ICONV_OPEN(3)		   Linux Programmers Manual		ICONV_OPEN(3)



NAME
       iconv_open - allocate descriptor for character set conversion

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

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

DESCRIPTION
       The  iconv_open()  function  allocates a conversion descriptor suitable
       for converting byte sequences from character encoding fromcode to char
       acter encoding tocode.

       The values permitted for fromcode and tocode and the supported combina
       tions are system-dependent.  For the GNU C library, the permitted  val
       ues are listed by the iconv --list command, and all combinations of the
       listed values are supported.  Furthermore the GNU C library and the GNU
       libiconv library support the following two suffixes:

       //TRANSLIT
	      When the string "//TRANSLIT" is appended to tocode, translitera
	      tion is activated.  This means that when a character  cannot  be
	      represented  in the target character set, it can be approximated
	      through one or several similarly looking characters.

       //IGNORE
	      When the string "//IGNORE" is  appended  to  tocode,  characters
	      that  cannot  be represented in the target character set will be
	      silently discarded.

       The resulting conversion descriptor can be used with iconv(3) any  num
       ber of times.  It remains valid until deallocated using iconv_close(3).

       A conversion descriptor contains a conversion  state.   After  creation
       using  iconv_open(), the state is in the initial state.	Using iconv(3)
       modifies the descriptors conversion state.  (This implies that a  con
       version descriptor can not be used in multiple threads simultaneously.)
       To bring the state back to the initial state, use iconv(3) with NULL as
       inbuf argument.

RETURN VALUE
       The  iconv_open()  function  returns  a	freshly  allocated  conversion
       descriptor.  In case of error, it sets errno and returns  (iconv_t) -1.

ERRORS
       The following error can occur, among others:

       EINVAL The  conversion  from fromcode to tocode is not supported by the
	      implementation.

CONFORMING TO
       UNIX98, POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO
       iconv(1), iconv(3), iconv_close(3)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU				  2007-03-31			 ICONV_OPEN(3)