1.1 --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
1.2 +++ b/security/nss/lib/freebl/mpi/doc/basecvt.pod Wed Dec 31 06:09:35 2014 +0100
1.3 @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
1.4 +# This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
1.5 +# License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this
1.6 +# file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.
1.7 +
1.8 +=head1 NAME
1.9 +
1.10 + basecvt - radix conversion for arbitrary precision integers
1.11 +
1.12 +=head1 SYNOPSIS
1.13 +
1.14 + basecvt <ibase> <obase> [values]
1.15 +
1.16 +=head1 DESCRIPTION
1.17 +
1.18 +The B<basecvt> program is a command-line tool for converting integers
1.19 +of arbitrary precision from one radix to another. The current version
1.20 +supports radix values from 2 (binary) to 64, inclusive. The first two
1.21 +command line arguments specify the input and output radix, in base 10.
1.22 +Any further arguments are taken to be integers notated in the input
1.23 +radix, and these are converted to the output radix. The output is
1.24 +written, one integer per line, to standard output.
1.25 +
1.26 +When reading integers, only digits considered "valid" for the input
1.27 +radix are considered. Processing of an integer terminates when an
1.28 +invalid input digit is encountered. So, for example, if you set the
1.29 +input radix to 10 and enter '10ACF', B<basecvt> would assume that you
1.30 +had entered '10' and ignore the rest of the string.
1.31 +
1.32 +If no values are provided, no output is written, but the program
1.33 +simply terminates with a zero exit status. Error diagnostics are
1.34 +written to standard error in the event of out-of-range radix
1.35 +specifications. Regardless of the actual values of the input and
1.36 +output radix, the radix arguments are taken to be in base 10 (decimal)
1.37 +notation.
1.38 +
1.39 +=head1 DIGITS
1.40 +
1.41 +For radices from 2-10, standard ASCII decimal digits 0-9 are used for
1.42 +both input and output. For radices from 11-36, the ASCII letters A-Z
1.43 +are also included, following the convention used in hexadecimal. In
1.44 +this range, input is accepted in either upper or lower case, although
1.45 +on output only lower-case letters are used.
1.46 +
1.47 +For radices from 37-62, the output includes both upper- and lower-case
1.48 +ASCII letters, and case matters. In this range, case is distinguished
1.49 +both for input and for output values.
1.50 +
1.51 +For radices 63 and 64, the characters '+' (plus) and '/' (forward
1.52 +solidus) are also used. These are derived from the MIME base64
1.53 +encoding scheme. The overall encoding is not the same as base64,
1.54 +because the ASCII digits are used for the bottom of the range, and the
1.55 +letters are shifted upward; however, the output will consist of the
1.56 +same character set.
1.57 +
1.58 +This input and output behaviour is inherited from the MPI library used
1.59 +by B<basecvt>, and so is not configurable at runtime.
1.60 +
1.61 +=head1 SEE ALSO
1.62 +
1.63 + dec2hex(1), hex2dec(1)
1.64 +
1.65 +=head1 AUTHOR
1.66 +
1.67 + Michael J. Fromberger <sting@linguist.dartmouth.edu>
1.68 + Thayer School of Engineering, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
