Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help 
BZERO(3)	       FreeBSD Library Functions Manual		      BZERO(3)

NAME
     bzero, explicit_bzero -- write zeroes to a	byte string

LIBRARY
     Standard C	Library	(libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <strings.h>

     void
     bzero(void	*b, size_t len);

     void
     explicit_bzero(void *b, size_t len);

DESCRIPTION
     The bzero() function writes len zero bytes	to the string b.  If len is
     zero, bzero() does	nothing.

     The explicit_bzero() variant behaves the same, but	will not be removed by
     a compiler's dead store optimization pass,	making it useful for clearing
     sensitive memory such as a	password.

SEE ALSO
     memset(3),	swab(3)

HISTORY
     A bzero() function	appeared in 4.3BSD.  Its prototype existed previously
     in	<string.h> before it was moved to <strings.h> for IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
     (``POSIX.1'') compliance.

     The explicit_bzero() function first appeared in OpenBSD 5.5 and
     FreeBSD 11.0.

     IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (``POSIX.1'')	removes	the specification of bzero()
     and it is marked as LEGACY	in IEEE	Std 1003.1-2004	(``POSIX.1'').	For
     portability with other systems new	programs should	use memset(3).

FreeBSD	11.1			August 24, 2015			  FreeBSD 11.1
NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | HISTORY

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=explicit_bzero&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+11.0-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help