Update copyright year to 2015

[emacs.git] / doc / lispref / nonascii.texi

@c -*-texinfo-*-
@c This is part of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
@c Copyright (C) 1998-1999, 2001-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See the file elisp.texi for copying conditions.
@node Non-ASCII Characters
@chapter Non-@acronym{ASCII} Characters
@cindex multibyte characters
@cindex characters, multi-byte
@cindex non-@acronym{ASCII} characters

  This chapter covers the special issues relating to characters and
how they are stored in strings and buffers.

@menu
* Text Representations::    How Emacs represents text.
* Disabling Multibyte::     Controlling whether to use multibyte characters.
* Converting Representations::  Converting unibyte to multibyte and vice versa.
* Selecting a Representation::  Treating a byte sequence as unibyte or multi.
* Character Codes::         How unibyte and multibyte relate to
                                codes of individual characters.
* Character Properties::    Character attributes that define their
                                behavior and handling.
* Character Sets::          The space of possible character codes
                                is divided into various character sets.
* Scanning Charsets::       Which character sets are used in a buffer?
* Translation of Characters::   Translation tables are used for conversion.
* Coding Systems::          Coding systems are conversions for saving files.
* Input Methods::           Input methods allow users to enter various
                                non-ASCII characters without special keyboards.
* Locales::                 Interacting with the POSIX locale.
@end menu

@node Text Representations
@section Text Representations
@cindex text representation

  Emacs buffers and strings support a large repertoire of characters
from many different scripts, allowing users to type and display text
in almost any known written language.

@cindex character codepoint
@cindex codespace
@cindex Unicode
  To support this multitude of characters and scripts, Emacs closely
follows the @dfn{Unicode Standard}.  The Unicode Standard assigns a
unique number, called a @dfn{codepoint}, to each and every character.
The range of codepoints defined by Unicode, or the Unicode
@dfn{codespace}, is @code{0..#x10FFFF} (in hexadecimal notation),
inclusive.  Emacs extends this range with codepoints in the range
@code{#x110000..#x3FFFFF}, which it uses for representing characters
that are not unified with Unicode and @dfn{raw 8-bit bytes} that
cannot be interpreted as characters.  Thus, a character codepoint in
Emacs is a 22-bit integer.

@cindex internal representation of characters
@cindex characters, representation in buffers and strings
@cindex multibyte text
  To conserve memory, Emacs does not hold fixed-length 22-bit numbers
that are codepoints of text characters within buffers and strings.
Rather, Emacs uses a variable-length internal representation of
characters, that stores each character as a sequence of 1 to 5 8-bit
bytes, depending on the magnitude of its codepoint@footnote{
This internal representation is based on one of the encodings defined
by the Unicode Standard, called @dfn{UTF-8}, for representing any
Unicode codepoint, but Emacs extends UTF-8 to represent the additional
codepoints it uses for raw 8-bit bytes and characters not unified with
Unicode.}.  For example, any @acronym{ASCII} character takes up only 1
byte, a Latin-1 character takes up 2 bytes, etc.  We call this
representation of text @dfn{multibyte}.

  Outside Emacs, characters can be represented in many different
encodings, such as ISO-8859-1, GB-2312, Big-5, etc.  Emacs converts
between these external encodings and its internal representation, as
appropriate, when it reads text into a buffer or a string, or when it
writes text to a disk file or passes it to some other process.

  Occasionally, Emacs needs to hold and manipulate encoded text or
binary non-text data in its buffers or strings.  For example, when
Emacs visits a file, it first reads the file's text verbatim into a
buffer, and only then converts it to the internal representation.
Before the conversion, the buffer holds encoded text.

@cindex unibyte text
  Encoded text is not really text, as far as Emacs is concerned, but
rather a sequence of raw 8-bit bytes.  We call buffers and strings
that hold encoded text @dfn{unibyte} buffers and strings, because
Emacs treats them as a sequence of individual bytes.  Usually, Emacs
displays unibyte buffers and strings as octal codes such as
@code{\237}.  We recommend that you never use unibyte buffers and
strings except for manipulating encoded text or binary non-text data.

  In a buffer, the buffer-local value of the variable
@code{enable-multibyte-characters} specifies the representation used.
The representation for a string is determined and recorded in the string
when the string is constructed.

@defvar enable-multibyte-characters
This variable specifies the current buffer's text representation.
If it is non-@code{nil}, the buffer contains multibyte text; otherwise,
it contains unibyte encoded text or binary non-text data.

You cannot set this variable directly; instead, use the function
@code{set-buffer-multibyte} to change a buffer's representation.
@end defvar

@defun position-bytes position
Buffer positions are measured in character units.  This function
returns the byte-position corresponding to buffer position
@var{position} in the current buffer.  This is 1 at the start of the
buffer, and counts upward in bytes.  If @var{position} is out of
range, the value is @code{nil}.
@end defun

@defun byte-to-position byte-position
Return the buffer position, in character units, corresponding to given
@var{byte-position} in the current buffer.  If @var{byte-position} is
out of range, the value is @code{nil}.  In a multibyte buffer, an
arbitrary value of @var{byte-position} can be not at character
boundary, but inside a multibyte sequence representing a single
character; in this case, this function returns the buffer position of
the character whose multibyte sequence includes @var{byte-position}.
In other words, the value does not change for all byte positions that
belong to the same character.
@end defun

@defun multibyte-string-p string
Return @code{t} if @var{string} is a multibyte string, @code{nil}
otherwise.  This function also returns @code{nil} if @var{string} is
some object other than a string.
@end defun

@defun string-bytes string
@cindex string, number of bytes
This function returns the number of bytes in @var{string}.
If @var{string} is a multibyte string, this can be greater than
@code{(length @var{string})}.
@end defun

@defun unibyte-string &rest bytes
This function concatenates all its argument @var{bytes} and makes the
result a unibyte string.
@end defun

@node Disabling Multibyte
@section Disabling Multibyte Characters
@cindex disabling multibyte

  By default, Emacs starts in multibyte mode: it stores the contents
of buffers and strings using an internal encoding that represents
non-@acronym{ASCII} characters using multi-byte sequences.  Multibyte
mode allows you to use all the supported languages and scripts without
limitations.

@cindex turn multibyte support on or off
  Under very special circumstances, you may want to disable multibyte
character support, for a specific buffer.
When multibyte characters are disabled in a buffer, we call
that @dfn{unibyte mode}.  In unibyte mode, each character in the
buffer has a character code ranging from 0 through 255 (0377 octal); 0
through 127 (0177 octal) represent @acronym{ASCII} characters, and 128
(0200 octal) through 255 (0377 octal) represent non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters.

  To edit a particular file in unibyte representation, visit it using
@code{find-file-literally}.  @xref{Visiting Functions}.  You can
convert a multibyte buffer to unibyte by saving it to a file, killing
the buffer, and visiting the file again with
@code{find-file-literally}.  Alternatively, you can use @kbd{C-x
@key{RET} c} (@code{universal-coding-system-argument}) and specify
@samp{raw-text} as the coding system with which to visit or save a
file.  @xref{Text Coding, , Specifying a Coding System for File Text,
emacs, GNU Emacs Manual}.  Unlike @code{find-file-literally}, finding
a file as @samp{raw-text} doesn't disable format conversion,
uncompression, or auto mode selection.

@c See http://debbugs.gnu.org/11226 for lack of unibyte tooltip.
@vindex enable-multibyte-characters
The buffer-local variable @code{enable-multibyte-characters} is
non-@code{nil} in multibyte buffers, and @code{nil} in unibyte ones.
The mode line also indicates whether a buffer is multibyte or not.
With a graphical display, in a multibyte buffer, the portion of the
mode line that indicates the character set has a tooltip that (amongst
other things) says that the buffer is multibyte.  In a unibyte buffer,
the character set indicator is absent.  Thus, in a unibyte buffer
(when using a graphical display) there is normally nothing before the
indication of the visited file's end-of-line convention (colon,
backslash, etc.), unless you are using an input method.

@findex toggle-enable-multibyte-characters
You can turn off multibyte support in a specific buffer by invoking the
command @code{toggle-enable-multibyte-characters} in that buffer.

@node Converting Representations
@section Converting Text Representations

  Emacs can convert unibyte text to multibyte; it can also convert
multibyte text to unibyte, provided that the multibyte text contains
only @acronym{ASCII} and 8-bit raw bytes.  In general, these
conversions happen when inserting text into a buffer, or when putting
text from several strings together in one string.  You can also
explicitly convert a string's contents to either representation.

  Emacs chooses the representation for a string based on the text from
which it is constructed.  The general rule is to convert unibyte text
to multibyte text when combining it with other multibyte text, because
the multibyte representation is more general and can hold whatever
characters the unibyte text has.

  When inserting text into a buffer, Emacs converts the text to the
buffer's representation, as specified by
@code{enable-multibyte-characters} in that buffer.  In particular, when
you insert multibyte text into a unibyte buffer, Emacs converts the text
to unibyte, even though this conversion cannot in general preserve all
the characters that might be in the multibyte text.  The other natural
alternative, to convert the buffer contents to multibyte, is not
acceptable because the buffer's representation is a choice made by the
user that cannot be overridden automatically.

  Converting unibyte text to multibyte text leaves @acronym{ASCII}
characters unchanged, and converts bytes with codes 128 through 255 to
the multibyte representation of raw eight-bit bytes.

