* hello.msg:5 */
% gcc -o hello hello.c -I.
% cp hello.cat /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES
% echo $LC_ALL
de
% ./hello
Hallo, Welt!
%
The call of the ‘gencat’ program creates the missing header file
‘msgnrs.h’ as well as the message catalog binary. The former is used in
the compilation of ‘hello.c’ while the later is placed in a directory in
which the ‘catopen’ function will try to locate it. Please check the
‘LC_ALL’ environment variable and the default path for ‘catopen’
presented in the description above.

File: libc.info, Node: The Uniforum approach, Prev: Message catalogs a la X/Open, Up: Message Translation
8.2 The Uniforum approach to Message Translation
================================================
Sun Microsystems tried to standardize a different approach to message
translation in the Uniforum group. There never was a real standard
defined but still the interface was used in Sun’s operating systems.
Since this approach fits better in the development process of free
software it is also used throughout the GNU project and the GNU
‘gettext’ package provides support for this outside the GNU C Library.
The code of the ‘libintl’ from GNU ‘gettext’ is the same as the code
in the GNU C Library. So the documentation in the GNU ‘gettext’ manual
is also valid for the functionality here. The following text will
describe the library functions in detail. But the numerous helper
programs are not described in this manual. Instead people should read
the GNU ‘gettext’ manual (*note GNU gettext utilities: (gettext)Top.).
We will only give a short overview.
Though the ‘catgets’ functions are available by default on more
systems the ‘gettext’ interface is at least as portable as the former.
The GNU ‘gettext’ package can be used wherever the functions are not
available.
* Menu:
* Message catalogs with gettext:: The ‘gettext’ family of functions.
* Helper programs for gettext:: Programs to handle message catalogs
for ‘gettext’.

File: libc.info, Node: Message catalogs with gettext, Next: Helper programs for gettext, Up: The Uniforum approach
8.2.1 The ‘gettext’ family of functions
---------------------------------------
The paradigms underlying the ‘gettext’ approach to message translations
is different from that of the ‘catgets’ functions the basic functionally
is equivalent. There are functions of the following categories:
* Menu:
* Translation with gettext:: What has to be done to translate a message.
* Locating gettext catalog:: How to determine which catalog to be used.
* Advanced gettext functions:: Additional functions for more complicated
situations.
* Charset conversion in gettext:: How to specify the output character set
‘gettext’ uses.
* GUI program problems:: How to use ‘gettext’ in GUI programs.
* Using gettextized software:: The possibilities of the user to influence
the way ‘gettext’ works.

File: libc.info, Node: Translation with gettext, Next: Locating gettext catalog, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.1 What has to be done to translate a message?
...................................................
The ‘gettext’ functions have a very simple interface. The most basic
function just takes the string which shall be translated as the argument
and it returns the translation. This is fundamentally different from
the ‘catgets’ approach where an extra key is necessary and the original
string is only used for the error case.
If the string which has to be translated is the only argument this of
course means the string itself is the key. I.e., the translation will
be selected based on the original string. The message catalogs must
therefore contain the original strings plus one translation for any such
string. The task of the ‘gettext’ function is it to compare the
argument string with the available strings in the catalog and return the
appropriate translation. Of course this process is optimized so that
this process is not more expensive than an access using an atomic key
like in ‘catgets’.
The ‘gettext’ approach has some advantages but also some
disadvantages. Please see the GNU ‘gettext’ manual for a detailed
discussion of the pros and cons.
All the definitions and declarations for ‘gettext’ can be found in
the ‘libintl.h’ header file. On systems where these functions are not
part of the C library they can be found in a separate library named
‘libintl.a’ (or accordingly different for shared libraries).
-- Function: char * gettext (const char *MSGID)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘gettext’ function searches the currently selected message
catalogs for a string which is equal to MSGID. If there is such a
string available it is returned. Otherwise the argument string
MSGID is returned.
Please note that although the return value is ‘char *’ the returned
string must not be changed. This broken type results from the
history of the function and does not reflect the way the function
should be used.
Please note that above we wrote “message catalogs” (plural). This
is a specialty of the GNU implementation of these functions and we
will say more about this when we talk about the ways message
catalogs are selected (*note Locating gettext catalog::).
The ‘gettext’ function does not modify the value of the global
ERRNO variable. This is necessary to make it possible to write
something like
printf (gettext ("Operation failed: %m\n"));
Here the ERRNO value is used in the ‘printf’ function while
processing the ‘%m’ format element and if the ‘gettext’ function
would change this value (it is called before ‘printf’ is called) we
would get a wrong message.
So there is no easy way to detect a missing message catalog beside
comparing the argument string with the result. But it is normally
the task of the user to react on missing catalogs. The program
cannot guess when a message catalog is really necessary since for a
user who speaks the language the program was developed in does not
need any translation.
The remaining two functions to access the message catalog add some
functionality to select a message catalog which is not the default one.
This is important if parts of the program are developed independently.
Every part can have its own message catalog and all of them can be used
at the same time. The C library itself is an example: internally it
uses the ‘gettext’ functions but since it must not depend on a currently
selected default message catalog it must specify all ambiguous
information.
-- Function: char * dgettext (const char *DOMAINNAME, const char
*MSGID)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘dgettext’ functions acts just like the ‘gettext’ function. It
only takes an additional first argument DOMAINNAME which guides the
selection of the message catalogs which are searched for the
translation. If the DOMAINNAME parameter is the null pointer the
‘dgettext’ function is exactly equivalent to ‘gettext’ since the
default value for the domain name is used.
As for ‘gettext’ the return value type is ‘char *’ which is an
anachronism. The returned string must never be modified.
-- Function: char * dcgettext (const char *DOMAINNAME, const char
*MSGID, int CATEGORY)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘dcgettext’ adds another argument to those which ‘dgettext’
takes. This argument CATEGORY specifies the last piece of
information needed to localize the message catalog. I.e., the
domain name and the locale category exactly specify which message
catalog has to be used (relative to a given directory, see below).
The ‘dgettext’ function can be expressed in terms of ‘dcgettext’ by
using
dcgettext (domain, string, LC_MESSAGES)
instead of
dgettext (domain, string)
This also shows which values are expected for the third parameter.
One has to use the available selectors for the categories available
in ‘locale.h’. Normally the available values are ‘LC_CTYPE’,
‘LC_COLLATE’, ‘LC_MESSAGES’, ‘LC_MONETARY’, ‘LC_NUMERIC’, and
‘LC_TIME’. Please note that ‘LC_ALL’ must not be used and even
though the names might suggest this, there is no relation to the
environments variables of this name.
The ‘dcgettext’ function is only implemented for compatibility with
other systems which have ‘gettext’ functions. There is not really
any situation where it is necessary (or useful) to use a different
value but ‘LC_MESSAGES’ in for the CATEGORY parameter. We are
dealing with messages here and any other choice can only be
irritating.
As for ‘gettext’ the return value type is ‘char *’ which is an
anachronism. The returned string must never be modified.
When using the three functions above in a program it is a frequent
case that the MSGID argument is a constant string. So it is worth to
optimize this case. Thinking shortly about this one will realize that
as long as no new message catalog is loaded the translation of a message
will not change. This optimization is actually implemented by the
‘gettext’, ‘dgettext’ and ‘dcgettext’ functions.

