GETS(3)                             Linux Programmer's Manual                             GETS(3)



NAME
       gets - get a string from standard input (DEPRECATED)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdio.h>

       char *gets(char *s);

DESCRIPTION
       Never use this function.

       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).

RETURN VALUE
       gets() returns s on success, and NULL on error or when end of file occurs while no charac‐
       ters have been read.  However, given the lack of buffer overrun checking, there can be  no
       guarantees that the function will even return.

CONFORMING TO
       C89, C99, POSIX.1-2001.

       LSB deprecates gets().  POSIX.1-2008 marks gets() obsolescent.  ISO C11 removes the speci‐
       fication of gets() from the C language, and since version 2.16, glibc header  files  don't
       expose the function declaration if the _ISOC11_SOURCE feature test macro is defined.

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.html

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)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.74 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
       project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of  this  page,  can  be
       found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                                         2014-01-24                                    GETS(3)