  Converting multibyte text to unibyte converts all @acronym{ASCII}
and eight-bit characters to their single-byte form, but loses
information for non-@acronym{ASCII} characters by discarding all but
the low 8 bits of each character's codepoint.  Converting unibyte text
to multibyte and back to unibyte reproduces the original unibyte text.

The next two functions either return the argument @var{string}, or a
newly created string with no text properties.

@defun string-to-multibyte string
This function returns a multibyte string containing the same sequence
of characters as @var{string}.  If @var{string} is a multibyte string,
it is returned unchanged.  The function assumes that @var{string}
includes only @acronym{ASCII} characters and raw 8-bit bytes; the
latter are converted to their multibyte representation corresponding
to the codepoints @code{#x3FFF80} through @code{#x3FFFFF}, inclusive
(@pxref{Text Representations, codepoints}).
@end defun

@defun string-to-unibyte string
This function returns a unibyte string containing the same sequence of
characters as @var{string}.  It signals an error if @var{string}
contains a non-@acronym{ASCII} character.  If @var{string} is a
unibyte string, it is returned unchanged.  Use this function for
@var{string} arguments that contain only @acronym{ASCII} and eight-bit
characters.
@end defun

@c FIXME: Should `@var{character}' be `@var{byte}'?
@defun byte-to-string byte
@cindex byte to string
This function returns a unibyte string containing a single byte of
character data, @var{character}.  It signals an error if
@var{character} is not an integer between 0 and 255.
@end defun

@defun multibyte-char-to-unibyte char
This converts the multibyte character @var{char} to a unibyte
character, and returns that character.  If @var{char} is neither
@acronym{ASCII} nor eight-bit, the function returns @minus{}1.
@end defun

@defun unibyte-char-to-multibyte char
This convert the unibyte character @var{char} to a multibyte
character, assuming @var{char} is either @acronym{ASCII} or raw 8-bit
byte.
@end defun

@node Selecting a Representation
@section Selecting a Representation

  Sometimes it is useful to examine an existing buffer or string as
multibyte when it was unibyte, or vice versa.

@defun set-buffer-multibyte multibyte
Set the representation type of the current buffer.  If @var{multibyte}
is non-@code{nil}, the buffer becomes multibyte.  If @var{multibyte}
is @code{nil}, the buffer becomes unibyte.

This function leaves the buffer contents unchanged when viewed as a
sequence of bytes.  As a consequence, it can change the contents
viewed as characters; for instance, a sequence of three bytes which is
treated as one character in multibyte representation will count as
three characters in unibyte representation.  Eight-bit characters
representing raw bytes are an exception.  They are represented by one
byte in a unibyte buffer, but when the buffer is set to multibyte,
they are converted to two-byte sequences, and vice versa.

This function sets @code{enable-multibyte-characters} to record which
representation is in use.  It also adjusts various data in the buffer
(including overlays, text properties and markers) so that they cover the
same text as they did before.

This function signals an error if the buffer is narrowed, since the
narrowing might have occurred in the middle of multibyte character
sequences.

This function also signals an error if the buffer is an indirect
buffer.  An indirect buffer always inherits the representation of its
base buffer.
@end defun

@defun string-as-unibyte string
If @var{string} is already a unibyte string, this function returns
@var{string} itself.  Otherwise, it returns a new string with the same
bytes as @var{string}, but treating each byte as a separate character
(so that the value may have more characters than @var{string}); as an
exception, each eight-bit character representing a raw byte is
converted into a single byte.  The newly-created string contains no
text properties.
@end defun

@defun string-as-multibyte string
If @var{string} is a multibyte string, this function returns
@var{string} itself.  Otherwise, it returns a new string with the same
bytes as @var{string}, but treating each multibyte sequence as one
character.  This means that the value may have fewer characters than
@var{string} has.  If a byte sequence in @var{string} is invalid as a
multibyte representation of a single character, each byte in the
sequence is treated as a raw 8-bit byte.  The newly-created string
contains no text properties.
@end defun

@node Character Codes
@section Character Codes
@cindex character codes

  The unibyte and multibyte text representations use different
character codes.  The valid character codes for unibyte representation
range from 0 to @code{#xFF} (255)---the values that can fit in one
byte.  The valid character codes for multibyte representation range
from 0 to @code{#x3FFFFF}.  In this code space, values 0 through
@code{#x7F} (127) are for @acronym{ASCII} characters, and values
@code{#x80} (128) through @code{#x3FFF7F} (4194175) are for
non-@acronym{ASCII} characters.

  Emacs character codes are a superset of the Unicode standard.
Values 0 through @code{#x10FFFF} (1114111) correspond to Unicode
characters of the same codepoint; values @code{#x110000} (1114112)
through @code{#x3FFF7F} (4194175) represent characters that are not
unified with Unicode; and values @code{#x3FFF80} (4194176) through
@code{#x3FFFFF} (4194303) represent eight-bit raw bytes.

@defun characterp charcode
This returns @code{t} if @var{charcode} is a valid character, and
@code{nil} otherwise.

@example
@group
(characterp 65)
     @result{} t
@end group
@group
(characterp 4194303)
     @result{} t
@end group
@group
(characterp 4194304)
     @result{} nil
@end group
@end example
@end defun

@cindex maximum value of character codepoint
@cindex codepoint, largest value
@defun max-char
This function returns the largest value that a valid character
codepoint can have.

@example
@group
(characterp (max-char))
     @result{} t
@end group
@group
(characterp (1+ (max-char)))
     @result{} nil
@end group
@end example
@end defun

@defun get-byte &optional pos string
This function returns the byte at character position @var{pos} in the
current buffer.  If the current buffer is unibyte, this is literally
the byte at that position.  If the buffer is multibyte, byte values of
@acronym{ASCII} characters are the same as character codepoints,
whereas eight-bit raw bytes are converted to their 8-bit codes.  The
function signals an error if the character at @var{pos} is
non-@acronym{ASCII}.

The optional argument @var{string} means to get a byte value from that
string instead of the current buffer.
@end defun

@node Character Properties
@section Character Properties
@cindex character properties
A @dfn{character property} is a named attribute of a character that
specifies how the character behaves and how it should be handled
during text processing and display.  Thus, character properties are an
important part of specifying the character's semantics.

@c FIXME: Use the latest URI of this chapter?
@c http://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/ch04.pdf
  On the whole, Emacs follows the Unicode Standard in its implementation
of character properties.  In particular, Emacs supports the
@uref{http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr23/, Unicode Character Property
Model}, and the Emacs character property database is derived from the
Unicode Character Database (@acronym{UCD}).  See the
@uref{http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.2.0/ch04.pdf, Character
Properties chapter of the Unicode Standard}, for a detailed
description of Unicode character properties and their meaning.  This
section assumes you are already familiar with that chapter of the
Unicode Standard, and want to apply that knowledge to Emacs Lisp
programs.

  In Emacs, each property has a name, which is a symbol, and a set of
possible values, whose types depend on the property; if a character
does not have a certain property, the value is @code{nil}.  As a
general rule, the names of character properties in Emacs are produced
from the corresponding Unicode properties by downcasing them and
replacing each @samp{_} character with a dash @samp{-}.  For example,
@code{Canonical_Combining_Class} becomes
@code{canonical-combining-class}.  However, sometimes we shorten the
names to make their use easier.

@cindex unassigned character codepoints
  Some codepoints are left @dfn{unassigned} by the
@acronym{UCD}---they don't correspond to any character.  The Unicode
Standard defines default values of properties for such codepoints;
they are mentioned below for each property.

  Here is the full list of value types for all the character
properties that Emacs knows about:

@table @code
@item name
Corresponds to the @code{Name} Unicode property.  The value is a
string consisting of upper-case Latin letters A to Z, digits, spaces,
and hyphen @samp{-} characters.  For unassigned codepoints, the value
is @code{nil}.

@cindex unicode general category
@item general-category
Corresponds to the @code{General_Category} Unicode property.  The
value is a symbol whose name is a 2-letter abbreviation of the
character's classification.  For unassigned codepoints, the value
is @code{Cn}.

@item canonical-combining-class
Corresponds to the @code{Canonical_Combining_Class} Unicode property.
The value is an integer.  For unassigned codepoints, the value
is zero.

@cindex bidirectional class of characters
@item bidi-class
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Bidi_Class} property.  The value is a
symbol whose name is the Unicode @dfn{directional type} of the
character.  Emacs uses this property when it reorders bidirectional
text for display (@pxref{Bidirectional Display}).  For unassigned
codepoints, the value depends on the code blocks to which the
codepoint belongs: most unassigned codepoints get the value of
@code{L} (strong L), but some get values of @code{AL} (Arabic letter)
or @code{R} (strong R).

@item decomposition
Corresponds to the Unicode properties @code{Decomposition_Type} and
@code{Decomposition_Value}.  The value is a list, whose first element
may be a symbol representing a compatibility formatting tag, such as
@code{small}@footnote{The Unicode specification writes these tag names
inside @samp{<..>} brackets, but the tag names in Emacs do not include
the brackets; e.g., Unicode specifies @samp{<small>} where Emacs uses
@samp{small}.  }; the other elements are characters that give the
compatibility decomposition sequence of this character.  For
unassigned codepoints, the value is the character itself.

@item decimal-digit-value
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Numeric_Value} property for
characters whose @code{Numeric_Type} is @samp{Decimal}.  The value is
an integer.  For unassigned codepoints, the value is
@code{nil}, which means @acronym{NaN}, or ``not-a-number''.

