strncpy(3) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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STRCPY(3)               NetBSD Library Functions Manual              STRCPY(3)


NAME

     strcpy, strncpy -- copy strings


LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <string.h>

     char *
     strcpy(char * restrict dst, const char * restrict src);

     char *
     strncpy(char * restrict dst, const char * restrict src, size_t len);


DESCRIPTION

     The strcpy() and strncpy() functions copy the string src to dst (includ-
     ing the terminating `\0' character).

     The strncpy() function copies not more than len characters into dst,
     appending `\0' characters if src is less than len characters long, and
     not terminating dst if src is len or more characters long.


RETURN VALUES

     The strcpy() and strncpy() functions return dst.


EXAMPLES

     The following sets ``chararray'' to ``abc\0\0\0''.

           (void)strncpy(chararray, "abc", 6);

     The following sets ``chararray'' to ``abcdef'' and does not nul-terminate
     chararray because the source string is >= the length parameter.
     strncpy() only nul-terminates the destination string when the length of
     the source string is less than the length parameter.

           (void)strncpy(chararray, "abcdefgh", 6);

     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, we must do this by hand.

           char buf[BUFSIZ];

           (void)strncpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf) - 1);
           buf[sizeof(buf) - 1] = '\0';

     Note that strlcpy(3) is a better choice for this kind of operation.  The
     equivalent using strlcpy(3) is simply:

           (void)strlcpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf));


SEE ALSO

     bcopy(3), memccpy(3), memcpy(3), memmove(3), strlcpy(3)


STANDARDS

     The strcpy() and strncpy() functions conform to ISO/IEC 9899:1999
     (``ISO C99'').

NetBSD 5.1.2                      May 6, 2002                     NetBSD 5.1.2