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NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | CONFORMING TO | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON


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

NAME         top

       fgetc, fgets, getc, getchar, gets, ungetc - input of characters and strings

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <stdio.h>

       int fgetc(FILE *stream);

       char *fgets(char *s, int size, FILE *stream);

       int getc(FILE *stream);

       int getchar(void);

       char *gets(char *s);

       int ungetc(int c, FILE *stream);

DESCRIPTION         top

       fgetc() reads the next character from stream and returns it as an unsigned
       char cast to an int, or EOF on end of file or error.

       getc() is equivalent to fgetc() except that it may be implemented as a macro
       which evaluates stream more than once.

       getchar() is equivalent to getc(stdin).

       gets() reads a line from stdin into the buffer pointed to by s until either a
       terminating newline or EOF, which it replaces with '\0'.  No check for buffer
       overrun is performed (see BUGS below).

       fgets() reads in at most one less than size characters from stream and stores
       them into the buffer pointed to by s.  Reading stops after an EOF or a
       newline.  If a newline is read, it is stored into the buffer.  A '\0' is
       stored after the last character in the buffer.

       ungetc() pushes c back to stream, cast to unsigned char, where it is available
       for subsequent read operations.  Pushed-back characters will be returned in
       reverse order; only one pushback is guaranteed.

       Calls to the functions described here can be mixed with each other and with
       calls to other input functions from the stdio library for the same input
       stream.

       For non-locking counterparts, see unlocked_stdio(3).

RETURN VALUE         top

       fgetc(), getc() and getchar() return the character read as an unsigned char
       cast to an int or EOF on end of file or error.

       gets() and fgets() return s on success, and NULL on error or when end of file
       occurs while no characters have been read.

       ungetc() returns c on success, or EOF on error.

CONFORMING TO         top

       C89, C99, POSIX.1-2001.  LSB deprecates gets().  POSIX.1-2008 removes the
       specification of gets().

BUGS         top

       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.

       It is not advisable to mix calls to input functions from the stdio library
       with low-level calls to read(2) for the file descriptor associated with the
       input stream; the results will be undefined and very probably not what you
       want.

SEE ALSO         top

       read(2), write(2), ferror(3), fgetwc(3), fgetws(3), fopen(3), fread(3),
       fseek(3), getline(3), getwchar(3), puts(3), scanf(3), ungetwc(3),
       unlocked_stdio(3)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.23 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
       at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU                                   2008-08-06                              GETS(3)