Network Working Group A. Costello

Request for Comments: 3492 Univ. of California, Berkeley

Category: Standards Track March 2003

          Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of Unicode

   for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA)

Status of this Memo

This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the

Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for

improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet

Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state

and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

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.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction...............................................2

   1.1 Features..............................................2

   1.2 Interaction of protocol parts.........................3

  1. Terminology................................................3

  1. Bootstring description.....................................4

   3.1 Basic code point segregation..........................4

   3.2 Insertion unsort coding...............................4

   3.3 Generalized variable-length integers..................5

   3.4 Bias adaptation.......................................7

  1. Bootstring parameters......................................8

  1. Parameter values for Punycode..............................8

  1. Bootstring algorithms......................................9

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   6.1 Bias adaptation function.............................10

   6.2 Decoding procedure...................................11

   6.3 Encoding procedure...................................12

   6.4 Overflow handling....................................13

  1. Punycode examples.........................................14

   7.1 Sample strings.......................................14

   7.2 Decoding traces......................................17

   7.3 Encoding traces......................................19

  1. Security Considerations...................................20

  1. References................................................21

   9.1 Normative References.................................21

   9.2 Informative References...............................21

A. Mixed-case annotation.....................................22

B. Disclaimer and license....................................22

C. Punycode sample implementation............................23

Author's Address.............................................34

Full Copyright Statement.....................................35

  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:

  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.

  given extended string.

  be recovered from that basic string.

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  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.

  simple to implement.  The goals of efficiency and simplicity are

  at odds; Bootstring aims at a good balance between them.

  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.

  1. 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).

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An overflow is an attempt to compute a value that exceeds the maximum

value of an integer variable.

  1. 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. The delimiter is a particular basic

code point, which never appears in the remainder of the basic string.

The decoder can therefore 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.

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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 +

38 + 464 = 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

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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 71 + 36 + 4*30 = 145. The next integer is 251, with

value 21 + 56 + 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

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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.

  1. 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).

  1. 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)

  1. 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

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  (balancing the hope of the expected-last digit being unnecessary

  against the danger of it being insufficient).

  1. Bootstring parameters

Given a set of basic code points, one needs to be designated as the

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 <= tmax <= base-1

  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.

  1. 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 (but not D800..DFFF, which are reserved for

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use by the UTF-16 encoding of Unicode). The basic code points are

the ASCII [ASCII] code points (0..7F), of which U+002D (-) is the

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].

A decoder MUST recognize the letters in both uppercase and lowercase

forms (including mixtures of both forms). An encoder SHOULD output

only uppercase forms or only lowercase forms, unless it uses mixed-

case annotation (see appendix A).

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.

  1. 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.

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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.

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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. If the decoder fails on these errors as

shown above, then it cannot produce the same output for two distinct

inputs. Without this property it would have been necessary to re-

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encode the output and verify that it matches the input in order to

guarantee the uniqueness of the encoding.

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

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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.

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 for which maxint + 1 cannot 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.

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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.

  1. 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 first several examples are all translations of the sentence "Why

can't they just speak in ?" (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: Proprostnemluvesky

   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

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(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: PorqunopuedensimplementehablarenEspaol

   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

Costello Standards Track [Page 15]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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) 3B

   u+0033 u+5E74 U+0042 u+7D44 u+91D1 u+516B u+5148 u+751F

   Punycode: 3B-ww4c5e180e575a65lsy2b

(M) -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-

   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) 2

   u+3072 u+3068 u+3064 u+5C4B u+6839 u+306E u+4E0B u+0032

   Punycode: 2-u9tlzr9756bt3uc0v

(P) MajiKoi5

   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) de

   u+30D1 u+30D5 u+30A3 u+30FC u+0064 u+0065 u+30EB u+30F3 u+30D0

   Punycode: de-jg4avhby1noc0d

(R)

   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 <--

Costello Standards Track [Page 16]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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

Costello Standards Track [Page 17]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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

Costello Standards Track [Page 18]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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"

Costello Standards Track [Page 19]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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"

  1. 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].

Costello Standards Track [Page 20]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

  1. 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

[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.

[IDNA] Faltstrom, P., Hoffman, P. and A. Costello,

            "Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications

            (IDNA)", RFC 3490, March 2003.

[NAMEPREP] Hoffman, P. and M. Blanchet, "Nameprep: A Stringprep

            Profile for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN)", RFC

            3491, March 2003.

[ASCII] Cerf, V., "ASCII format for Network Interchange", RFC

            20, October 1969.

[PROVINCIAL] Kaplan, M., "The 'anyone can be provincial!' page",

            http://www.trigeminal.com/samples/provincial.html.

[UNICODE] The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard",

            http://www.unicode.org/unicode/standard/standard.html.

Costello Standards Track [Page 21]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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.

Costello Standards Track [Page 22]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

C. Punycode sample implementation

/*

punycode.c from RFC 3492

http://www.nicemice.net/idn/

Adam M. Costello

http://www.nicemice.net/amc/

This is ANSI C code (C89) implementing Punycode (RFC 3492).

