Convert to using File::Spec, so that we can build Unicode files

[perl5.git] / lib / utf8.pm

package utf8;

$utf8::hint_bits = 0x00800000;

our $VERSION = '1.03';

sub import {
    $^H |= $utf8::hint_bits;
    $enc{caller()} = $_[1] if $_[1];
}

sub unimport {
    $^H &= ~$utf8::hint_bits;
}

sub AUTOLOAD {
    require "utf8_heavy.pl";
    goto &$AUTOLOAD if defined &$AUTOLOAD;
    Carp::croak("Undefined subroutine $AUTOLOAD called");
}

1;
__END__

=head1 NAME

utf8 - Perl pragma to enable/disable UTF-8 (or UTF-EBCDIC) in source code

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    use utf8;
    no utf8;

    # Convert a Perl scalar to/from UTF-8.
    $num_octets = utf8::upgrade($string);
    $success    = utf8::downgrade($string[, FAIL_OK]);

    # Change the native bytes of a Perl scalar to/from UTF-8 bytes.
    utf8::encode($string);
    utf8::decode($string);

    $flag = utf8::is_utf8(STRING); # since Perl 5.8.1
    $flag = utf8::valid(STRING);

=head1 DESCRIPTION

The C<use utf8> pragma tells the Perl parser to allow UTF-8 in the
program text in the current lexical scope (allow UTF-EBCDIC on EBCDIC based
platforms).  The C<no utf8> pragma tells Perl to switch back to treating
the source text as literal bytes in the current lexical scope.

This pragma is primarily a compatibility device.  Perl versions
earlier than 5.6 allowed arbitrary bytes in source code, whereas
in future we would like to standardize on the UTF-8 encoding for
source text.

B<Do not use this pragma for anything else than telling Perl that your
script is written in UTF-8.> The utility functions described below are
useful for their own purposes, but they are not really part of the
"pragmatic" effect.

Until UTF-8 becomes the default format for source text, either this
pragma or the L</encoding> pragma should be used to recognize UTF-8
in the source.  When UTF-8 becomes the standard source format, this
pragma will effectively become a no-op.  For convenience in what
follows the term I<UTF-X> is used to refer to UTF-8 on ASCII and ISO
Latin based platforms and UTF-EBCDIC on EBCDIC based platforms.

See also the effects of the C<-C> switch and its cousin, the
C<$ENV{PERL_UNICODE}>, in L<perlrun>.

Enabling the C<utf8> pragma has the following effect:

=over 4

=item *

Bytes in the source text that have their high-bit set will be treated
as being part of a literal UTF-8 character.  This includes most
literals such as identifier names, string constants, and constant
regular expression patterns.

On EBCDIC platforms characters in the Latin 1 character set are
treated as being part of a literal UTF-EBCDIC character.

=back

Note that if you have bytes with the eighth bit on in your script
(for example embedded Latin-1 in your string literals), C<use utf8>
will be unhappy since the bytes are most probably not well-formed
UTF-8.  If you want to have such bytes and use utf8, you can disable
utf8 until the end the block (or file, if at top level) by C<no utf8;>.

If you want to automatically upgrade your 8-bit legacy bytes to UTF-8,
use the L</encoding> pragma instead of this pragma.  For example, if
you want to implicitly upgrade your ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) bytes to UTF-8
as used in e.g. C<chr()> and C<\x{...}>, try this:

    use encoding "latin-1";
    my $c = chr(0xc4);
    my $x = "\x{c5}";

In case you are wondering: yes, C<use encoding 'utf8';> works much
the same as C<use utf8;>.

=head2 Utility functions

The following functions are defined in the C<utf8::> package by the
Perl core.  You do not need to say C<use utf8> to use these and in fact
you should not say that  unless you really want to have UTF-8 source code.