File: libc.info, Node: Locating gettext catalog, Next: Advanced gettext functions, Prev: Translation with gettext, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.2 How to determine which catalog to be used
.................................................
The functions to retrieve the translations for a given message have a
remarkable simple interface. But to provide the user of the program
still the opportunity to select exactly the translation s/he wants and
also to provide the programmer the possibility to influence the way to
locate the search for catalogs files there is a quite complicated
underlying mechanism which controls all this. The code is complicated
the use is easy.
Basically we have two different tasks to perform which can also be
performed by the ‘catgets’ functions:
1. Locate the set of message catalogs. There are a number of files
for different languages and which all belong to the package.
Usually they are all stored in the filesystem below a certain
directory.
There can be arbitrary many packages installed and they can follow
different guidelines for the placement of their files.
2. Relative to the location specified by the package the actual
translation files must be searched, based on the wishes of the
user. I.e., for each language the user selects the program should
be able to locate the appropriate file.
This is the functionality required by the specifications for
‘gettext’ and this is also what the ‘catgets’ functions are able to do.
But there are some problems unresolved:
• The language to be used can be specified in several different ways.
There is no generally accepted standard for this and the user
always expects the program understand what s/he means. E.g., to
select the German translation one could write ‘de’, ‘german’, or
‘deutsch’ and the program should always react the same.
• Sometimes the specification of the user is too detailed. If s/he,
e.g., specifies ‘de_DE.ISO-8859-1’ which means German, spoken in
Germany, coded using the ISO 8859-1 character set there is the
possibility that a message catalog matching this exactly is not
available. But there could be a catalog matching ‘de’ and if the
character set used on the machine is always ISO 8859-1 there is no
reason why this later message catalog should not be used. (We call
this "message inheritance".)
• If a catalog for a wanted language is not available it is not
always the second best choice to fall back on the language of the
developer and simply not translate any message. Instead a user
might be better able to read the messages in another language and
so the user of the program should be able to define a precedence
order of languages.
We can divide the configuration actions in two parts: the one is
performed by the programmer, the other by the user. We will start with
the functions the programmer can use since the user configuration will
be based on this.
As the functions described in the last sections already mention
separate sets of messages can be selected by a "domain name". This is a
simple string which should be unique for each program part with uses a
separate domain. It is possible to use in one program arbitrary many
domains at the same time. E.g., the GNU C Library itself uses a domain
named ‘libc’ while the program using the C Library could use a domain
named ‘foo’. The important point is that at any time exactly one domain
is active. This is controlled with the following function.
-- Function: char * textdomain (const char *DOMAINNAME)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe lock heap | AC-Unsafe lock mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘textdomain’ function sets the default domain, which is used in
all future ‘gettext’ calls, to DOMAINNAME. Please note that
‘dgettext’ and ‘dcgettext’ calls are not influenced if the
DOMAINNAME parameter of these functions is not the null pointer.
Before the first call to ‘textdomain’ the default domain is
‘messages’. This is the name specified in the specification of the
‘gettext’ API. This name is as good as any other name. No program
should ever really use a domain with this name since this can only
lead to problems.
The function returns the value which is from now on taken as the
default domain. If the system went out of memory the returned
value is ‘NULL’ and the global variable ERRNO is set to ‘ENOMEM’.
Despite the return value type being ‘char *’ the return string must
not be changed. It is allocated internally by the ‘textdomain’
function.
If the DOMAINNAME parameter is the null pointer no new default
domain is set. Instead the currently selected default domain is
returned.
If the DOMAINNAME parameter is the empty string the default domain
is reset to its initial value, the domain with the name ‘messages’.
This possibility is questionable to use since the domain ‘messages’
really never should be used.
-- Function: char * bindtextdomain (const char *DOMAINNAME, const char
*DIRNAME)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘bindtextdomain’ function can be used to specify the directory
which contains the message catalogs for domain DOMAINNAME for the
different languages. To be correct, this is the directory where
the hierarchy of directories is expected. Details are explained
below.
For the programmer it is important to note that the translations
which come with the program have be placed in a directory hierarchy
starting at, say, ‘/foo/bar’. Then the program should make a
‘bindtextdomain’ call to bind the domain for the current program to
this directory. So it is made sure the catalogs are found. A
correctly running program does not depend on the user setting an
environment variable.
The ‘bindtextdomain’ function can be used several times and if the
DOMAINNAME argument is different the previously bound domains will
not be overwritten.
If the program which wish to use ‘bindtextdomain’ at some point of
time use the ‘chdir’ function to change the current working
directory it is important that the DIRNAME strings ought to be an
absolute pathname. Otherwise the addressed directory might vary
with the time.
If the DIRNAME parameter is the null pointer ‘bindtextdomain’
returns the currently selected directory for the domain with the
name DOMAINNAME.
The ‘bindtextdomain’ function returns a pointer to a string
containing the name of the selected directory name. The string is
allocated internally in the function and must not be changed by the
user. If the system went out of core during the execution of
‘bindtextdomain’ the return value is ‘NULL’ and the global variable
ERRNO is set accordingly.

