[masklinn]

That’s because strncpy does not return a nul-terminated (“C”) strings, but a fixed-size nul-padded strings.

That, as it turns out, is the case of most (but not all) strn* functions.

Of course strncpy adds the injury that it’s specified to alllow nul-terminated inputs (it stops at the first nul byte, before filling the target buffer with nuls).

[lelanthran]

It also, in some situations, returns a *string" that doesn't have the null terminator, which means it is giving the caller something that literally isn't a string.

[masklinn]

It always “returns” the same thing: a fixed size nul-padded buffer. Call it a char array if you want, that’s always been it’s role and contract.