warning: the `gets' function is dangerous and should not be used

Question

Hi when I write make in the terminal I get this message. What is the problem with gets? Must I change something. Thanks for helping.

user@ubuntu:~/Desktop/Project$ make
gcc -g -ansi -pedantic -Wall -lm project.o -o project 
project.o: In function `main':
project.c:(.text+0x2c8c): warning: the `gets' function is dangerous and should not be used.

void main(){
    char File_Name[55] = { "\0" };
    printf("Give Me File Name:\n");
    gets(File_Name);
    strcat(File_Name, ".as");
    Read_From_File(File_Name);
    printf("\n*******************************************\n");
    free_malloc();
}

Answer 1

The function gets is unsafe and is not supported by the C standard. The used array can be overwritten beyond its size. Instead use the function fgets. That is instead of this statement

gets(File_Name);

write at least like

fgets( File_Name, sizeof( File_Name ), stdin );

The function can append the new line character '\n' to the entered string. To remove it use the following code

#include <string.h>

//...

fgets( File_Name, sizeof( File_Name ), stdin );

File_Name[ strcspn( File_Name, "\n" ) ] = '\0';

Take into account that this initialization

char File_Name[55] = { "\0" };

is equivalent to

char File_Name[55] = "";

or to

char File_Name[55] = { '\0' };