STRCPY

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 fBstrcpy()fP function copies the string pointed to by fIsrcfP (including the terminating ` ' character) to the array pointed to by fIdestfP. The strings may not overlap, and the destination string fIdestfP must be large enough to receive the copy.

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

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

RETURN VALUE

The fBstrcpy()fP and fBstrncpy()fP functions return a pointer to the destination string fIdestfP.

BUGS

If the destination string of a fBstrcpy()fP 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