How can I parse a C string (char *) with flex/bison? - c

In my programming project I want to parse command line attributes using flex/bison. My program is called like this:
./prog -a "(1, 2, 3)(4, 5)(6, 7, 8)" filename
Is it possible to parse this string using flex/bison without writing it to a file and parsing that file?

See this question String input to flex lexer

I think you can achieve something like that (I did a similar thing) by using fmemopen to create a stream from a char*and then replace that to stdin
Something like that (not sure if it's fully functional since I'm actually trying to remember available syscalls but it would be something similar to this)
char* args = "(1,2,3)(4,5)(6,7,8)"
FILE *newstdin = fmemopen (args, strlen (args), "r");
FILE *oldstdin = fdup(stdin);
stdin = newstdin;
// do parsing
stdin = oldstdin;

Here is a complete flex example.
%%
<<EOF>> return 0;
. return 1;
%%
int yywrap()
{
return (1);
}
int main(int argc, const char* const argv[])
{
YY_BUFFER_STATE bufferState = yy_scan_string("abcdef");
// This is a flex source. For yacc/bison use yyparse() here ...
int token;
do {
token = yylex();
} while (token != 0);
// Do not forget to tell flex to clean up after itself. Lest
// ye leak memory.
yy_delete_buffer(bufferState);
return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

another example. this one redefines the YY_INPUT macro:
%{
int myinput (char *buf, int buflen);
char *string;
int offset;
#define YY_INPUT(buf, result, buflen) (result = myinput(buf, buflen));
%}
%%
[0-9]+ {printf("a number! %s\n", yytext);}
. ;
%%
int main () {
string = "(1, 2, 3)(4, 5)(6, 7, 8)";
yylex();
}
int myinput (char *buf, int buflen) {
int i;
for (i = 0; i < buflen; i++) {
buf[i] = string[offset + i];
if (!buf[i]) {
break;
}
}
offset += i;
return i;
}

The answer is "Yes". See the O'Reilly publication called "lex & yacc", 2nd Edition by Doug Brown, John Levine, Tony Mason. Refer to Chapter 6, the section "Input from Strings".
I also just noticed that there are some good instructions in the section "Input from Strings", Chapter 5 of "flex and bison", by John Levine. Look out for routines yy_scan_bytes(char *bytes, int len), yy_scan_string("string"), and yy_scan_buffer(char *base, yy_size_t size). I have not scanned from strings myself, but will be trying it soon.

Related

Suppress printing a new prompt when pressing tab with Readline

When using the auto completion with the Readline library in C, the prompt is reprinted when typing the tab key twice:
(prompt) view NAME_OF_F (user presses tab twice)
NAME_OF_FILE1 NAME_OF_FILE2 (suggestions by Readline)
(prompt) view NAME_OF_F
I'd like to suppress the reprinting of the prompt on the 3rd line by keeping the first line printed with the suggestions below it like such:
(prompt) view NAME_OF_F (user presses tab twice)
NAME_OF_FILE1 NAME_OF_FILE2 (suggestions by Readline)
I'd like the cursor back at the end of the first line that has the prompt.
Compiled with gcc -Wall -O0 -ggdb -fno-builtin rline.c -o rline -lreadline -ltermcap.
Here's a code sample:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <readline/readline.h>
int execute_line(char *line);
void initialize_readline();
static char **fileman_completion(char *text, int start, int end);
static char *command_generator(char *text, int state);
char *command[] = { "view", "quit", (char *)NULL };
int done; /* When non-zero, this global means the user is done using this program. */
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
char *line;
initialize_readline(); /* Bind our completer. */
for ( ; done == 0; ) {
line = readline("> ");
if (!line)
break;
if (*line)
execute_line(line);
free(line);
}
return 0;
}
/* String to pass to system(). This is for the VIEW command. */
static char syscom[1024];
int execute_line(char *line)
{
int i = 0;
char *word;
/* Isolate the command word. */
while (line[i] && whitespace(line[i]))
i++;
word = line + i;
while (line[i] && !whitespace(line[i])) i++;
if (line[i]) line[i++] = '\0';
if (strcmp(word, "quit") == 0) {
done = 1;
return 0;
} else if (strcmp(word, "view")) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s: Choose only \"view FILE\" or \"quit\" as your command.\n", word);
return -1;
}
/* Get argument to command, if any. */
while (whitespace(line[i])) i++;
word = line + i;
if(!word || !*word) {
fprintf(stderr, "view: Argument required.\n");
return -1;
}
sprintf(syscom, "more %s", word);
return system(syscom);
}
void initialize_readline()
{
rl_readline_name = "rline";
rl_attempted_completion_function = (rl_completion_func_t *)fileman_completion;
}
static char **fileman_completion(char *text, int start, int end)
{
if (start == 0)
return rl_completion_matches(text, (rl_compentry_func_t *)*command_generator);
return NULL;
}
static char *command_generator(char *text, int state)
{
static int list_index, len;
char *name;
if (!state) {
list_index = 0;
len = strlen(text);
}
while ((name = command[list_index++]))
if (strncmp(name, text, len) == 0)
return strdup(name);
return NULL;
}
The program only accepts the commands view FILE_NAME to view the contents of a file and quit to exit the program.
The example is a shortened version of a sample program found here.
I don't think that readline has anything like that built in, but it does provide a lot of customisation possibilities if you want to try to write the logic yourself.
You could try writing a custom rl_completion_display_matches_hook to display the completion list. But it's not entirely clear to me how you would restore the cursor position afterwards. I don't think readline has a public interface for either finding or resetting the cursor position. (And, of course, it's possible that the completion list was so big that the original command scrolled off the screen.)
As an alternative, I was able use the hook to print the completion list over top of the current line and then redisplay the prompt after the completion list (although I cheated by assuming that the current input is always just one line). That's not quite what you asked for, but it may be useful for demonstration purposes. I used the following custom match printer:
static void display_matches(char** matches, int len, int max) {
putp(carriage_return);
putp(clr_eol);
putp(cursor_up);
rl_display_match_list(matches, len, max);
rl_forced_update_display();
}
I also added the following to the initialisation function:
rl_completion_display_matches_hook = display_matches;
setupterm(NULL, 1, (int*)0);
Thanks #rici for the inspiration. I got it working with his function with some modifications.
In order for this to work properly you need to download the readline library. In the rlprivate.h file from readline, I removed the lines char **lines;, and the line #include "realdine.h" from display.c. Then in your own .c you must have an #include </PATH/TO/display.c>. In that display.c, an #include points to the modified rlprivate.h. All of this so that I can have access to _rl_move_vert(1).
static void display_matches(char** matches, int len, int max)
{
int saved_point = rl_point;
char *saved_line = rl_copy_text(0, rl_end);
rl_save_prompt();
rl_replace_line("", 0); // Clear the previous text
putp(cursor_up);
_rl_move_vert(1);
rl_display_match_list(matches, len, max);
putp(cursor_up);
rl_restore_prompt();
rl_replace_line(saved_line, 0);
rl_point = saved_point;
rl_redisplay();
putp(cursor_down);
free(saved_line);
}