@item digit-value
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Numeric_Value} property for
characters whose @code{Numeric_Type} is @samp{Digit}.  The value is an
integer.  Examples of such characters include compatibility
subscript and superscript digits, for which the value is the
corresponding number.  For unassigned codepoints, the value is
@code{nil}, which means @acronym{NaN}.

@item numeric-value
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Numeric_Value} property for
characters whose @code{Numeric_Type} is @samp{Numeric}.  The value of
this property is a number.  Examples of
characters that have this property include fractions, subscripts,
superscripts, Roman numerals, currency numerators, and encircled
numbers.  For example, the value of this property for the character
@code{U+2155} (@sc{vulgar fraction one fifth}) is @code{0.2}.  For
unassigned codepoints, the value is @code{nil}, which means
@acronym{NaN}.

@cindex mirroring of characters
@item mirrored
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Bidi_Mirrored} property.  The value
of this property is a symbol, either @code{Y} or @code{N}.  For
unassigned codepoints, the value is @code{N}.

@item mirroring
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Bidi_Mirroring_Glyph} property.  The
value of this property is a character whose glyph represents the
mirror image of the character's glyph, or @code{nil} if there's no
defined mirroring glyph.  All the characters whose @code{mirrored}
property is @code{N} have @code{nil} as their @code{mirroring}
property; however, some characters whose @code{mirrored} property is
@code{Y} also have @code{nil} for @code{mirroring}, because no
appropriate characters exist with mirrored glyphs.  Emacs uses this
property to display mirror images of characters when appropriate
(@pxref{Bidirectional Display}).  For unassigned codepoints, the value
is @code{nil}.

@item paired-bracket
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Bidi_Paired_Bracket} property.  The
value of this property is the codepoint of a character's @dfn{paired
bracket}, or @code{nil} if the character is not a bracket character.
This establishes a mapping between characters that are treated as
bracket pairs by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm; Emacs uses this
property when it decides how to reorder for display parentheses,
braces, and other similar characters (@pxref{Bidirectional Display}).

@item bracket-type
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Bidi_Paired_Bracket_Type} property.
For characters whose @code{paired-bracket} property is non-@code{nil},
the value of this property is a symbol, either @code{o} (for opening
bracket characters) or @code{c} (for closing bracket characters).  For
characters whose @code{paired-bracket} property is @code{nil}, the
value is the symbol @code{n} (None).  Like @code{paired-bracket}, this
property is used for bidirectional display.

@item old-name
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Unicode_1_Name} property.  The value
is a string.  Unassigned codepoints, and characters that have no value
for this property, the value is @code{nil}.

@item iso-10646-comment
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{ISO_Comment} property.  The value is
a string.  For unassigned codepoints, the value is an empty string.

@item uppercase
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Simple_Uppercase_Mapping} property.
The value of this property is a single character.  For unassigned
codepoints, the value is @code{nil}, which means the character itself.

@item lowercase
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Simple_Lowercase_Mapping} property.
The value of this property is a single character.  For unassigned
codepoints, the value is @code{nil}, which means the character itself.

@item titlecase
Corresponds to the Unicode @code{Simple_Titlecase_Mapping} property.
@dfn{Title case} is a special form of a character used when the first
character of a word needs to be capitalized.  The value of this
property is a single character.  For unassigned codepoints, the value
is @code{nil}, which means the character itself.
@end table

@defun get-char-code-property char propname
This function returns the value of @var{char}'s @var{propname} property.

@example
@group
(get-char-code-property ?\s 'general-category)
     @result{} Zs
@end group
@group
(get-char-code-property ?1 'general-category)
     @result{} Nd
@end group
@group
;; subscript 4
(get-char-code-property ?\u2084 'digit-value)
     @result{} 4
@end group
@group
;; one fifth
(get-char-code-property ?\u2155 'numeric-value)
     @result{} 0.2
@end group
@group
;; Roman IV
(get-char-code-property ?\u2163 'numeric-value)
     @result{} 4
@end group
@group
(get-char-code-property ?\( 'paired-bracket)
     @result{} 41  ;; closing parenthesis
@end group
@group
(get-char-code-property ?\) 'bracket-type)
     @result{} c
@end group
@end example
@end defun

@defun char-code-property-description prop value
This function returns the description string of property @var{prop}'s
@var{value}, or @code{nil} if @var{value} has no description.

@example
@group
(char-code-property-description 'general-category 'Zs)
     @result{} "Separator, Space"
@end group
@group
(char-code-property-description 'general-category 'Nd)
     @result{} "Number, Decimal Digit"
@end group
@group
(char-code-property-description 'numeric-value '1/5)
     @result{} nil
@end group
@end example
@end defun

@defun put-char-code-property char propname value
This function stores @var{value} as the value of the property
@var{propname} for the character @var{char}.
@end defun

@defvar unicode-category-table
The value of this variable is a char-table (@pxref{Char-Tables}) that
specifies, for each character, its Unicode @code{General_Category}
property as a symbol.
@end defvar

@defvar char-script-table
@cindex script symbols
The value of this variable is a char-table that specifies, for each
character, a symbol whose name is the script to which the character
belongs, according to the Unicode Standard classification of the
Unicode code space into script-specific blocks.  This char-table has a
single extra slot whose value is the list of all script symbols.
@end defvar

@defvar char-width-table
The value of this variable is a char-table that specifies the width of
each character in columns that it will occupy on the screen.
@end defvar

@defvar printable-chars
The value of this variable is a char-table that specifies, for each
character, whether it is printable or not.  That is, if evaluating
@code{(aref printable-chars char)} results in @code{t}, the character
is printable, and if it results in @code{nil}, it is not.
@end defvar

@node Character Sets
@section Character Sets
@cindex character sets

@cindex charset
@cindex coded character set
An Emacs @dfn{character set}, or @dfn{charset}, is a set of characters
in which each character is assigned a numeric code point.  (The
Unicode Standard calls this a @dfn{coded character set}.)  Each Emacs
charset has a name which is a symbol.  A single character can belong
to any number of different character sets, but it will generally have
a different code point in each charset.  Examples of character sets
include @code{ascii}, @code{iso-8859-1}, @code{greek-iso8859-7}, and
@code{windows-1255}.  The code point assigned to a character in a
charset is usually different from its code point used in Emacs buffers
and strings.

@cindex @code{emacs}, a charset
@cindex @code{unicode}, a charset
@cindex @code{eight-bit}, a charset
  Emacs defines several special character sets.  The character set
@code{unicode} includes all the characters whose Emacs code points are
in the range @code{0..#x10FFFF}.  The character set @code{emacs}
includes all @acronym{ASCII} and non-@acronym{ASCII} characters.
Finally, the @code{eight-bit} charset includes the 8-bit raw bytes;
Emacs uses it to represent raw bytes encountered in text.

@defun charsetp object
Returns @code{t} if @var{object} is a symbol that names a character set,
@code{nil} otherwise.
@end defun

@defvar charset-list
The value is a list of all defined character set names.
@end defvar

@defun charset-priority-list &optional highestp
This function returns a list of all defined character sets ordered by
their priority.  If @var{highestp} is non-@code{nil}, the function
returns a single character set of the highest priority.
@end defun

@defun set-charset-priority &rest charsets
This function makes @var{charsets} the highest priority character sets.
@end defun

@defun char-charset character &optional restriction
This function returns the name of the character set of highest
priority that @var{character} belongs to.  @acronym{ASCII} characters
are an exception: for them, this function always returns @code{ascii}.

If @var{restriction} is non-@code{nil}, it should be a list of
charsets to search.  Alternatively, it can be a coding system, in
which case the returned charset must be supported by that coding
system (@pxref{Coding Systems}).
@end defun

@c TODO: Explain the properties here and add indexes such as 'charset property'.
@defun charset-plist charset
This function returns the property list of the character set
@var{charset}.  Although @var{charset} is a symbol, this is not the
same as the property list of that symbol.  Charset properties include
important information about the charset, such as its documentation
string, short name, etc.
@end defun

@defun put-charset-property charset propname value
This function sets the @var{propname} property of @var{charset} to the
given @var{value}.
@end defun

@defun get-charset-property charset propname
This function returns the value of @var{charset}s property
@var{propname}.
@end defun

@deffn Command list-charset-chars charset
This command displays a list of characters in the character set
@var{charset}.
@end deffn

  Emacs can convert between its internal representation of a character
and the character's codepoint in a specific charset.  The following
two functions support these conversions.

@c FIXME: decode-char and encode-char accept and ignore an additional
@c argument @var{restriction}.  When that argument actually makes a
@c difference, it should be documented here.
@defun decode-char charset code-point
This function decodes a character that is assigned a @var{code-point}
in @var{charset}, to the corresponding Emacs character, and returns
it.  If @var{charset} doesn't contain a character of that code point,
the value is @code{nil}.  If @var{code-point} doesn't fit in a Lisp
integer (@pxref{Integer Basics, most-positive-fixnum}), it can be
specified as a cons cell @code{(@var{high} . @var{low})}, where
@var{low} are the lower 16 bits of the value and @var{high} are the
high 16 bits.
@end defun

@defun encode-char char charset
This function returns the code point assigned to the character
@var{char} in @var{charset}.  If the result does not fit in a Lisp
integer, it is returned as a cons cell @code{(@var{high} . @var{low})}
that fits the second argument of @code{decode-char} above.  If
@var{charset} doesn't have a codepoint for @var{char}, the value is
@code{nil}.
@end defun

  The following function comes in handy for applying a certain
function to all or part of the characters in a charset:

@defun map-charset-chars function charset &optional arg from-code to-code
Call @var{function} for characters in @var{charset}.  @var{function}
is called with two arguments.  The first one is a cons cell
@code{(@var{from} .  @var{to})}, where @var{from} and @var{to}
indicate a range of characters contained in charset.  The second
argument passed to @var{function} is @var{arg}.

