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Versions: (RFC 3492) 00 01 02
INTERNET-DRAFT Adam M. Costello
draft-costello-rfc3492bis-02.txt 2004-Apr-14
Expires 2004-Oct-14
Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of Unicode
for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)
Status of this Memo
This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note
that other groups may also distribute working documents as
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Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
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The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
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Distribution of this document is unlimited.
Abstract
Punycode is a simple and efficient transfer encoding syntax designed
for use with Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA).
It uniquely and reversibly transforms a Unicode string into an ASCII
string. ASCII characters in the Unicode string are represented
literally, and non-ASCII characters are represented by ASCII
characters that are allowed in host name labels (letters, digits,
and hyphens). This document defines a general algorithm called
Bootstring that allows a string of basic code points to uniquely
represent any string of code points drawn from a larger set.
Punycode is an instance of Bootstring that uses particular parameter
values specified by this document, appropriate for IDNA.
Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Features
1.2 Interaction of protocol parts
2. Terminology
3. Bootstring description
3.1 Basic code point segregation
3.2 Insertion unsort coding
3.3 Generalized variable-length integers
3.4 Bias adaptation
4. Bootstring parameters
5. Parameter values for Punycode
6. Bootstring algorithms
6.1 Bias adaptation function
6.2 Decoding procedure
6.3 Encoding procedure
6.4 Overflow handling
7. Punycode examples
7.1 Sample strings
7.2 Decoding traces
7.3 Encoding traces
8. Security considerations
9. References
9.1 Normative references
9.2 Informative references
A. Mixed-case annotation
B. Disclaimer and license
C. Punycode sample implementation
D. Changes from RFC 3492
Author's address
1. Introduction
[IDNA] describes an architecture for supporting internationalized
domain names. Labels containing non-ASCII characters can be
represented by ACE labels, which begin with a special ACE prefix and
contain only ASCII characters. The remainder of the label after the
prefix is a Punycode encoding of a Unicode string satisfying certain
constraints. For the details of the prefix and constraints, see
[IDNA] and [NAMEPREP].
Punycode is an instance of a more general algorithm called
Bootstring, which allows strings composed from a small set of
"basic" code points to uniquely represent any string of code points
drawn from a larger set. Punycode is Bootstring with particular
parameter values appropriate for IDNA.
1.1 Features
Bootstring has been designed to have the following features:
* Completeness: Every extended string (sequence of arbitrary code
points) can be represented by a basic string (sequence of basic
code points). Restrictions on what strings are allowed, and on
length, can be imposed by higher layers.
* Uniqueness: There is at most one basic string that represents a
given extended string.
* Reversibility: Any extended string mapped to a basic string can
be recovered from that basic string.
* Efficient encoding: The ratio of basic string length to
extended string length is small. This is important in the
context of domain names because RFC 1034 [RFC1034] restricts the
length of a domain label to 63 characters.
* Simplicity: The encoding and decoding algorithms are reasonably
simple to implement. The goals of efficiency and simplicity are
at odds; Bootstring aims at a good balance between them.
* Readability: Basic code points appearing in the extended string
are represented as themselves in the basic string (although the
main purpose is to improve efficiency, not readability).
Punycode can also support an additional feature that is not used
by the ToASCII and ToUnicode operations of [IDNA]. When extended
strings are case-folded prior to encoding, the basic string can
use mixed case to tell how to convert the folded string into a
mixed-case string. See appendix A "Mixed-case annotation".
1.2 Interaction of protocol parts
Punycode is used by the IDNA protocol [IDNA] for converting domain
labels into ASCII; it is not designed for any other purpose. It is
explicitly not designed for processing arbitrary free text.
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14, RFC 2119
[RFC2119].
A code point is an integral value associated with a character in a
coded character set.
As in the Unicode Standard [UNICODE], Unicode code points are
denoted by "U+" followed by four to six hexadecimal digits, while a
range of code points is denoted by two hexadecimal numbers separated
by "..", with no prefixes.
The operators div and mod perform integer division; (x div y) is the
quotient of x divided by y, discarding the remainder, and (x mod y)
is the remainder, so (x div y) * y + (x mod y) == x. Bootstring
uses these operators only with nonnegative operands, so the quotient
and remainder are always nonnegative.
The break statement jumps out of the innermost loop (as in C).
An overflow is an attempt to compute a value that exceeds the
maximum value of an integer variable. It is assumed that all
integer values from zero through the maximum value can be
represented.
3. Bootstring description
Bootstring represents an arbitrary sequence of code points (the
"extended string") as a sequence of basic code points (the "basic
string"). This section describes the representation. Section 6
"Bootstring algorithms" presents the algorithms as pseudocode.
Sections 7.1 "Decoding traces" and 7.2 "Encoding traces" trace the
algorithms for sample inputs.
The following sections describe the four techniques used in
Bootstring. "Basic code point segregation" is a very simple
and efficient encoding for basic code points occurring in the
extended string: they are simply copied all at once. "Insertion
unsort coding" encodes the non-basic code points as deltas, and
processes the code points in numerical order rather than in order of
appearance, which typically results in smaller deltas. The deltas
are represented as "generalized variable-length integers", which use
basic code points to represent nonnegative integers. The parameters
of this integer representation are dynamically adjusted using "bias
adaptation", to improve efficiency when consecutive deltas have
similar magnitudes.
3.1 Basic code point segregation
All basic code points appearing in the extended string are
represented literally at the beginning of the basic string, in their
original order, followed by a delimiter if (and only if) the number
of basic code points is nonzero. At least one basic code point is
designated to serve as delimiter. Delimiters never appear in the
remainder of the basic string; therefore the decoder can find the
end of the literal portion (if there is one) by scanning for the
last delimiter.
3.2 Insertion unsort coding
The remainder of the basic string (after the last delimiter if there
is one) represents a sequence of nonnegative integral deltas as
generalized variable-length integers, described in section 3.3. The
meaning of the deltas is best understood in terms of the decoder.
The decoder builds the extended string incrementally. Initially,
the extended string is a copy of the literal portion of the basic
string (excluding the last delimiter). The decoder inserts
non-basic code points, one for each delta, into the extended string,
ultimately arriving at the final decoded string.
At the heart of this process is a state machine with two state
variables: an index i and a counter n. The index i refers to
a position in the extended string; it ranges from 0 (the first
position) to the current length of the extended string (which refers
to a potential position beyond the current end). If the current
state is <n,i>, the next state is <n,i+1> if i is less than the
length of the extended string, or <n+1,0> if i equals the length of
the extended string. In other words, each state change causes i to
increment, wrapping around to zero if necessary, and n counts the
number of wrap-arounds.
Notice that the state always advances monotonically (there is no
way for the decoder to return to an earlier state). At each state,
an insertion is either performed or not performed. At most one
insertion is performed in a given state. An insertion inserts the
value of n at position i in the extended string. The deltas are
a run-length encoding of this sequence of events: they are the
lengths of the runs of non-insertion states preceeding the insertion
states. Hence, for each delta, the decoder performs delta state
changes, then an insertion, and then one more state change. (An
implementation need not perform each state change individually, but
can instead use division and remainder calculations to compute the
next insertion state directly.) It is an error if the inserted code
point is a basic code point (because basic code points were supposed
to be segregated as described in section 3.1).
