The function to replace string in C

#include 
#include 

char * replace(
    char const * const original, 
    char const * const pattern, 
    char const * const replacement
) {
  size_t const replen = strlen(replacement);
  size_t const patlen = strlen(pattern);
  size_t const orilen = strlen(original);

  size_t patcnt = 0;
  const char * oriptr;
  const char * patloc;

  // find how many times the pattern occurs in the original string
  for (oriptr = original; patloc = strstr(oriptr, pattern); oriptr = patloc + patlen)
  {
    patcnt++;
  }

  {
    // allocate memory for the new string
    size_t const retlen = orilen + patcnt * (replen - patlen);
    char * const returned = (char *) malloc( sizeof(char) * (retlen + 1) );

    if (returned != NULL)
    {
      // copy the original string, 
      // replacing all the instances of the pattern
      char * retptr = returned;
      for (oriptr = original; patloc = strstr(oriptr, pattern); oriptr = patloc + patlen)
      {
        size_t const skplen = patloc - oriptr;
        // copy the section until the occurence of the pattern
        strncpy(retptr, oriptr, skplen);
        retptr += skplen;
        // copy the replacement 
        strncpy(retptr, replacement, replen);
        retptr += replen;
      }
      // copy the rest of the string.
      strcpy(retptr, oriptr);
    }
    return returned;
  }
}

#include 
int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
  if (argc != 4)
  {
    fprintf(stderr,"usage: %s   \n", argv[0]);
    exit(-1);
  }
  else
  {
    char * const newstr = replace(argv[1], argv[2], argv[3]);
    if (newstr)
    {
      printf("%s\n", newstr);
      free(newstr);
    }
    else
    {
      fprintf(stderr,"allocation error\n");
      exit(-2);
    }
  }
  return 0;
}