strcpy

STRCPY(3)                  Linux Programmer's Manual                 STRCPY(3)



NAME
       strcpy, strncpy - copy a string

SYNOPSIS
       #include <string.h>

       char *strcpy(char *dest, const char *src);

       char *strncpy(char *dest, const char *src, size_t n);

DESCRIPTION
       The  strcpy()  function  copies the string pointed to by src (including
       the terminating `\0' character) to the array pointed to by  dest.   The
       strings  may not overlap, and the destination string dest must be large
       enough to receive the copy.

       The strncpy() function is similar, except that not more than n bytes of
       src  are copied. Thus, if there is no null byte among the first n bytes
       of src, the result will not be null-terminated.

       In the case where the length of src is less than that of n, the remain-
       der of dest will be padded with nulls.

RETURN VALUE
       The  strcpy()  and strncpy() functions return a pointer to the destina-
       tion string dest.

BUGS
       If the destination string of a strcpy() is not large enough  (that  is,
       if  the programmer was stupid/lazy, and failed to check the size before
       copying) then anything might happen.  Overflowing fixed length  strings
       is a favourite cracker technique.

CONFORMING TO
       SVID 3, POSIX, BSD 4.3, ISO 9899

SEE ALSO
       bcopy(3), memccpy(3), memcpy(3), memmove(3)



GNU                               1993-04-11                         STRCPY(3)