The encoder's main task is to derive the sequence of deltas that
will cause the decoder to construct the desired string. It can do
this by repeatedly scanning the extended string for the next code
point that the decoder would need to insert, and counting the number
of state changes the decoder would need to perform, mindful of the
fact that the decoder's extended string will include only those
code points that have already been inserted. Section 6.3 "Encoding
procedure" gives a precise algorithm.
3.3 Generalized variable-length integers
In a conventional integer representation the base is the number of
distinct symbols for digits, whose values are 0 through base-1. Let
digit_0 denote the least significant digit, digit_1 the next least
significant, and so on. The value represented is the sum over j of
digit_j * w(j), where w(j) = base^j is the weight (scale factor)
for position j. For example, in the base 8 integer 437, the digits
are 7, 3, and 4, and the weights are 1, 8, and 64, so the value is
7 + 3*8 + 4*64 = 287. This representation has two disadvantages:
First, there are multiple encodings of each value (because there
can be extra zeros in the most significant positions), which is
inconvenient when unique encodings are needed. Second, the integer
is not self-delimiting, so if multiple integers are concatenated the
boundaries between them are lost.
The generalized variable-length representation solves these two
problems. The digit values are still 0 through base-1, but now
the integer is self-delimiting by means of thresholds t(j), each
of which is in the range 0 through base-1. Exactly one digit, the
most significant, satisfies digit_j < t(j). Therefore, if several
integers are concatenated, it is easy to separate them, starting
with the first if they are little-endian (least significant digit
first), or starting with the last if they are big-endian (most
significant digit first). As before, the value is the sum over j of
digit_j * w(j), but the weights are different:
w(0) = 1
w(j) = w(j-1) * (base - t(j-1)) for j > 0
For example, consider the little-endian sequence of base 8 digits
734251... Suppose the thresholds are 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5... This
implies that the weights are 1, 1*(8-2) = 6, 6*(8-3) = 30, 30*(8-5)
= 90, 90*(8-5) = 270, and so on. 7 is not less than 2, and 3 is
not less than 3, but 4 is less than 5, so 4 is the last digit. The
value of 734 is 7*1 + 3*6 + 4*30 = 145. The next integer is 251,
with value 2*1 + 5*6 + 1*30 = 62. Decoding this representation
is very similar to decoding a conventional integer: Start with a
current value of N = 0 and a weight w = 1. Fetch the next digit d
and increase N by d * w. If d is less than the current threshold
(t) then stop, otherwise increase w by a factor of (base - t),
update t for the next position, and repeat.
Encoding this representation is similar to encoding a conventional
integer: If N < t then output one digit for N and stop, otherwise
output the digit for t + ((N - t) mod (base - t)), then replace N
with (N - t) div (base - t), update t for the next position, and
repeat.
For any particular set of values of t(j), there is exactly one
generalized variable-length representation of each nonnegative
integral value.
Bootstring uses little-endian ordering so that the deltas can be
separated starting with the first. The t(j) values are defined in
terms of the constants base, tmin, and tmax, and a state variable
called bias:
t(j) = base * (j + 1) - bias,
clamped to the range tmin through tmax
The clamping means that if the formula yields a value less than tmin
or greater than tmax, then t(j) = tmin or tmax, respectively. (In
the pseudocode in section 6 "Bootstring algorithms", the expression
base * (j + 1) is denoted by k for performance reasons.) These
t(j) values cause the representation to favor integers within a
particular range determined by the bias.
3.4 Bias adaptation
After each delta is encoded or decoded, bias is set for the next
delta as follows:
1. Delta is scaled in order to avoid overflow in the next step:
let delta = delta div 2
But when this is the very first delta, the divisor is not 2, but
instead a constant called damp. This compensates for the fact
that the second delta is usually much smaller than the first.
2. Delta is increased to compensate for the fact that the next
delta will be inserting into a longer string:
let delta = delta + (delta div numpoints)
numpoints is the total number of code points encoded/decoded so
far (including the one corresponding to this delta itself, and
including the basic code points).
3. Delta is repeatedly divided until it falls within a threshold,
to predict the minimum number of digits needed to represent the
next delta:
while delta > ((base - tmin) * tmax) div 2
do let delta = delta div (base - tmin)
4. The bias is set:
let bias =
(base * the number of divisions performed in step 3) +
(((base - tmin + 1) * delta) div (delta + skew))
The motivation for this procedure is that the current delta provides
a hint about the likely size of the next delta, and so t(j) is
set to tmax for the more significant digits starting with the one
expected to be last, tmin for the less significant digits up through
the one expected to be third-last, and somewhere between tmin and
tmax for the digit expected to be second-last (balancing the hope of
the expected-last digit being unnecessary against the danger of it
being insufficient).
4. Bootstring parameters
Given a set of basic code points, at least one needs to be
designated to serve as delimiter. The base cannot be greater than
the number of distinguishable basic code points remaining. The
digit-values in the range 0 through base-1 need to be associated
with distinct non-delimiter basic code points. In some cases
multiple code points need to have the same digit-value; for example,
uppercase and lowercase versions of the same letter need to be
equivalent if basic strings are case-insensitive.
The initial value of n cannot be greater than the minimum non-basic
code point that could appear in extended strings.
The remaining five parameters (tmin, tmax, skew, damp, and the
initial value of bias) need to satisfy the following constraints:
0 <= tmin <= base-2
1 <= tmax <= base-1
tmin <= tmax
skew >= 1
damp >= 2
initial_bias mod base <= base - tmin
Provided the constraints are satisfied, these five parameters affect
efficiency but not correctness. They are best chosen empirically.
If support for mixed-case annotation is desired (see appendix A),
make sure that the code points corresponding to 0 through tmax-1 all
have both uppercase and lowercase forms.
5. Parameter values for Punycode
Punycode uses the following Bootstring parameter values:
base = 36
tmin = 1
tmax = 26
skew = 38
damp = 700
initial_bias = 72
initial_n = 128 = 0x80
Although the only restriction Punycode imposes on the input integers
is that they be nonnegative, these parameters are especially
designed to work well with Unicode [UNICODE] code points, which are
integers in the range 0..10FFFF. (Note that code points D800..DFFF
do not occur in any valid Unicode string. UTF-16 uses code units
D800 through DFFF to refer to code points 10000..10FFFF.) The
basic code points are the ASCII [ASCII] code points (0..7F), of
which U+002D (-) is the only delimiter, and some of the others have
digit-values as follows:
code points digit-values
------------ ----------------------
41..5A (A-Z) = 0 to 25, respectively
61..7A (a-z) = 0 to 25, respectively
30..39 (0-9) = 26 to 35, respectively
Using hyphen-minus as the delimiter implies that the encoded string
can end with a hyphen-minus only if the Unicode string consists
entirely of basic code points, but IDNA forbids such strings from
being encoded. The encoded string can begin with a hyphen-minus,
but IDNA prepends a prefix. Therefore IDNA using Punycode conforms
to the RFC 952 rule that host name labels neither begin nor end with
a hyphen-minus [RFC952].
In the non-literal portion of an encoded string, an encoder SHOULD
output only uppercase forms or only lowercase forms, unless it
uses mixed-case annotation (see appendix A). But a decoder MUST
recognize the letters in any mixture of uppercase and lowercase
forms.
