Return a string on C - c

Question

I'm getting a core dump that I have no clue how to solve. I have searched other questions and googled my problem but I just can't figure out how to solve this...
Here is the code:
const char checkExtension(const char *filename)
{
const char *point = filename;
const char *newName = malloc(sizeof(filename-5));
if((point = strrchr(filename,'.palz')) != NULL )
{
if(strstr(point,".palz") == 0)
{
strncpy(newName, filename, strlen(filename)-5);
printf("%s\n",newName ); // the name shows correctly
return newName; // Segmentation fault (core dumped)
}
}
return point;
}
The function was called char checkExtensions(const char *filename). I added the const due the solutions that I have found online but so far I haven't been able to make it work...
Thank you in advance for the help!

Answer 1

You have many problems with your code. Here are some of them:
Your function returns char which is a single character. You need to return a pointer to an array of characters, a C string.
You don't allocate the right amount of memory. You use sizeof() on a pointer which yields the size of a pointer.
You make it impossible for the caller to know whether or not to deallocate memory. Sometimes you heap allocate, sometimes not. Your approach will leak.
You pass '.palz', which is a character literal, to strrchr which expects a single char. What you mean to pass is '.'.
A better approach is to let the caller allocate the memory. Here is a complete program that shows how:
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
void GetNewFileName(const char *fileName, char *newFileName)
{
const char *dot = strrchr(fileName, '.');
if (dot)
{
if (strcmp(dot, ".palz") == 0)
{
size_t len = dot - fileName;
memcpy(newFileName, fileName, len);
newFileName[len] = 0;
return;
}
}
size_t len = strlen(fileName);
memcpy(newFileName, fileName, len);
newFileName[len] = 0;
return;
}
int main(void)
{
char fileName[256];
char newFileName[256];
strcpy(fileName, "foo.bar");
GetNewFileName(fileName, newFileName);
printf("%s %s\n", fileName, newFileName);
strcpy(fileName, "foo.bar.palz");
GetNewFileName(fileName, newFileName);
printf("%s %s\n", fileName, newFileName);
strcpy(fileName, "foo.bar.palz.txt");
GetNewFileName(fileName, newFileName);
printf("%s %s\n", fileName, newFileName);
return 0;
}
Output
foo.bar foo.bar
foo.bar.palz foo.bar
foo.bar.palz.txt foo.bar.palz.txt
Note that strcmp compares sensitive to letter case. On Windows file names are insensitive to case. I will leave that issue for you to deal with.
By letting the caller allocate memory you allow them to chose where the memory is allocated. They can use a local stack allocated buffer if they like. And it's easy for the caller to allocate the memory because the new file name is never longer than the original file name.

Answer 2

This is most probably your problem:
const char *newName = malloc(sizeof(filename-5));
First, filename is of type const char *, which means that (filename - 5) is also of this type. Thus, sizeof(filename - 5) will always return the size of the pointer datatype of your architecture (4 for x32, 8 for x64).
So, depending on your architecture, you are calling either malloc(4) or malloc(8).
The rest of the code doesn't even compile and it has serious string manipulation issues, so it's hard to tell what you were aiming at. I suppose the strncpy() was copying too much data into newName buffer, which caused buffer overflow.
If your goal was to extract the filename from a path, then you should probably just use char *basename(char *path) for that.

Answer 3

Several pretty major problems with your code. Making it up as I type, so it may not fix everything first time right away. Bear with me.
You need to return a char *, not a char.
const char checkExtension(const char *filename)
{
const char *point = filename;
You malloc memory but the instruction flow does not guarantee it will be freed or returned.
sizeof(filename) should be strlen(filename), minus 5 (sans extension) but +1 (with terminating 0).
const char *newName = malloc(sizeof(filename-5));
strrchr searches for a single character. Some compilers allow "multibyte character constants", but they expect something like 2 -- not five. Since you know the length and start of the string, use strcmp. (First ensure there are at least 5 characters. If not, no use in testing anyway.)
if((point = strrchr(filename,'.palz')) != NULL ) {
Uh, strstr searches for a string inside a string and returns 0 if not found (actually NULL). This contradicts your earlier test. Remove it.
if(strstr(point,".palz") == 0)
{
strncpy copies n characters, but famously (and documented) does not add the terminating 0 if it did not get copied. You will have to this yourself.
.. This is actually where the malloc line should appear, right before using and returning it.
strncpy(newName, filename, strlen(filename)-5);
printf("%s\n",newName ); // the name shows correctly
return newName; // Segmentation fault (core dumped)
}
}
You return the original string here. How do you know you need to free it, then? If you overwrote a previous char * its memory will be lost. Better to return a duplicate of the original string (so it can always be freed), or, as I'd prefer, return NULL to indicate "no further action needed" to the calling routine.
return point;
}
Hope I did not forget anything.

Answer 4

There are several problems with your code:
Wrong return type:
const char checkExtension(const char *filename){
You need to return a pointer (const char *), not a single character.
Not enough memory:
const char checkExtension(const char *filename){
const char *newName = malloc(sizeof(filename-5));
You are allocating the size of a pointer (char *), which is typically 4 or 8. You need to call strlen() to find out the size of the string:
Multibyte character:
if((point = strrchr(filename,'.palz')) != NULL ) {
'.palz' is a multibyte character literal. While this is allowed in C, its value is implementation-defined and might not do what you expect. String literals use double quotes (".palz").
No terminating zero:
strncpy(newName, filename, strlen(filename)-5);
Note that strncpy() doesn't necessarily null-terminate the target string. It write at most strlen(filename)-5 characters. If the source string contains more characters (as in your case), it will not write a terminating zero.
I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to do. Perhaps something like this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
const char *checkExtension(const char *filename)
{
int len = strlen (filename)-5;
char *newName = NULL; /* return NULL on allocation failure. */
if (len > 0 && !strcmp (filename+len, ".palz")) {
newName = malloc (len+1);
if (newName) {
memcpy (newName, filename, len);
newName[len] = 0;
}
}
return newName;
}
int main (int ac, char **av)
{
if (ac > 1) {
const char *p = checkExtension (av[1]);
puts (p ? p : "NULL");
} else {
puts ("?");
}
return 0;
}

Answer 5

Multiple errors here. You have not said what you are trying to achieve, that has to be implied from the code. You have declared point and newName as const, yet reassigned with a value. You have tested strstr() == 0 when it should be strstr() == NULL. You have called strrchr(filename,'.palz') but sent a string instead of a char. Then you have returned the local variable point which goes out of scope before you get a chance to use it, because it was not declared as static. So it's irrelevant whether you returned a char or a char pointer.
char *checkExtension(const char *filename) {
// if filename has extension .palz return a pointer to
// the filename stripped of extension or return NULL
char *point;
static char newName[512];
strncpy(newName, filename, 512);
if ((point = strstr(newName, ".palz")) != NULL ) {
if (strlen (point) == 5) {
*point = 0; // string terminator
// printf("%s\n",newName ); // use only for debugging
return newName;
}
}
return NULL;
}
Alternatively provide a string the function can modify -
char *checkExtension(const char *filename, char *newName) { ... }
Alternatively provide a filename the function can modify -
char *checkExtension(char *filename) {
char *point;
if ((point = strstr(filename, ".palz")) != NULL ) {
if (strlen (point) == 5) {
*point = 0; // string terminator
return filename;
}
}
return NULL;
}