File: libc.info, Node: Advanced gettext functions, Next: Charset conversion in gettext, Prev: Locating gettext catalog, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.3 Additional functions for more complicated situations
............................................................
The functions of the ‘gettext’ family described so far (and all the
‘catgets’ functions as well) have one problem in the real world which
have been neglected completely in all existing approaches. What is
meant here is the handling of plural forms.
Looking through Unix source code before the time anybody thought
about internationalization (and, sadly, even afterwards) one can often
find code similar to the following:
printf ("%d file%s deleted", n, n == 1 ? "" : "s");
After the first complaints from people internationalizing the code
people either completely avoided formulations like this or used strings
like ‘"file(s)"’. Both look unnatural and should be avoided. First
tries to solve the problem correctly looked like this:
if (n == 1)
printf ("%d file deleted", n);
else
printf ("%d files deleted", n);
But this does not solve the problem. It helps languages where the
plural form of a noun is not simply constructed by adding an ‘s’ but
that is all. Once again people fell into the trap of believing the
rules their language is using are universal. But the handling of plural
forms differs widely between the language families. There are two
things we can differ between (and even inside language families);
• The form how plural forms are build differs. This is a problem
with language which have many irregularities. German, for
instance, is a drastic case. Though English and German are part of
the same language family (Germanic), the almost regular forming of
plural noun forms (appending an ‘s’) is hardly found in German.
• The number of plural forms differ. This is somewhat surprising for
those who only have experiences with Romanic and Germanic languages
since here the number is the same (there are two).
But other language families have only one form or many forms. More
information on this in an extra section.
The consequence of this is that application writers should not try to
solve the problem in their code. This would be localization since it is
only usable for certain, hardcoded language environments. Instead the
extended ‘gettext’ interface should be used.
These extra functions are taking instead of the one key string two
strings and a numerical argument. The idea behind this is that using
the numerical argument and the first string as a key, the implementation
can select using rules specified by the translator the right plural
form. The two string arguments then will be used to provide a return
value in case no message catalog is found (similar to the normal
‘gettext’ behavior). In this case the rules for Germanic language is
used and it is assumed that the first string argument is the singular
form, the second the plural form.
This has the consequence that programs without language catalogs can
display the correct strings only if the program itself is written using
a Germanic language. This is a limitation but since the GNU C Library
(as well as the GNU ‘gettext’ package) are written as part of the GNU
package and the coding standards for the GNU project require program
being written in English, this solution nevertheless fulfills its
purpose.
-- Function: char * ngettext (const char *MSGID1, const char *MSGID2,
unsigned long int N)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘ngettext’ function is similar to the ‘gettext’ function as it
finds the message catalogs in the same way. But it takes two extra
arguments. The MSGID1 parameter must contain the singular form of
the string to be converted. It is also used as the key for the
search in the catalog. The MSGID2 parameter is the plural form.
The parameter N is used to determine the plural form. If no
message catalog is found MSGID1 is returned if ‘n == 1’, otherwise
‘msgid2’.
An example for the us of this function is:
printf (ngettext ("%d file removed", "%d files removed", n), n);
Please note that the numeric value N has to be passed to the
‘printf’ function as well. It is not sufficient to pass it only to
‘ngettext’.
-- Function: char * dngettext (const char *DOMAIN, const char *MSGID1,
const char *MSGID2, unsigned long int N)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘dngettext’ is similar to the ‘dgettext’ function in the way
the message catalog is selected. The difference is that it takes
two extra parameter to provide the correct plural form. These two
parameters are handled in the same way ‘ngettext’ handles them.
-- Function: char * dcngettext (const char *DOMAIN, const char *MSGID1,
const char *MSGID2, unsigned long int N, int CATEGORY)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘dcngettext’ is similar to the ‘dcgettext’ function in the way
the message catalog is selected. The difference is that it takes
two extra parameter to provide the correct plural form. These two
parameters are handled in the same way ‘ngettext’ handles them.
The problem of plural forms
...........................
A description of the problem can be found at the beginning of the last
section. Now there is the question how to solve it. Without the input
of linguists (which was not available) it was not possible to determine
whether there are only a few different forms in which plural forms are
formed or whether the number can increase with every new supported
language.
Therefore the solution implemented is to allow the translator to
specify the rules of how to select the plural form. Since the formula
varies with every language this is the only viable solution except for
hardcoding the information in the code (which still would require the
possibility of extensions to not prevent the use of new languages). The
details are explained in the GNU ‘gettext’ manual. Here only a bit of
information is provided.
The information about the plural form selection has to be stored in
the header entry (the one with the empty (‘msgid’ string). It looks
like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;
The ‘nplurals’ value must be a decimal number which specifies how
many different plural forms exist for this language. The string
following ‘plural’ is an expression which is using the C language
syntax. Exceptions are that no negative number are allowed, numbers
must be decimal, and the only variable allowed is ‘n’. This expression
will be evaluated whenever one of the functions ‘ngettext’, ‘dngettext’,
or ‘dcngettext’ is called. The numeric value passed to these functions
is then substituted for all uses of the variable ‘n’ in the expression.
The resulting value then must be greater or equal to zero and smaller
than the value given as the value of ‘nplurals’.
The following rules are known at this point. The language with families
are listed. But this does not necessarily mean the information can be
generalized for the whole family (as can be easily seen in the table
below).(1)
Only one form:
Some languages only require one single form. There is no
distinction between the singular and plural form. An appropriate
header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=1; plural=0;
Languages with this property include:
Finno-Ugric family
Hungarian
Asian family
Japanese, Korean
Turkic/Altaic family
Turkish
Two forms, singular used for one only
This is the form used in most existing programs since it is what
English is using. A header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n != 1;
(Note: this uses the feature of C expressions that boolean
expressions have to value zero or one.)
Languages with this property include:
Germanic family
Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish
Finno-Ugric family
Estonian, Finnish
Latin/Greek family
Greek
Semitic family
Hebrew
Romance family
Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Artificial
Esperanto
Two forms, singular used for zero and one
Exceptional case in the language family. The header entry would
be:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n>1;
Languages with this property include:
Romanic family
French, Brazilian Portuguese
Three forms, special case for zero
The header entry would be:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n != 0 ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Baltic family
Latvian
Three forms, special cases for one and two
The header entry would be:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n==1 ? 0 : n==2 ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Celtic
Gaeilge (Irish)
Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9]
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
n%10>=2 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Baltic family
Lithuanian
Three forms, special cases for numbers ending in 1 and 2, 3, 4, except those ending in 1[1-4]
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=n%100/10==1 ? 2 : n%10==1 ? 0 : (n+9)%10>3 ? 2 : 1;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Croatian, Czech, Russian, Ukrainian
Three forms, special cases for 1 and 2, 3, 4
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=(n==1) ? 1 : (n>=2 && n<=4) ? 2 : 0;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Slovak
Three forms, special case for one and some numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=n==1 ? 0 : \
n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Polish
Four forms, special case for one and all numbers ending in 02, 03, or 04
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=4; \
plural=n%100==1 ? 0 : n%100==2 ? 1 : n%100==3 || n%100==4 ? 2 : 3;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Slovenian
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) Additions are welcome. Send appropriate information to
<bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org>.