Presumably most users will not manually write or type encoded
strings (as opposed to cutting and pasting them), but those who do
will need to be alert to the potential visual ambiguity between the
following sets of characters:
G 6
I l 1
O 0
S 5
U V
Z 2
Such ambiguities are usually resolved by context, but in a Punycode
encoded string there is no context apparent to humans.
6. Bootstring algorithms
Some parts of the pseudocode can be omitted if the parameters
satisfy certain conditions (for which Punycode qualifies). These
parts are enclosed in {braces}, and notes immediately following the
pseudocode explain the conditions under which they can be omitted.
Formally, code points are integers, and hence the pseudocode assumes
that arithmetic operations can be performed directly on code points.
In some programming languages, explicit conversion between code
points and integers might be necessary.
6.1 Bias adaptation function
function adapt(delta,numpoints,firsttime):
if firsttime then let delta = delta div damp
else let delta = delta div 2
let delta = delta + (delta div numpoints)
let k = 0
while delta > ((base - tmin) * tmax) div 2 do begin
let delta = delta div (base - tmin)
let k = k + base
end
return k + (((base - tmin + 1) * delta) div (delta + skew))
It does not matter whether the modifications to delta and k
inside adapt() affect variables of the same name inside the
encoding/decoding procedures, because after calling adapt() the
caller does not read those variables before overwriting them.
If overflow is possible within adapt() then it MUST be detected,
causing the caller to fail; see section 6.4 "Overflow handling" for
detection techniques. However, if the range of the integers is
great enough then overflow will be impossible and no detection will
be necessary. Overflow will be impossible within adapt() if the
maximum integer value (maxint) satisfies all three of the following
conditions:
maxint >= (((base - tmin) * tmax) div 2) + skew
maxint >= (base - tmin + 1) * (((base - tmin) * tmax) div 2)
maxint >= base * log(maxint * 2.0 / tmax) / log(base - tmin)
+ base - tmin
For practical values of maxint and the Bootstring parameters these
conditions will indeed be satisfied, and hence no overflow detection
will be needed in adapt(). For Punycode, the conditions are
satisfied whenever maxint >= 16380, which is true for virtually all
programming languages and all platforms.
6.2 Decoding procedure
let n = initial_n
let i = 0
let bias = initial_bias
let output = an empty string indexed from 0
consume all code points before the last delimiter (if there is one)
and copy them to output, fail on any non-basic code point
if more than zero code points were consumed then consume one more
(which will be the last delimiter)
while the input is not exhausted do begin
let oldi = i
let w = 1
for k = base to infinity in steps of base do begin
consume a code point, or fail if there was none to consume
let digit = the code point's digit-value, fail if it has none
let i = i + digit * w, fail on overflow
let t = tmin if k <= bias {+ tmin}, or
tmax if k >= bias + tmax, or k - bias otherwise
if digit < t then break
let w = w * (base - t), fail on overflow
end
let bias = adapt(i - oldi, length(output) + 1, test oldi is 0?)
let n = n + i div (length(output) + 1), fail on overflow
let i = i mod (length(output) + 1)
{if n is a basic code point then fail}
insert n into output at position i
increment i
end
The full statement enclosed in braces (checking whether n is a basic
code point) can be omitted if initial_n exceeds all basic code
points (which is true for Punycode), because n is never less than
initial_n.
In the assignment of t, where t is clamped to the range tmin through
tmax, "+ tmin" can always be omitted. This makes the clamping
calculation incorrect when bias < k < bias + tmin, but that cannot
happen because of the way bias is computed and because of the
constraints on the parameters.
Because the decoder state can only advance monotonically, and there
is only one representation of any delta, there is therefore only
one encoded string that can represent a given sequence of integers.
The only error conditions are invalid code points, unexpected
end-of-input, overflow, and basic code points encoded using deltas
instead of appearing literally. Because the decoder fails on these
errors as shown above, it cannot produce the same output for two
distinct inputs. Without this property it would have been necessary
to re-encode the output and verify that it matches the input in
order to guarantee the uniqueness of the encoding.
Therefore decoders MUST implement error handling, including the
handling of overflow. See also section 6.4 "Overflow handling".
6.3 Encoding procedure
let n = initial_n
let delta = 0
let bias = initial_bias
let h = b = the number of basic code points in the input
copy them to the output in order, followed by a delimiter if b > 0
{if the input contains a non-basic code point < n then fail}
while h < length(input) do begin
let m = the minimum {non-basic} code point >= n in the input
let delta = delta + (m - n) * (h + 1), fail on overflow
let n = m
for each code point c in the input (in order) do begin
if c < n {or c is basic} then increment delta, fail on overflow
if c == n then begin
let q = delta
for k = base to infinity in steps of base do begin
let t = tmin if k <= bias {+ tmin}, or
tmax if k >= bias + tmax, or k - bias otherwise
if q < t then break
output the code point for digit t + ((q - t) mod (base - t))
let q = (q - t) div (base - t)
end
output the code point for digit q
let bias = adapt(delta, h + 1, test h equals b?)
let delta = 0
increment h
end
end
increment delta and n
end
The full statement enclosed in braces (checking whether the input
contains a non-basic code point less than n) can be omitted if all
code points less than initial_n are basic code points (which is true
for Punycode if code points are unsigned).
The brace-enclosed conditions "non-basic" and "or c is basic" can be
omitted if initial_n exceeds all basic code points (which is true
for Punycode), because the code point being tested is never less
than initial_n.
In the assignment of t, where t is clamped to the range tmin through
tmax, "+ tmin" can always be omitted. This makes the clamping
calculation incorrect when bias < k < bias + tmin, but that cannot
happen because of the way bias is computed and because of the
constraints on the parameters.
The checks for overflow are necessary to avoid producing invalid
output when the input contains very large values or is very long.
Therefore encoders MUST implement overflow handling. See also
section 6.4 "Overflow handling".
The increment of delta at the bottom of the outer loop cannot
overflow because delta < length(input) before the increment, and
length(input) is already assumed to be representable. The increment
of n could overflow, but only if h == length(input), in which case
the procedure is finished anyway.
6.4 Overflow handling
For IDNA, 26-bit unsigned integers are sufficient to handle all
valid IDNA labels without overflow, because any string that
needed a 27-bit delta would have to exceed either the code point
limit (0..10FFFF) or the label length limit (63 characters).
However, overflow handling is necessary because the inputs are not
necessarily valid IDNA labels.
If the programming language does not provide overflow detection,
the following technique can be used. Suppose A, B, and C are
representable nonnegative integers and C is nonzero. Then A + B
overflows if and only if B > maxint - A, and A + (B * C) overflows
if and only if B > (maxint - A) div C, where maxint is the greatest
integer that can be represented. Refer to appendix C "Punycode
sample implementation" for demonstrations of this technique in the C
language.
The decoding and encoding algorithms shown in sections 6.2 and
6.3 handle overflow by detecting it whenever it happens. Another
approach is to enforce limits on the inputs that prevent overflow
from happening. For example, if the encoder were to verify that
no input code points exceed M and that the input length does not
exceed L, then no delta could ever exceed (M - initial_n) * (L + 1),
and hence no overflow could occur if integer variables were capable
of representing values that large. This prevention approach would
impose more restrictions on the input than the detection approach
does, but might be considered simpler in some programming languages.
