protoc-c: Nested structure with optional string throws seg fault - c

Question

Trying out Google protocol buffers for my code in C language.
messagefile.proto
===================
mesage othermessage
{
optional string otherstring = 1;
}
message onemessage
{
optional string messagestring = 1;
optional int32 aninteger = 2;
optional othermessage otr_message= 3;
}
==============================================
--> protoc-c messagefile.proto --c_out=./
this resulted in two files
--> messagefile.pb-c.c and messagefile.pb-c.h
Now my code file which would try to use the
simpleexample.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include "messagefile.pb-c.h"
#include <stdbool.h>
int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
onemessage msg = ONE__MESSAGE__INIT; //from generated .h code file
void *buf;
unsigned int len;
char *ptr;
//integer initialization
msg.has_aninteger = true;
msg.aninteger = 1;
//accessing the string in onemessage
msg.messagestring = malloc(sizeof("a simple string"));
strncpy(msg.messagestring,"a simple string",strlen("a simple string"));
//trying to initialize the string in the nested structure othermessage
msg.otr_message = malloc(sizeof(othermessage));
msg.otr_message->otherstring = malloc(sizeof("a not so simple string"));
strncpy(msg.otr_message->otherstring,"a not so simple string",strlen("a not so simple string"));
//lets find the length of the packed structure
len = one_message__get_packed_size(&msg); //from generated .h code
//lets arrange for as much size as len
buf = malloc(len);
//lets get the serialized structure in buf
one_message__pack_to_buffer(&msg,buf); //from generated code
//write it to a stream, for now the screen
fwrite(buf,len,1,stdout);
//free buffer
free(buf);
return 0;
}
I compile it as gcc -o testout messagefile.pb-c.c simpleexample.c -lprotobuf-c
The Problem I am facing is when trying to initialize the nested othermessage variables and then call the get_packed_size it throws a segmentation fault.
I tried various combinations and I can say that whenever having strings in a nested class, I am facing problem to access those using google protoc.
Am i missing something? Is there anything wrong.
Can anyone please help.
note:There might be a few general syntax errors please ignore them.
ThankYou.

Answer 1

note:There might be a few general syntax errors please ignore them.
Err... they are kinda hard to ignore since your code does not compile :-)
Anyway, apart from the syntax errors, you need to make several corrections to your code. In order to use the field otr_message, it is not sufficient to just malloc() it. You also need to initialize it so the headers in the message get the right values. This is done with init(), like this:
//trying to initialize the string in the nested structure othermessage
msg.otr_message = malloc(sizeof(othermessage));
othermessage__init(msg.otr_message);
Then you use the wrong function to do the packing to your own array. As explained here, you need to use pack() as opposed to pack_to_buffer(), like this:
//lets get the serialized structure in buf
onemessage__pack(&msg,buf); //from generated code
Finally, your strncpy() invocations have a mistake. The length calculated with strlen() does not include the null terminator, which you do need. So you need to take strlen()+1 or use sizeof(), like this:
strncpy(msg.messagestring,"a simple string",sizeof("a simple string"));
After making those changes, the example worked for me:
$ ./testout
a simple string
a not so simple string