.\" $Id$
.\"
.TH curl_printf 3 "30 April 2004" "libcurl 7.12" "libcurl Manual"
.SH NAME
curl_maprintf, curl_mfprintf, curl_mprintf, curl_msnprintf, curl_msprintf
curl_mvaprintf, curl_mvfprintf, curl_mvprintf, curl_mvsnprintf,
curl_mvsprintf - formatted output conversion
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <curl/mprintf.h>
.sp
.BI "int curl_mprintf(const char *" format ", ...);"
.br
.BI "int curl_mfprintf(FILE *" fd ", const char *" format ", ...);"
.br
.BI "int curl_msprintf(char *" buffer ", const char *" format ", ...);"
.br
.BI "int curl_msnprintf(char *" buffer ", size_t " maxlength ", const char *" format ", ...);"
.br
.BI "int curl_mvprintf(const char *" format ", va_list " args ");"
.br
.BI "int curl_mvfprintf(FILE *" fd ", const char *" format ", va_list " args ");"
.br
.BI "int curl_mvsprintf(char *" buffer ", const char *" format ", va_list " args ");"
.br
.BI "int curl_mvsnprintf(char *" buffer ", size_t " maxlength ", const char *" format ", va_list " args ");"
.br
.BI "char *curl_maprintf(const char *" format ", ...);"
.br
.BI "char *curl_mvaprintf(const char *" format ", va_list " args ");"
.SH DESCRIPTION
These are all functions that produces output according to a format string and
given arguments. These are mostly clones of the well-known C-style functions
and there will be no detailed explanation of all available formatting rules
and usage here.

See this table for notable exceptions.
.RS
.TP
.B curl_mprintf()
Normal printf() clone.
.TP
.B curl_mfprintf()
Normal fprintf() clone.
.TP
.B curl_msprintf()
Normal sprintf() clone.
.TP
.B curl_msnprintf()
snprintf() clone. Many systems don't have this. It is just like \fBsprintf\fP
but with an extra argument after the buffer that specifies the length of the
target buffer.
.TP
.B curl_mvprintf()
Normal vprintf() clone.
.TP
.B curl_mvfprintf()
Normal vfprintf() clone.
.TP
.B curl_mvsprintf()
Normal vsprintf() clone.
.TP
.B curl_mvsnprintf()
vsnprintf() clone.  Many systems don't have this. It is just like
\fBvsprintf\fP but with an extra argument after the buffer that specifies the
length of the target buffer.
.TP
.B curl_maprintf()
Like printf() but returns the output string as a malloc()ed string. The
returned string must be free()ed by the receiver.
.TP
.B curl_mvaprintf()
Like curl_maprintf() but takes a va_list pointer argument instead of a
variable amount of arguments.
.RE

To easily use all these cloned functions instead of the normal ones, #define
_MPRINTF_REPLACE before you include the <curl/mprintf.h> file. Then all the
normal names like printf, fprintf, sprintf etc will use the curl-functions
instead.
.SH AVAILABILITY
These function will be removed from the public libcurl API in a near
future. They will instead be made "available" by source code access only, and
then as curlx_-prefixed functions. See lib/README.curlx for further details.
.SH RETURN VALUE
The \fBcurl_maprintf\fP and \fBcurl_mvaprintf\fP functions return a pointer to
a newly allocated string, or NULL it it failed.

All other functions return the number of character they actually outputed.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR printf "(3), " sprintf "(3), " fprintf "(3), " vprintf "(3) "