Roland Mainz wrote:

> Hi!

> ----

> Is there any function in libX11 or elsewhere which "encodes" an input
> string in a way that all special chars like '**, '\'', '"', ' ', '\n'
> etc. are escaped in a way that they don't cause chaos in a XRM database
> ? I'd like to add random strings to a XRM database and like to ensure
> that the input doesn't screw-up the database...

man X:

Any whitespace character before or after the name or colon
in a ResourceSpec are ignored. To allow a Value to begin
with whitespace, the two-character sequence ``\space''
(backslash followed by space) is recognized and replaced by
a space character, and the two-character sequence ``\tab''
(backslash followed by horizontal tab) is recognized and
replaced by a horizontal tab character. To allow a Value to
contain embedded newline characters, the two-character
sequence ``\n'' is recognized and replaced by a newline
character. To allow a Value to be broken across multiple
lines in a text file, the two-character sequence ``\new-
line'' (backslash followed by newline) is recognized and
removed from the value. To allow a Value to contain arbi-
trary character codes, the four-character sequence ``\nnn'',
where each n is a digit character in the range of
``0''-``7'', is recognized and replaced with a single byte
that contains the octal value specified by the sequence.
Finally, the two-character sequence ``\\'' is recognized and
replaced with a single backslash.


--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

Thomas Dickey wrote:
> > Is there any function in libX11 or elsewhere which "encodes" an input
> > string in a way that all special chars like '**, '\'', '"', ' ', '\n'
> > etc. are escaped in a way that they don't cause chaos in a XRM database
> > ? I'd like to add random strings to a XRM database and like to ensure
> > that the input doesn't screw-up the database...
>
> man X:
>
> Any whitespace character before or after the name or colon
> in a ResourceSpec are ignored. To allow a Value to begin
> with whitespace, the two-character sequence ``\space''
> (backslash followed by space) is recognized and replaced by
> a space character, and the two-character sequence ``\tab''
> (backslash followed by horizontal tab) is recognized and
> replaced by a horizontal tab character. To allow a Value to
> contain embedded newline characters, the two-character
> sequence ``\n'' is recognized and replaced by a newline
> character. To allow a Value to be broken across multiple
> lines in a text file, the two-character sequence ``\new-
> line'' (backslash followed by newline) is recognized and
> removed from the value. To allow a Value to contain arbi-
> trary character codes, the four-character sequence ``\nnn'',
> where each n is a digit character in the range of
> ``0''-``7'', is recognized and replaced with a single byte
> that contains the octal value specified by the sequence.
> Finally, the two-character sequence ``\\'' is recognized and
> replaced with a single backslash.

There is no function in libX11 which takes care about encoding/decoding
per above rules, right ?

----

Bye,
Roland

--
__ . . __
(o.\ \/ /.o) roland.mainz@nrubsig.org
\__\/\/__/ MPEG specialist, C&&JAVA&&Sun&&Unix programmer
/O /==\ O\ TEL +49 641 7950090
(;O/ \/ \O

Roland Mainz wrote:

> There is no function in libX11 which takes care about encoding/decoding
> per above rules, right ?

not that I'm aware of. However, there are a lot of undocumented functions
in X's libraries (anything like this, which isn't essential, is likely
to fall into that category). Other than by grep'ing around for related
scanf's or atoi's, etc, you're not likely to stumble upon it(*).

If it did exist, I'd expect to find it in Xt or one of the libraries that
depend on that, rather than X11. Functions that belong to X11 are related
to the X protocol. Xt manages the resources.

(*) of course you might stumble upon something which is listed in a public
header file, and feel entitled to use it...

--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

Thomas Dickey wrote:

> not that I'm aware of. However, there are a lot of undocumented functions

I use grep (of course) to find information in the X libraries. And followup
with grep on the related X specs & documentation. Sadly, the documentation
generally lacks the detail that I'm looking for. (If it didn't, xterm's
manpage wouldn't be the largest one in the X tree).

--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

Roland Mainz wrote:
>Thomas Dickey wrote:
>> > Is there any function in libX11 or elsewhere which "encodes" an input
>> > string in a way that all special chars like '**, '\'', '"', ' ', '\n'
>> > etc. are escaped in a way that they don't cause chaos in a XRM database
>> > ? I'd like to add random strings to a XRM database and like to ensure
>> > that the input doesn't screw-up the database...
>>
>> man X:
>>
>> Any whitespace character before or after the name or colon
>> in a ResourceSpec are ignored. To allow a Value to begin
>> with whitespace, the two-character sequence ``\space''
>> (backslash followed by space) is recognized and replaced by
>> a space character, and the two-character sequence ``\tab''
>> (backslash followed by horizontal tab) is recognized and
>> replaced by a horizontal tab character. To allow a Value to
>> contain embedded newline characters, the two-character
>> sequence ``\n'' is recognized and replaced by a newline
>> character. To allow a Value to be broken across multiple
>> lines in a text file, the two-character sequence ``\new-
>> line'' (backslash followed by newline) is recognized and
>> removed from the value. To allow a Value to contain arbi-
>> trary character codes, the four-character sequence ``\nnn'',
>> where each n is a digit character in the range of
>> ``0''-``7'', is recognized and replaced with a single byte
>> that contains the octal value specified by the sequence.
>> Finally, the two-character sequence ``\\'' is recognized and
>> replaced with a single backslash.
>
>There is no function in libX11 which takes care about encoding/decoding
>per above rules, right ?

XrmPutFileDatabase will do this, but I doubt it's the way to go.

Xt resources are built around converters; much as printf/scanf will
convert to/from "123" and 123, Xt allows you to define converters to
convert between the internal and external forms of a resource. The
external form is always XtRString, and it is a multibyte string (in
the current locale), possibly including the above escapes.

So, consider something like an encryption key or MD5 sum, which is a
string of arbitrary bytes. The external form is the printable
hexadecimal representation, and this is what should be stored in a .ad
file. You simply define a converter that converts the printed hex to
an internal string.

In this example, using the escaped octal form is piker programming:
it might not be read back correctly under a different locale.