File: libc.info, Node: Charset conversion in gettext, Next: GUI program problems, Prev: Advanced gettext functions, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.4 How to specify the output character set ‘gettext’ uses
..............................................................
‘gettext’ not only looks up a translation in a message catalog. It also
converts the translation on the fly to the desired output character set.
This is useful if the user is working in a different character set than
the translator who created the message catalog, because it avoids
distributing variants of message catalogs which differ only in the
character set.
The output character set is, by default, the value of ‘nl_langinfo
(CODESET)’, which depends on the ‘LC_CTYPE’ part of the current locale.
But programs which store strings in a locale independent way (e.g.
UTF-8) can request that ‘gettext’ and related functions return the
translations in that encoding, by use of the ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’
function.
Note that the MSGID argument to ‘gettext’ is not subject to character
set conversion. Also, when ‘gettext’ does not find a translation for
MSGID, it returns MSGID unchanged – independently of the current output
character set. It is therefore recommended that all MSGIDs be US-ASCII
strings.
-- Function: char * bind_textdomain_codeset (const char *DOMAINNAME,
const char *CODESET)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function can be used to specify the
output character set for message catalogs for domain DOMAINNAME.
The CODESET argument must be a valid codeset name which can be used
for the ‘iconv_open’ function, or a null pointer.
If the CODESET parameter is the null pointer,
‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ returns the currently selected codeset
for the domain with the name DOMAINNAME. It returns ‘NULL’ if no
codeset has yet been selected.
The ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function can be used several times.
If used multiple times with the same DOMAINNAME argument, the later
call overrides the settings made by the earlier one.
The ‘bind_textdomain_codeset’ function returns a pointer to a
string containing the name of the selected codeset. The string is
allocated internally in the function and must not be changed by the
user. If the system went out of core during the execution of
‘bind_textdomain_codeset’, the return value is ‘NULL’ and the
global variable ERRNO is set accordingly.

File: libc.info, Node: GUI program problems, Next: Using gettextized software, Prev: Charset conversion in gettext, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.5 How to use ‘gettext’ in GUI programs
............................................
One place where the ‘gettext’ functions, if used normally, have big
problems is within programs with graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The
problem is that many of the strings which have to be translated are very
short. They have to appear in pull-down menus which restricts the
length. But strings which are not containing entire sentences or at
least large fragments of a sentence may appear in more than one
situation in the program but might have different translations. This is
especially true for the one-word strings which are frequently used in
GUI programs.
As a consequence many people say that the ‘gettext’ approach is wrong
and instead ‘catgets’ should be used which indeed does not have this
problem. But there is a very simple and powerful method to handle these
kind of problems with the ‘gettext’ functions.
As an example consider the following fictional situation. A GUI program
has a menu bar with the following entries:
+------------+------------+--------------------------------------+
| File | Printer | |
+------------+------------+--------------------------------------+
| Open | | Select |
| New | | Open |
+----------+ | Connect |
+----------+
To have the strings ‘File’, ‘Printer’, ‘Open’, ‘New’, ‘Select’, and
‘Connect’ translated there has to be at some point in the code a call to
a function of the ‘gettext’ family. But in two places the string passed
into the function would be ‘Open’. The translations might not be the
same and therefore we are in the dilemma described above.
One solution to this problem is to artificially enlengthen the
strings to make them unambiguous. But what would the program do if no
translation is available? The enlengthened string is not what should be
printed. So we should use a little bit modified version of the
functions.
To enlengthen the strings a uniform method should be used. E.g., in
the example above the strings could be chosen as
Menu|File
Menu|Printer
Menu|File|Open
Menu|File|New
Menu|Printer|Select
Menu|Printer|Open
Menu|Printer|Connect
Now all the strings are different and if now instead of ‘gettext’ the
following little wrapper function is used, everything works just fine:
char *
sgettext (const char *msgid)
{
char *msgval = gettext (msgid);
if (msgval == msgid)
msgval = strrchr (msgid, '|') + 1;
return msgval;
}
What this little function does is to recognize the case when no
translation is available. This can be done very efficiently by a
pointer comparison since the return value is the input value. If there
is no translation we know that the input string is in the format we used
for the Menu entries and therefore contains a ‘|’ character. We simply
search for the last occurrence of this character and return a pointer to
the character following it. That’s it!
If one now consistently uses the enlengthened string form and
replaces the ‘gettext’ calls with calls to ‘sgettext’ (this is normally
limited to very few places in the GUI implementation) then it is
possible to produce a program which can be internationalized.
With advanced compilers (such as GNU C) one can write the ‘sgettext’
functions as an inline function or as a macro like this:
#define sgettext(msgid) \
({ const char *__msgid = (msgid); \
char *__msgstr = gettext (__msgid); \
if (__msgval == __msgid) \
__msgval = strrchr (__msgid, '|') + 1; \
__msgval; })
The other ‘gettext’ functions (‘dgettext’, ‘dcgettext’ and the
‘ngettext’ equivalents) can and should have corresponding functions as
well which look almost identical, except for the parameters and the call
to the underlying function.
Now there is of course the question why such functions do not exist
in the GNU C Library? There are two parts of the answer to this
question.
• They are easy to write and therefore can be provided by the project
they are used in. This is not an answer by itself and must be seen
together with the second part which is:
• There is no way the C library can contain a version which can work
everywhere. The problem is the selection of the character to
separate the prefix from the actual string in the enlenghtened
string. The examples above used ‘|’ which is a quite good choice
because it resembles a notation frequently used in this context and
it also is a character not often used in message strings.
But what if the character is used in message strings. Or if the
chose character is not available in the character set on the
machine one compiles (e.g., ‘|’ is not required to exist for ISO C;
this is why the ‘iso646.h’ file exists in ISO C programming
environments).
There is only one more comment to make left. The wrapper function
above require that the translations strings are not enlengthened
themselves. This is only logical. There is no need to disambiguate the
strings (since they are never used as keys for a search) and one also
saves quite some memory and disk space by doing this.

