xref: /netbsd/lib/libc/string/strcat.3 (revision c4a72b64)
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36.\"     from: @(#)strcat.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
37.\"	$NetBSD: strcat.3,v 1.11 2002/08/11 07:31:56 yamt Exp $
38.\"
39.Dd August 11, 2002
40.Dt STRCAT 3
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm strcat ,
44.Nm strncat
45.Nd concatenate strings
46.Sh LIBRARY
47.Lb libc
48.Sh SYNOPSIS
49.Fd #include \*[Lt]string.h\*[Gt]
50.Ft char *
51.Fn strcat "char * restrict s" "const char * restrict append"
52.Ft char *
53.Fn strncat "char * restrict s" "const char * restrict append" "size_t count"
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Fn strcat
57and
58.Fn strncat
59functions
60append a copy of the null-terminated string
61.Fa append
62to the end of the null-terminated string
63.Fa s ,
64then add a terminating
65.Ql \e0 .
66The string
67.Fa s
68must have sufficient space to hold the result.
69.Pp
70The
71.Fn strncat
72function
73appends not more than
74.Fa count
75characters.
76characters where space for the terminating
77.Ql \e0
78should not be included in
79.Fa count .
80.Sh RETURN VALUES
81The
82.Fn strcat
83and
84.Fn strncat
85functions
86return the pointer
87.Fa s .
88.Sh EXAMPLES
89The following appends
90.Dq Li abc
91to
92.Dq Li chararray :
93.Bd -literal -offset indent
94char *letters = "abcdefghi";
95
96(void)strncat(chararray, letters, 3);
97.Ed
98.Pp
99The following example shows how to use
100.Fn strncat
101safely in conjunction with
102.Xr strncpy 3 .
103.Bd -literal -offset indent
104char buf[BUFSIZ];
105char *input, *suffix;
106
107(void)strncpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf) - 1);
108buf[sizeof(buf) - 1] = '\e0';
109(void)strncat(buf, suffix, sizeof(buf) - 1 - strlen(buf));
110.Ed
111.Pp
112The above will copy as many characters from
113.Dq Li input
114to
115.Dq Li buf
116as will fit.
117It then appends as many characters from suffix as will fit (or none
118if there is no space).
119For operations like this, the
120.Xr strlcpy 3
121and
122.Xr strlcat 3
123functions are a better choice, as shown below.
124.Bd -literal -offset indent
125(void)strlcpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf));
126(void)strlcat(buf, suffix, sizeof(buf));
127.Ed
128.Sh SEE ALSO
129.Xr bcopy 3 ,
130.Xr memccpy 3 ,
131.Xr memcpy 3 ,
132.Xr memmove 3 ,
133.Xr strcpy 3 ,
134.Xr strlcat 3 ,
135.Xr strlcpy 3
136.Sh STANDARDS
137The
138.Fn strcat
139and
140.Fn strncat
141functions
142conform to
143.St -isoC99 .
144