strlcpy, strlcat(3) | size-bounded string copying and concatenation |
strcmp, strlen, strlcat, strlcpy, strncasecmp, strncmp, strncpy, strnlen(9) | kernel library string routines |
STRLCPY(3) | Library Functions Manual | STRLCPY(3) |
strlcpy
, strlcat
—
#include <string.h>
size_t
strlcpy
(char
*dst, const char
*src, size_t
dstsize);
size_t
strlcat
(char
*dst, const char
*src, size_t
dstsize);
strlcpy
() and strlcat
()
functions copy and concatenate strings with the same input parameters and
output result as snprintf(3). They are
designed to be safer, more consistent, and less error prone replacements for
the easily misused functions strncpy(3)
and strncat(3).
strlcpy
() and
strlcat
() take the full size of the destination
buffer and guarantee NUL-termination if there is room. Note that room for
the NUL should be included in dstsize.
strlcpy
() copies up to
dstsize - 1 characters from the string
src to dst, NUL-terminating the
result if dstsize is not 0.
strlcat
() appends string
src to the end of dst. It will
append at most dstsize - strlen(dst) - 1 characters.
It will then NUL-terminate, unless dstsize is 0 or the
original dst string was longer than
dstsize (in practice this should not happen as it
means that either dstsize is incorrect or that
dst is not a proper string).
If the src and dst strings overlap, the behavior is undefined.
n = strlcpy(dst, src, len); n = snprintf(dst, len, "%s", src);
Like snprintf(3), the
strlcpy
() and strlcat
()
functions return the total length of the string they tried to create. For
strlcpy
() that means the length of
src. For strlcat
() that means
the initial length of dst plus the length of
src.
If the return value is >=
dstsize, the output string has been truncated. It is
the caller's responsibility to handle this.
char *s, *p, buf[BUFSIZ]; ... (void)strlcpy(buf, s, sizeof(buf)); (void)strlcat(buf, p, sizeof(buf));
To detect truncation, perhaps while building a pathname, something like the following might be used:
char *dir, *file, pname[PATH_MAX]; ... if (strlcpy(pname, dir, sizeof(pname)) >= sizeof(pname)) goto toolong; if (strlcat(pname, file, sizeof(pname)) >= sizeof(pname)) goto toolong;
Since it is known how many characters were copied the first time, things can be sped up a bit by using a copy instead of an append:
char *dir, *file, pname[PATH_MAX]; size_t n; ... n = strlcpy(pname, dir, sizeof(pname)); if (n >= sizeof(pname)) goto toolong; if (strlcpy(pname + n, file, sizeof(pname) - n) >= sizeof(pname) - n) goto toolong;
However, one may question the validity of such optimizations, as
they defeat the whole purpose of strlcpy
() and
strlcat
(). As a matter of fact, the first version of
this manual page got it wrong.
strlcpy
() and strlcat
() first
appeared in OpenBSD 2.4.
strlcpy
() and strlcat
() were
created by Todd C. Miller
<millert@openbsd.org>.January 25, 2019 | OpenBSD-current |