README

Lua-iconv: performs character set conversions in Lua
(c) 2005-11 Alexandre Erwin Ittner <alexandre@ittner.com.br>
Project page: http://ittner.github.com/lua-iconv/


=== Introduction ===

Lua-iconv is POSIX 'iconv' binding for the Lua Programming Language. The
iconv library converts a sequence of characters from one codeset into a
sequence of corresponding characters in another codeset. The codesets
are those specified in the iconv.new() call that returned the conversion
descriptor, cd.

Lua-iconv 7 *requires* Lua 5.1 or Lua 5.2. For Lua 5.0, use the first
release (lua-iconv-r1).

Details on iconv may be obtained in the Open Group's interface definition
(http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007908799/xsh/iconv.h.html).



=== Download and installation ===

Lua-iconv can be obtained from its GitHub project page
(https://github.com/ittner/lua-iconv/downloads), from a LuaRocks server or
from some Linux distributions which already provide it (eg. Debian).

Unless you downloaded a compiled package, you must build the library for
your system. If you have LuaRocks installed, all the process is automatic;
just fire up your favourite shell and type, as root:

    luarocks install lua-iconv

and the package will be downloaded from a rock server, installed and
configured. Otherwise, you must compile and install the package. In a system
with pkg-config (as many Linux distributions and Unix flavors) open a shell,
untar the distribution package and, within the program directory, type:

    make install

as root. The library will be compiled and installed on the in the correct
path (which is defined in lua5.x.pc). Compiling on systems without pkg-config
requires manual changes in the Makefile (this includes Windows).



=== Loading and initialization ===

Lua-iconv is a shared library that must be loaded in the Lua interpreter
before use. You can simply do a

    local iconv = require("iconv")

call to load up the library (that, of course, must be installed in a
directory from package.cpath).



=== API documentation ===

  cd = iconv.new(to, from)
  cd = iconv.open(to, from)

    Opens a new conversion descriptor, from the 'from' charset to the
    'to' charset. Concatenating "//TRANSLIT" to the first argument will
    enable character transliteration and concatenating "//IGNORE" to
    the first argument will cause iconv to ignore any invalid characters
    found in the input string.

    This function returns a new converter or nil on error.


  nstr, err = cd:iconv(str)

    Converts the 'str' string to the desired charset. This method always
    returns two arguments: the converted string and an error code, which
    may have any of the following values:

    nil
        No error. Conversion was successful.

    iconv.ERROR_NO_MEMORY
        Failed to allocate enough memory in the conversion process.

    iconv.ERROR_INVALID
        An invalid character was found in the input sequence.

    iconv.ERROR_INCOMPLETE
        An incomplete character was found in the input sequence.

    iconv.ERROR_FINALIZED
        Trying to use an already-finalized converter. This usually means
        that the user was tweaking the garbage collector private methods.

    iconv.ERROR_UNKNOWN
        There was an unknown error.


=== License ===

Lua-iconv is copyrighted free software: it can be used for both academic
and commercial purposes at absolutely no cost. There are no royalties
or GNU-like "copyleft" restrictions. The legal details are below:

   Lua-iconv is (c) 2005-11 Alexandre Erwin Ittner

   Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
   a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
   "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
   without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
   distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
   permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject
   to the following conditions:

   The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
   included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

   THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
   EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
   IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY
   CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
   TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
   SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

   If you use this package in a product, an acknowledgment in the product
   documentation would be greatly appreciated (but it is not required).