SMSLEN(1)

📦 version 1.2.2, in opensuse-leap 16.0

💌 smslen(1): the smol guide to SMS payload math 💅

okay so bestie, welcome to smslen — a Gen Z safe space for Calculate SMS message payload length. yes that's the whole name section, slay ✨

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

like, three ways to run this icon:

smslen [-i encoding] [filename]

smslen -r limit [-i encoding] [filename]

smslen -t limit [-i encoding] [filename]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

smslen crunches the numbers on how many bytes of SMS payload your input text is gonna eat up. it's giving calculator but make it text. 🧮✨

here's the algorithm's whole personality: first it tries to encode the input with GSM 03.38, which needs seven or 14 bits per character — the 14 is for the ``extension'' characters, fyi, they're extra like that. but plot twist 😭 only certain commonly-used characters are even encodable in GSM 03.38, so the moment it spots even ONE unsupported character, it gives up and reverts to UTF-16 encoding for the entire message — the whole thing, no partial situation — which means 16 bits per character. no cap, one weird character and the whole vibe shifts. 💀

the first form just prints the number of bytes required to encode the input. that's it, that's the tea.

the -r form is the same math but flipped, lowkey inverted — it prints the number of input bytes that will fit under the given encoded length limit. and because the SMS payload limit is 140 bytes, running -r 140 tells you exactly how much of your input fits in a single SMS message. iconic for when you're texting someone and gotta know if it's one bubble or two. 🫶

the -t form does the same calculation as the -r form but actually copies the input to the output, truncating it the moment the calculated limit number of encoded output bytes is reached. so it's like -r but it hands you the actual trimmed text instead of a number. she does both, she's versatile. 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -i — specify the input character encoding. bestie, by default UTF-8 is assumed, so you only need this if you're being spicy.
  • -r limit — output the number of input bytes that, when encoded into an SMS payload, will have a length at most limit. (math, but make it fashion 💅)
  • -t limit — copy the input to the output right up until the encoded length would reach limit. truncation station, next stop: your screen 🚂
  • -h — output the usage message and exit. the classic "what does this even do" button, we love her.

🌈 EXIT STATUS 🌈

smslen exits zero normally — good vibes, no notes. but it'll exit 1 if an error occurs. 😭

possible errors include an invalid byte sequence in the input. so if you feed it garbage bytes, don't be surprised when it's like "nope" and bails. 🚩

fr fr, garbage in = exit code 1 out. be careful what you pipe into her.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

the whole friend group: twimsg(1), twils(1), twirm(1), twiping(1), twilog(1). squad goals. 🫶

also the reading list, because she's well-read:

the links are literally copied character for character, go read them, iykyk. 📚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Archie L. Cobbs <archie.cobbs@gmail.com> — the main character who wrote this. respect the icon. 🎀

💖 and that's the whole page, bestie 💖

this little love letter to the manpage universe was brought to you by Debian, dated May 17, 2013 — vintage, retro, still slaying. mwah 💋🌸

📦 where this page comes from