xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/string/strcat.3 (revision 001c68bd94f75ce9270b69227c4199fbf34ee396)
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36.\"     from: @(#)strcat.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
37.\"	$NetBSD: strcat.3,v 1.13 2003/04/16 13:34:49 wiz 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.In string.h
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 where space for the terminating
76.Ql \e0
77should not be included in
78.Fa count .
79.Sh RETURN VALUES
80The
81.Fn strcat
82and
83.Fn strncat
84functions
85return the pointer
86.Fa s .
87.Sh EXAMPLES
88The following appends
89.Dq Li abc
90to
91.Dq Li chararray :
92.Bd -literal -offset indent
93char *letters = "abcdefghi";
94
95(void)strncat(chararray, letters, 3);
96.Ed
97.Pp
98The following example shows how to use
99.Fn strncat
100safely in conjunction with
101.Xr strncpy 3 .
102.Bd -literal -offset indent
103char buf[BUFSIZ];
104char *input, *suffix;
105
106(void)strncpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf) - 1);
107buf[sizeof(buf) - 1] = '\e0';
108(void)strncat(buf, suffix, sizeof(buf) - 1 - strlen(buf));
109.Ed
110.Pp
111The above will copy as many characters from
112.Dq Li input
113to
114.Dq Li buf
115as will fit.
116It then appends as many characters from suffix as will fit (or none
117if there is no space).
118For operations like this, the
119.Xr strlcpy 3
120and
121.Xr strlcat 3
122functions are a better choice, as shown below.
123.Bd -literal -offset indent
124(void)strlcpy(buf, input, sizeof(buf));
125(void)strlcat(buf, suffix, sizeof(buf));
126.Ed
127.Sh SEE ALSO
128.Xr bcopy 3 ,
129.Xr memccpy 3 ,
130.Xr memcpy 3 ,
131.Xr memmove 3 ,
132.Xr strcpy 3 ,
133.Xr strlcat 3 ,
134.Xr strlcpy 3
135.Sh STANDARDS
136The
137.Fn strcat
138and
139.Fn strncat
140functions
141conform to
142.St -isoC99 .
143