By default, the range of codepoints passed to @var{function} includes
all the characters in @var{charset}, but optional arguments
@var{from-code} and @var{to-code} limit that to the range of
characters between these two codepoints of @var{charset}.  If either
of them is @code{nil}, it defaults to the first or last codepoint of
@var{charset}, respectively.
@end defun

@node Scanning Charsets
@section Scanning for Character Sets
@cindex scanning for character sets
@cindex character set, searching

  Sometimes it is useful to find out which character set a particular
character belongs to.  One use for this is in determining which coding
systems (@pxref{Coding Systems}) are capable of representing all of
the text in question; another is to determine the font(s) for
displaying that text.

@defun charset-after &optional pos
This function returns the charset of highest priority containing the
character at position @var{pos} in the current buffer.  If @var{pos}
is omitted or @code{nil}, it defaults to the current value of point.
If @var{pos} is out of range, the value is @code{nil}.
@end defun

@defun find-charset-region beg end &optional translation
This function returns a list of the character sets of highest priority
that contain characters in the current buffer between positions
@var{beg} and @var{end}.

The optional argument @var{translation} specifies a translation table
to use for scanning the text (@pxref{Translation of Characters}).  If
it is non-@code{nil}, then each character in the region is translated
through this table, and the value returned describes the translated
characters instead of the characters actually in the buffer.
@end defun

@defun find-charset-string string &optional translation
This function returns a list of character sets of highest priority
that contain characters in @var{string}.  It is just like
@code{find-charset-region}, except that it applies to the contents of
@var{string} instead of part of the current buffer.
@end defun

@node Translation of Characters
@section Translation of Characters
@cindex character translation tables
@cindex translation tables

  A @dfn{translation table} is a char-table (@pxref{Char-Tables}) that
specifies a mapping of characters into characters.  These tables are
used in encoding and decoding, and for other purposes.  Some coding
systems specify their own particular translation tables; there are
also default translation tables which apply to all other coding
systems.

  A translation table has two extra slots.  The first is either
@code{nil} or a translation table that performs the reverse
translation; the second is the maximum number of characters to look up
for translating sequences of characters (see the description of
@code{make-translation-table-from-alist} below).

@defun make-translation-table &rest translations
This function returns a translation table based on the argument
@var{translations}.  Each element of @var{translations} should be a
list of elements of the form @code{(@var{from} . @var{to})}; this says
to translate the character @var{from} into @var{to}.

The arguments and the forms in each argument are processed in order,
and if a previous form already translates @var{to} to some other
character, say @var{to-alt}, @var{from} is also translated to
@var{to-alt}.
@end defun

  During decoding, the translation table's translations are applied to
the characters that result from ordinary decoding.  If a coding system
has the property @code{:decode-translation-table}, that specifies the
translation table to use, or a list of translation tables to apply in
sequence.  (This is a property of the coding system, as returned by
@code{coding-system-get}, not a property of the symbol that is the
coding system's name.  @xref{Coding System Basics,, Basic Concepts of
Coding Systems}.)  Finally, if
@code{standard-translation-table-for-decode} is non-@code{nil}, the
resulting characters are translated by that table.

  During encoding, the translation table's translations are applied to
the characters in the buffer, and the result of translation is
actually encoded.  If a coding system has property
@code{:encode-translation-table}, that specifies the translation table
to use, or a list of translation tables to apply in sequence.  In
addition, if the variable @code{standard-translation-table-for-encode}
is non-@code{nil}, it specifies the translation table to use for
translating the result.

@defvar standard-translation-table-for-decode
This is the default translation table for decoding.  If a coding
systems specifies its own translation tables, the table that is the
value of this variable, if non-@code{nil}, is applied after them.
@end defvar

@defvar standard-translation-table-for-encode
This is the default translation table for encoding.  If a coding
systems specifies its own translation tables, the table that is the
value of this variable, if non-@code{nil}, is applied after them.
@end defvar

@c FIXME: This variable is obsolete since 23.1.  We should mention
@c that here or simply remove this defvar.  --xfq
@defvar translation-table-for-input
Self-inserting characters are translated through this translation
table before they are inserted.  Search commands also translate their
input through this table, so they can compare more reliably with
what's in the buffer.

This variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set.
@end defvar

@defun make-translation-table-from-vector vec
This function returns a translation table made from @var{vec} that is
an array of 256 elements to map bytes (values 0 through #xFF) to
characters.  Elements may be @code{nil} for untranslated bytes.  The
returned table has a translation table for reverse mapping in the
first extra slot, and the value @code{1} in the second extra slot.

This function provides an easy way to make a private coding system
that maps each byte to a specific character.  You can specify the
returned table and the reverse translation table using the properties
@code{:decode-translation-table} and @code{:encode-translation-table}
respectively in the @var{props} argument to
@code{define-coding-system}.
@end defun

@defun make-translation-table-from-alist alist
This function is similar to @code{make-translation-table} but returns
a complex translation table rather than a simple one-to-one mapping.
Each element of @var{alist} is of the form @code{(@var{from}
. @var{to})}, where @var{from} and @var{to} are either characters or
vectors specifying a sequence of characters.  If @var{from} is a
character, that character is translated to @var{to} (i.e., to a
character or a character sequence).  If @var{from} is a vector of
characters, that sequence is translated to @var{to}.  The returned
table has a translation table for reverse mapping in the first extra
slot, and the maximum length of all the @var{from} character sequences
in the second extra slot.
@end defun

@node Coding Systems
@section Coding Systems

@cindex coding system
  When Emacs reads or writes a file, and when Emacs sends text to a
subprocess or receives text from a subprocess, it normally performs
character code conversion and end-of-line conversion as specified
by a particular @dfn{coding system}.

  How to define a coding system is an arcane matter, and is not
documented here.

@menu
* Coding System Basics::        Basic concepts.
* Encoding and I/O::            How file I/O functions handle coding systems.
* Lisp and Coding Systems::     Functions to operate on coding system names.
* User-Chosen Coding Systems::  Asking the user to choose a coding system.
* Default Coding Systems::      Controlling the default choices.
* Specifying Coding Systems::   Requesting a particular coding system
                                    for a single file operation.
* Explicit Encoding::           Encoding or decoding text without doing I/O.
* Terminal I/O Encoding::       Use of encoding for terminal I/O.
@end menu

@node Coding System Basics
@subsection Basic Concepts of Coding Systems

@cindex character code conversion
  @dfn{Character code conversion} involves conversion between the
internal representation of characters used inside Emacs and some other
encoding.  Emacs supports many different encodings, in that it can
convert to and from them.  For example, it can convert text to or from
encodings such as Latin 1, Latin 2, Latin 3, Latin 4, Latin 5, and
several variants of ISO 2022.  In some cases, Emacs supports several
alternative encodings for the same characters; for example, there are
three coding systems for the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet: ISO,
Alternativnyj, and KOI8.

  Every coding system specifies a particular set of character code
conversions, but the coding system @code{undecided} is special: it
leaves the choice unspecified, to be chosen heuristically for each
file, based on the file's data.

  In general, a coding system doesn't guarantee roundtrip identity:
decoding a byte sequence using coding system, then encoding the
resulting text in the same coding system, can produce a different byte
sequence.  But some coding systems do guarantee that the byte sequence
will be the same as what you originally decoded.  Here are a few
examples:

@quotation
iso-8859-1, utf-8, big5, shift_jis, euc-jp
@end quotation

  Encoding buffer text and then decoding the result can also fail to
reproduce the original text.  For instance, if you encode a character
with a coding system which does not support that character, the result
is unpredictable, and thus decoding it using the same coding system
may produce a different text.  Currently, Emacs can't report errors
that result from encoding unsupported characters.

@cindex EOL conversion
@cindex end-of-line conversion
@cindex line end conversion
  @dfn{End of line conversion} handles three different conventions
used on various systems for representing end of line in files.  The
Unix convention, used on GNU and Unix systems, is to use the linefeed
character (also called newline).  The DOS convention, used on
MS-Windows and MS-DOS systems, is to use a carriage-return and a
linefeed at the end of a line.  The Mac convention is to use just
carriage-return.  (This was the convention used on the Macintosh
system prior to OS X.)

@cindex base coding system
@cindex variant coding system
  @dfn{Base coding systems} such as @code{latin-1} leave the end-of-line
conversion unspecified, to be chosen based on the data.  @dfn{Variant
coding systems} such as @code{latin-1-unix}, @code{latin-1-dos} and
@code{latin-1-mac} specify the end-of-line conversion explicitly as
well.  Most base coding systems have three corresponding variants whose
names are formed by adding @samp{-unix}, @samp{-dos} and @samp{-mac}.

@vindex raw-text@r{ coding system}
  The coding system @code{raw-text} is special in that it prevents
character code conversion, and causes the buffer visited with this
coding system to be a unibyte buffer.  For historical reasons, you can
save both unibyte and multibyte text with this coding system.  When
you use @code{raw-text} to encode multibyte text, it does perform one
character code conversion: it converts eight-bit characters to their
single-byte external representation.  @code{raw-text} does not specify
the end-of-line conversion, allowing that to be determined as usual by
the data, and has the usual three variants which specify the
end-of-line conversion.

