gets - get a string from standard input (DEPRECATED)
Contents
Attributes
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│ Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│ gets() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
Bugs
Never use gets(). Because it is impossible to tell without knowing the data in advance how many
characters gets() will read, and because gets() will continue to store characters past the end of the
buffer, it is extremely dangerous to use. It has been used to break computer security. Use fgets()
instead.
For more information, see CWE-242 (aka "Use of Inherently Dangerous Function") at
http://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/242.htmlDescription
Neverusethisfunction.
gets() reads a line from stdin into the buffer pointed to by s until either a terminating newline or EOF,
which it replaces with a null byte ('\0'). No check for buffer overrun is performed (see BUGS below).
History
C89, POSIX.1-2001.
LSB deprecates gets(). POSIX.1-2008 marks gets() obsolescent. ISO C11 removes the specification of
gets() from the C language, and since glibc 2.16, glibc header files don't expose the function
declaration if the _ISOC11_SOURCE feature test macro is defined.
Library
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
Name
gets - get a string from standard input (DEPRECATED)
Return Value
gets() returns s on success, and NULL on error or when end of file occurs while no characters have been
read. However, given the lack of buffer overrun checking, there can be no guarantees that the function
will even return.
See Also
read(2), write(2), ferror(3), fgetc(3), fgets(3), fgetwc(3), fgetws(3), fopen(3), fread(3), fseek(3), getline(3), getwchar(3), puts(3), scanf(3), ungetwc(3), unlocked_stdio(3), feature_test_macros(7) Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-06-15 gets(3)
Standards
POSIX.1-2008.
Synopsis
#include<stdio.h>[[deprecated]]char*gets(char*s);