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FMTCHECK(3)		     Library Functions Manual		     FMTCHECK(3)

NAME
     fmtcheck -- sanitizes user-supplied printf(3)-style format string

LIBRARY
     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
     #include <stdio.h>

     const char *
     fmtcheck(const char *fmt_suspect, const char *fmt_default);

DESCRIPTION
     The   fmtcheck()	scans	fmt_suspect  and  fmt_default  to  determine  if
     fmt_suspect will consume the same argument types as fmt_default and to  en-
     sure that fmt_suspect is a valid format string.

     The printf(3) family of functions cannot verify the types of arguments that
     they  are passed at run-time.  In some cases, like catgets(3), it is useful
     or necessary to use a user-supplied format string with  no  guarantee  that
     the format string matches the specified arguments.

     The fmtcheck() was designed to be used in these cases, as in:

	   printf(fmtcheck(user_format, standard_format), arg1, arg2);

     In  the  check, field widths, fillers, precisions, etc. are ignored (unless
     the field width or precision is an asterisk `*' instead of a digit string).
     Also, any text other than the format specifiers is completely ignored.

RETURN VALUES
     If fmt_suspect is a valid format and consumes the same  argument  types  as
     fmt_default,  then  the  fmtcheck() will return fmt_suspect.  Otherwise, it
     will return fmt_default.

SEE ALSO
     printf(3)

BUGS
     The fmtcheck() function does not recognize positional parameters.

SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
     Note that the formats may be quite different as long  as  they  accept  the
     same  arguments.	For example, "%p %o %30s %#llx %-10.*e %n" is compatible
     with "This number %lu %d%% and string %s has %qd numbers  and  %.*g  floats
     (%n)".  However, "%o" is not equivalent to "%lx" because the first requires
     an integer and the second requires a long.

FreeBSD 15.1			October 16, 2002		     FMTCHECK(3)

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