# print\_bytes
This crate allows printing broken UTF-8 bytes to an output stream as losslessly
as possible.
Usually, paths are printed by calling [`Path::display`] or
[`Path::to_string_lossy`] beforehand. However, both of these methods are always
lossy; they misrepresent some valid paths in output. The same is true when
using [`String::from_utf8_lossy`] to print any other UTF-8–like byte sequence.
Instead, this crate only performs a lossy conversion when the output device is
known to require unicode, to make output as accurate as possible. When
necessary, any character sequence that cannot be represented will be replaced
with [`REPLACEMENT_CHARACTER`]. That convention is shared with the standard
library, which uses the same character for its lossy conversion functions.
[](https://github.com/dylni/print_bytes/actions?query=branch%3Amaster)
## Usage
Add the following lines to your "Cargo.toml" file:
```toml
[dependencies]
print_bytes = "0.4"
```
See the [documentation] for available functionality and examples.
## Rust version support
The minimum supported Rust toolchain version is currently Rust 1.36.0.
However, the `"min_const_generics"` and `"specialization"` features require a
nightly compiler.
## License
Licensing terms are specified in [COPYRIGHT].
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution submitted for inclusion
in this crate, as defined in [LICENSE-APACHE], shall be licensed according to
[COPYRIGHT], without any additional terms or conditions.
[COPYRIGHT]: https://github.com/dylni/print_bytes/blob/master/COPYRIGHT
[documentation]: https://docs.rs/print_bytes
[LICENSE-APACHE]: https://github.com/dylni/print_bytes/blob/master/LICENSE-APACHE
[`Path::display`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/path/struct.Path.html#method.display
[`Path::to_string_lossy`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/path/struct.Path.html#method.to_string_lossy
[`REPLACEMENT_CHARACTER`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/char/constant.REPLACEMENT_CHARACTER.html
[`String::from_utf8_lossy`]: https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/string/struct.String.html#method.from_utf8_lossy