Index: Include/codecs.h
===================================================================
--- Include/codecs.h	(revision 86561)
+++ Include/codecs.h	(working copy)
@@ -152,8 +152,8 @@
    Return 0 on success, -1 on error */
 PyAPI_FUNC(int) PyCodec_RegisterError(const char *name, PyObject *error);
 
-/* Lookup the error handling callback function registered under the
-   name error. As a special case NULL can be passed, in which case
+/* Lookup the error handling callback function registered under the name
+   name. As a special case NULL can be passed, in which case
    the error handling callback for "strict" will be returned. */
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyCodec_LookupError(const char *name);
 
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@
 /* ignore the unicode error, skipping the faulty input */
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyCodec_IgnoreErrors(PyObject *exc);
 
-/* replace the unicode error with ? or U+FFFD */
+/* replace the unicode encode error with ? or U+FFFD */
 PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) PyCodec_ReplaceErrors(PyObject *exc);
 
 /* replace the unicode encode error with XML character references */
Index: Doc/c-api/codec.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/c-api/codec.rst	(revision 0)
+++ Doc/c-api/codec.rst	(revision 0)
@@ -0,0 +1,108 @@
+.. highlightlang:: c
+
+.. _codec-registry:
+
+Codec registry and support functions
+====================================
+
+.. c:function:: int PyCodec_Register(PyObject *search_function)
+
+  Register a new codec search function.
+
+  As side effect, this tries to load the encodings package, if not
+  yet done, to make sure that it is always first in the list of
+  search functions.
+
+.. c:function:: int PyCodec_KnownEncoding(const char *encoding)
+
+  Return ``1`` or ``0`` depending on whether there is a registered
+  codec for the given *encoding*
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_Encode(PyObject *object, const char *encoding, const char *errors)
+
+  Generic codec based encoding API.
+
+  *object* is passed through the encoder function found for the given
+  *encoding* using the error handling method defined by *errors*. *errors*
+  may be *NULL* to use the default method defined for the codec.
+  Raises a :exc:`LookupError` in case no encoder can be found.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_Decode(PyObject *object, const char *encoding, const char *errors)
+
+  Generic codec based decoding API.
+
+  *object* is passed through the decoder function found for the given
+  *encoding* using the error handling method defined by *errors*. *errors*
+  may be *NULL* to use the default method defined for the codec.
+  Raises a :exc:`LookupError` in case no encoder can be found.
+
+Codec lookup API
+----------------
+
+In the following functions, the *encoding* string is looked up converted
+to all lower-case characters, which makes encodings looked up through
+this mechanism effectively case-insensitive. If no codec is found,
+a :exc:`KeyError` is set and *NULL* returned.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_Encoder(const char *encoding)
+
+  Get an encoder function for the given *encoding*.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_Decoder(const char *encoding)
+
+  Get a decoder function for the given *encoding*.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_IncrementalEncoder(const char *encoding, const char *errors)
+
+  Get an :class:`IncrementalEncoder` object for the given *encoding*.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_IncrementalDecoder(const char *encoding, const char *errors)
+
+  Get an :class:`IncrementalDecoder` object for the given *encoding*.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_StreamReader(const char *encoding, PyObject *stream, const char *errors)
+
+  Get a :class:`StreamReader` factory function for the given *encoding*.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_StreamWriter(const char *encoding, PyObject *stream, const char *errors)
+
+  Get a :class:`StreamWriter` factory function for the given *encoding*.
+
+Unicode encoding error handling callback registry API
+-----------------------------------------------------
+
+.. c:function:: int PyCodec_RegisterError(const char *name, PyObject *error)
+
+  Register the error handling callback function *error* under the given
+  *name*. This function will be called by the codec when it encounters
+  unencodable characters/undecodable bytes and doesn't know the
+  callback name, when *name* is specified as the error parameter
+  in the call to the encode/decode function.
+  Return ``0`` on success, ``-1`` on error
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_LookupError(const char *name)
+
+  Lookup the error handling callback function registered under *name*.
+  As a special case *NULL* can be passed, in which case
+  the error handling callback for "strict" will be returned.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_StrictErrors(PyObject *exc)
+
+  Raise *exc* as an exception.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_IgnoreErrors(PyObject *exc)
+
+  Ignore the unicode error, skipping the faulty input.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_ReplaceErrors(PyObject *exc)
+
+  Replace the unicode encode error with ``?`` or ``U+FFD``.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_XMLCharRefReplaceErrors(PyObject *exc)
+
+  Replace the unicode encode error with XML character references.
+
+.. c:function:: PyObject* PyCodec_BackslashReplaceErrors(PyObject *exc)
+
+  Replace the unicode encode error with backslash escapes (``\x``, ``\u`` and ``\U``).
+
Index: Doc/c-api/utilities.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/c-api/utilities.rst	(revision 86561)
+++ Doc/c-api/utilities.rst	(working copy)
@@ -18,3 +18,4 @@
    arg.rst
    conversion.rst
    reflection.rst
+   codec.rst