File: libc.info, Node: Using gettextized software, Prev: GUI program problems, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.6 User influence on ‘gettext’
...................................
The last sections described what the programmer can do to
internationalize the messages of the program. But it is finally up to
the user to select the message s/he wants to see. S/He must understand
them.
The POSIX locale model uses the environment variables ‘LC_COLLATE’,
‘LC_CTYPE’, ‘LC_MESSAGES’, ‘LC_MONETARY’, ‘LC_NUMERIC’, and ‘LC_TIME’ to
select the locale which is to be used. This way the user can influence
lots of functions. As we mentioned above the ‘gettext’ functions also
take advantage of this.
To understand how this happens it is necessary to take a look at the
various components of the filename which gets computed to locate a
message catalog. It is composed as follows:
DIR_NAME/LOCALE/LC_CATEGORY/DOMAIN_NAME.mo
The default value for DIR_NAME is system specific. It is computed
from the value given as the prefix while configuring the C library.
This value normally is ‘/usr’ or ‘/’. For the former the complete
DIR_NAME is:
/usr/share/locale
We can use ‘/usr/share’ since the ‘.mo’ files containing the message
catalogs are system independent, so all systems can use the same files.
If the program executed the ‘bindtextdomain’ function for the message
domain that is currently handled, the ‘dir_name’ component is exactly
the value which was given to the function as the second parameter.
I.e., ‘bindtextdomain’ allows overwriting the only system dependent and
fixed value to make it possible to address files anywhere in the
filesystem.
The CATEGORY is the name of the locale category which was selected in
the program code. For ‘gettext’ and ‘dgettext’ this is always
‘LC_MESSAGES’, for ‘dcgettext’ this is selected by the value of the
third parameter. As said above it should be avoided to ever use a
category other than ‘LC_MESSAGES’.
The LOCALE component is computed based on the category used. Just
like for the ‘setlocale’ function here comes the user selection into the
play. Some environment variables are examined in a fixed order and the
first environment variable set determines the return value of the lookup
process. In detail, for the category ‘LC_xxx’ the following variables
in this order are examined:
‘LANGUAGE’
‘LC_ALL’
‘LC_xxx’
‘LANG’
This looks very familiar. With the exception of the ‘LANGUAGE’
environment variable this is exactly the lookup order the ‘setlocale’
function uses. But why introducing the ‘LANGUAGE’ variable?
The reason is that the syntax of the values these variables can have
is different to what is expected by the ‘setlocale’ function. If we
would set ‘LC_ALL’ to a value following the extended syntax that would
mean the ‘setlocale’ function will never be able to use the value of
this variable as well. An additional variable removes this problem plus
we can select the language independently of the locale setting which
sometimes is useful.
While for the ‘LC_xxx’ variables the value should consist of exactly
one specification of a locale the ‘LANGUAGE’ variable’s value can
consist of a colon separated list of locale names. The attentive reader
will realize that this is the way we manage to implement one of our
additional demands above: we want to be able to specify an ordered list
of language.
Back to the constructed filename we have only one component missing.
The DOMAIN_NAME part is the name which was either registered using the
‘textdomain’ function or which was given to ‘dgettext’ or ‘dcgettext’ as
the first parameter. Now it becomes obvious that a good choice for the
domain name in the program code is a string which is closely related to
the program/package name. E.g., for the GNU C Library the domain name
is ‘libc’.
A limit piece of example code should show how the programmer is supposed
to work:
{
setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
textdomain ("test-package");
bindtextdomain ("test-package", "/usr/local/share/locale");
puts (gettext ("Hello, world!"));
}
At the program start the default domain is ‘messages’, and the
default locale is "C". The ‘setlocale’ call sets the locale according to
the user’s environment variables; remember that correct functioning of
‘gettext’ relies on the correct setting of the ‘LC_MESSAGES’ locale (for
looking up the message catalog) and of the ‘LC_CTYPE’ locale (for the
character set conversion). The ‘textdomain’ call changes the default
domain to ‘test-package’. The ‘bindtextdomain’ call specifies that the
message catalogs for the domain ‘test-package’ can be found below the
directory ‘/usr/local/share/locale’.
If now the user set in her/his environment the variable ‘LANGUAGE’ to
‘de’ the ‘gettext’ function will try to use the translations from the
file
/usr/local/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/test-package.mo
From the above descriptions it should be clear which component of
this filename is determined by which source.
In the above example we assumed that the ‘LANGUAGE’ environment
variable to ‘de’. This might be an appropriate selection but what
happens if the user wants to use ‘LC_ALL’ because of the wider usability
and here the required value is ‘de_DE.ISO-8859-1’? We already mentioned
above that a situation like this is not infrequent. E.g., a person
might prefer reading a dialect and if this is not available fall back on
the standard language.
The ‘gettext’ functions know about situations like this and can
handle them gracefully. The functions recognize the format of the value
of the environment variable. It can split the value is different pieces
and by leaving out the only or the other part it can construct new
values. This happens of course in a predictable way. To understand
this one must know the format of the environment variable value. There
is one more or less standardized form, originally from the X/Open
specification:
‘language[_territory[.codeset]][@modifier]’
Less specific locale names will be stripped of in the order of the
following list:
1. ‘codeset’
2. ‘normalized codeset’
3. ‘territory’
4. ‘modifier’
The ‘language’ field will never be dropped for obvious reasons.
The only new thing is the ‘normalized codeset’ entry. This is
another goodie which is introduced to help reducing the chaos which
derives from the inability of the people to standardize the names of
character sets. Instead of ISO-8859-1 one can often see 8859-1, 88591,
iso8859-1, or iso_8859-1. The ‘normalized codeset’ value is generated
from the user-provided character set name by applying the following
rules:
1. Remove all characters beside numbers and letters.
2. Fold letters to lowercase.
3. If the same only contains digits prepend the string ‘"iso"’.
So all of the above name will be normalized to ‘iso88591’. This allows
the program user much more freely choosing the locale name.
Even this extended functionality still does not help to solve the
problem that completely different names can be used to denote the same
locale (e.g., ‘de’ and ‘german’). To be of help in this situation the
locale implementation and also the ‘gettext’ functions know about
aliases.
The file ‘/usr/share/locale/locale.alias’ (replace ‘/usr’ with
whatever prefix you used for configuring the C library) contains a
mapping of alternative names to more regular names. The system manager
is free to add new entries to fill her/his own needs. The selected
locale from the environment is compared with the entries in the first
column of this file ignoring the case. If they match the value of the
second column is used instead for the further handling.
In the description of the format of the environment variables we
already mentioned the character set as a factor in the selection of the
message catalog. In fact, only catalogs which contain text written
using the character set of the system/program can be used (directly;
there will come a solution for this some day). This means for the user
that s/he will always have to take care for this. If in the collection
of the message catalogs there are files for the same language but coded
using different character sets the user has to be careful.

