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stpncpy(3)                 Library Functions Manual                 stpncpy(3)

NAME
       stpncpy,  strncpy  - zero a fixed-width buffer and copy a string into a
       character sequence with truncation and zero the rest of it

LIBRARY
       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <string.h>

       char *stpncpy(char dst[restrict .sz], const char *restrict src,
                      size_t sz);
       char *strncpy(char dst[restrict .sz], const char *restrict src,
                      size_t sz);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       stpncpy():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       These functions copy the string pointed to by src  into  a  null-padded
       character sequence at the fixed-width buffer pointed to by dst.  If the
       destination buffer, limited by its size, isn't large enough to hold the
       copy,  the  resulting character sequence is truncated.  For the differ-
       ence between the two functions, see RETURN VALUE.

       An implementation of these functions might be:

           char *
           stpncpy(char *restrict dst, const char *restrict src, size_t sz)
           {
               bzero(dst, sz);
               return mempcpy(dst, src, strnlen(src, sz));
           }

           char *
           strncpy(char *restrict dst, const char *restrict src, size_t sz)
           {
               stpncpy(dst, src, sz);
               return dst;
           }

RETURN VALUE
       stpncpy()
              returns a pointer to one after the last character in the  desti-
              nation character sequence.

       strncpy()
              returns dst.

ATTRIBUTES
       For  an  explanation  of  the  terms  used  in  this  section,  see at-
       tributes(7).

       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │InterfaceAttributeValue   │
       ├────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │stpncpy(), strncpy()                        │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS
       stpncpy()
              POSIX.1-2008.

       strncpy()
              POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C99, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

CAVEATS
       The name of these functions is confusing.  These  functions  produce  a
       null-padded character sequence, not a string (see string_copying(7)).

       It's  impossible  to  distinguish truncation by the result of the call,
       from a character sequence that just fits the destination buffer;  trun-
       cation  should  be detected by comparing the length of the input string
       with the size of the destination buffer.

       If you're going to use this function in chained calls, it would be use-
       ful  to  develop  a  similar function that accepts a pointer to the end
       (one after the last element) of the destination buffer instead  of  its
       size.

EXAMPLES
       #include <err.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <string.h>

       int
       main(void)
       {
           char    *p;
           char    buf1[20];
           char    buf2[20];
           size_t  len;

           if (sizeof(buf1) < strlen("Hello world!"))
               warnx("stpncpy: truncating character sequence");
           p = stpncpy(buf1, "Hello world!", sizeof(buf1));
           len = p - buf1;

           printf("[len = %zu]: ", len);
           printf("%.*s\n", (int) len, buf1);  // "Hello world!"

           if (sizeof(buf2) < strlen("Hello world!"))
               warnx("strncpy: truncating character sequence");
           strncpy(buf2, "Hello world!", sizeof(buf2));
           len = strnlen(buf2, sizeof(buf2));

           printf("[len = %zu]: ", len);
           printf("%.*s\n", (int) len, buf2);  // "Hello world!"

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       wcpncpy(3), string_copying(7)

Linux man-pages 6.03              2023-01-26                        stpncpy(3)

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