In theory, the decoder could use an analogous approach, limiting the
number of digits in a variable-length integer (that is, limiting the
number of iterations in the innermost loop). However, the number
of digits that suffice to represent a given delta can sometimes
represent much larger deltas (because of the adaptation), and hence
this approach would probably need integers wider than 32 bits.
Yet another approach for the decoder is to allow overflow to occur,
but to check the final output string by re-encoding it and comparing
to the decoder input. If and only if they do not match (using a
case-insensitive ASCII comparison) overflow has occurred. This
delayed-detection approach would not impose any more restrictions on
the input than the immediate-detection approach does, and might be
considered simpler in some programming languages.
In fact, if the decoder is used only inside the IDNA ToUnicode
operation [IDNA], then it need not check for overflow at all,
because ToUnicode performs a higher level re-encoding and
comparison, and a mismatch has the same consequence as if the
Punycode decoder had failed.
7. Punycode examples
7.1 Sample strings
In the Punycode encodings below, the ACE prefix is not shown.
Backslashes show where line breaks have been inserted in strings too
long for one line. The encodings below use mixed-case annotation
(see appendix A), but all-uppercase or all-lowercase for the
non-literal portion would also be correct. The code points begin
with U+ or u+ to indicate the case flag, as expected by the sample
Punycode implementation (see appendix C).
The first several examples are all translations of the sentence "Why
can't they just speak in <language>?" (courtesy of Michael Kaplan's
"provincial" page [PROVINCIAL]). Word breaks and punctuation have
been removed, as is often done in domain names.
(A) Arabic (Egyptian):
u+0644 u+064A u+0647 u+0645 u+0627 u+0628 u+062A u+0643 u+0644
u+0645 u+0648 u+0634 u+0639 u+0631 u+0628 u+064A u+061F
Punycode: egbpdaj6bu4bxfgehfvwxn
(B) Chinese (simplified):
u+4ED6 u+4EEC u+4E3A u+4EC0 u+4E48 u+4E0D u+8BF4 u+4E2D u+6587
Punycode: ihqwcrb4cv8a8dqg056pqjye
(C) Chinese (traditional):
u+4ED6 u+5011 u+7232 u+4EC0 u+9EBD u+4E0D u+8AAA u+4E2D u+6587
Punycode: ihqwctvzc91f659drss3x8bo0yb
(D) Czech: Pro<ccaron>prost<ecaron>nemluv<iacute><ccaron>esky
U+0050 u+0072 u+006F u+010D u+0070 u+0072 u+006F u+0073 u+0074
u+011B u+006E u+0065 u+006D u+006C u+0075 u+0076 u+00ED u+010D
u+0065 u+0073 u+006B u+0079
Punycode: Proprostnemluvesky-uyb24dma41a
(E) Hebrew:
u+05DC u+05DE u+05D4 u+05D4 u+05DD u+05E4 u+05E9 u+05D5 u+05D8
u+05DC u+05D0 u+05DE u+05D3 u+05D1 u+05E8 u+05D9 u+05DD u+05E2
u+05D1 u+05E8 u+05D9 u+05EA
Punycode: 4dbcagdahymbxekheh6e0a7fei0b
(F) Hindi (Devanagari):
u+092F u+0939 u+0932 u+094B u+0917 u+0939 u+093F u+0928 u+094D
u+0926 u+0940 u+0915 u+094D u+092F u+094B u+0902 u+0928 u+0939
u+0940 u+0902 u+092C u+094B u+0932 u+0938 u+0915 u+0924 u+0947
u+0939 u+0948 u+0902
Punycode: i1baa7eci9glrd9b2ae1bj0hfcgg6iyaf8o0a1dig0cd
(G) Japanese (kanji and hiragana):
u+306A u+305C u+307F u+3093 u+306A u+65E5 u+672C u+8A9E u+3092
u+8A71 u+3057 u+3066 u+304F u+308C u+306A u+3044 u+306E u+304B
Punycode: n8jok5ay5dzabd5bym9f0cm5685rrjetr6pdxa
(H) Korean (Hangul syllables):
u+C138 u+ACC4 u+C758 u+BAA8 u+B4E0 u+C0AC u+B78C u+B4E4 u+C774
u+D55C u+AD6D u+C5B4 u+B97C u+C774 u+D574 u+D55C u+B2E4 u+BA74
u+C5BC u+B9C8 u+B098 u+C88B u+C744 u+AE4C
Punycode: 989aomsvi5e83db1d2a355cv1e0vak1dwrv93d5xbh15a0dt30a5j\
psd879ccm6fea98c
(I) Russian (Cyrillic):
U+043F u+043E u+0447 u+0435 u+043C u+0443 u+0436 u+0435 u+043E
u+043D u+0438 u+043D u+0435 u+0433 u+043E u+0432 u+043E u+0440
u+044F u+0442 u+043F u+043E u+0440 u+0443 u+0441 u+0441 u+043A
u+0438
Punycode: b1abfaaepdrnnbgefbaDotcwatmq2g4l
(J) Spanish: Porqu<eacute>nopuedensimplementehablarenEspa<ntilde>ol
U+0050 u+006F u+0072 u+0071 u+0075 u+00E9 u+006E u+006F u+0070
u+0075 u+0065 u+0064 u+0065 u+006E u+0073 u+0069 u+006D u+0070
u+006C u+0065 u+006D u+0065 u+006E u+0074 u+0065 u+0068 u+0061
u+0062 u+006C u+0061 u+0072 u+0065 u+006E U+0045 u+0073 u+0070
u+0061 u+00F1 u+006F u+006C
Punycode: PorqunopuedensimplementehablarenEspaol-fmd56a
(K) Vietnamese:
T<adotbelow>isaoh<odotbelow>kh<ocirc>ngth<ecirchookabove>ch\
<ihookabove>n<oacute>iti<ecircacute>ngVi<ecircdotbelow>t
U+0054 u+1EA1 u+0069 u+0073 u+0061 u+006F u+0068 u+1ECD u+006B
u+0068 u+00F4 u+006E u+0067 u+0074 u+0068 u+1EC3 u+0063 u+0068
u+1EC9 u+006E u+00F3 u+0069 u+0074 u+0069 u+1EBF u+006E u+0067
U+0056 u+0069 u+1EC7 u+0074
Punycode: TisaohkhngthchnitingVit-kjcr8268qyxafd2f1b9g
The next several examples are all names of Japanese music artists,
song titles, and TV programs, just because the author happens to
have them handy (but Japanese is useful for providing examples
of single-row text, two-row text, ideographic text, and various
mixtures thereof).
