char *str_ntrim(char *dest, int ldest, const char *src, int lsrc);
/*
  copy characters 0 to lsrc-1 from src to dest (max ldest chars).
*/

char *str_split1(char *str, char separator);
/*
  trims text before separator in *str and returns
  a pointer to the first character after separator
*/

char *str_split(char *str, char sep, char *list[], int *n);
/*
  split string into *n strings using separator sep.
  spaces at the end of the elements are trimmed
  attention: *str is modified ('\0' placed at the end of the elements)
  
  if *n separators are found, result points to string after *n-th separator
  else result is NULL
  *n contains number of elements stored in list
*/

char *str_read_arg(char *file, char *args[], int nargs);
/*
  return one string containing the contents of file *file
  the contents are treated in the following way:
  - #0,#1,...#n is replaced by the corresponding argument *args[n] (n=0..nargs-1, nargs<10)
  - at the end of each line spaces and comments separated by ! are trimmed
*/

void str_replace_char(char *str, char ch, char rep);
/*
  replace all occurences of character ch by character rep in string *str
*/

void str_upcase(char *str);
/*
  convert *str to uppercase
*/

int str_cmp(const char *str1, const char *str2);
/*
  compare *str1 with *str2
  the comparison is not case sensitive
  if result=0: strings are equal
  else
    result>0 <==> *str1>*str2
    first different character is at position abs(result)-1
*/


int str_ncpy(char *dst, const char *src, int maxdest);
/*
  copy *src to *dest, maximal maxdest characters,
  it is guaranteed, that dst contains '\0'
*/

int str_ncat(char *dst, const char *src, int maxdest);
/*
  append *src to *dest, maximal maxdest characters,
  it is guaranteed, that dst contains '\0'
*/

#define str_copy(DST,SRC) str_ncpy(DST,SRC,sizeof(DST))
#define str_append(DST,SRC) str_ncat(DST,SRC,sizeof(DST))
/*
  use these macros if DST is an fixed length character array
*/

void util_delay(int tmo_msec);
/*
   usleep is not available on VMS 6
*/