@vindex no-conversion@r{ coding system}
@vindex binary@r{ coding system}
  @code{no-conversion} (and its alias @code{binary}) is equivalent to
@code{raw-text-unix}: it specifies no conversion of either character
codes or end-of-line.

@vindex emacs-internal@r{ coding system}
@vindex utf-8-emacs@r{ coding system}
  The coding system @code{utf-8-emacs} specifies that the data is
represented in the internal Emacs encoding (@pxref{Text
Representations}).  This is like @code{raw-text} in that no code
conversion happens, but different in that the result is multibyte
data.  The name @code{emacs-internal} is an alias for
@code{utf-8-emacs}.

@defun coding-system-get coding-system property
This function returns the specified property of the coding system
@var{coding-system}.  Most coding system properties exist for internal
purposes, but one that you might find useful is @code{:mime-charset}.
That property's value is the name used in MIME for the character coding
which this coding system can read and write.  Examples:

@example
(coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 :mime-charset)
     @result{} iso-8859-1
(coding-system-get 'iso-2022-cn :mime-charset)
     @result{} iso-2022-cn
(coding-system-get 'cyrillic-koi8 :mime-charset)
     @result{} koi8-r
@end example

The value of the @code{:mime-charset} property is also defined
as an alias for the coding system.
@end defun

@cindex alias, for coding systems
@defun coding-system-aliases coding-system
This function returns the list of aliases of @var{coding-system}.
@end defun

@node Encoding and I/O
@subsection Encoding and I/O

  The principal purpose of coding systems is for use in reading and
writing files.  The function @code{insert-file-contents} uses a coding
system to decode the file data, and @code{write-region} uses one to
encode the buffer contents.

  You can specify the coding system to use either explicitly
(@pxref{Specifying Coding Systems}), or implicitly using a default
mechanism (@pxref{Default Coding Systems}).  But these methods may not
completely specify what to do.  For example, they may choose a coding
system such as @code{undefined} which leaves the character code
conversion to be determined from the data.  In these cases, the I/O
operation finishes the job of choosing a coding system.  Very often
you will want to find out afterwards which coding system was chosen.

@defvar buffer-file-coding-system
This buffer-local variable records the coding system used for saving the
buffer and for writing part of the buffer with @code{write-region}.  If
the text to be written cannot be safely encoded using the coding system
specified by this variable, these operations select an alternative
encoding by calling the function @code{select-safe-coding-system}
(@pxref{User-Chosen Coding Systems}).  If selecting a different encoding
requires to ask the user to specify a coding system,
@code{buffer-file-coding-system} is updated to the newly selected coding
system.

@code{buffer-file-coding-system} does @emph{not} affect sending text
to a subprocess.
@end defvar

@defvar save-buffer-coding-system
This variable specifies the coding system for saving the buffer (by
overriding @code{buffer-file-coding-system}).  Note that it is not used
for @code{write-region}.

When a command to save the buffer starts out to use
@code{buffer-file-coding-system} (or @code{save-buffer-coding-system}),
and that coding system cannot handle
the actual text in the buffer, the command asks the user to choose
another coding system (by calling @code{select-safe-coding-system}).
After that happens, the command also updates
@code{buffer-file-coding-system} to represent the coding system that
the user specified.
@end defvar

@defvar last-coding-system-used
I/O operations for files and subprocesses set this variable to the
coding system name that was used.  The explicit encoding and decoding
functions (@pxref{Explicit Encoding}) set it too.

@strong{Warning:} Since receiving subprocess output sets this variable,
it can change whenever Emacs waits; therefore, you should copy the
value shortly after the function call that stores the value you are
interested in.
@end defvar

  The variable @code{selection-coding-system} specifies how to encode
selections for the window system.  @xref{Window System Selections}.

@defvar file-name-coding-system
The variable @code{file-name-coding-system} specifies the coding
system to use for encoding file names.  Emacs encodes file names using
that coding system for all file operations.  If
@code{file-name-coding-system} is @code{nil}, Emacs uses a default
coding system determined by the selected language environment.  In the
default language environment, any non-@acronym{ASCII} characters in
file names are not encoded specially; they appear in the file system
using the internal Emacs representation.
@end defvar

  @strong{Warning:} if you change @code{file-name-coding-system} (or
the language environment) in the middle of an Emacs session, problems
can result if you have already visited files whose names were encoded
using the earlier coding system and are handled differently under the
new coding system.  If you try to save one of these buffers under the
visited file name, saving may use the wrong file name, or it may get
an error.  If such a problem happens, use @kbd{C-x C-w} to specify a
new file name for that buffer.

@cindex file-name encoding, MS-Windows
  On Windows 2000 and later, Emacs by default uses Unicode APIs to
pass file names to the OS, so the value of
@code{file-name-coding-system} is largely ignored.  Lisp applications
that need to encode or decode file names on the Lisp level should use
@code{utf-8} coding-system when @code{system-type} is
@code{windows-nt}; the conversion of UTF-8 encoded file names to the
encoding appropriate for communicating with the OS is performed
internally by Emacs.

@node Lisp and Coding Systems
@subsection Coding Systems in Lisp

  Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems:

@cindex list all coding systems
@defun coding-system-list &optional base-only
This function returns a list of all coding system names (symbols).  If
@var{base-only} is non-@code{nil}, the value includes only the
base coding systems.  Otherwise, it includes alias and variant coding
systems as well.
@end defun

@defun coding-system-p object
This function returns @code{t} if @var{object} is a coding system
name or @code{nil}.
@end defun

@cindex validity of coding system
@cindex coding system, validity check
@defun check-coding-system coding-system
This function checks the validity of @var{coding-system}.  If that is
valid, it returns @var{coding-system}.  If @var{coding-system} is
@code{nil}, the function return @code{nil}.  For any other values, it
signals an error whose @code{error-symbol} is @code{coding-system-error}
(@pxref{Signaling Errors, signal}).
@end defun

@cindex eol type of coding system
@defun coding-system-eol-type coding-system
This function returns the type of end-of-line (a.k.a.@: @dfn{eol})
conversion used by @var{coding-system}.  If @var{coding-system}
specifies a certain eol conversion, the return value is an integer 0,
1, or 2, standing for @code{unix}, @code{dos}, and @code{mac},
respectively.  If @var{coding-system} doesn't specify eol conversion
explicitly, the return value is a vector of coding systems, each one
with one of the possible eol conversion types, like this:

@lisp
(coding-system-eol-type 'latin-1)
     @result{} [latin-1-unix latin-1-dos latin-1-mac]
@end lisp

@noindent
If this function returns a vector, Emacs will decide, as part of the
text encoding or decoding process, what eol conversion to use.  For
decoding, the end-of-line format of the text is auto-detected, and the
eol conversion is set to match it (e.g., DOS-style CRLF format will
imply @code{dos} eol conversion).  For encoding, the eol conversion is
taken from the appropriate default coding system (e.g.,
default value of @code{buffer-file-coding-system} for
@code{buffer-file-coding-system}), or from the default eol conversion
appropriate for the underlying platform.
@end defun

@cindex eol conversion of coding system
@defun coding-system-change-eol-conversion coding-system eol-type
This function returns a coding system which is like @var{coding-system}
except for its eol conversion, which is specified by @code{eol-type}.
@var{eol-type} should be @code{unix}, @code{dos}, @code{mac}, or
@code{nil}.  If it is @code{nil}, the returned coding system determines
the end-of-line conversion from the data.

@var{eol-type} may also be 0, 1 or 2, standing for @code{unix},
@code{dos} and @code{mac}, respectively.
@end defun

@cindex text conversion of coding system
@defun coding-system-change-text-conversion eol-coding text-coding
This function returns a coding system which uses the end-of-line
conversion of @var{eol-coding}, and the text conversion of
@var{text-coding}.  If @var{text-coding} is @code{nil}, it returns
@code{undecided}, or one of its variants according to @var{eol-coding}.
@end defun

@cindex safely encode region
@cindex coding systems for encoding region
@defun find-coding-systems-region from to
This function returns a list of coding systems that could be used to
encode a text between @var{from} and @var{to}.  All coding systems in
the list can safely encode any multibyte characters in that portion of
the text.

If the text contains no multibyte characters, the function returns the
list @code{(undecided)}.
@end defun

@cindex safely encode a string
@cindex coding systems for encoding a string
@defun find-coding-systems-string string
This function returns a list of coding systems that could be used to
encode the text of @var{string}.  All coding systems in the list can
safely encode any multibyte characters in @var{string}.  If the text
contains no multibyte characters, this returns the list
@code{(undecided)}.
@end defun

@cindex charset, coding systems to encode
@cindex safely encode characters in a charset
@defun find-coding-systems-for-charsets charsets
This function returns a list of coding systems that could be used to
encode all the character sets in the list @var{charsets}.
@end defun

@defun check-coding-systems-region start end coding-system-list
This function checks whether coding systems in the list
@code{coding-system-list} can encode all the characters in the region
between @var{start} and @var{end}.  If all of the coding systems in
the list can encode the specified text, the function returns
@code{nil}.  If some coding systems cannot encode some of the
characters, the value is an alist, each element of which has the form
@code{(@var{coding-system1} @var{pos1} @var{pos2} @dots{})}, meaning
that @var{coding-system1} cannot encode characters at buffer positions
@var{pos1}, @var{pos2}, @enddots{}.