(L) 3<nen>B<gumi><kinpachi><sensei>
u+0033 u+5E74 U+0042 u+7D44 u+91D1 u+516B u+5148 u+751F
Punycode: 3B-ww4c5e180e575a65lsy2b
(M) <amuro><namie>-with-SUPER-MONKEYS
u+5B89 u+5BA4 u+5948 u+7F8E u+6075 u+002D u+0077 u+0069 u+0074
u+0068 u+002D U+0053 U+0055 U+0050 U+0045 U+0052 u+002D U+004D
U+004F U+004E U+004B U+0045 U+0059 U+0053
Punycode: -with-SUPER-MONKEYS-pc58ag80a8qai00g7n9n
(N) Hello-Another-Way-<sorezore><no><basho>
U+0048 u+0065 u+006C u+006C u+006F u+002D U+0041 u+006E u+006F
u+0074 u+0068 u+0065 u+0072 u+002D U+0057 u+0061 u+0079 u+002D
u+305D u+308C u+305E u+308C u+306E u+5834 u+6240
Punycode: Hello-Another-Way--fc4qua05auwb3674vfr0b
(O) <hitotsu><yane><no><shita>2
u+3072 u+3068 u+3064 u+5C4B u+6839 u+306E u+4E0B u+0032
Punycode: 2-u9tlzr9756bt3uc0v
(P) Maji<de>Koi<suru>5<byou><mae>
U+004D u+0061 u+006A u+0069 u+3067 U+004B u+006F u+0069 u+3059
u+308B u+0035 u+79D2 u+524D
Punycode: MajiKoi5-783gue6qz075azm5e
(Q) <pafii>de<runba>
u+30D1 u+30D5 u+30A3 u+30FC u+0064 u+0065 u+30EB u+30F3 u+30D0
Punycode: de-jg4avhby1noc0d
(R) <sono><supiido><de>
u+305D u+306E u+30B9 u+30D4 u+30FC u+30C9 u+3067
Punycode: d9juau41awczczp
The last example is an ASCII string that breaks the existing rules
for host name labels. (It is not a realistic example for IDNA,
because IDNA never encodes pure ASCII labels.)
(S) -> $1.00 <-
u+002D u+003E u+0020 u+0024 u+0031 u+002E u+0030 u+0030 u+0020
u+003C u+002D
Punycode: -> $1.00 <--
7.2 Decoding traces
In the following traces, the evolving state of the decoder is
shown as a sequence of hexadecimal values, representing the code
points in the extended string. An asterisk appears just after the
most recently inserted code point, indicating both n (the value
preceeding the asterisk) and i (the position of the value just after
the asterisk). Other numerical values are decimal.
Decoding trace of example B from section 7.1:
n is 128, i is 0, bias is 72
input is "ihqwcrb4cv8a8dqg056pqjye"
there is no delimiter, so extended string starts empty
delta "ihq" decodes to 19853
bias becomes 21
4E0D *
delta "wc" decodes to 64
bias becomes 20
4E0D 4E2D *
delta "rb" decodes to 37
bias becomes 13
4E3A * 4E0D 4E2D
delta "4c" decodes to 56
bias becomes 17
4E3A 4E48 * 4E0D 4E2D
delta "v8a" decodes to 599
bias becomes 32
4E3A 4EC0 * 4E48 4E0D 4E2D
delta "8d" decodes to 130
bias becomes 23
4ED6 * 4E3A 4EC0 4E48 4E0D 4E2D
delta "qg" decodes to 154
bias becomes 25
4ED6 4EEC * 4E3A 4EC0 4E48 4E0D 4E2D
delta "056p" decodes to 46301
bias becomes 84
4ED6 4EEC 4E3A 4EC0 4E48 4E0D 4E2D 6587 *
delta "qjye" decodes to 88531
bias becomes 90
4ED6 4EEC 4E3A 4EC0 4E48 4E0D 8BF4 * 4E2D 6587
Decoding trace of example L from section 7.1:
n is 128, i is 0, bias is 72
input is "3B-ww4c5e180e575a65lsy2b"
literal portion is "3B-", so extended string starts as:
0033 0042
delta "ww4c" decodes to 62042
bias becomes 27
0033 0042 5148 *
delta "5e" decodes to 139
bias becomes 24
0033 0042 516B * 5148
delta "180e" decodes to 16683
bias becomes 67
0033 5E74 * 0042 516B 5148
delta "575a" decodes to 34821
bias becomes 82
0033 5E74 0042 516B 5148 751F *
delta "65l" decodes to 14592
bias becomes 67
0033 5E74 0042 7D44 * 516B 5148 751F
delta "sy2b" decodes to 42088
bias becomes 84
0033 5E74 0042 7D44 91D1 * 516B 5148 751F
7.3 Encoding traces
In the following traces, code point values are hexadecimal, while
other numerical values are decimal.
Encoding trace of example B from section 7.1:
bias is 72
input is:
4ED6 4EEC 4E3A 4EC0 4E48 4E0D 8BF4 4E2D 6587
there are no basic code points, so no literal portion
next code point to insert is 4E0D
needed delta is 19853, encodes as "ihq"
bias becomes 21
next code point to insert is 4E2D
needed delta is 64, encodes as "wc"
bias becomes 20
next code point to insert is 4E3A
needed delta is 37, encodes as "rb"
bias becomes 13
next code point to insert is 4E48
needed delta is 56, encodes as "4c"
bias becomes 17
next code point to insert is 4EC0
needed delta is 599, encodes as "v8a"
bias becomes 32
next code point to insert is 4ED6
needed delta is 130, encodes as "8d"
bias becomes 23
next code point to insert is 4EEC
needed delta is 154, encodes as "qg"
bias becomes 25
next code point to insert is 6587
needed delta is 46301, encodes as "056p"
bias becomes 84
next code point to insert is 8BF4
needed delta is 88531, encodes as "qjye"
bias becomes 90
output is "ihqwcrb4cv8a8dqg056pqjye"
Encoding trace of example L from section 7.1:
bias is 72
input is:
0033 5E74 0042 7D44 91D1 516B 5148 751F
basic code points (0033, 0042) are copied to literal portion: "3B-"
next code point to insert is 5148
needed delta is 62042, encodes as "ww4c"
bias becomes 27
next code point to insert is 516B
needed delta is 139, encodes as "5e"
bias becomes 24
next code point to insert is 5E74
needed delta is 16683, encodes as "180e"
bias becomes 67
next code point to insert is 751F
needed delta is 34821, encodes as "575a"
bias becomes 82
next code point to insert is 7D44
needed delta is 14592, encodes as "65l"
bias becomes 67
next code point to insert is 91D1
needed delta is 42088, encodes as "sy2b"
bias becomes 84
output is "3B-ww4c5e180e575a65lsy2b"
8. Security considerations
Users expect each domain name in DNS to be controlled by a single
authority. If a Unicode string intended for use as a domain label
could map to multiple ACE labels, then an internationalized domain
name could map to multiple ASCII domain names, each controlled by
a different authority, some of which could be spoofs that hijack
service requests intended for another. Therefore Punycode is
designed so that each Unicode string has a unique encoding.
However, there can still be multiple Unicode representations of the
"same" text, for various definitions of "same". This problem is
addressed to some extent by the Unicode standard under the topic of
canonicalization, and this work is leveraged for domain names by
Nameprep [NAMEPREP].
9. References
9.1 Normative references
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
9.2 Informative references
[ASCII] Cerf, V., "ASCII format for Network Interchange",
RFC 20, October 1969.
[IDNA] Faltstrom, P., Hoffman, P. and A. Costello,
"Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications
(IDNA)", draft-hoffman-rfc3490bis.
[NAMEPREP] Hoffman, P. and M. Blanchet, "Nameprep: A Stringprep
Profile for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)",
draft-hoffman-rfc3491bis.
[PROVINCIAL] Kaplan, M., "The 'anyone can be provincial!' page",
http://www.trigeminal.com/samples/provincial.html.
[RFC952] Harrenstien, K., Stahl, M. and E. Feinler, "DOD Internet
Host Table Specification", RFC 952, October 1985.
