PMSTRNCAT(3)               Library Functions Manual               PMSTRNCAT(3)

NAME
       pmstrncat - safe string concatenation

C SYNOPSIS
       #include <pcp/pmapi.h>

       int pmstrncat(char *dest, size_t destlen, char *src);

       cc ... -lpcp

DESCRIPTION
       pmstrncat is safe string concatenation routine with semantics similar
       to strncat(3).

       The main differences between pmstrncat and strncat(3) are:
       o src must be null-byte terminated for pmstrncat
       o destlen is the length of the destination buffer (dest) for pmstrncat,
         not the maximum number of non-null bytes to copy from src as it is
         for strncat
       o the length argument has the same semantics for pmstrncat and
         pmstrncpy(3), unlike strncat(3) and strncpy(3).
       o the return value from pmstrncat is useful
       o the order of the arguments for pmstrncat has been deliberately
         changed from the order of the arguments for strncat(3) to avoid
         accidental misuse that a compiler can easily detect

       On success, pmstrncat returns 0, else -1 indicates that src is too big
       and the result been truncated to ensure dest has not been overrun.

HISTORY
       strncat(3) first appeared in Edition 7 AT&T Unix around 1979.  It was
       specifically crafted to construct file pathnames (which needed to be
       null-byte terminated) from component names from on-disk directory
       entries that were of a fixed maximum size and may have zero, one or
       more trailing null-bytes

       The subsequent attempts to use strncat(3) for more generally string
       concatenation operations has been fraught with abuse and security
       issues; pmstrncat is an attempt to address these problems.

SEE ALSO
       PMAPI(3), pmstrncpy(3), strncat(3) and strncpy(3).

Performance Co-Pilot                  PCP                         PMSTRNCAT(3)