NAME

       stpncpy,  strncpy  -  fill  a fixed-size buffer with non-null bytes from a string, padding
       with null bytes as needed

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <string.h>

       char *strncpy(char dst[restrict .dsize], const char *restrict src,
                     size_t dsize);
       char *stpncpy(char dst[restrict .dsize], const char *restrict src,
                     size_t dsize);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       stpncpy():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       These functions copy non-null bytes from the string pointed  to  by  src  into  the  array
       pointed  to by dst.  If the source has too few non-null bytes to fill the destination, the
       functions pad the destination with  trailing  null  bytes.   If  the  destination  buffer,
       limited by its size, isn't large enough to hold the copy, the resulting character sequence
       is truncated.  For the difference between the two functions, see RETURN VALUE.

       An implementation of these functions might be:

           char *
           strncpy(char *restrict dst, const char *restrict src, size_t dsize)
           {
               stpncpy(dst, src, dsize);
               return dst;
           }

           char *
           stpncpy(char *restrict dst, const char *restrict src, size_t dsize)
           {
               size_t  dlen;

               dlen = strnlen(src, dsize);
               return memset(mempcpy(dst, src, dlen), 0, dsize - dlen);
           }

RETURN VALUE

       strncpy()
              returns dst.

       stpncpy()
              returns a pointer to one after the last  character  in  the  destination  character
              sequence.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                                                      │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │stpncpy(), strncpy()                                           │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS

       strncpy()
              C11, POSIX.1-2008.

       stpncpy()
              POSIX.1-2008.

HISTORY

       strncpy()
              C89, POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

       stpncpy()
              glibc 1.07.  POSIX.1-2008.

CAVEATS

       The name of these functions is confusing.  These functions produce a null-padded character
       sequence, not a string (see string_copying(7)).  For example:

           strncpy(buf, "1", 5);       // { '1',   0,   0,   0,   0 }
           strncpy(buf, "1234", 5);    // { '1', '2', '3', '4',   0 }
           strncpy(buf, "12345", 5);   // { '1', '2', '3', '4', '5' }
           strncpy(buf, "123456", 5);  // { '1', '2', '3', '4', '5' }

       It's impossible to distinguish truncation by the result of  the  call,  from  a  character
       sequence that just fits the destination buffer; truncation should be detected by comparing
       the length of the input string with the size of the destination buffer.

       If you're going to use this function in chained calls, it would be  useful  to  develop  a
       similar  function  that  accepts  a pointer to the end (one after the last element) of the
       destination buffer instead of its size.

EXAMPLES

       #include <err.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <string.h>

       int
       main(void)
       {
           char    *p;
           char    buf1[20];
           char    buf2[20];
           size_t  len;

           if (sizeof(buf2) < strlen("Hello world!"))
               errx("strncpy: truncating character sequence");
           strncpy(buf2, "Hello world!", sizeof(buf2));
           len = strnlen(buf2, sizeof(buf2));

           printf("[len = %zu]: ", len);
           fwrite(buf2, 1, len, stdout);
           putchar('\n');

           if (sizeof(buf1) < strlen("Hello world!"))
               errx("stpncpy: truncating character sequence");
           p = stpncpy(buf1, "Hello world!", sizeof(buf1));
           len = p - buf1;

           printf("[len = %zu]: ", len);
           fwrite(buf1, 1, len, stdout);
           putchar('\n');

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       wcpncpy(3), string_copying(7)