[austintas]

OK, this is probably a really stupid question but why doesn't gets() work in OS X? I'm new to programming and I'm currently working through the "C for Dummies" book as a start, and this is the first function that I can't get to work. The program compiles fine, but when I run it from the command line it ignores the gets() function and prints "warning: this program uses gets(), which is unsafe" instead.

So...
- why is it unsafe?
- is there to get it to work
- should I be using gets() at all?

Thanks

[parallax]

gets() is probably marked unsafe because it'll read until it's done. If the memory you're reading to is too little for gets(), it'll run over and try to write into other memory. fgets() is probably a better choice (or scanf() for other instances).

[Lars -1]

Question 12.23
Why does everyone say not to use gets()?


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Unlike fgets(), gets() cannot be told the size of the buffer it's to read into, so it cannot be prevented from overflowing that buffer. As a general rule, always use fgets(). See question 7.1 for a code fragment illustrating the replacement of gets() with fgets().

References: Rationale Sec. 4.9.7.2
H&S Sec. 15.7 p. 356

RTFM: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html

cu
Lars

[austintas]

Thanks you guys, that's helped a lot.