File: libc.info, Node: Helper programs for gettext, Prev: Message catalogs with gettext, Up: The Uniforum approach
8.2.2 Programs to handle message catalogs for ‘gettext’
-------------------------------------------------------
The GNU C Library does not contain the source code for the programs to
handle message catalogs for the ‘gettext’ functions. As part of the GNU
project the GNU gettext package contains everything the developer needs.
The functionality provided by the tools in this package by far exceeds
the abilities of the ‘gencat’ program described above for the ‘catgets’
functions.
There is a program ‘msgfmt’ which is the equivalent program to the
‘gencat’ program. It generates from the human-readable and -editable
form of the message catalog a binary file which can be used by the
‘gettext’ functions. But there are several more programs available.
The ‘xgettext’ program can be used to automatically extract the
translatable messages from a source file. I.e., the programmer need not
take care of the translations and the list of messages which have to be
translated. S/He will simply wrap the translatable string in calls to
‘gettext’ et.al and the rest will be done by ‘xgettext’. This program
has a lot of options which help to customize the output or help to
understand the input better.
Other programs help to manage the development cycle when new messages
appear in the source files or when a new translation of the messages
appears. Here it should only be noted that using all the tools in GNU
gettext it is possible to _completely_ automate the handling of message
catalogs. Beside marking the translatable strings in the source code
and generating the translations the developers do not have anything to
do themselves.

File: libc.info, Node: Searching and Sorting, Next: Pattern Matching, Prev: Message Translation, Up: Top
9 Searching and Sorting
***********************
This chapter describes functions for searching and sorting arrays of
arbitrary objects. You pass the appropriate comparison function to be
applied as an argument, along with the size of the objects in the array
and the total number of elements.
* Menu:
* Comparison Functions:: Defining how to compare two objects.
Since the sort and search facilities
are general, you have to specify the
ordering.
* Array Search Function:: The ‘bsearch’ function.
* Array Sort Function:: The ‘qsort’ function.
* Search/Sort Example:: An example program.
* Hash Search Function:: The ‘hsearch’ function.
* Tree Search Function:: The ‘tsearch’ function.

File: libc.info, Node: Comparison Functions, Next: Array Search Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.1 Defining the Comparison Function
====================================
In order to use the sorted array library functions, you have to describe
how to compare the elements of the array.
To do this, you supply a comparison function to compare two elements
of the array. The library will call this function, passing as arguments
pointers to two array elements to be compared. Your comparison function
should return a value the way ‘strcmp’ (*note String/Array Comparison::)
does: negative if the first argument is “less” than the second, zero if
they are “equal”, and positive if the first argument is “greater”.
Here is an example of a comparison function which works with an array
of numbers of type ‘double’:
int
compare_doubles (const void *a, const void *b)
{
const double *da = (const double *) a;
const double *db = (const double *) b;
return (*da > *db) - (*da < *db);
}
The header file ‘stdlib.h’ defines a name for the data type of
comparison functions. This type is a GNU extension.
int comparison_fn_t (const void *, const void *);

