#strlcpy - A safer answer to strncpy()

This repository contains a copy of Todd C. Miller's strlcpy() function, originally written for the OpenBSD project, as far as I understand. strlcpy() copies a string from one variable to the other, but it guarantees the destination string to be null-terminated, thus being more reliable and safer than both standard strncpy() and strcpy().

I'm providing this code for everyone's convenience, with portability across POSIX systems in mind. I remember having some trouble sourcing this back then from a trustworthy source. Some projects using strlcpy() seem to have lost track of the true origins of the module and have modified its licensing and copyright notices. This module being over two decades old and quite popular makes me think those misattribution cases are due to the community losing track of where strlcpy() actually originated from, and not due to any kind of malice.

Usually, to get a copy of this function you'd take it from other projects or, worse, try writing your own version of it. Also, you'll find this function in modules that also include the lesser used estrlcpy(), which just adds printing an error message to stderr. If it's the case that you don't want to have unused functions lying around dead in your source code, you'll be very likely to prefer a self-contained version like the one I'm providing you with here.

The version provided on this repository is 1.16, according to OpenBSD's internal versioning of modules. The version string has been kept in strlcpy.c. This is the most recent version at the time I sourced this module back and I am not guaranteeing keeping it up-to-date with upstream.

An OpenBSD-specific call to DEF_WEAK() at the end of the module has been removed. This modification does not affect the behavior of strlcpy() in any means whatsoever, as it is related to how the function is defined within the OS's libc, as can be read on OpenBSD's libc documentation.

Also, this repository provides a ready-to-use header file strlcpy.h for you to use. This trivial header file was written from scratch.

#Usage

I think it's safe for me to assume that anyone interested in this module knows how to embed a module and its header file into the source tree of their C projects.

Be aware, though that strlcpy.h requires you to include the appropriate header file for defining size_t before including strlcpy.h into your own program.

Just as a reminder, the interface of strlcpy() reads as follows:

/*
 * Copy string src to buffer dst of size dsize.  At most dsize-1
 * chars will be copied.  Always NUL terminates (unless dsize == 0).
 * Returns strlen(src); if retval >= dsize, truncation occurred.
 */
size_t strlcpy(char *dst, const char *src, size_t dsize);

#License

strlcpy.c and its associated header file are published under the ISC License. See LICENSE file for copyright and license details.