memcmp(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ATTRIBUTES | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

MEMCMP(3)               Linux Programmer's Manual              MEMCMP(3)

NAME         top

       memcmp - compare memory areas

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <string.h>

       int memcmp(const void *s1, const void *s2, size_t n);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The memcmp() function compares the first n bytes (each
       interpreted as unsigned char) of the memory areas s1 and s2.

RETURN VALUE         top

       The memcmp() function returns an integer less than, equal to, or
       greater than zero if the first n bytes of s1 is found,
       respectively, to be less than, to match, or be greater than the
       first n bytes of s2.

       For a nonzero return value, the sign is determined by the sign of
       the difference between the first pair of bytes (interpreted as
       unsigned char) that differ in s1 and s2.

       If n is zero, the return value is zero.

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).

       ┌──────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                             Attribute     Value   │
       ├──────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │memcmp()                              │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └──────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

CONFORMING TO         top

       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, C99, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

NOTES         top

       Do not use memcmp() to compare security critical data, such as
       cryptographic secrets, because the required CPU time depends on
       the number of equal bytes.  Instead, a function that performs
       comparisons in constant time is required.  Some operating systems
       provide such a function (e.g., NetBSD's consttime_memequal()),
       but no such function is specified in POSIX.  On Linux, it may be
       necessary to implement such a function oneself.

SEE ALSO         top

       bcmp(3), bstring(3), strcasecmp(3), strcmp(3), strcoll(3),
       strncasecmp(3), strncmp(3), wmemcmp(3)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 5.13 of the Linux man-pages project.
       A description of the project, information about reporting bugs,
       and the latest version of this page, can be found at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

                               2021-03-22                      MEMCMP(3)

Pages that refer to this page: bcmp(3)bstring(3)strcasecmp(3)strcmp(3)strcoll(3)strxfrm(3)wmemcmp(3)signal-safety(7)system_data_types(7)