strndupa(3)

✨ strndupa — the manual page bestie 💖

okay so welcome to strndupa(3), straight out of the Library Functions Manual 🎀 this is the GNU girlie of string duplication and she has opinions about memory. let's get into it 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

strndupa — nonstring duplicate-into-string using-alloca ✨

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🧚 LIBRARY 🧚

Standard C library (libc, -lc) 💖 the classic. the moment. the icon.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#define _GNU_SOURCE  /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
#include <string.h>  // see memory.h(3head)

char *strndupa(size_t n;
              const char strn[n], size_t n);

like yeah bestie, you do need that _GNU_SOURCE define, she doesn't just appear for free 🙈 (peep feature_test_macros(7) for the lore). and yes the header comment literally says see memory.h(3head) — keep that energy.

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

strndupa() is giving strndup(3) but make it stack-allocated ✨ she's similar to strndup(3), except she uses alloca(3) to allocate the buffer. no malloc moment, no free era, just vibes and stack frames 🫶

she is equivalent to exactly this:

strncat(strcpy(alloca(n + 1), ""), strn, n)

periodt. that's the whole personality 💀

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🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

On success, this macro returns a pointer to the duplicated string 🎀 slay, she delivered. that's the only outcome listed, bestie, don't come for me 👑

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💜 ATTRIBUTES 💜

so for an explanation of the terms used in this section, go check attributes(7) — it's the glossary era, iykyk 📖

• Interface: strndupa()
• Attribute: Thread safety
• Value: MT-Safe ✅ multi-threaded besties, she's safe, no cap

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⭐ STANDARDS ⭐

GNU. 💅 that's it. that's the whole answer.

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💀 HISTORY 💀

GNU. 🫶 again. she's been GNU this whole time, iconic behavior.

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

• memory.h(3head)
• alloca(3)
• strndup(3)

go read them bestie, they're all in the same friend group 💖

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and that's the page!! this little masterpiece is from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-08-17 🌸 mwah, go forth and duplicate responsibly, love u bye 😭💅✨