.\" **************************************************************************
.\" *                                  _   _ ____  _
.\" *  Project                     ___| | | |  _ \| |
.\" *                             / __| | | | |_) | |
.\" *                            | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
.\" *                             \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|
.\" *
.\" * Copyright (C) 1998 - 2020, Daniel Stenberg, <daniel@haxx.se>, et al.
.\" *
.\" * This software is licensed as described in the file COPYING, which
.\" * you should have received as part of this distribution. The terms
.\" * are also available at https://curl.haxx.se/docs/copyright.html.
.\" *
.\" * You may opt to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute and/or sell
.\" * copies of the Software, and permit persons to whom the Software is
.\" * furnished to do so, under the terms of the COPYING file.
.\" *
.\" * This software is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
.\" * KIND, either express or implied.
.\" *
.\" **************************************************************************
.\"
.TH curl_easy_escape 3 "7 April 2006" "libcurl 7.15.4" "libcurl Manual"
.SH NAME
curl_easy_escape - URL encodes the given string
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <curl/curl.h>
.sp
.BI "char *curl_easy_escape( CURL *" curl ", const char *" string
.BI ", int "length " );"
.ad
.SH DESCRIPTION
This function converts the given input \fIstring\fP to a URL encoded string
and returns that as a new allocated string. All input characters that are not
a-z, A-Z, 0-9, '-', '.', '_' or '~' are converted to their "URL escaped"
version (%NN where NN is a two-digit hexadecimal number).

If \fIlength\fP is set to 0 (zero), \fIcurl_easy_escape(3)\fP uses strlen() on
the input \fIstring\fP to find out the size.

You must \fIcurl_free(3)\fP the returned string when you're done with it.
.SH ENCODING
libcurl is typically not aware of, nor does it care about, character
encodings. \fIcurl_easy_escape(3)\fP encodes the data byte-by-byte into the
URL encoded version without knowledge or care for what particular character
encoding the application or the receiving server may assume that the data
uses.

The caller of \fIcurl_easy_escape(3)\fP must make sure that the data passed in
to the function is encoded correctly.
.SH AVAILABILITY
Added in 7.15.4 and replaces the old \fIcurl_escape(3)\fP function.
.SH RETURN VALUE
A pointer to a null-terminated string or NULL if it failed.
.SH EXAMPLE
.nf
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if(curl) {
  char *output = curl_easy_escape(curl, "data to convert", 15);
  if(output) {
    printf("Encoded: %s\\n", output);
    curl_free(output);
  }
}
.fi
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR curl_easy_unescape "(3), " curl_free "(3), " RFC 3986