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STRCPY(3) BSD Library Functions Manual STRCPY(3) NAME stpcpy, strcpy, strncpy -- copy strings LIBRARY Standard C Library (libc, -lc) SYNOPSIS #include <string.h> char * stpcpy(char *s1, const char *s2); char * strcpy(char *restrict s1, const char *restrict s2); char * strncpy(char *restrict s1, const char *restrict s2, size_t n); DESCRIPTION The stpcpy() and strcpy() functions copy the string s2 to s1 (including the terminating `\0' character). The strncpy() function copies at most n characters from s2 into s1. If s2 is less than n characters long, the remainder of s1 is filled with `\0' characters. Otherwise, s1 is not terminated. RETURN VALUES The strcpy() and strncpy() functions return s1. The stpcpy() function returns a pointer to the terminating `\0' character of s1. EXAMPLES The following sets chararray to ``abc\0\0\0'': char chararray[6]; (void)strncpy(chararray, "abc", sizeof(chararray)); The following sets chararray to ``abcdef'': char chararray[6]; (void)strncpy(chararray, "abcdefgh", sizeof(chararray)); Note that it does not NUL terminate chararray, because the length of the source string is greater than or equal to the length argument. The following copies as many characters from input to buf as will fit and NUL terminates the result. Because strncpy() does not guarantee to NUL terminate the string itself, this must be done explicitly. char buf[1024]; (void)strncpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf) - 1); buf[sizeof(buf) - 1] = '\0'; This could be better achieved using strlcpy(3), as shown in the following example: (void)strlcpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf)); Note that, because strlcpy(3) is not defined in any standards, it should only be used when portability is not a concern. SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS The strcpy() function is easily misused in a manner which enables mali-cious malicious cious users to arbitrarily change a running program's functionality through a buffer overflow attack. (See the FSA and EXAMPLES.) SEE ALSO bcopy(3), memccpy(3), memcpy(3), memmove(3), strlcpy(3) STANDARDS The strcpy() and strncpy() functions conform to ISO/IEC 9899:1990 (``ISO C90''). The stpcpy() function is an MS-DOS and GNUism. The stpcpy() function conforms to no standard. HISTORY The stpcpy() function first appeared in FreeBSD 4.4, coming from 1998-vintage Linux. BSD August 9, 2001 BSD |