.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3, .\" on Information Processing Systems. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)fgets.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/stdio/fgets.3,v 1.22 2009/02/28 06:00:58 das Exp $ .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt FGETS 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm fgets , .Nm gets .Nd get a line from a stream .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In stdio.h .Ft char * .Fn fgets "char * restrict str" "int size" "FILE * restrict stream" .Ft char * .Fn gets "char *str" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn fgets function reads at most one less than the number of characters specified by .Fa size from the given .Fa stream and stores them in the string .Fa str . Reading stops when a newline character is found, at end-of-file or error. The newline, if any, is retained. If any characters are read and there is no error, a .Ql \e0 character is appended to end the string. .Pp The .Fn gets function is equivalent to .Fn fgets with an infinite .Fa size and a .Fa stream of .Dv stdin , except that the newline character (if any) is not stored in the string. It is the caller's responsibility to ensure that the input line, if any, is sufficiently short to fit in the string. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, .Fn fgets and .Fn gets return a pointer to the string. If end-of-file occurs before any characters are read, they return .Dv NULL and the buffer contents remain unchanged. If an error occurs, they return .Dv NULL and the buffer contents are indeterminate. The .Fn fgets and .Fn gets functions do not distinguish between end-of-file and error, and callers must use .Xr feof 3 and .Xr ferror 3 to determine which occurred. .Sh ERRORS .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF The given .Fa stream is not a readable stream. .El .Pp The function .Fn fgets may also fail and set .Va errno for any of the errors specified for the routines .Xr fflush 3 , .Xr fstat 2 , .Xr read 2 , or .Xr malloc 3 . .Pp The function .Fn gets may also fail and set .Va errno for any of the errors specified for the routine .Xr getchar 3 . .Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS The .Fn gets function cannot be used securely. Because of its lack of bounds checking, and the inability for the calling program to reliably determine the length of the next incoming line, the use of this function enables malicious users to arbitrarily change a running program's functionality through a buffer overflow attack. It is strongly suggested that the .Fn fgets function be used in all cases. (See the FSA.) .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr feof 3 , .Xr ferror 3 , .Xr fgetln 3 , .Xr fgetws 3 , .Xr getline 3 .Sh STANDARDS The functions .Fn fgets and .Fn gets conform to .St -isoC-99 .