gets(3)                                               Library Functions Manual                                              gets(3)

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

LIBRARY
       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdio.h>

       [[deprecated]] 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  characters  have  been  read.   However,
       given the lack of buffer overrun checking, there can be no guarantees that the function will even return.

ATTRIBUTES
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                                                                                        │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │gets()                                                                                           │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS
       C99, POSIX.1-2001.

       LSB  deprecates gets().  POSIX.1-2008 marks gets() obsolescent.  ISO C11 removes the specification of gets() from the C lan‐
       guage, and since glibc 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/defini‐
       tions/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)

Linux man-pages 6.03                                         2023-02-05                                                     gets(3)