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VIS(3)                                  BSD Library Functions Manual                                  VIS(3)

NAME
     vis -- visually encode characters

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <vis.h>

     char *
     vis(char *dst, int c, int flag, int nextc);

     int
     strvis(char *dst, const char *src, int flag);

     int
     strvisx(char *dst, const char *src, size_t len, int flag);

DESCRIPTION
     The vis() function copies into dst a string which represents the character c.  If c needs no encoding,
     it is copied in unaltered.  The string is null terminated, and a pointer to the end of the string is
     returned.  The maximum length of any encoding is four characters (not including the trailing NUL);
     thus, when encoding a set of characters into a buffer, the size of the buffer should be four times the
     number of characters encoded, plus one for the trailing NUL.  The flag argument is used for altering
     the default range of characters considered for encoding and for altering the visual representation.
     The additional character, nextc, is only used when selecting the VIS_CSTYLE encoding format (explained
     below).

     The strvis() and strvisx() functions copy into dst a visual representation of the string src.  The
     strvis() function encodes characters from src up to the first NUL.  The strvisx() function encodes
     exactly len characters from src (this is useful for encoding a block of data that may contain NUL's).
     Both forms NUL terminate dst.  The size of dst must be four times the number of characters encoded from
     src (plus one for the NUL).  Both forms return the number of characters in dst (not including the
     trailing NUL).

     The encoding is a unique, invertible representation composed entirely of graphic characters; it can be
     decoded back into the original form using the unvis(3) or strunvis(3) functions.

     There are two parameters that can be controlled: the range of characters that are encoded, and the type
     of representation used.  By default, all non-graphic characters except space, tab, and newline are
     encoded.  (See isgraph(3).)  The following flags alter this:

     VIS_GLOB    Also encode magic characters (`*', `?', `[' and `#') recognized by glob(3).

     VIS_SP      Also encode space.

     VIS_TAB     Also encode tab.

     VIS_NL      Also encode newline.

     VIS_WHITE   Synonym for VIS_SP | VIS_TAB | VIS_NL.

     VIS_SAFE    Only encode "unsafe" characters.  Unsafe means control characters which may cause common
                 terminals to perform unexpected functions.  Currently this form allows space, tab, newline,
                 backspace, bell, and return - in addition to all graphic characters - unencoded.

     There are four forms of encoding.  Most forms use the backslash character `\' to introduce a special
     sequence; two backslashes are used to represent a real backslash.  These are the visual formats:

     (default)      Use an `M' to represent meta characters (characters with the 8th bit set), and use caret
                    `^' to represent control characters see (iscntrl(3)).  The following formats are used:

                    \^C    Represents the control character `C'.  Spans characters `\000' through `\037',
                           and `\177' (as `\^?').

                    \M-C   Represents character `C' with the 8th bit set.  Spans characters `\241' through
                           `\376'.

                    \M^C   Represents control character `C' with the 8th bit set.  Spans characters `\200'
                           through `\237', and `\377' (as `\M^?').

                    \040   Represents ASCII space.

                    \240   Represents Meta-space.

     VIS_CSTYLE     Use C-style backslash sequences to represent standard non-printable characters.  The
                    following sequences are used to represent the indicated characters:

                          \a - BEL (007)
                          \b - BS (010)
                          \f - NP (014)
                          \n - NL (012)
                          \r - CR (015)
                          \t - HT (011)
                          \v - VT (013)
                          \0 - NUL (000)

                    When using this format, the nextc argument is looked at to determine if a NUL character
                    can be encoded as `\0' instead of `\000'.  If nextc is an octal digit, the latter repre-sentation representation
                    sentation is used to avoid ambiguity.

     VIS_HTTPSTYLE  Use URI encoding as described in RFC 1808.  The form is `%dd' where d represents a hexa-decimal hexadecimal
                    decimal digit.

     VIS_OCTAL      Use a three digit octal sequence.  The form is `\ddd' where d represents an octal digit.

     There is one additional flag, VIS_NOSLASH, which inhibits the doubling of backslashes and the backslash
     before the default format (that is, control characters are represented by `^C' and meta characters as
     `M-C').  With this flag set, the encoding is ambiguous and non-invertible.

SEE ALSO
     unvis(1), unvis(3)

     R. Fielding, Relative Uniform Resource Locators, RFC1808.

HISTORY
     These functions first appeared in 4.4BSD.

BUGS
     The vis family of functions do not recognize multibyte characters, and thus may consider them to be
     non-printable when they are in fact printable (and vice versa.)

BSD                                            March 21, 2004                                            BSD