=over 4

=item * $num_octets = utf8::upgrade($string)

Converts (in-place) internal representation of string to Perl's
internal I<UTF-X> form.  Returns the number of octets necessary to
represent the string as I<UTF-X>.  Can be used to make sure that the
UTF-8 flag is on, so that C<\w> or C<lc()> work as expected on strings
containing characters in the range 0x80-0xFF (oon ASCII and
derivatives).  Note that this should not be used to convert a legacy
byte encoding to Unicode: use Encode for that.  Affected by the
encoding pragma.

=item * $success = utf8::downgrade($string[, FAIL_OK])

Converts (in-place) internal representation of string to be un-encoded
bytes.  Returns true on success. On failure dies or, if the value of
FAIL_OK is true, returns false.  Can be used to make sure that the
UTF-8 flag is off, e.g. when you want to make sure that the substr()
or length() function works with the usually faster byte algorithm.
Note that this should not be used to convert Unicode back to a legacy
byte encoding: use Encode for that.  B<Not> affected by the encoding
pragma.

=item * utf8::encode($string)

Converts in-place the octets of the I<$string> to the octet sequence
in Perl's I<UTF-X> encoding.  Returns nothing.  B<Note that this does
not change the "type" of I<$string> to UTF-8>, and that this handles
only ISO 8859-1 (or EBCDIC) as the source character set. Therefore
this should not be used to convert a legacy 8-bit encoding to Unicode:
use Encode::decode() for that.  In the very limited case of wanting to
handle just ISO 8859-1 (or EBCDIC), you could use utf8::upgrade().

=item * utf8::decode($string)

Attempts to convert I<$string> in-place from Perl's I<UTF-X> encoding
into octets.  Returns nothing.  B<Note that this does not change the
"type" of <$string> from UTF-8>, and that this handles only ISO 8859-1
(or EBCDIC) as the destination character set.  Therefore this should
not be used to convert Unicode back to a legacy 8-bit encoding:
use Encode::encode() for that.  In the very limited case of wanting
to handle just ISO 8859-1 (or EBCDIC), you could use utf8::downgrade().

=item * $flag = utf8::is_utf8(STRING)

(Since Perl 5.8.1)  Test whether STRING is in UTF-8.  Functionally
the same as Encode::is_utf8().

=item * $flag = utf8::valid(STRING)

[INTERNAL] Test whether STRING is in a consistent state regarding
UTF-8.  Will return true is well-formed UTF-8 and has the UTF-8 flag
on B<or> if string is held as bytes (both these states are 'consistent').
Main reason for this routine is to allow Perl's testsuite to check
that operations have left strings in a consistent state.  You most
probably want to use utf8::is_utf8() instead.

=back

C<utf8::encode> is like C<utf8::upgrade>, but the UTF8 flag is
cleared.  See L<perlunicode> for more on the UTF8 flag and the C API
functions C<sv_utf8_upgrade>, C<sv_utf8_downgrade>, C<sv_utf8_encode>,
and C<sv_utf8_decode>, which are wrapped by the Perl functions
C<utf8::upgrade>, C<utf8::downgrade>, C<utf8::encode> and
C<utf8::decode>.  Note that in the Perl 5.8.0 and 5.8.1 implementation
the functions utf8::is_utf8, utf8::valid, utf8::encode, utf8::decode,
utf8::upgrade, and utf8::downgrade are always available, without a
C<require utf8> statement-- this may change in future releases.

=head1 BUGS

One can have Unicode in identifier names, but not in package/class or
subroutine names.  While some limited functionality towards this does
exist as of Perl 5.8.0, that is more accidental than designed; use of
Unicode for the said purposes is unsupported.

One reason of this unfinishedness is its (currently) inherent
unportability: since both package names and subroutine names may need
to be mapped to file and directory names, the Unicode capability of
the filesystem becomes important-- and there unfortunately aren't
portable answers.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<perluniintro>, L<encoding>, L<perlrun>, L<bytes>, L<perlunicode>

=cut