PROLOG

       This  manual  page  is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of
       this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux  manual  page  for  details  of
       Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME

       gets — get a string from a stdin stream

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdio.h>

       char *gets(char *s);

DESCRIPTION

       The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any
       conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is  unintentional.
       This volume of POSIX.1‐2008 defers to the ISO C standard.

       The gets() function shall read bytes from the standard input stream, stdin, into the array
       pointed to by s, until a <newline> is read or an end-of-file condition is encountered. Any
       <newline>  shall  be  discarded and a null byte shall be placed immediately after the last
       byte read into the array.

       The gets() function may mark the last data access timestamp of the  file  associated  with
       stream  for update. The last data access timestamp shall be marked for update by the first
       successful  execution  of  fgetc(),  fgets(),  fread(),   fscanf(),   getc(),   getchar(),
       getdelim(), getline(), gets(), or scanf() using stream that returns data not supplied by a
       prior call to ungetc().

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, gets() shall return s.  If the end-of-file indicator  for  the
       stream  is  set,  or  if  the  stream is at end-of-file, the end-of-file indicator for the
       stream shall be set and gets() shall return a null pointer. If a read  error  occurs,  the
       error  indicator  for the stream shall be set, gets() shall return a null pointer, and set
       errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       Refer to fgetc().

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

       None.

APPLICATION USAGE

       Reading a line that overflows the array pointed to by s results in undefined behavior. The
       use of fgets() is recommended.

       Since  the  user  cannot  specify  the  length of the buffer passed to gets(), use of this
       function is discouraged. The length of the string read is unlimited.  It  is  possible  to
       overflow  this  buffer  in such a way as to cause applications to fail, or possible system
       security violations.

       Applications should use the fgets() function instead of the obsolescent gets() function.

RATIONALE

       The standard developers decided to mark the gets() function as obsolescent even though  it
       is in the ISO C standard due to the possibility of buffer overflow.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       The gets() function may be removed in a future version.

SEE ALSO

       Section 2.5, Standard I/O Streams, feof(), ferror(), fgets()

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <stdio.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX),  The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the  event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open  Group  Standard,  the
       original  IEEE  and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard
       can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most  likely  to  have
       been  introduced  during  the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report
       such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .