Printing Partition Table - C program - c

Question

I am trying to print a partition table using C programming language, everything seems to work fine: Opening and reading, but I don't understand why it is printing garbage values.
Here is the code:
struct partition
{
unsigned char drive;
unsigned char chs_begin[3];
unsigned char sys_type;
unsigned char chs_end[3];
unsigned char start_sector[4];
unsigned char nr_sector[4];
};
int main()
{
int gc = 0, i = 1, nr = 0, pos = -1, nw = 0;
int fd =0;
char buf[512] ;
struct partition *sp;
printf("Ok ");
if ( (fd = open("/dev/sda", O_RDONLY | O_SYNC )) == -1)
{
perror("Open");
exit(1);
}
printf("fd is %d \n", fd);
pos = lseek (fd, 0, SEEK_CUR);
printf("Position of pointer is :%d\n", pos);
if ((nr = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf))) == -1)
{
perror("Read");
exit(1);
}
close(fd);
printf("Size of buf = %d\n and number of bytes read are %d ", sizeof(buf), nr);
if ((nw = write(1, buf, 64)) == -1)
{
printf("Write: Error");
exit(1);
}
printf("\n\n %d bytes are just been written on stdout\n", nw,"this can also be printed\n");
printf("\n\t\t*************Partition Table****************\n\n");
for (i=0 ; i<4 ; i++)
{
sp = (struct partition *)(buf + 446 + (16 * i));
putchar(sp -> drive);
}
return 0;
}
It is printing garbage instead of partition table.
I might have some basic understanding issues but I searched with Google for a long time but it did not really help. I also saw the source code of fdisk but it is beyond my understanding at this point. Could anyone please guide me? I am not expecting someone to clear my mistake and give me the working code. Just a sentence or two - or any link.

Answer 1

Try this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
struct partition
{
unsigned char boot_flag; /* 0 = Not active, 0x80 = Active */
unsigned char chs_begin[3];
unsigned char sys_type; /* For example : 82 --> Linux swap, 83 --> Linux native partition, ... */
unsigned char chs_end[3];
unsigned char start_sector[4];
unsigned char nr_sector[4];
};
void string_in_hex(void *in_string, int in_string_size);
void dump_partition(struct partition *part, int partition_number);
void dump_partition(struct partition *part, int partition_number)
{
printf("Partition /dev/sda%d\n", partition_number + 1);
printf("boot_flag = %02X\n", part->boot_flag);
printf("chs_begin = ");
string_in_hex(part->chs_begin, 3);
printf("sys_type = %02X\n", part->sys_type);
printf("chs_end = ");
string_in_hex(part->chs_end, 3);
printf("start_sector = ");
string_in_hex(part->start_sector, 4);
printf("nr_sector = ");
string_in_hex(part->nr_sector, 4);
}
void string_in_hex(void *in_string, int in_string_size)
{
int i;
int k = 0;
for (i = 0; i < in_string_size; i++)
{
printf("%02x ", ((char *)in_string)[i]& 0xFF);
k = k + 1;
if (k == 16)
{
printf("\n");
k = 0;
}
}
printf("\n");
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int /*gc = 0,*/ i = 1, nr = 0, pos = -1/*, nw = 0*/;
int fd = 0;
char buf[512] ;
struct partition *sp;
int ret = 0;
printf("Ok ");
if ((fd = open("/dev/sda", O_RDONLY | O_SYNC)) == -1)
{
perror("Open");
exit(1);
}
printf("fd is %d\n", fd);
pos = lseek (fd, 0, SEEK_CUR);
printf("Position of pointer is :%d\n", pos);
if ((nr = read(fd, buf, sizeof(buf))) == -1)
{
perror("Read");
exit(1);
}
ret = close(fd);
if (ret == -1)
{
perror("close");
exit(1);
}
/* Dump the MBR buffer, you can compare it on your system with the output of the command:
* hexdump -n 512 -C /dev/sda
*/
string_in_hex(buf, 512);
printf("Size of buf = %d - and number of bytes read are %d\n", sizeof(buf), nr);
/*if ((nw = write(1, buf, 64)) == -1)
{
printf("Write: Error");
exit(1);
}
printf("\n\n%d bytes are just been written on stdout\nthis can also be printed\n", nw);
*/
//printf("\n\t\t*************Partition Table****************\n\n");
printf("\n\t\t*************THE 4 MAIN PARTITIONS****************\n\n");
/* Dump main partitions (4 partitions) */
/* Note : the 4 partitions you are trying to dump are not necessarily existing! */
for (i = 0 ; i < 4 ; i++)
{
sp = (struct partition *)(buf + 446 + (16 * i));
//putchar(sp->boot_flag);
dump_partition(sp, i);
}
return 0;
}