File: libc.info, Node: Array Search Function, Next: Array Sort Function, Prev: Comparison Functions, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.2 Array Search Function
=========================
Generally searching for a specific element in an array means that
potentially all elements must be checked. The GNU C Library contains
functions to perform linear search. The prototypes for the following
two functions can be found in ‘search.h’.
-- Function: void * lfind (const void *KEY, const void *BASE, size_t
*NMEMB, size_t SIZE, comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The ‘lfind’ function searches in the array with ‘*NMEMB’ elements
of SIZE bytes pointed to by BASE for an element which matches the
one pointed to by KEY. The function pointed to by COMPAR is used
decide whether two elements match.
The return value is a pointer to the matching element in the array
starting at BASE if it is found. If no matching element is
available ‘NULL’ is returned.
The mean runtime of this function is ‘*NMEMB’/2. This function
should only be used if elements often get added to or deleted from
the array in which case it might not be useful to sort the array
before searching.
-- Function: void * lsearch (const void *KEY, void *BASE, size_t
*NMEMB, size_t SIZE, comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The ‘lsearch’ function is similar to the ‘lfind’ function. It
searches the given array for an element and returns it if found.
The difference is that if no matching element is found the
‘lsearch’ function adds the object pointed to by KEY (with a size
of SIZE bytes) at the end of the array and it increments the value
of ‘*NMEMB’ to reflect this addition.
This means for the caller that if it is not sure that the array
contains the element one is searching for the memory allocated for
the array starting at BASE must have room for at least SIZE more
bytes. If one is sure the element is in the array it is better to
use ‘lfind’ so having more room in the array is always necessary
when calling ‘lsearch’.
To search a sorted array for an element matching the key, use the
‘bsearch’ function. The prototype for this function is in the header
file ‘stdlib.h’.
-- Function: void * bsearch (const void *KEY, const void *ARRAY, size_t
COUNT, size_t SIZE, comparison_fn_t COMPARE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The ‘bsearch’ function searches the sorted array ARRAY for an
object that is equivalent to KEY. The array contains COUNT
elements, each of which is of size SIZE bytes.
The COMPARE function is used to perform the comparison. This
function is called with two pointer arguments and should return an
integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero corresponding to
whether its first argument is considered less than, equal to, or
greater than its second argument. The elements of the ARRAY must
already be sorted in ascending order according to this comparison
function.
The return value is a pointer to the matching array element, or a
null pointer if no match is found. If the array contains more than
one element that matches, the one that is returned is unspecified.
This function derives its name from the fact that it is implemented
using the binary search algorithm.

File: libc.info, Node: Array Sort Function, Next: Search/Sort Example, Prev: Array Search Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.3 Array Sort Function
=======================
To sort an array using an arbitrary comparison function, use the ‘qsort’
function. The prototype for this function is in ‘stdlib.h’.
-- Function: void qsort (void *ARRAY, size_t COUNT, size_t SIZE,
comparison_fn_t COMPARE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe corrupt | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The ‘qsort’ function sorts the array ARRAY. The array contains
COUNT elements, each of which is of size SIZE.
The COMPARE function is used to perform the comparison on the array
elements. This function is called with two pointer arguments and
should return an integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero
corresponding to whether its first argument is considered less
than, equal to, or greater than its second argument.
*Warning:* If two objects compare as equal, their order after
sorting is unpredictable. That is to say, the sorting is not
stable. This can make a difference when the comparison considers
only part of the elements. Two elements with the same sort key may
differ in other respects.
Although the object addresses passed to the comparison function lie
within the array, they need not correspond with the original
locations of those objects because the sorting algorithm may swap
around objects in the array before making some comparisons. The
only way to perform a stable sort with ‘qsort’ is to first augment
the objects with a monotonic counter of some kind.
Here is a simple example of sorting an array of doubles in
numerical order, using the comparison function defined above (*note
Comparison Functions::):
{
double *array;
int size;
…
qsort (array, size, sizeof (double), compare_doubles);
}
The ‘qsort’ function derives its name from the fact that it was
originally implemented using the “quick sort” algorithm.
The implementation of ‘qsort’ in this library might not be an
in-place sort and might thereby use an extra amount of memory to
store the array.

File: libc.info, Node: Search/Sort Example, Next: Hash Search Function, Prev: Array Sort Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.4 Searching and Sorting Example
=================================
Here is an example showing the use of ‘qsort’ and ‘bsearch’ with an
array of structures. The objects in the array are sorted by comparing
their ‘name’ fields with the ‘strcmp’ function. Then, we can look up
individual objects based on their names.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
/* Define an array of critters to sort. */
struct critter
{
const char *name;
const char *species;
};
struct critter muppets[] =
{
{"Kermit", "frog"},
{"Piggy", "pig"},
{"Gonzo", "whatever"},
{"Fozzie", "bear"},
{"Sam", "eagle"},
{"Robin", "frog"},
{"Animal", "animal"},
{"Camilla", "chicken"},
{"Sweetums", "monster"},
{"Dr. Strangepork", "pig"},
{"Link Hogthrob", "pig"},
{"Zoot", "human"},
{"Dr. Bunsen Honeydew", "human"},
{"Beaker", "human"},
{"Swedish Chef", "human"}
};
int count = sizeof (muppets) / sizeof (struct critter);
/* This is the comparison function used for sorting and searching. */
int
critter_cmp (const void *v1, const void *v2)
{
const struct critter *c1 = v1;
const struct critter *c2 = v2;
return strcmp (c1->name, c2->name);
}
/* Print information about a critter. */
void
print_critter (const struct critter *c)
{
printf ("%s, the %s\n", c->name, c->species);
}
/* Do the lookup into the sorted array. */
void
find_critter (const char *name)
{
struct critter target, *result;
target.name = name;
result = bsearch (&target, muppets, count, sizeof (struct critter),
critter_cmp);
if (result)
print_critter (result);
else
printf ("Couldn't find %s.\n", name);
}
/* Main program. */
int
main (void)
{
int i;
for (i = 0; i < count; i++)
print_critter (&muppets[i]);
printf ("\n");
qsort (muppets, count, sizeof (struct critter), critter_cmp);
for (i = 0; i < count; i++)
print_critter (&muppets[i]);
printf ("\n");
find_critter ("Kermit");
find_critter ("Gonzo");
find_critter ("Janice");
return 0;
}
The output from this program looks like:
Kermit, the frog
Piggy, the pig
Gonzo, the whatever
Fozzie, the bear
Sam, the eagle
Robin, the frog
Animal, the animal
Camilla, the chicken
Sweetums, the monster
Dr. Strangepork, the pig
Link Hogthrob, the pig
Zoot, the human
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, the human
Beaker, the human
Swedish Chef, the human
Animal, the animal
Beaker, the human
Camilla, the chicken
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, the human
Dr. Strangepork, the pig
Fozzie, the bear
Gonzo, the whatever
Kermit, the frog
Link Hogthrob, the pig
Piggy, the pig
Robin, the frog
Sam, the eagle
Swedish Chef, the human
Sweetums, the monster
Zoot, the human
Kermit, the frog
Gonzo, the whatever
Couldn't find Janice.

