Copying a file in C with fwrite - c

Question

I am new to C and was trying to write a program just to copy a file so that I could learn the basics of files. My code takes a file as input, figures out its length by subtracting its start from its end using fseek and ftell. Then, it uses fwrite to write, based on what I could get from its man page, ONE element of data, (END - START) elements long, to the stream pointed to by OUT, obtaining them from the location given by FI. The problem is, although it does produce "copy output," the file is not the same as the original. What am I doing wrong? I tried reading the input file into a variable and then writing from there, but that didn't help either. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
FILE* fi = fopen(argv[1], "r"); //create the input file for reading
if (fi == NULL)
return 1; // check file exists
int start = ftell(fi); // get file start address
fseek(fi, 0, SEEK_END); // go to end of file
int end = ftell(fi); // get file end address
rewind(fi); // go back to file beginning
FILE* out = fopen("copy output", "w"); // create the output file for writing
fwrite(fi,end-start,1,out); // write the input file to the output file
}
Should this work?
{
FILE* out = fopen("copy output", "w");
int* buf = malloc(end-start); fread(buf,end-start,1,fi);
fwrite(buf,end-start,1,out);
}

Answer 1

This isn't how fwrite works.
To copy a file, you'd typically allocate a buffer, then use fread to read one buffer of data, followed by fwrite to write that data back out. Repeat until you've copied the entire file. Typical code is something on this general order:
#define SIZE (1024*1024)
char buffer[SIZE];
size_t bytes;
while (0 < (bytes = fread(buffer, 1, sizeof(buffer), infile)))
fwrite(buffer, 1, bytes, outfile);

Answer 2

The first parameter of fwrite is a pointer to the data to be written to the file not a FILE* to read from. You have to read the data from the first file into a buffer then write that buffer to the output file. http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/cstdio/fwrite/

Answer 3

Perhaps a look through an open-source copy tool in C would point you in the right direction.

Answer 4

Here is How It can be done:
Option 1: Dynamic "Array"
Nested Level: 0
// Variable Definition
char *cpArr;
FILE *fpSourceFile = fopen(<Your_Source_Path>, "rb");
FILE *fpTargetFile = fopen(<Your_Target_Path>, "wb");
// Code Section
// Get The Size Of bits Of The Source File
fseek(fpSourceFile, 0, SEEK_END); // Go To The End Of The File
cpArr = (char *)malloc(sizeof(*cpArr) * ftell(fpSourceFile)); // Create An Array At That Size
fseek(fpSourceFile, 0, SEEK_SET); // Return The Cursor To The Start
// Read From The Source File - "Copy"
fread(&cpArr, sizeof(cpArr), 1, fpSourceFile);
// Write To The Target File - "Paste"
fwrite(&cpArr, sizeof(cpArr), 1, fpTargetFile);
// Close The Files
fclose(fpSourceFile);
fclose(fpTargetFile);
// Free The Used Memory
free(cpArr);
Option 2: Char By Char
Nested Level: 1
// Variable Definition
char cTemp;
FILE *fpSourceFile = fopen(<Your_Source_Path>, "rb");
FILE *fpTargetFile = fopen(<Your_Target_Path>, "wb");
// Code Section
// Read From The Source File - "Copy"
while(fread(&cTemp, 1, 1, fpSourceFile) == 1)
{
// Write To The Target File - "Paste"
fwrite(&cTemp, 1, 1, fpTargetFile);
}
// Close The Files
fclose(fpSourceFile);
fclose(fpTargetFile);