1STRCPY(3) Linux Programmer's Manual STRCPY(3)
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6 strcpy, strncpy - copy a string
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9 #include <string.h>
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11 char *strcpy(char *dest, const char *src);
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13 char *strncpy(char *dest, const char *src, size_t n);
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16 The strcpy() function copies the string pointed to by src (including
17 the terminating `\0' character) to the array pointed to by dest. The
18 strings may not overlap, and the destination string dest must be large
19 enough to receive the copy.
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21 The strncpy() function is similar, except that not more than n bytes of
22 src are copied. Thus, if there is no null byte among the first n bytes
23 of src, the result will not be null-terminated.
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25 In the case where the length of src is less than that of n, the remain‐
26 der of dest will be padded with null bytes.
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29 The strcpy() and strncpy() functions return a pointer to the destina‐
30 tion string dest.
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33 If the destination string of a strcpy() is not large enough (that is,
34 if the programmer was stupid/lazy, and failed to check the size before
35 copying) then anything might happen. Overflowing fixed length strings
36 is a favourite cracker technique.
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39 SVr4, 4.3BSD, C89, C99.
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42 bcopy(3), memccpy(3), memcpy(3), memmove(3), wcscpy(3), wcsncpy(3)
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46GNU 1993-04-11 STRCPY(3)