gets - get a string from standard input (DEPRECATED)
Standard C library (
libc,
-lc)
#include <stdio.h>
[[deprecated]] char *gets(char *s);
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).
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.
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
attributes(7).
Interface |
Attribute |
Value |
gets () |
Thread safety |
MT-Safe |
C99, 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.
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
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)