C: Pointer to a structure element - c

Question

I tried to read on it from past questions and watch youtube videos but i don't get it.
I have a program with struct called info. I created a function that adds element of the structure and return a pointer to it.
then i want to use the element fields through the pointer.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <getopt.h>
#include <unistd.h>
struct Info {
char* name;
char type;
char* path;
};
struct Info* AddInfo(char* input);
int main(void) {
char input[128];
fgets(input, sizeof(input), stdin);
struct info *Puser;
Puser=malloc(sizeof(AddInfo(input)));
&Puser=AddInfo(input);
//here is my problem.
return 0;
}
struct Info *AddInfo( char* input) {
struct Info user1;
struct info* Puser=0;
char *s;
//assign to name
for (int i = strlen(input) - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
if (input[i] == '/') {
s = malloc(sizeof(input));
strncpy(s, input + i + 1, i);
user1.name = malloc(sizeof(s));
if (user1.name == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", "Error in malloc");
}
strcpy(user1.name, s);
user1.name[i] = '\0';
free(s);
break;
}
}
//assign to type
if ((user1.type = malloc(sizeof(user1.type)) == NULL)) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", "Error in malloc");
}
if (input[strlen(input) - 1] == '/') {
user1.type = 'd';
} else {
user1.type = 'f';
}
//assign to path
user1.path = malloc(sizeof(input));
if (user1.path == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", "Error in malloc");
}
strcpy(user1.path, input);
// printf("%s \n", user1.path);
// printf("%s\n", user1.name);
// free(user1.name);
Puser= &user1;
return Puser;
}
How should i do that correctly ? how can i take user1 and access it through pointer outside the function ?
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Your function AddUser assigns all the data to a function-local variable then returns a pointer to that data, but as soon as the function returns that local is no longer valid, you need to allocate the new Info in AddUser rather than main and assign the data to that allocated instance and return that pointer.
typedef struct Info {
char * name;
...
} Info;
Info * AddUser(char const * name);
int main()
{
Info * pNewUser = AddUser("Bob");
...
free(pNewUser);
return 0;
}
Info AddUser(char const * name)
{
if(!name || !*name)
return NULL;
Info * pNew = malloc(sizeof(Info));
if(!pNew)
return NULL;
size_t len = strlen(name);
pNew->name = malloc(len+1);
if(!pNew->name)
{
free(pNew);
return NULL;
}
strcpy(pNew->name, name);
return pNew;
}