-bool ParseQuoteWord(const char *&String,string &Res);
-bool ParseCWord(const char *&String,string &Res);
-string QuoteString(string Str,const char *Bad);
-string DeQuoteString(string Str);
-string SizeToStr(double Bytes);
-string TimeToStr(unsigned long Sec);
-string Base64Encode(string Str);
-string URItoFileName(string URI);
-string TimeRFC1123(time_t Date);
-bool StrToTime(string Val,time_t &Result);
-string LookupTag(string Message,const char *Tag,const char *Default = 0);
-int StringToBool(string Text,int Default = -1);
-bool ReadMessages(int Fd, vector<string> &List);
+bool ParseQuoteWord(const char *&String,std::string &Res);
+bool ParseCWord(const char *&String,std::string &Res);
+std::string QuoteString(const std::string &Str,const char *Bad);
+std::string DeQuoteString(const std::string &Str);
+std::string DeQuoteString(std::string::const_iterator const &begin, std::string::const_iterator const &end);
+
+// unescape (\0XX and \xXX) from a string
+std::string DeEscapeString(const std::string &input);
+
+std::string SizeToStr(double Bytes);
+std::string TimeToStr(unsigned long Sec);
+std::string Base64Encode(const std::string &Str);
+std::string OutputInDepth(const unsigned long Depth, const char* Separator=" ");
+std::string URItoFileName(const std::string &URI);
+std::string TimeRFC1123(time_t Date);
+/** parses time as needed by HTTP/1.1 and Debian files.
+ *
+ * HTTP/1.1 prefers dates in RFC1123 format (but the other two obsolete date formats
+ * are supported to) and e.g. Release files use the same format in Date & Valid-Until
+ * fields.
+ *
+ * Note: datetime strings need to be in UTC timezones (GMT, UTC, Z, +/-0000) to be
+ * parsed. Other timezones will be rejected as invalid. Previous implementations
+ * accepted other timezones, but treated them as UTC.
+ *
+ * @param str is the datetime string to parse
+ * @param[out] time will be the seconds since epoch of the given datetime if
+ * parsing is successful, undefined otherwise.
+ * @return \b true if parsing was successful, otherwise \b false.
+ */
+bool RFC1123StrToTime(const char* const str,time_t &time) APT_MUSTCHECK;
+bool FTPMDTMStrToTime(const char* const str,time_t &time) APT_MUSTCHECK;
+APT_DEPRECATED_MSG("Use RFC1123StrToTime or FTPMDTMStrToTime as needed instead") bool StrToTime(const std::string &Val,time_t &Result);
+std::string LookupTag(const std::string &Message,const char *Tag,const char *Default = 0);
+int StringToBool(const std::string &Text,int Default = -1);
+bool ReadMessages(int Fd, std::vector<std::string> &List);