Why?

The POSIX getline function is a good alternative if available.

For systems where getline isn't available, or for cases where gets-like syntax is more desirable, Chuck Falconer's ggets can be used instead. ggets automatically allocates a buffer to store the input line. Callers are responsible for calling free on the allocated line when no longer needed. The ggets code is written in standard C, is portable, and is in the public domain.

(Note that because ggets always strips a trailing newline character, clients will not be able to distinguish a final line that contains a newline from a final line that does not. Some consider this to be a bug; others consider this to be a feature.)

With his passing, Chuck Falconer's website is no longer available (although archive.org still has a copy), so I'm providing a copy of his ggets code here.

Download

ggets.zip

References