NAME
memset —
write a byte to byte string
LIBRARY
library “libc”
SYNOPSIS
#include
<string.h>
void *
memset(void
*b, int c,
size_t len);
DESCRIPTION
Thememset()
function writes len bytes of value
c (converted to an unsigned char) to the string
b.
RETURN VALUES
The memset() function returns the original
value of b.
Note that the compiler may optimize away a call to
memset() if it can prove that the string will not be
used by the program again, for example if it is allocated on the stack and
about to go out of scope. If you want to guarantee that zeros are written to
memory, for example to sanitize a buffer holding a cryptographic secret, use
explicit_memset(3).
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The memset() function conforms to
ANSI X3.159-1989
(“ANSI C89”).