strsep(9)

💅 strsep(9) — the kernel API manual, bestie edition 🎀

okay so this is strsep, straight out of the Kernel API Manual, and honestly? she's that girl. lowkey one of the most useful little string-splitters in the whole kernel and she knows it. let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

strsep — split a string into tokens 🍓

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

char * strsep (char **s , const char *ct );

yes the spacing is weird, no we're not fixing it, that's just how she's printed. slay 💅

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• s — the string to be searched 👀 (it's a char ** bestie, she's getting updated, keep reading)
• ct — the characters to search for 🔍

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so here's the main character moment: strsep updates s to point after the token, ready for the next call. that's the whole vibe. call her, she eats the token, she bumps s forward, you call her again. iconic loop energy fr fr 💖

and here's the thing nobody expects: it returns empty tokens, too. like, yes, genuinely, empty ones. it behaves exactly like the libc function of that name — no cap, same semantics. in fact, it was stolen from glibc2 and de-fancy-fied. same semantics, slimmer shape. ;) 🧚

not me obsessed with a kernel function that literally admits it was stolen from glibc2 and then "de-fancy-fied" 😭 the audacity, the confidence, we stan

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

kernel file ./lib/string.c, plus the whole friend group right here — go say hi to all of them 🫶

• strncasecmp(9)
• stpcpy(9)
• strcmp(9)
• strncmp(9)
• strchr(9)
• strchrnul(9)
• strnchrnul(9)
• strrchr(9)
• strnchr(9)
• strspn(9)
• strcspn(9)
• strpbrk(9)
• memset(9)
• memset16(9)
• memset32(9)
• memset64(9)
• memcpy(9)
• memmove(9)
• memcmp(9)
• bcmp(9)
• memscan(9)
• strstr(9)
• strnstr(9)
• memchr(9)
• memchr_inv(9)

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and that's the page!! 💜 this little love letter lives in ./lib and it's dated October 2026 — so go split some strings, bestie, and remember: strsep(9) said it first. mwah 🎀💖✨