@var{start} may be a string, in which case @var{end} is ignored and
the returned value references string indices instead of buffer
positions.
@end defun

@defun detect-coding-region start end &optional highest
This function chooses a plausible coding system for decoding the text
from @var{start} to @var{end}.  This text should be a byte sequence,
i.e., unibyte text or multibyte text with only @acronym{ASCII} and
eight-bit characters (@pxref{Explicit Encoding}).

Normally this function returns a list of coding systems that could
handle decoding the text that was scanned.  They are listed in order of
decreasing priority.  But if @var{highest} is non-@code{nil}, then the
return value is just one coding system, the one that is highest in
priority.

If the region contains only @acronym{ASCII} characters except for such
ISO-2022 control characters ISO-2022 as @code{ESC}, the value is
@code{undecided} or @code{(undecided)}, or a variant specifying
end-of-line conversion, if that can be deduced from the text.

If the region contains null bytes, the value is @code{no-conversion},
even if the region contains text encoded in some coding system.
@end defun

@defun detect-coding-string string &optional highest
This function is like @code{detect-coding-region} except that it
operates on the contents of @var{string} instead of bytes in the buffer.
@end defun

@cindex null bytes, and decoding text
@defvar inhibit-null-byte-detection
If this variable has a non-@code{nil} value, null bytes are ignored
when detecting the encoding of a region or a string.  This allows to
correctly detect the encoding of text that contains null bytes, such
as Info files with Index nodes.
@end defvar

@defvar inhibit-iso-escape-detection
If this variable has a non-@code{nil} value, ISO-2022 escape sequences
are ignored when detecting the encoding of a region or a string.  The
result is that no text is ever detected as encoded in some ISO-2022
encoding, and all escape sequences become visible in a buffer.
@strong{Warning:} @emph{Use this variable with extreme caution,
because many files in the Emacs distribution use ISO-2022 encoding.}
@end defvar

@cindex charsets supported by a coding system
@defun coding-system-charset-list coding-system
This function returns the list of character sets (@pxref{Character
Sets}) supported by @var{coding-system}.  Some coding systems that
support too many character sets to list them all yield special values:
@itemize @bullet
@item
If @var{coding-system} supports all Emacs characters, the value is
@code{(emacs)}.
@item
If @var{coding-system} supports all Unicode characters, the value is
@code{(unicode)}.
@item
If @var{coding-system} supports all ISO-2022 charsets, the value is
@code{iso-2022}.
@item
If @var{coding-system} supports all the characters in the internal
coding system used by Emacs version 21 (prior to the implementation of
internal Unicode support), the value is @code{emacs-mule}.
@end itemize
@end defun

  @xref{Coding systems for a subprocess,, Process Information}, in
particular the description of the functions
@code{process-coding-system} and @code{set-process-coding-system}, for
how to examine or set the coding systems used for I/O to a subprocess.

@node User-Chosen Coding Systems
@subsection User-Chosen Coding Systems

@cindex select safe coding system
@defun select-safe-coding-system from to &optional default-coding-system accept-default-p file
This function selects a coding system for encoding specified text,
asking the user to choose if necessary.  Normally the specified text
is the text in the current buffer between @var{from} and @var{to}.  If
@var{from} is a string, the string specifies the text to encode, and
@var{to} is ignored.

If the specified text includes raw bytes (@pxref{Text
Representations}), @code{select-safe-coding-system} suggests
@code{raw-text} for its encoding.

If @var{default-coding-system} is non-@code{nil}, that is the first
coding system to try; if that can handle the text,
@code{select-safe-coding-system} returns that coding system.  It can
also be a list of coding systems; then the function tries each of them
one by one.  After trying all of them, it next tries the current
buffer's value of @code{buffer-file-coding-system} (if it is not
@code{undecided}), then the default value of
@code{buffer-file-coding-system} and finally the user's most
preferred coding system, which the user can set using the command
@code{prefer-coding-system} (@pxref{Recognize Coding,, Recognizing
Coding Systems, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}).

If one of those coding systems can safely encode all the specified
text, @code{select-safe-coding-system} chooses it and returns it.
Otherwise, it asks the user to choose from a list of coding systems
which can encode all the text, and returns the user's choice.

@var{default-coding-system} can also be a list whose first element is
t and whose other elements are coding systems.  Then, if no coding
system in the list can handle the text, @code{select-safe-coding-system}
queries the user immediately, without trying any of the three
alternatives described above.

The optional argument @var{accept-default-p}, if non-@code{nil},
should be a function to determine whether a coding system selected
without user interaction is acceptable. @code{select-safe-coding-system}
calls this function with one argument, the base coding system of the
selected coding system.  If @var{accept-default-p} returns @code{nil},
@code{select-safe-coding-system} rejects the silently selected coding
system, and asks the user to select a coding system from a list of
possible candidates.

@vindex select-safe-coding-system-accept-default-p
If the variable @code{select-safe-coding-system-accept-default-p} is
non-@code{nil}, it should be a function taking a single argument.
It is used in place of @var{accept-default-p}, overriding any
value supplied for this argument.

As a final step, before returning the chosen coding system,
@code{select-safe-coding-system} checks whether that coding system is
consistent with what would be selected if the contents of the region
were read from a file.  (If not, this could lead to data corruption in
a file subsequently re-visited and edited.)  Normally,
@code{select-safe-coding-system} uses @code{buffer-file-name} as the
file for this purpose, but if @var{file} is non-@code{nil}, it uses
that file instead (this can be relevant for @code{write-region} and
similar functions).  If it detects an apparent inconsistency,
@code{select-safe-coding-system} queries the user before selecting the
coding system.
@end defun

  Here are two functions you can use to let the user specify a coding
system, with completion.  @xref{Completion}.

@defun read-coding-system prompt &optional default
This function reads a coding system using the minibuffer, prompting with
string @var{prompt}, and returns the coding system name as a symbol.  If
the user enters null input, @var{default} specifies which coding system
to return.  It should be a symbol or a string.
@end defun

@defun read-non-nil-coding-system prompt
This function reads a coding system using the minibuffer, prompting with
string @var{prompt}, and returns the coding system name as a symbol.  If
the user tries to enter null input, it asks the user to try again.
@xref{Coding Systems}.
@end defun

@node Default Coding Systems
@subsection Default Coding Systems
@cindex default coding system
@cindex coding system, automatically determined

  This section describes variables that specify the default coding
system for certain files or when running certain subprograms, and the
function that I/O operations use to access them.

  The idea of these variables is that you set them once and for all to the
defaults you want, and then do not change them again.  To specify a
particular coding system for a particular operation in a Lisp program,
don't change these variables; instead, override them using
@code{coding-system-for-read} and @code{coding-system-for-write}
(@pxref{Specifying Coding Systems}).

@cindex file contents, and default coding system
@defopt auto-coding-regexp-alist
This variable is an alist of text patterns and corresponding coding
systems. Each element has the form @code{(@var{regexp}
. @var{coding-system})}; a file whose first few kilobytes match
@var{regexp} is decoded with @var{coding-system} when its contents are
read into a buffer.  The settings in this alist take priority over
@code{coding:} tags in the files and the contents of
@code{file-coding-system-alist} (see below).  The default value is set
so that Emacs automatically recognizes mail files in Babyl format and
reads them with no code conversions.
@end defopt

@cindex file name, and default coding system
@defopt file-coding-system-alist
This variable is an alist that specifies the coding systems to use for
reading and writing particular files.  Each element has the form
@code{(@var{pattern} . @var{coding})}, where @var{pattern} is a regular
expression that matches certain file names.  The element applies to file
names that match @var{pattern}.

The @sc{cdr} of the element, @var{coding}, should be either a coding
system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or a function name (a
symbol with a function definition).  If @var{coding} is a coding system,
that coding system is used for both reading the file and writing it.  If
@var{coding} is a cons cell containing two coding systems, its @sc{car}
specifies the coding system for decoding, and its @sc{cdr} specifies the
coding system for encoding.

If @var{coding} is a function name, the function should take one
argument, a list of all arguments passed to
@code{find-operation-coding-system}.  It must return a coding system
or a cons cell containing two coding systems.  This value has the same
meaning as described above.

If @var{coding} (or what returned by the above function) is
@code{undecided}, the normal code-detection is performed.
@end defopt

@defopt auto-coding-alist
This variable is an alist that specifies the coding systems to use for
reading and writing particular files.  Its form is like that of
@code{file-coding-system-alist}, but, unlike the latter, this variable
takes priority over any @code{coding:} tags in the file.
@end defopt

@cindex program name, and default coding system
@defvar process-coding-system-alist
This variable is an alist specifying which coding systems to use for a
subprocess, depending on which program is running in the subprocess.  It
works like @code{file-coding-system-alist}, except that @var{pattern} is
matched against the program name used to start the subprocess.  The coding
system or systems specified in this alist are used to initialize the
coding systems used for I/O to the subprocess, but you can specify
other coding systems later using @code{set-process-coding-system}.
@end defvar

  @strong{Warning:} Coding systems such as @code{undecided}, which
determine the coding system from the data, do not work entirely reliably
with asynchronous subprocess output.  This is because Emacs handles
asynchronous subprocess output in batches, as it arrives.  If the coding
system leaves the character code conversion unspecified, or leaves the
end-of-line conversion unspecified, Emacs must try to detect the proper
conversion from one batch at a time, and this does not always work.

