freebsd-dev/lib/libc/string/strcpy.3

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.\"     @(#)strcpy.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd August 9, 2001
.Dt STRCPY 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm strcpy , strncpy
.Nd copy strings
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In string.h
.Ft char *
.Fn strcpy "char *dst" "const char *src"
.Ft char *
.Fn strncpy "char *dst" "const char *src" "size_t len"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn strcpy
function
copies the string
.Fa src
to
.Fa dst
(including the terminating
.Ql \e0
character).
.Pp
The
.Fn strncpy
function copies not more than
.Fa len
characters from
.Fa src
into
.Fa dst ,
appending
.Ql \e0
characters if
.Fa src
is less than
.Fa len
characters long, and
.Em not
terminating
.Fa dst
otherwise.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn strcpy
and
.Fn strncpy
functions
return
.Fa dst .
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following sets
.Va chararray
to
.Dq Li abc\e0\e0\e0 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
char chararray[6];

(void)strncpy(chararray, "abc", sizeof(chararray));
.Ed
.Pp
The following sets
.Va chararray
to
.Dq Li abcdef :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
char chararray[6];

(void)strncpy(chararray, "abcdefgh", sizeof(chararray));
.Ed
.Pp
Note that it does
.Em not
.Tn NUL
terminate
.Va chararray
because the length of the source string is greater than or equal
to the length parameter.
.Pp
The following copies as many characters from
.Va input
to
.Va buf
as will fit and
.Tn NUL
terminates the result.
Because
.Fn strncpy
does
.Em not
guarantee to
.Tn NUL
terminate the string itself, this must be done explicitly.
.Bd -literal -offset indent
char buf[1024];

(void)strncpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf) - 1);
buf[sizeof(buf) - 1] = '\e0';
.Ed
.Pp
This could be better achieved using
.Xr strlcpy 3 ,
as shown in the following example:
.Pp
.Dl "(void)strlcpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf));"
.Pp
Note that because
.Xr strlcpy 3
is not defined in any standards, it should
only be used when portability is not a concern.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr bcopy 3 ,
.Xr memccpy 3 ,
.Xr memcpy 3 ,
.Xr memmove 3 ,
.Xr strlcpy 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn strcpy
and
.Fn strncpy
functions
conform to
.St -isoC .