[RFC1034] Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and
Facilities", STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.
[UNICODE] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard",
http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/standard.html.
A. Mixed-case annotation
In order to use Punycode to represent case-insensitive strings,
higher layers need to case-fold the strings prior to Punycode
encoding. The encoded string can use mixed case as an annotation
telling how to convert the folded string into a mixed-case string
for display purposes. Note, however, that mixed-case annotation
is not used by the ToASCII and ToUnicode operations specified in
[IDNA], and therefore implementors of IDNA can disregard this
appendix.
Basic code points can use mixed case directly, because the decoder
copies them verbatim, leaving lowercase code points lowercase, and
leaving uppercase code points uppercase. Each non-basic code point
is represented by a delta, which is represented by a sequence of
basic code points, the last of which provides the annotation. If it
is uppercase, it is a suggestion to map the non-basic code point to
uppercase (if possible); if it is lowercase, it is a suggestion to
map the non-basic code point to lowercase (if possible).
These annotations do not alter the code points returned by decoders;
the annotations are returned separately, for the caller to use or
ignore. Encoders can accept annotations in addition to code points,
but the annotations do not alter the output, except to influence the
uppercase/lowercase form of ASCII letters.
Punycode encoders and decoders need not support these annotations,
and higher layers need not use them.
B. Disclaimer and license
Regarding this entire document or any portion of it (including
the pseudocode and C code), the author makes no guarantees and
is not responsible for any damage resulting from its use. The
author grants irrevocable permission to anyone to use, modify,
and distribute it in any way that does not diminish the rights
of anyone else to use, modify, and distribute it, provided that
redistributed derivative works do not contain misleading author or
version information. Derivative works need not be licensed under
similar terms.
C. Punycode sample implementation
/*
punycode-sample.c from RFC ????
http://www.nicemice.net/idn/
Adam M. Costello
http://www.nicemice.net/amc/
This is ANSI C code (C89) implementing Punycode (RFC ????).
This single file contains three sections (an interface, an
implementation, and a wrapper for testing) that would normally belong
in three separate files (punycode.h, punycode.c, punycode-test.c), but
here they are bundled into one file (punycode-sample.c) for convenient
testing. Anyone wishing to reuse this code will probably want to split
it apart.
*/
/************************************************************/
/* Public interface (would normally go in its own .h file): */
#include <limits.h>
#include <stddef.h>
enum punycode_status {
punycode_success = 0,
punycode_bad_input = 1, /* Input is invalid. */
punycode_big_output = 2, /* Output would exceed the space provided. */
punycode_overflow = 3 /* Wider integers needed to process input. */
};
/* punycode_uint needs to be unsigned and needs to be */
/* at least 26 bits wide. The particular type can be */
/* specified by defining PUNYCODE_UINT, otherwise a */
/* suitable type will be chosen automatically. */
#ifdef PUNYCODE_UINT
typedef PUNYCODE_UINT punycode_uint;
#elif UINT_MAX >= (1 << 26) - 1
typedef unsigned int punycode_uint;
#else
typedef unsigned long punycode_uint;
#endif
enum punycode_status punycode_encode(
size_t, /* input_length */
const punycode_uint [], /* input */
const unsigned char [], /* case_flags */
size_t *, /* output_length */
char [] /* output */
);
/*
punycode_encode() converts a sequence of code points (presumed to be
Unicode code points) to Punycode.
Input arguments (to be supplied by the caller):
input_length
The number of code points in the input array and the number
of flags in the case_flags array.
input
An array of code points. They are presumed to be Unicode
code points, but that is not strictly necessary. The
array contains code points, not code units. UTF-16 uses
code units D800 through DFFF to refer to code points
10000..10FFFF. The code points D800..DFFF do not occur in
any valid Unicode string. The code points that can occur in
Unicode strings (0..D7FF and E000..10FFFF) are also called
Unicode scalar values.
case_flags
A null pointer or an array of boolean values parallel to
the input array. Nonzero (true, flagged) suggests that the
corresponding Unicode character be forced to uppercase after
being decoded (if possible), and zero (false, unflagged)
suggests that it be forced to lowercase (if possible).
ASCII code points (0..7F) are encoded literally, except that
ASCII letters are forced to uppercase or lowercase according
to the corresponding case flags. If case_flags is a null
pointer then ASCII letters are left as they are, and other
code points are treated as unflagged.
Output arguments (to be filled in by the function):
output
An array of ASCII code points. It is *not* null-terminated;
it will contain zeros if and only if the input contains
zeros. (Of course the caller can leave room for a
terminator and add one if needed.)
Input/output arguments (to be supplied by the caller and overwritten
by the function):
output_length
The caller passes in the maximum number of ASCII code points
that it can receive. On successful return it will contain
the number of ASCII code points actually output.
Return value:
Can be any of the punycode_status values defined above except
punycode_bad_input. If not punycode_success, then output_size
and output might contain garbage.
*/
enum punycode_status punycode_decode(
size_t, /* input_length */
const char [], /* input */
size_t *, /* output_length */
punycode_uint [], /* output */
unsigned char [] /* case_flags */
);
/*
punycode_decode() converts Punycode to a sequence of code points
(presumed to be Unicode code points).
Input arguments (to be supplied by the caller):
input_length
The number of ASCII code points in the input array.
input
An array of ASCII code points (0..7F).
Output arguments (to be filled in by the function):
output
An array of code points like the input argument of
punycode_encode() (see above).
case_flags
A null pointer (if the flags are not needed by the caller)
or an array of boolean values parallel to the output array.
Nonzero (true, flagged) suggests that the corresponding
Unicode character be forced to uppercase by the caller (if
possible), and zero (false, unflagged) suggests that it
be forced to lowercase (if possible). ASCII code points
(0..7F) are output already in the proper case, but their
flags will be set appropriately so that applying the flags
would be harmless.
Input/output arguments (to be supplied by the caller and overwritten
by the function):
output_length
The caller passes in the maximum number of code points
that it can receive into the output array (which is also
the maximum number of flags that it can receive into the
case_flags array, if case_flags is not a null pointer). On
successful return it will contain the number of code points
actually output (which is also the number of flags actually
output, if case_flags is not a null pointer). The decoder
will never need to output more code points than the number
of ASCII code points in the input, because of the way the
encoding is defined. The number of code points output
cannot exceed the maximum possible value of a punycode_uint,
even if the supplied output_length is greater than that.
Return value:
Can be any of the punycode_status values defined above. If not
punycode_success, then output_length, output, and case_flags
might contain garbage.
