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STRCPY(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual STRCPY(3)
NAME
stpcpy, stpncpy, strcpy, strncpy - copy strings
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <string.h>
char *
stpcpy(char * restrict dst, const char * restrict src);
char *
stpncpy(char * restrict dst, const char * restrict src, size_t len);
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 stpcpy() functions copy the string src to dst (including
the terminating `\0' character.)
The strncpy() and stpncpy() functions copy at most len characters from
src into dst. If src is less than len characters long, the remainder of
dst is filled with `\0' characters. Otherwise, dst is not terminated.
For all of strcpy(), strncpy(), stpcpy(), and stpncpy(), the result is
undefined if src and dst overlap.
RETURN VALUES
The strcpy() and strncpy() functions return dst. The stpcpy() and
stpncpy() functions return a pointer to the terminating `\0' character of
dst. If stpncpy() does not terminate dst with a NUL character, it
instead returns a pointer to dst[n] (which does not necessarily refer to
a valid memory location.)
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
This could be better achieved using strlcpy(3), as shown in the following
example:
(void)strlcpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf));
SEE ALSO
bcopy(3), memccpy(3), memcpy(3), memmove(3), strlcpy(3), wcscpy(3)
STANDARDS
The strcpy() and strncpy() functions conform to ISO/IEC 9899:1990
("ISO C90"). The stpcpy() and stpncpy() functions conform to IEEE Std
1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1").
HISTORY
The stpcpy() function first appeared in FreeBSD 4.4, and stpncpy() was
added in FreeBSD 8.0.
SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
All of the functions documented in this manual page are easily misused in
a manner which enables malicious users to arbitrarily change a running
program's functionality through a buffer overflow attack.
It is strongly suggested that the strlcpy() function be used in almost
all cases.
For some, but not all, fixed-length records, non-terminated strings may
be both valid and desirable. In that specific case, the strncpy()
function may be most sensible.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 June 6, 2018 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11