The Rail Fence cipher is a form of transposition cipher that gets its name from the way in which it's encoded. It was already used by the ancient Greeks.

In the Rail Fence cipher, the message is written downwards on successive "rails" of an imaginary fence, then moving up when we get to the bottom (like a zig-zag). Finally the message is then read off in rows.

For example, using three "rails" and the message "WE ARE DISCOVERED FLEE AT ONCE", the cipherer writes out:

W . . . E . . . C . . . R . . . L . . . T . . . E
. E . R . D . S . O . E . E . F . E . A . O . C .
. . A . . . I . . . V . . . D . . . E . . . N . .

Then reads off:

WECRLTEERDSOEEFEAOCAIVDEN

To decrypt a message you take the zig-zag shape and fill the ciphertext along the rows.

? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ?
. ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? .
. . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . .

The first row has seven spots that can be filled with "WECRLTE".

W . . . E . . . C . . . R . . . L . . . T . . . E
. ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? . ? .
. . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . .

Now the 2nd row takes "ERDSOEEFEAOC".

W . . . E . . . C . . . R . . . L . . . T . . . E
. E . R . D . S . O . E . E . F . E . A . O . C .
. . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . . . ? . .

Leaving "AIVDEN" for the last row.

W . . . E . . . C . . . R . . . L . . . T . . . E
. E . R . D . S . O . E . E . F . E . A . O . C .
. . A . . . I . . . V . . . D . . . E . . . N . .

If you now read along the zig-zag shape you can read the original message.

Getting Started

Make sure you have read the "Guides" section of the C track on the Exercism site. This covers the basic information on setting up the development environment expected by the exercises.

Passing the Tests

Get the first test compiling, linking and passing by following the three rules of test-driven development.

The included makefile can be used to create and run the tests using the test task.

make test

Create just the functions you need to satisfy any compiler errors and get the test to fail. Then write just enough code to get the test to pass. Once you've done that, move onto the next test.

As you progress through the tests, take the time to refactor your implementation for readability and expressiveness and then go on to the next test.

Try to use standard C99 facilities in preference to writing your own low-level algorithms or facilities by hand.

Source

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposition_cipher#Rail_Fence_cipher

Submitting Incomplete Solutions

It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.