man-pages/man3/memcmp.3.html
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<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Man page of MEMCMP</TITLE>
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<H1>MEMCMP</H1>
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (3)<BR>Updated: 2017-09-15<BR><A HREF="#index">Index</A>
<A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html">Return to Main Contents</A><HR>
<A NAME="lbAB">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>NAME</H2>
memcmp - compare memory areas
<A NAME="lbAC">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2>
<PRE>
<B>#include &lt;<A HREF="file:///usr/include/string.h">string.h</A>&gt;</B>
<B>int memcmp(const void *</B><I>s1</I><B>, const void *</B><I>s2</I><B>, size_t </B><I>n</I><B>);</B>
</PRE>
<A NAME="lbAD">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2>
The
<B>memcmp</B>()
function compares the first <I>n</I> bytes (each interpreted as
<I>unsigned char</I>)
of the memory areas <I>s1</I> and <I>s2</I>.
<A NAME="lbAE">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>RETURN VALUE</H2>
The
<B>memcmp</B>()
function returns an integer less than, equal to, or
greater than zero if the first <I>n</I> bytes of <I>s1</I> is found,
respectively, to be less than, to match, or be greater than the first
<I>n</I> bytes of <I>s2</I>.
<P>
For a nonzero return value, the sign is determined by the sign of
the difference between the first pair of bytes (interpreted as
<I>unsigned char</I>)
that differ in
<I>s1</I>
and
<I>s2</I>.
<P>
If
<I>n</I>
is zero, the return value is zero.
<A NAME="lbAF">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>ATTRIBUTES</H2>
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?7+attributes">attributes</A></B>(7).
<TABLE BORDER>
<TR VALIGN=top><TD><B>Interface</B></TD><TD><B>Attribute</B></TD><TD><B>Value</B><BR></TD></TR>
<TR VALIGN=top><TD>
<B>memcmp</B>()
</TD><TD>Thread safety</TD><TD>MT-Safe<BR></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
<A NAME="lbAG">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>CONFORMING TO</H2>
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, C99, SVr4, 4.3BSD.
<A NAME="lbAH">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>NOTES</H2>
<P>
Do not use
<B>memcmp</B>()
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
<B>consttime_memequal</B>()),
but no such function is specified in POSIX.
On Linux, it may be necessary to implement such a function oneself.
<A NAME="lbAI">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>SEE ALSO</H2>
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+bcmp">bcmp</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+bstring">bstring</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+strcasecmp">strcasecmp</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+strcmp">strcmp</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+strcoll">strcoll</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+strncasecmp">strncasecmp</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+strncmp">strncmp</A></B>(3),
<B><A HREF="/cgi-bin/man/man2html?3+wmemcmp">wmemcmp</A></B>(3)
<A NAME="lbAJ">&nbsp;</A>
<H2>COLOPHON</H2>
This page is part of release 5.05 of the Linux
<I>man-pages</I>
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
<A HREF="https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.">https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.</A>
<P>
<HR>
<A NAME="index">&nbsp;</A><H2>Index</H2>
<DL>
<DT id="1"><A HREF="#lbAB">NAME</A><DD>
<DT id="2"><A HREF="#lbAC">SYNOPSIS</A><DD>
<DT id="3"><A HREF="#lbAD">DESCRIPTION</A><DD>
<DT id="4"><A HREF="#lbAE">RETURN VALUE</A><DD>
<DT id="5"><A HREF="#lbAF">ATTRIBUTES</A><DD>
<DT id="6"><A HREF="#lbAG">CONFORMING TO</A><DD>
<DT id="7"><A HREF="#lbAH">NOTES</A><DD>
<DT id="8"><A HREF="#lbAI">SEE ALSO</A><DD>
<DT id="9"><A HREF="#lbAJ">COLOPHON</A><DD>
</DL>
<HR>
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