  Therefore, with an asynchronous subprocess, if at all possible, use a
coding system which determines both the character code conversion and
the end of line conversion---that is, one like @code{latin-1-unix},
rather than @code{undecided} or @code{latin-1}.

@cindex port number, and default coding system
@cindex network service name, and default coding system
@defvar network-coding-system-alist
This variable is an alist that specifies the coding system to use for
network streams.  It works much like @code{file-coding-system-alist},
with the difference that the @var{pattern} in an element may be either a
port number or a regular expression.  If it is a regular expression, it
is matched against the network service name used to open the network
stream.
@end defvar

@defvar default-process-coding-system
This variable specifies the coding systems to use for subprocess (and
network stream) input and output, when nothing else specifies what to
do.

The value should be a cons cell of the form @code{(@var{input-coding}
. @var{output-coding})}.  Here @var{input-coding} applies to input from
the subprocess, and @var{output-coding} applies to output to it.
@end defvar

@cindex default coding system, functions to determine
@defopt auto-coding-functions
This variable holds a list of functions that try to determine a
coding system for a file based on its undecoded contents.

Each function in this list should be written to look at text in the
current buffer, but should not modify it in any way.  The buffer will
contain undecoded text of parts of the file.  Each function should
take one argument, @var{size}, which tells it how many characters to
look at, starting from point.  If the function succeeds in determining
a coding system for the file, it should return that coding system.
Otherwise, it should return @code{nil}.

If a file has a @samp{coding:} tag, that takes precedence, so these
functions won't be called.
@end defopt

@defun find-auto-coding filename size
This function tries to determine a suitable coding system for
@var{filename}.  It examines the buffer visiting the named file, using
the variables documented above in sequence, until it finds a match for
one of the rules specified by these variables.  It then returns a cons
cell of the form @code{(@var{coding} . @var{source})}, where
@var{coding} is the coding system to use and @var{source} is a symbol,
one of @code{auto-coding-alist}, @code{auto-coding-regexp-alist},
@code{:coding}, or @code{auto-coding-functions}, indicating which one
supplied the matching rule.  The value @code{:coding} means the coding
system was specified by the @code{coding:} tag in the file
(@pxref{Specify Coding,, coding tag, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}).
The order of looking for a matching rule is @code{auto-coding-alist}
first, then @code{auto-coding-regexp-alist}, then the @code{coding:}
tag, and lastly @code{auto-coding-functions}.  If no matching rule was
found, the function returns @code{nil}.

The second argument @var{size} is the size of text, in characters,
following point.  The function examines text only within @var{size}
characters after point.  Normally, the buffer should be positioned at
the beginning when this function is called, because one of the places
for the @code{coding:} tag is the first one or two lines of the file;
in that case, @var{size} should be the size of the buffer.
@end defun

@defun set-auto-coding filename size
This function returns a suitable coding system for file
@var{filename}.  It uses @code{find-auto-coding} to find the coding
system.  If no coding system could be determined, the function returns
@code{nil}.  The meaning of the argument @var{size} is like in
@code{find-auto-coding}.
@end defun

@defun find-operation-coding-system operation &rest arguments
This function returns the coding system to use (by default) for
performing @var{operation} with @var{arguments}.  The value has this
form:

@example
(@var{decoding-system} . @var{encoding-system})
@end example

The first element, @var{decoding-system}, is the coding system to use
for decoding (in case @var{operation} does decoding), and
@var{encoding-system} is the coding system for encoding (in case
@var{operation} does encoding).

The argument @var{operation} is a symbol; it should be one of
@code{write-region}, @code{start-process}, @code{call-process},
@code{call-process-region}, @code{insert-file-contents}, or
@code{open-network-stream}.  These are the names of the Emacs I/O
primitives that can do character code and eol conversion.

The remaining arguments should be the same arguments that might be given
to the corresponding I/O primitive.  Depending on the primitive, one
of those arguments is selected as the @dfn{target}.  For example, if
@var{operation} does file I/O, whichever argument specifies the file
name is the target.  For subprocess primitives, the process name is the
target.  For @code{open-network-stream}, the target is the service name
or port number.

Depending on @var{operation}, this function looks up the target in
@code{file-coding-system-alist}, @code{process-coding-system-alist},
or @code{network-coding-system-alist}.  If the target is found in the
alist, @code{find-operation-coding-system} returns its association in
the alist; otherwise it returns @code{nil}.

If @var{operation} is @code{insert-file-contents}, the argument
corresponding to the target may be a cons cell of the form
@code{(@var{filename} . @var{buffer})}.  In that case, @var{filename}
is a file name to look up in @code{file-coding-system-alist}, and
@var{buffer} is a buffer that contains the file's contents (not yet
decoded).  If @code{file-coding-system-alist} specifies a function to
call for this file, and that function needs to examine the file's
contents (as it usually does), it should examine the contents of
@var{buffer} instead of reading the file.
@end defun

@node Specifying Coding Systems
@subsection Specifying a Coding System for One Operation
@cindex specify coding system
@cindex force coding system for operation
@cindex coding system for operation

  You can specify the coding system for a specific operation by binding
the variables @code{coding-system-for-read} and/or
@code{coding-system-for-write}.

@defvar coding-system-for-read
If this variable is non-@code{nil}, it specifies the coding system to
use for reading a file, or for input from a synchronous subprocess.

It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network stream, but in
a different way: the value of @code{coding-system-for-read} when you
start the subprocess or open the network stream specifies the input
decoding method for that subprocess or network stream.  It remains in
use for that subprocess or network stream unless and until overridden.

The right way to use this variable is to bind it with @code{let} for a
specific I/O operation.  Its global value is normally @code{nil}, and
you should not globally set it to any other value.  Here is an example
of the right way to use the variable:

@example
;; @r{Read the file with no character code conversion.}
(let ((coding-system-for-read 'no-conversion))
  (insert-file-contents filename))
@end example

When its value is non-@code{nil}, this variable takes precedence over
all other methods of specifying a coding system to use for input,
including @code{file-coding-system-alist},
@code{process-coding-system-alist} and
@code{network-coding-system-alist}.
@end defvar

@defvar coding-system-for-write
This works much like @code{coding-system-for-read}, except that it
applies to output rather than input.  It affects writing to files,
as well as sending output to subprocesses and net connections.

When a single operation does both input and output, as do
@code{call-process-region} and @code{start-process}, both
@code{coding-system-for-read} and @code{coding-system-for-write}
affect it.
@end defvar

@defopt inhibit-eol-conversion
When this variable is non-@code{nil}, no end-of-line conversion is done,
no matter which coding system is specified.  This applies to all the
Emacs I/O and subprocess primitives, and to the explicit encoding and
decoding functions (@pxref{Explicit Encoding}).
@end defopt

@cindex priority order of coding systems
@cindex coding systems, priority
  Sometimes, you need to prefer several coding systems for some
operation, rather than fix a single one.  Emacs lets you specify a
priority order for using coding systems.  This ordering affects the
sorting of lists of coding systems returned by functions such as
@code{find-coding-systems-region} (@pxref{Lisp and Coding Systems}).

@defun coding-system-priority-list &optional highestp
This function returns the list of coding systems in the order of their
current priorities.  Optional argument @var{highestp}, if
non-@code{nil}, means return only the highest priority coding system.
@end defun

@defun set-coding-system-priority &rest coding-systems
This function puts @var{coding-systems} at the beginning of the
priority list for coding systems, thus making their priority higher
than all the rest.
@end defun

@defmac with-coding-priority coding-systems &rest body@dots{}
This macro execute @var{body}, like @code{progn} does
(@pxref{Sequencing, progn}), with @var{coding-systems} at the front of
the priority list for coding systems.  @var{coding-systems} should be
a list of coding systems to prefer during execution of @var{body}.
@end defmac

@node Explicit Encoding
@subsection Explicit Encoding and Decoding
@cindex encoding in coding systems
@cindex decoding in coding systems

  All the operations that transfer text in and out of Emacs have the
ability to use a coding system to encode or decode the text.
You can also explicitly encode and decode text using the functions
in this section.

  The result of encoding, and the input to decoding, are not ordinary
text.  They logically consist of a series of byte values; that is, a
series of @acronym{ASCII} and eight-bit characters.  In unibyte
buffers and strings, these characters have codes in the range 0
through #xFF (255).  In a multibyte buffer or string, eight-bit
characters have character codes higher than #xFF (@pxref{Text
Representations}), but Emacs transparently converts them to their
single-byte values when you encode or decode such text.

  The usual way to read a file into a buffer as a sequence of bytes, so
you can decode the contents explicitly, is with
@code{insert-file-contents-literally} (@pxref{Reading from Files});
alternatively, specify a non-@code{nil} @var{rawfile} argument when
visiting a file with @code{find-file-noselect}.  These methods result in
a unibyte buffer.

  The usual way to use the byte sequence that results from explicitly
encoding text is to copy it to a file or process---for example, to write
it with @code{write-region} (@pxref{Writing to Files}), and suppress
encoding by binding @code{coding-system-for-write} to
@code{no-conversion}.

  Here are the functions to perform explicit encoding or decoding.  The
encoding functions produce sequences of bytes; the decoding functions
are meant to operate on sequences of bytes.  All of these functions
discard text properties.  They also set @code{last-coding-system-used}
to the precise coding system they used.

