explicit_bzero(3bsd) LOCAL explicit_bzero(3bsd)
NAME
explicit_bzero — write zeroes to a byte string
LIBRARY
Utility functions from BSD systems (libbsd, −lbsd)
SYNOPSIS
#include <string.h>
(See libbsd(7) for include usage.)
void
explicit_bzero(void *buf, size_t len);
DESCRIPTION
The explicit_bzero() function writes len zero bytes to the string buf. If len is zero, explicit_bzero() does nothing.
The explicit_bzero() variant behaves the same as the bzero() function, but will not be removed by a compiler’s dead store optimization pass, making it useful for clearing sensitive memory such as a password.
SEE ALSO
bzero(3), memset(3), swab(3)
HISTORY
The explicit_bzero() function first appeared in OpenBSD 5.5, glibc 2.25. GNU January 22, 2014 explicit_bzero(3bsd)