File: libc.info, Node: Hash Search Function, Next: Tree Search Function, Prev: Search/Sort Example, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.5 The ‘hsearch’ function.
===========================
The functions mentioned so far in this chapter are for searching in a
sorted or unsorted array. There are other methods to organize
information which later should be searched. The costs of insert, delete
and search differ. One possible implementation is using hashing tables.
The following functions are declared in the header file ‘search.h’.
-- Function: int hcreate (size_t NEL)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:hsearch | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘hcreate’ function creates a hashing table which can contain at
least NEL elements. There is no possibility to grow this table so
it is necessary to choose the value for NEL wisely. The method
used to implement this function might make it necessary to make the
number of elements in the hashing table larger than the expected
maximal number of elements. Hashing tables usually work
inefficiently if they are filled 80% or more. The constant access
time guaranteed by hashing can only be achieved if few collisions
exist. See Knuth’s “The Art of Computer Programming, Part 3:
Searching and Sorting” for more information.
The weakest aspect of this function is that there can be at most
one hashing table used through the whole program. The table is
allocated in local memory out of control of the programmer. As an
extension the GNU C Library provides an additional set of functions
with a reentrant interface which provide a similar interface but
which allow to keep arbitrarily many hashing tables.
It is possible to use more than one hashing table in the program
run if the former table is first destroyed by a call to ‘hdestroy’.
The function returns a non-zero value if successful. If it return
zero something went wrong. This could either mean there is already
a hashing table in use or the program runs out of memory.
-- Function: void hdestroy (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:hsearch | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘hdestroy’ function can be used to free all the resources
allocated in a previous call of ‘hcreate’. After a call to this
function it is again possible to call ‘hcreate’ and allocate a new
table with possibly different size.
It is important to remember that the elements contained in the
hashing table at the time ‘hdestroy’ is called are _not_ freed by
this function. It is the responsibility of the program code to
free those strings (if necessary at all). Freeing all the element
memory is not possible without extra, separately kept information
since there is no function to iterate through all available
elements in the hashing table. If it is really necessary to free a
table and all elements the programmer has to keep a list of all
table elements and before calling ‘hdestroy’ s/he has to free all
element’s data using this list. This is a very unpleasant
mechanism and it also shows that this kind of hashing tables is
mainly meant for tables which are created once and used until the
end of the program run.
Entries of the hashing table and keys for the search are defined
using this type:
-- Data type: struct ENTRY
Both elements of this structure are pointers to zero-terminated
strings. This is a limiting restriction of the functionality of
the ‘hsearch’ functions. They can only be used for data sets which
use the NUL character always and solely to terminate the records.
It is not possible to handle general binary data.
‘char *key’
Pointer to a zero-terminated string of characters describing
the key for the search or the element in the hashing table.
‘char *data’
Pointer to a zero-terminated string of characters describing
the data. If the functions will be called only for searching
an existing entry this element might stay undefined since it
is not used.
-- Function: ENTRY * hsearch (ENTRY ITEM, ACTION ACTION)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:hsearch | AS-Unsafe | AC-Unsafe
corrupt/action==ENTER | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
To search in a hashing table created using ‘hcreate’ the ‘hsearch’
function must be used. This function can perform simple search for
an element (if ACTION has the ‘FIND’) or it can alternatively
insert the key element into the hashing table. Entries are never
replaced.
The key is denoted by a pointer to an object of type ‘ENTRY’. For
locating the corresponding position in the hashing table only the
‘key’ element of the structure is used.
If an entry with matching key is found the ACTION parameter is
irrelevant. The found entry is returned. If no matching entry is
found and the ACTION parameter has the value ‘FIND’ the function
returns a ‘NULL’ pointer. If no entry is found and the ACTION
parameter has the value ‘ENTER’ a new entry is added to the hashing
table which is initialized with the parameter ITEM. A pointer to
the newly added entry is returned.
As mentioned before the hashing table used by the functions described
so far is global and there can be at any time at most one hashing table
in the program. A solution is to use the following functions which are
a GNU extension. All have in common that they operate on a hashing
table which is described by the content of an object of the type ‘struct
hsearch_data’. This type should be treated as opaque, none of its
members should be changed directly.
-- Function: int hcreate_r (size_t NEL, struct hsearch_data *HTAB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:htab | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘hcreate_r’ function initializes the object pointed to by HTAB
to contain a hashing table with at least NEL elements. So this
function is equivalent to the ‘hcreate’ function except that the
initialized data structure is controlled by the user.
This allows having more than one hashing table at one time. The
memory necessary for the ‘struct hsearch_data’ object can be
allocated dynamically. It must be initialized with zero before
calling this function.
The return value is non-zero if the operation was successful. If
the return value is zero, something went wrong, which probably
means the programs ran out of memory.
-- Function: void hdestroy_r (struct hsearch_data *HTAB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:htab | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘hdestroy_r’ function frees all resources allocated by the
‘hcreate_r’ function for this very same object HTAB. As for
‘hdestroy’ it is the programs responsibility to free the strings
for the elements of the table.
-- Function: int hsearch_r (ENTRY ITEM, ACTION ACTION, ENTRY **RETVAL,
struct hsearch_data *HTAB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:htab | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe
corrupt/action==ENTER | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The ‘hsearch_r’ function is equivalent to ‘hsearch’. The meaning
of the first two arguments is identical. But instead of operating
on a single global hashing table the function works on the table
described by the object pointed to by HTAB (which is initialized by
a call to ‘hcreate_r’).
Another difference to ‘hcreate’ is that the pointer to the found
entry in the table is not the return value of the functions. It is
returned by storing it in a pointer variables pointed to by the
RETVAL parameter. The return value of the function is an integer
value indicating success if it is non-zero and failure if it is
zero. In the latter case the global variable ERRNO signals the
reason for the failure.
‘ENOMEM’
The table is filled and ‘hsearch_r’ was called with a so far
unknown key and ACTION set to ‘ENTER’.
‘ESRCH’
The ACTION parameter is ‘FIND’ and no corresponding element is
found in the table.
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