/************************************************************/

/* Public interface (would normally go in its own .h file): */

include <limits.h>

enum punycode_status {

punycode_success,

punycode_bad_input, /* Input is invalid. */

punycode_big_output, /* Output would exceed the space provided. */

punycode_overflow /* Input needs wider integers to process. */

};

if UINT_MAX >= (1 << 26) - 1

typedef unsigned int punycode_uint;

else

typedef unsigned long punycode_uint;

endif

enum punycode_status punycode_encode(

punycode_uint input_length,

const punycode_uint input[],

const unsigned char case_flags[],

punycode_uint *output_length,

char output[] );

/* punycode_encode() converts Unicode to Punycode.  The input     */

/* is represented as an array of Unicode code points (not code    */

/* units; surrogate pairs are not allowed), and the output        */

/* will be represented as an array of ASCII code points.  The     */

/* output string 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.)  The input_length is the number of code points in     */

/* the input.  The output_length is an in/out argument: the       */

/* caller passes in the maximum number of code points that it     */

Costello Standards Track [Page 23]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

/* can receive, and on successful return it will contain the      */

/* number of code points actually output.  The case_flags array   */

/* holds input_length boolean values, where nonzero suggests that */

/* the corresponding Unicode character be forced to uppercase     */

/* after being decoded (if possible), and zero suggests that      */

/* it be forced to lowercase (if possible).  ASCII code points    */

/* are encoded literally, except that ASCII letters are forced    */

/* to uppercase or lowercase according to the corresponding       */

/* uppercase flags.  If case_flags is a null pointer then ASCII   */

/* letters are left as they are, and other code points are        */

/* treated as if their uppercase flags were zero.  The 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(

punycode_uint input_length,

const char input[],

punycode_uint *output_length,

punycode_uint output[],

unsigned char case_flags[] );

/* punycode_decode() converts Punycode to Unicode.  The input is  */

/* represented as an array of ASCII code points, and the output   */

/* will be represented as an array of Unicode code points.  The   */

/* input_length is the number of code points in the input.  The   */

/* output_length is an in/out argument: the caller passes in      */

/* the maximum number of code points that it can receive, and     */

/* on successful return it will contain the actual number of      */

/* code points output.  The case_flags array needs room for at    */

/* least output_length values, or it can be a null pointer if the */

/* case information is not needed.  A nonzero flag suggests that  */

/* the corresponding Unicode character be forced to uppercase     */

/* by the caller (if possible), while zero suggests that it be    */

/* forced to lowercase (if possible).  ASCII code points are      */

/* output already in the proper case, but their flags will be set */

/* appropriately so that applying the flags would be harmless.    */

/* The 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.  On success, the */

/* decoder will never need to write an output_length greater than */

/* input_length, because of how the encoding is defined.          */

/**********************************************************/

/* Implementation (would normally go in its own .c file): */

include <string.h>

Costello Standards Track [Page 24]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

/*** 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 is 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)

{

Costello Standards Track [Page 25]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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(

punycode_uint input_length,

const punycode_uint input[],

const unsigned char case_flags[],

punycode_uint *output_length,

char output[] )

{

punycode_uint n, delta, h, b, out, max_out, bias, j, m, q, k, t;

/* Initialize the state: */

n = initial_n;

delta = out = 0;

max_out = *output_length;

bias = initial_bias;

/* Handle the basic code points: */

Costello Standards Track [Page 26]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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]) : input[j];

}

/* else if (input[j] < n) return punycode_bad_input; */

/* (not needed for Punycode with unsigned code points) */

}

h = b = out;

/* 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 characters */

/* 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;

Costello Standards Track [Page 27]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

      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(

punycode_uint input_length,

const char input[],

punycode_uint *output_length,

punycode_uint output[],

unsigned char case_flags[] )

{

punycode_uint n, out, i, max_out, bias,

             b, j, in, oldi, w, k, digit, t;

/* Initialize the state: */

n = initial_n;

out = i = 0;

max_out = *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) {

Costello Standards Track [Page 28]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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 character 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 (decode_digit(n) <= base) return punycode_invalid_input; */

if (out >= max_out) return punycode_big_output;

if (case_flags) {

  memmove(case_flags + i + 1, case_flags + i, out - i);

Costello Standards Track [Page 29]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

  /* Case of last character determines uppercase flag: */

  case_flags[i] = flagged(input[in - 1]);

}

memmove(output + i + 1, output + i, (out - i) * sizeof *output);

output[i++] = n;

}

*output_length = out;

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>

/* For testing, we'll just set some compile-time limits rather than */

/* use malloc(), and set a compile-time option rather than using a */

/* command-line option. */

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 force-to-uppercase flag.\n"

, argv[0], argv[0]);

exit(EXIT_FAILURE);

}

static void fail(const char *msg)

Costello Standards Track [Page 30]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

{

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);

Costello Standards Track [Page 31]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

  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);

Costello Standards Track [Page 32]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

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 */

}

Costello Standards Track [Page 33]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

Author's Address

Adam M. Costello

University of California, Berkeley

http://www.nicemice.net/amc/

Costello Standards Track [Page 34]

RFC 3492 IDNA Punycode March 2003

Full Copyright Statement

Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.

This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to

others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it

or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published

and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any

kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are

included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this

document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing

the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other

Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of

developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for

copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be

followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than

English.

The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be

revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

This document and the information contained herein is provided on an

"AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING

TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING

BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION

HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF

MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the

Internet Society.

Costello Standards Track [Page 35]

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