strncpy, strncpy_s
Defined in header <string.h>
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char
*strncpy(
char
*dest, const
char
*src, size_t count )
;
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(until C99) | |
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char
*strncpy(
char
*
restrict dest, const
char
*
restrict src, size_t count )
;
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(since C99) | |
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errno_t strncpy_s(
char
*
restrict dest, rsize_t destsz,
const char * restrict src, rsize_t count ) ; |
(2) | (since C11) |
count characters of the character array pointed to by src (including the terminating null character, but not any of the characters that follow the null character) to character array pointed to by dest
count is reached before the entire array src was copied, the resulting character array is not null-terminated.src, count is not reached, additional null characters are written to dest until the total of count
dest or src is not a pointer to a character array (including if dest or src is a null pointer), if the size of the array pointed to by dest is less than count, or if the size of the array pointed to by src is less than count
count, it stops after writing the terminating null character (if there was no null in the source, it writes one at dest[count] and then stops). Also, the following errors are detected at runtime and call the currently installed constraint handler function:
-
srcordestis a null pointerdestszis zero or greater than RSIZE_MAXcountis greater than RSIZE_MAX-
countis greater or equaldestsz, butdestszis less or equal strnlen_s(src, count) - overlap would occur between the source and the destination strings
dest < strnlen_s(src, destsz) <= destsz; in other words, an erroneous value of destsz does not expose the impending buffer overflow. The behavior is undefined if the size of the character array pointed to by src < strnlen_s(src, count) < destsz; in other words, an erroneous value of count does not expose the impending buffer overflow.
- As with all bounds-checked functions,
strncpy_sis only guaranteed to be available if __STDC_LIB_EXT1__ is defined by the implementation and if the user defines __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ to the integer constant 1 before including <string.h>
Parameters
| dest | - | pointer to the character array to copy to |
| src | - | pointer to the character array to copy from |
| count | - | maximum number of characters to copy |
| destsz | - | the size of the destination buffer |
Return value
destdest is a null pointer or destsz is zero or greater than RSIZE_MAX
Notes
As corrected by the post-C11 DR 468, strncpy_s, unlike strcpy_s
Unlike strncpy, strncpy_s does not pad the destination array with zeroes, This is a common source of errors when converting existing code to the bounds-checked version.
Although truncation to fit the destination buffer is a security risk and therefore a runtime constraints violation for strncpy_s, it is possible to get the truncating behavior by specifying count equal to the size of the destination array minus one: it will copy the first count bytes and append the null terminator as always:
strncpy_s(dst, sizeof dst, src, (
sizeof dst)
-
1
)
;
Example
#define __STDC_WANT_LIB_EXT1__ 1 #include <string.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <errno.h> int main(void) { char src[] = "hi"; char dest[6] = "abcdef"; // no null terminator strncpy(dest, src, 5); // writes five characters 'h', 'i', '\0', '\0', '\0' to dest printf("strncpy(dest, src, 5) to a 6-byte dest gives : "); for (size_t n = 0; n < sizeof dest; ++n) { char c = dest[n]; c ? printf("'%c' ", c) : printf("'\\0' "); } printf("\nstrncpy(dest2, src, 2) to a 2-byte dst gives : "); char dest2[2]; strncpy(dest2, src, 2); // truncation: writes two characters 'h', 'i', to dest2 for (size_t n = 0; n < sizeof dest2; ++n) { char c = dest2[n]; c ? printf("'%c' ", c) : printf("'\\0' "); } printf("\n"); #ifdef __STDC_LIB_EXT1__ set_constraint_handler_s(ignore_handler_s); char dst1[6], src1[100] = "hello"; errno_t r1 = strncpy_s(dst1, 6, src1, 100); // writes 0 to r1, 6 characters to dst1 printf("dst1 = \"%s\", r1 = %d\n", dst1,r1); // 'h','e','l','l','o','\0' to dst1 char dst2[5], src2[7] = {'g','o','o','d','b','y','e'}; errno_t r2 = strncpy_s(dst2, 5, src2, 7); // copy overflows the destination array printf("dst2 = \"%s\", r2 = %d\n", dst2,r2); // writes nonzero to r2,'\0' to dst2[0] char dst3[5]; errno_t r3 = strncpy_s(dst3, 5, src2, 4); // writes 0 to r3, 5 characters to dst3 printf("dst3 = \"%s\", r3 = %d\n", dst3,r3); // 'g', 'o', 'o', 'd', '\0' to dst3 #endif }
Possible output:
strncpy(dest, src, 5) to a 6-byte dst gives : 'h' 'i' '\0' '\0' '\0' 'f' strncpy(dest2, src, 2) to a 2-byte dst gives : 'h' 'i' dst1 = "hello", r1 = 0 dst2 = "", r2 = 22 dst3 = "good", r3 = 0
References
- C17 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2018):
- 7.24.2.4 The strncpy function (p: 265)
- K.3.7.1.4 The strncpy_s function (p: 447-448)
- C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):
- 7.24.2.4 The strncpy function (p: 363-364)
- K.3.7.1.4 The strncpy_s function (p: 616-617)
- C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):
- 7.21.2.4 The strncpy function (p: 326-327)
- C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):
- 4.11.2.4 The strncpy function
See also
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(C11)
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copies one string to another (function) |
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(C11)
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copies one buffer to another (function) |
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(dynamic memory TR)
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allocate a copy of a string up to specified size (function) |
C++ documentation for strncpy
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