*/
/**********************************************************/
/* Implementation (would normally go in its own .c file): */
#include <string.h>
/* #include "punycode.h" */
/*** Bootstring parameters for Punycode ***/
enum { base = 36, tmin = 1, tmax = 26, skew = 38, damp = 700,
initial_bias = 72, initial_n = 0x80, delimiter = 0x2D };
/* basic(cp) tests whether cp is a basic code point: */
#define basic(cp) ((punycode_uint)(cp) < 0x80)
/* delim(cp) tests whether cp is a delimiter: */
#define delim(cp) ((cp) == delimiter)
/* decode_digit(cp) returns the numeric value of a basic code */
/* point (for use in representing integers) in the range 0 to */
/* base-1, or base if cp does not represent a value. */
static punycode_uint decode_digit(punycode_uint cp)
{
return cp - 48 < 10 ? cp - 22 : cp - 65 < 26 ? cp - 65 :
cp - 97 < 26 ? cp - 97 : base;
}
/* encode_digit(d,flag) returns the basic code point whose value */
/* (when used for representing integers) is d, which needs to be in */
/* the range 0 to base-1. The lowercase form is used unless flag is */
/* nonzero, in which case the uppercase form is used. The behavior */
/* is undefined if flag is nonzero and digit d has no uppercase form. */
static char encode_digit(punycode_uint d, int flag)
{
return d + 22 + 75 * (d < 26) - ((flag != 0) << 5);
/* 0..25 map to ASCII a..z or A..Z */
/* 26..35 map to ASCII 0..9 */
}
/* flagged(bcp) tests whether a basic code point is flagged */
/* (uppercase). The behavior is undefined if bcp is not a */
/* basic code point. */
#define flagged(bcp) ((punycode_uint)(bcp) - 65 < 26)
/* encode_basic(bcp,flag) forces a basic code point to lowercase */
/* if flag is zero, uppercase if flag is nonzero, and returns */
/* the resulting code point. The code point is unchanged if it */
/* is caseless. The behavior is undefined if bcp is not a basic */
/* code point. */
static char encode_basic(punycode_uint bcp, int flag)
{
bcp -= (bcp - 97 < 26) << 5;
return bcp + ((!flag && (bcp - 65 < 26)) << 5);
}
/*** Platform-specific constants ***/
/* maxint is the maximum value of a punycode_uint variable: */
static const punycode_uint maxint = -1;
/* Because maxint is unsigned, -1 becomes the maximum value. */
/*** Bias adaptation function ***/
static punycode_uint adapt(
punycode_uint delta, punycode_uint numpoints, int firsttime )
{
punycode_uint k;
delta = firsttime ? delta / damp : delta >> 1;
/* delta >> 1 is a faster way of doing delta / 2 */
delta += delta / numpoints;
for (k = 0; delta > ((base - tmin) * tmax) / 2; k += base) {
delta /= base - tmin;
}
return k + (base - tmin + 1) * delta / (delta + skew);
}
/*** Main encode function ***/
enum punycode_status punycode_encode(
size_t input_length_orig,
const punycode_uint input[],
const unsigned char case_flags[],
size_t *output_length,
char output[] )
{
punycode_uint input_length, n, delta, h, b, bias, j, m, q, k, t;
size_t out, max_out;
/* The Punycode spec assumes that the input length is the same type */
/* of integer as a code point, so we need to convert the size_t to */
/* a punycode_uint, which could overflow. */
if (input_length_orig > maxint) return punycode_overflow;
input_length = (punycode_uint) input_length_orig;
/* Initialize the state: */
n = initial_n;
delta = 0;
out = 0;
max_out = *output_length;
bias = initial_bias;
/* Handle the basic code points: */
for (j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) {
if (basic(input[j])) {
if (max_out - out < 2) return punycode_big_output;
output[out++] = case_flags ?
encode_basic(input[j], case_flags[j]) : (char) input[j];
}
/* else if (input[j] < n) return punycode_bad_input; */
/* (not needed for Punycode with unsigned code points) */
}
h = b = (punycode_uint) out;
/* cannot overflow because out <= input_length <= maxint */
/* h is the number of code points that have been handled, b is the */
/* number of basic code points, and out is the number of ASCII code */
/* points that have been output. */
if (b > 0) output[out++] = delimiter;
/* Main encoding loop: */
while (h < input_length) {
/* All non-basic code points < n have been */
/* handled already. Find the next larger one: */
for (m = maxint, j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) {
/* if (basic(input[j])) continue; */
/* (not needed for Punycode) */
if (input[j] >= n && input[j] < m) m = input[j];
}
/* Increase delta enough to advance the decoder's */
/* <n,i> state to <m,0>, but guard against overflow: */
if (m - n > (maxint - delta) / (h + 1)) return punycode_overflow;
delta += (m - n) * (h + 1);
n = m;
for (j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) {
/* Punycode does not need to check whether input[j] is basic: */
if (input[j] < n /* || basic(input[j]) */ ) {
if (++delta == 0) return punycode_overflow;
}
if (input[j] == n) {
/* Represent delta as a generalized variable-length integer: */
for (q = delta, k = base; ; k += base) {
if (out >= max_out) return punycode_big_output;
t = k <= bias /* + tmin */ ? tmin : /* +tmin not needed */
k >= bias + tmax ? tmax : k - bias;
if (q < t) break;
output[out++] = encode_digit(t + (q - t) % (base - t), 0);
q = (q - t) / (base - t);
}
output[out++] = encode_digit(q, case_flags && case_flags[j]);
bias = adapt(delta, h + 1, h == b);
delta = 0;
++h;
}
}
++delta, ++n;
}
*output_length = out;
return punycode_success;
}
/*** Main decode function ***/
enum punycode_status punycode_decode(
size_t input_length,
const char input[],
size_t *output_length,
punycode_uint output[],
unsigned char case_flags[] )
{
punycode_uint n, out, i, max_out, bias, oldi, w, k, digit, t;
size_t b, j, in;
/* Initialize the state: */
n = initial_n;
out = i = 0;
max_out = *output_length > maxint ? maxint
: (punycode_uint) *output_length;
bias = initial_bias;
/* Handle the basic code points: Let b be the number of input code */
/* points before the last delimiter, or 0 if there is none, then */
/* copy the first b code points to the output. */
for (b = j = 0; j < input_length; ++j) if (delim(input[j])) b = j;
if (b > max_out) return punycode_big_output;
for (j = 0; j < b; ++j) {
if (case_flags) case_flags[out] = flagged(input[j]);
if (!basic(input[j])) return punycode_bad_input;
output[out++] = input[j];
}
/* Main decoding loop: Start just after the last delimiter if any */
/* basic code points were copied; start at the beginning otherwise. */
for (in = b > 0 ? b + 1 : 0; in < input_length; ++out) {
/* in is the index of the next ASCII code point to be consumed, */
/* and out is the number of code points in the output array. */
/* Decode a generalized variable-length integer into delta, */
/* which gets added to i. The overflow checking is easier */
/* if we increase i as we go, then subtract off its starting */
/* value at the end to obtain delta. */
for (oldi = i, w = 1, k = base; ; k += base) {
if (in >= input_length) return punycode_bad_input;
digit = decode_digit(input[in++]);
if (digit >= base) return punycode_bad_input;
if (digit > (maxint - i) / w) return punycode_overflow;
i += digit * w;
t = k <= bias /* + tmin */ ? tmin : /* +tmin not needed */
k >= bias + tmax ? tmax : k - bias;
if (digit < t) break;
if (w > maxint / (base - t)) return punycode_overflow;
w *= (base - t);
}
bias = adapt(i - oldi, out + 1, oldi == 0);
/* i was supposed to wrap around from out+1 to 0, */
/* incrementing n each time, so we'll fix that now: */
if (i / (out + 1) > maxint - n) return punycode_overflow;
n += i / (out + 1);
i %= (out + 1);
/* Insert n at position i of the output: */
/* not needed for Punycode: */
/* if (basic(n)) return punycode_bad_input; */
if (out >= max_out) return punycode_big_output;
if (case_flags) {
memmove(case_flags + i + 1, case_flags + i, out - i);
/* Case of last ASCII code point determines case flag: */
case_flags[i] = flagged(input[in - 1]);
}
memmove(output + i + 1, output + i, (out - i) * sizeof *output);
output[i++] = n;
}
*output_length = (size_t) out;
/* cannot overflow because out <= old value of *output_length */
return punycode_success;
}
/******************************************************************/
/* Wrapper for testing (would normally go in a separate .c file): */
#include <assert.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
/* #include "punycode.h" */
/* For testing, we'll just set some compile-time */
/* limits rather than use malloc(). */
enum {
unicode_max_length = 256,
ace_max_length = 256
};
static void usage(char **argv)
{
fprintf(stderr,
"\n"
"%s -e reads code points and writes a Punycode string.\n"
"%s -d reads a Punycode string and writes code points.\n"
"\n"
"Input and output are plain text in the native character set.\n"
"Code points are in the form u+hex separated by whitespace.\n"
"Although the specification allows Punycode strings to contain\n"
"any characters from the ASCII repertoire, this test code\n"
"supports only the printable characters, and needs the Punycode\n"
"string to be followed by a newline.\n"
"The case of the u in u+hex is the case flag.\n"
, argv[0], argv[0]);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
static void fail(const char *msg)
{
fputs(msg,stderr);
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
static const char too_big[] =
"input or output is too large, recompile with larger limits\n";
static const char invalid_input[] = "invalid input\n";
static const char overflow[] = "arithmetic overflow\n";
static const char io_error[] = "I/O error\n";
/* The following string is used to convert printable */
/* characters between ASCII and the native charset: */
static const char print_ascii[] =
"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"
"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"
" !\"#$%&'()*+,-./"
"0123456789:;<=>?"
