fribidi_remove_bidi_marks(3)

💅 fribidi_remove_bidi_marks 💅

okay bestie, so this is a page from the Programmer's Manual for fribidi_remove_bidi_marks(3) — yes the whole page is about one function, and honestly? she's a little icon for it. 🎀

---

✨ NAME ✨

fribidi_remove_bidi_marks — remove bidi marks out of a string. that's it, that's the job, and she does it flawlessly. 🫶

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <../fribidi/lib/fribidi.h>

FriBidiStrIndex fribidi_remove_bidi_marks
(
     FriBidiChar *str,
     const FriBidiStrIndex len,
     FriBidiStrIndex *positions_to_this,
     FriBidiStrIndex *position_from_this_list,
     FriBidiLevel *embedding_levels
);

like, look at her. five parameters. all of them matter. no notes. 💅

---

🦋 PARAMETERS 🦋

• FriBidiChar *str — the input string you wanna clean up. give her the messy one, she'll handle it.
• const FriBidiStrIndex len — the input string length. she needs to know how much she's working with, obviously.
• FriBidiStrIndex *positions_to_this — a list mapping positions to the order used in str.
• FriBidiStrIndex *position_from_this_list — a list mapping positions from the order used in str.
• FriBidiLevel *embedding_levels — the list of embedding levels. (⚠️ read the description before you go handing her this one, ok?)

---

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so what does she actually do? she removes the bidi and boundary-neutral marks out of a string and the accompanying lists. both. together. that's the whole vibe. ✨

she implements rule X9 of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, which lives right here: http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/#X9 — with one exception: she also removes U+200E LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK and U+200F RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK. yeah. those too. not me being extra, that's just the spec. 😌

here's the rundown on the lists:

• if any of the input lists are NULL, that list is skipped. no drama, she just moves on.
• if str is the visual string, then positions_to_this is positions_L_to_V and position_from_this_list is positions_V_to_L.
• if str is the logical string, it's the other way around.
• also, the position maps should be filled with valid entries. like, please. valid ones. 🙏

a position map pointing to a removed character gets filled with −1. and btw — you should not use embedding_levels if str is a visual string. nope. don't. 💀

for best results, run this on a whole paragraph, not on lines. but if you know what you're doing, feel free to do otherwise, bestie — she's not gonna stop you. 🧚

---

🍓 RETURNS 🍓

the new length of the string 💖 — or −1 if an error occurred (memory allocation failure, most probably 😭).

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the whole friend group, fr fr — go say hi:

• fribidi_shape_arabic(3)
• fribidi_get_par_direction(3)
• fribidi_get_par_embedding_levels_ex(3)
• fribidi_reorder_line(3)
• fribidi_get_bidi_type(3)
• fribidi_get_bidi_types(3)
• fribidi_get_bidi_type_name(3)
• fribidi_charset_to_unicode(3)
• fribidi_unicode_to_charset(3)
• fribidi_parse_charset(3)
• fribidi_debug_status(3)
• fribidi_set_debug(3)
• fribidi_mirroring_status(3)
• fribidi_set_mirroring(3)
• fribidi_reorder_nsm_status(3)
• fribidi_set_reorder_nsm(3)
• fribidi_log2vis_get_embedding_levels(3)
• fribidi_get_type(3)
• fribidi_get_type_internal(3)
• fribidi_get_par_embedding_levels(3)
• fribidi_join_arabic(3)
• fribidi_get_joining_type(3)
• fribidi_get_joining_types(3)
• fribidi_get_joining_type_name(3)
• fribidi_get_mirror_char(3)
• fribidi_shape_mirroring(3)
• fribidi_get_bracket(3)
• fribidi_get_bracket_types(3)
• fribidi_shape(3)
• fribidi_log2vis(3)

---

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially educated 💜 this masterpiece was generated by c2man from fribidi.h, dated 29 October 2026, and it's still filed under fribidi_remove_bidi_marks(3) — go forth and remove those marks, queen 👑✨