Passing file content into memory is faulty - c

Question

I am wondering why while I think I make the function call to load appropriately,
it seems that fread cannot read into my chunk of memory correctly and so it creates a segmentation fault[in load function]!Please point me to the right approach
The link to the code is
#include <math.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <strings.h>
bool load(FILE* file, char** content, size_t* length);
int main()
{
// opens file
FILE * file = fopen("test.txt", "r");
// initialises variables
char* content;
size_t length;
// sending arguments to load function
bool receive = load(file, &content, &length);
// debugging content
printf("values of content: %s\n", content);
// debugs length
printf("values of content: %zu\n", length);
// closes file
fclose(file);
// for success
return 0;
}
bool load(FILE* file, char** content, size_t* length)
{
{
// proof checking for the existence of file
if (file == NULL)
{
return false;
}
// perusing to end of file
fseek(file, 0, SEEK_END);
// for approximation of size of file
size_t len = ftell(file);
// returns cursor to beginning of file
fseek(file, 0, SEEK_SET);
// apportions memory on heap for content of file
* content = (char *) malloc (len + 1);
// memory error checking
if(*content == NULL)
{
printf("It's unfortunate\n");
}
// to read into content
fread(* content, sizeof(char), len, file);
// null terminates content
(* content)[len] = 0;
// debugs content
printf(" content contains %s\n", * content);
// debugs length
* length = len;
printf(" length is %d\n", * length);
// if success
return true;
}
// if fail
return false;
}
Thank you

Answer 1

you need to check that the file opened OK
FILE * file = fopen("test.txt", "r");
if(file == NULL)
{
perror("failed to open file: ");
exit(1);
}
Secondly your load function returns false of it fails, but you dont check it. Do
bool receive = load(file, &content, &length);
if(!receive)
{
fprintf(stderr, "failed to read file");
exit(1);
}
in load you do
if(*content == NULL)
{
printf("It's unfortunate\n");
}
but carry on any way. You should do
if(*content == NULL)
{
printf("It's unfortunate\n");
return false;
}
In general you are not checking the return of any function you call, fseek,ftell,fread,.... You should not be surprised when your program fails. Yes its a boring slog, but thats just the way it is in C land