sprintf(9)

🎀 sprintf(9) 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual — yes, we're doing kernel docs now, and honestly? iconic of us. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

sprintf — format a string and drop it right into a buffer 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

int sprintf (char *buf , const char *fmt , ... );

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🦋 ARGUMENTS 🦋

• buf — the buffer where the finished result goes. this is the lil home for your output 💖
• fmt — the format string you're using. the blueprint, the vibe, the template ✨
• ... — the arguments for that format string. the actual content filling in the blanks 🎀

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so the return value? it's the number of characters written into buf, not including the trailing ' '. lowkey important, don't sleep on it 👑

🚨 bestie listen to me: use snprintf or scnprintf instead so you don't get buffer overflows. like, genuinely. sprintf does not check anything and will absolutely let you write past the end of your buffer 💀 that's not a vibe.

and if you wanna know about format string extensions that go beyond C99? go read the vsnprintf documentation, it's all laid out there 📖✨

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• kernel file ./lib/vsprintf.c — the source, the origin story 🧚
• simple_strtoull(9)
• simple_strtoul(9)
• simple_strtol(9)
• simple_strtoll(9)
• vsnprintf(9)
• vscnprintf(9)
• snprintf(9)
• scnprintf(9)
• vsprintf(9)
• vbin_printf(9)
• bstr_printf(9)
• vsscanf(9)
• sscanf(9)

like a whole friend group of format functions, and yes they all ate 💅🔥

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okay that's the whole page, you're officially smarter than you were three minutes ago, proud of you fr fr 🌟

signing off from ./lib — October 2026 — this was sprintf(9), mwah 💋🎀