@deffn Command encode-coding-region start end coding-system &optional destination
This command encodes the text from @var{start} to @var{end} according
to coding system @var{coding-system}.  Normally, the encoded text
replaces the original text in the buffer, but the optional argument
@var{destination} can change that.  If @var{destination} is a buffer,
the encoded text is inserted in that buffer after point (point does
not move); if it is @code{t}, the command returns the encoded text as
a unibyte string without inserting it.

If encoded text is inserted in some buffer, this command returns the
length of the encoded text.

The result of encoding is logically a sequence of bytes, but the
buffer remains multibyte if it was multibyte before, and any 8-bit
bytes are converted to their multibyte representation (@pxref{Text
Representations}).

@cindex @code{undecided} coding-system, when encoding
Do @emph{not} use @code{undecided} for @var{coding-system} when
encoding text, since that may lead to unexpected results.  Instead,
use @code{select-safe-coding-system} (@pxref{User-Chosen Coding
Systems, select-safe-coding-system}) to suggest a suitable encoding,
if there's no obvious pertinent value for @var{coding-system}.
@end deffn

@defun encode-coding-string string coding-system &optional nocopy buffer
This function encodes the text in @var{string} according to coding
system @var{coding-system}.  It returns a new string containing the
encoded text, except when @var{nocopy} is non-@code{nil}, in which
case the function may return @var{string} itself if the encoding
operation is trivial.  The result of encoding is a unibyte string.
@end defun

@deffn Command decode-coding-region start end coding-system &optional destination
This command decodes the text from @var{start} to @var{end} according
to coding system @var{coding-system}.  To make explicit decoding
useful, the text before decoding ought to be a sequence of byte
values, but both multibyte and unibyte buffers are acceptable (in the
multibyte case, the raw byte values should be represented as eight-bit
characters).  Normally, the decoded text replaces the original text in
the buffer, but the optional argument @var{destination} can change
that.  If @var{destination} is a buffer, the decoded text is inserted
in that buffer after point (point does not move); if it is @code{t},
the command returns the decoded text as a multibyte string without
inserting it.

If decoded text is inserted in some buffer, this command returns the
length of the decoded text.

This command puts a @code{charset} text property on the decoded text.
The value of the property states the character set used to decode the
original text.
@end deffn

@defun decode-coding-string string coding-system &optional nocopy buffer
This function decodes the text in @var{string} according to
@var{coding-system}.  It returns a new string containing the decoded
text, except when @var{nocopy} is non-@code{nil}, in which case the
function may return @var{string} itself if the decoding operation is
trivial.  To make explicit decoding useful, the contents of
@var{string} ought to be a unibyte string with a sequence of byte
values, but a multibyte string is also acceptable (assuming it
contains 8-bit bytes in their multibyte form).

If optional argument @var{buffer} specifies a buffer, the decoded text
is inserted in that buffer after point (point does not move).  In this
case, the return value is the length of the decoded text.

@cindex @code{charset}, text property
This function puts a @code{charset} text property on the decoded text.
The value of the property states the character set used to decode the
original text:

@example
@group
(decode-coding-string "Gr\374ss Gott" 'latin-1)
     @result{} #("Gr@"uss Gott" 0 9 (charset iso-8859-1))
@end group
@end example
@end defun

@defun decode-coding-inserted-region from to filename &optional visit beg end replace
This function decodes the text from @var{from} to @var{to} as if
it were being read from file @var{filename} using @code{insert-file-contents}
using the rest of the arguments provided.

The normal way to use this function is after reading text from a file
without decoding, if you decide you would rather have decoded it.
Instead of deleting the text and reading it again, this time with
decoding, you can call this function.
@end defun

@node Terminal I/O Encoding
@subsection Terminal I/O Encoding

  Emacs can use coding systems to decode keyboard input and encode
terminal output.  This is useful for terminals that transmit or
display text using a particular encoding, such as Latin-1.  Emacs does
not set @code{last-coding-system-used} when encoding or decoding
terminal I/O.

@defun keyboard-coding-system &optional terminal
This function returns the coding system used for decoding keyboard
input from @var{terminal}.  A value of @code{no-conversion} means no
decoding is done.  If @var{terminal} is omitted or @code{nil}, it
means the selected frame's terminal.  @xref{Multiple Terminals}.
@end defun

@deffn Command set-keyboard-coding-system coding-system &optional terminal
This command specifies @var{coding-system} as the coding system to use
for decoding keyboard input from @var{terminal}.  If
@var{coding-system} is @code{nil}, that means not to decode keyboard
input.  If @var{terminal} is a frame, it means that frame's terminal;
if it is @code{nil}, that means the currently selected frame's
terminal.  @xref{Multiple Terminals}.
@end deffn

@defun terminal-coding-system &optional terminal
This function returns the coding system that is in use for encoding
terminal output from @var{terminal}.  A value of @code{no-conversion}
means no encoding is done.  If @var{terminal} is a frame, it means
that frame's terminal; if it is @code{nil}, that means the currently
selected frame's terminal.
@end defun

@deffn Command set-terminal-coding-system coding-system &optional terminal
This command specifies @var{coding-system} as the coding system to use
for encoding terminal output from @var{terminal}.  If
@var{coding-system} is @code{nil}, that means not to encode terminal
output.  If @var{terminal} is a frame, it means that frame's terminal;
if it is @code{nil}, that means the currently selected frame's
terminal.
@end deffn

@node Input Methods
@section Input Methods
@cindex input methods

  @dfn{Input methods} provide convenient ways of entering non-@acronym{ASCII}
characters from the keyboard.  Unlike coding systems, which translate
non-@acronym{ASCII} characters to and from encodings meant to be read by
programs, input methods provide human-friendly commands.  (@xref{Input
Methods,,, emacs, The GNU Emacs Manual}, for information on how users
use input methods to enter text.)  How to define input methods is not
yet documented in this manual, but here we describe how to use them.

  Each input method has a name, which is currently a string;
in the future, symbols may also be usable as input method names.

@defvar current-input-method
This variable holds the name of the input method now active in the
current buffer.  (It automatically becomes local in each buffer when set
in any fashion.)  It is @code{nil} if no input method is active in the
buffer now.
@end defvar

@defopt default-input-method
This variable holds the default input method for commands that choose an
input method.  Unlike @code{current-input-method}, this variable is
normally global.
@end defopt

@deffn Command set-input-method input-method
This command activates input method @var{input-method} for the current
buffer.  It also sets @code{default-input-method} to @var{input-method}.
If @var{input-method} is @code{nil}, this command deactivates any input
method for the current buffer.
@end deffn

@defun read-input-method-name prompt &optional default inhibit-null
This function reads an input method name with the minibuffer, prompting
with @var{prompt}.  If @var{default} is non-@code{nil}, that is returned
by default, if the user enters empty input.  However, if
@var{inhibit-null} is non-@code{nil}, empty input signals an error.

The returned value is a string.
@end defun

@defvar input-method-alist
This variable defines all the supported input methods.
Each element defines one input method, and should have the form:

@example
(@var{input-method} @var{language-env} @var{activate-func}
 @var{title} @var{description} @var{args}...)
@end example

Here @var{input-method} is the input method name, a string;
@var{language-env} is another string, the name of the language
environment this input method is recommended for.  (That serves only for
documentation purposes.)

@var{activate-func} is a function to call to activate this method.  The
@var{args}, if any, are passed as arguments to @var{activate-func}.  All
told, the arguments to @var{activate-func} are @var{input-method} and
the @var{args}.

@var{title} is a string to display in the mode line while this method is
active.  @var{description} is a string describing this method and what
it is good for.
@end defvar

  The fundamental interface to input methods is through the
variable @code{input-method-function}.  @xref{Reading One Event},
and @ref{Invoking the Input Method}.

@node Locales
@section Locales
@cindex locale

  POSIX defines a concept of ``locales'' which control which language
to use in language-related features.  These Emacs variables control
how Emacs interacts with these features.

@defvar locale-coding-system
@cindex keyboard input decoding on X
This variable specifies the coding system to use for decoding system
error messages and---on X Window system only---keyboard input, for
encoding the format argument to @code{format-time-string}, and for
decoding the return value of @code{format-time-string}.
@end defvar

@defvar system-messages-locale
This variable specifies the locale to use for generating system error
messages.  Changing the locale can cause messages to come out in a
different language or in a different orthography.  If the variable is
@code{nil}, the locale is specified by environment variables in the
usual POSIX fashion.
@end defvar

@defvar system-time-locale
This variable specifies the locale to use for formatting time values.
Changing the locale can cause messages to appear according to the
conventions of a different language.  If the variable is @code{nil}, the
locale is specified by environment variables in the usual POSIX fashion.
@end defvar

@defun locale-info item
This function returns locale data @var{item} for the current POSIX
locale, if available.  @var{item} should be one of these symbols:

@table @code
@item codeset
Return the character set as a string (locale item @code{CODESET}).

@item days
Return a 7-element vector of day names (locale items
@code{DAY_1} through @code{DAY_7});

@item months
Return a 12-element vector of month names (locale items @code{MON_1}
through @code{MON_12}).

@item paper
Return a list @code{(@var{width} @var{height})} for the default paper
size measured in millimeters (locale items @code{PAPER_WIDTH} and
@code{PAPER_HEIGHT}).
@end table

If the system can't provide the requested information, or if
@var{item} is not one of those symbols, the value is @code{nil}.  All
strings in the return value are decoded using
@code{locale-coding-system}.  @xref{Locales,,, libc, The GNU Libc Manual},
for more information about locales and locale items.
@end defun