"@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO"
"PQRSTUVWXYZ[\\]^_"
"`abcdefghijklmno"
"pqrstuvwxyz{|}~\n";
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
enum punycode_status status;
int r;
unsigned int input_length, output_length, j;
unsigned char case_flags[unicode_max_length];
if (argc != 2) usage(argv);
if (argv[1][0] != '-') usage(argv);
if (argv[1][2] != 0) usage(argv);
if (argv[1][1] == 'e') {
punycode_uint input[unicode_max_length];
unsigned long codept;
char output[ace_max_length+1], uplus[3];
int c;
/* Read the input code points: */
input_length = 0;
for (;;) {
r = scanf("%2s%lx", uplus, &codept);
if (ferror(stdin)) fail(io_error);
if (r == EOF || r == 0) break;
if (r != 2 || uplus[1] != '+' || codept > (punycode_uint)-1) {
fail(invalid_input);
}
if (input_length == unicode_max_length) fail(too_big);
if (uplus[0] == 'u') case_flags[input_length] = 0;
else if (uplus[0] == 'U') case_flags[input_length] = 1;
else fail(invalid_input);
input[input_length++] = codept;
}
/* Encode: */
output_length = ace_max_length;
status = punycode_encode(input_length, input, case_flags,
&output_length, output);
if (status == punycode_bad_input) fail(invalid_input);
if (status == punycode_big_output) fail(too_big);
if (status == punycode_overflow) fail(overflow);
assert(status == punycode_success);
/* Convert to native charset and output: */
for (j = 0; j < output_length; ++j) {
c = output[j];
assert(c >= 0 && c <= 127);
if (print_ascii[c] == 0) fail(invalid_input);
output[j] = print_ascii[c];
}
output[j] = 0;
r = puts(output);
if (r == EOF) fail(io_error);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
if (argv[1][1] == 'd') {
char input[ace_max_length+2], *p, *pp;
punycode_uint output[unicode_max_length];
/* Read the Punycode input string and convert to ASCII: */
fgets(input, ace_max_length+2, stdin);
if (ferror(stdin)) fail(io_error);
if (feof(stdin)) fail(invalid_input);
input_length = strlen(input) - 1;
if (input[input_length] != '\n') fail(too_big);
input[input_length] = 0;
for (p = input; *p != 0; ++p) {
pp = strchr(print_ascii, *p);
if (pp == 0) fail(invalid_input);
*p = pp - print_ascii;
}
/* Decode: */
output_length = unicode_max_length;
status = punycode_decode(input_length, input, &output_length,
output, case_flags);
if (status == punycode_bad_input) fail(invalid_input);
if (status == punycode_big_output) fail(too_big);
if (status == punycode_overflow) fail(overflow);
assert(status == punycode_success);
/* Output the result: */
for (j = 0; j < output_length; ++j) {
r = printf("%s+%04lX\n",
case_flags[j] ? "U" : "u",
(unsigned long) output[j] );
if (r < 0) fail(io_error);
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
usage(argv);
return EXIT_SUCCESS; /* not reached, but quiets compiler warning */
}
D. Changes from RFC 3492
This document is a revision of RFC 3492. None of the changes alter
the protocol; that is, any correct implementation of RFC 3492 is
a correct implementation of this document, and vice-versa. The
changes are as follows:
At the end of section 2 "Terminology", added a statement of
the assumption that all values from zero through maxint can be
represented. RFC 3492 relied on this assumption without stating it.
In sections 3.1 "Basic code point segregation", 4 "Bootstring
parameters", and 5 "Parameter values for Punycode", reworded the
discussion of delimiters to permit more than one code point to
serve as delimiter in Bootstring, while emphasizing that Punycode
has only code point serving as delimiter. The pseudocode and
sample implementation are not changed, because they already had no
dependence on the uniqueness of the delimiter.
In section 4 "Bootstring parameters", strengthened the constraints
to disallow tmin == base-1 and to disallow tmax == 0. Either
of these values would be nonsensical because it would result in
infinite loops. The Punycode parameter values already satisfied the
stronger constraints.
In section 5 "Parameter values for Punycode", in the paragraph
following the first list of parameter values, fixed the remark about
code points D800..DFFF, which RFC 3492 claimed were not code points
at all. Technically they are code points, but they do not occur in
any valid Unicode string. In the same section, in the paragraph
discussing uppercase and lowercase, clarified that the restrictions
on encoder output apply only to the non-literal portion of the
encoded string.
In section 6.1, "Bias adaptation function", added a discussion of
the possibility or impossibility of overflow in adapt(), and added a
requirement to detect overflow on hypothetical platforms with such
narrow integers that overflow becomes possible. Such platforms are
unlikely to exist, but the requirement closes a theoretical hole in
the spec.
In sections 6.2 "Decoding procedure" and 6.3 "Encoding procedure",
added statements to emphasize that overflow handling is REQUIRED.
In section 6.4 "Overflow handling", fixed the definition of maxint.
The definition in RFC 3492 was nonsense.
In the first paragraph of section 7.1 "Sample strings", clarified
the significance (or insignificance) of mixed case in the examples.
In section 9.2 "Informative references", alphabetized the
references, and updated the references to [IDNA] and [NAMEPREP].
In appendix C "Punycode sample implementation", fixed and clarified
several comments in the C code, quieted some compiler warnings
caused by implicit type conversion, and changed the interface to use
size_t rather than punycode_uint for array lengths, for consistency
with customs established by the standard C library.
Author's address
Adam M. Costello
Google Inc.
http://www.nicemice.net/amc/
INTERNET-DRAFT expires 2004-Oct-14
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