How to check if a file exists in a given path in C?

I am trying to find the file(say marks.txt) in the particular path passed as argument to a function. Is it possible to give the filename and path as arguments to a function which checks if the file exists and prints out the path?
The below function only takes path as argument.
int fileexists(const char *path){
File *ptr = fopen(path, "r");
if (fptr == NULL)
return 0;
fclose(fptr);
return 1;
}
The required function prototype :
int fileexists(const char *path, const char *filename)
There are two parts to this question, and the right answers to them depend on what you're trying to do.
Concatenate a directory name and a file name to form a full path name.
Determine whether a file (referred to by a full path name) exists or not.
Concatenating a directory name and a file name is straightforward. Your friendsstrcpy and strcat will do most of the work. There are a few minor details to be careful of: (a) You'll need a big enough buffer for the full pathname, and you'll need to decide whether to use a fixed-size array (perhaps of size MAX_PATH), or a malloc'ed buffer; (b) you might need to insert an explicit '/' character (and it usually doesn't hurt to stick one in even if the directory string already ends in one); (c) under Windows you might want to use '\\' instead of '/'.
And then determining whether a file named by a full pathname exists is already well answered over at What's the best way to check if a file exists in C?. The big question to ask here is, are you asking whether the file exists in preparation to doing something with the file? If so, you have a serious vulnerability if you check for the file's existence, but then before you do the other thing, something else happens to cause the file to appear or disappear. So rather than checking-and-then-doing, it's usually better to just try doing the other thing, and deal gracefully with any errors.
The function you have checks if the file can be opened, but it will fail for some files that exist but you have no rights to open. I'd use stat instead. To concatenate the path and filename you can use string functions.
The usual Unix C APIs are dismal. It takes lots of effort to do the simplest of things correctly - and even then I'm not sure that I didn't forget some Unix-ism like signal handling or some obscure error cases. I.e. stuff that's rather trivial to get right in modern C++.
I wish someone designed a modern C system API and implemented it for at least Linux, so that our suffering would end...
Usually, string concatenation requires some higher level API to be done while maintaining a modicum of sanity. Thus, the example below uses a strbuilder class to build the string. This makes things vaguely readable and avoids most common mistakes.
#include <assert.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <unistd.h>
struct strbuilder {
unsigned items, item;
size_t length, *lengths;
char *str, *dst;
};
bool strbuilder_pass(struct strbuilder *builder, int *rc);
void strcat_str(struct strbuilder *builder, const char *src);
void strcat_c_ifnone(struct strbuilder *builder, char c);
bool strbuilder_is_freed(const struct strbuilder *builder);
int fileExists(const char *path, const char *filename)
{
const char pathSep = '/';
int rc;
struct strbuilder bld = {0};
while (strbuilder_pass(&bld, &rc))
{
strcat_str(&bld, path);
strcat_c_ifnone(&bld, pathSep);
strcat_str(&bld, filename);
if (!rc)
{
struct stat statbuf;
printf("path = %s\n", bld.str);
rc = stat(bld.str, &statbuf);
}
}
assert(strbuilder_is_freed(&bld));
return rc;
}
int main()
{
int rc = fileExists("/", "dev");
assert(rc == 0);
return 0;
}
The string building is controlled by a strbuilder_pass function, which advances the string builder's state through five passes of operation:
Determine the number of items whose width has to be stored (avoids the need to call strlen twice).
Prepare the length storage vector. Determine the length of the buffer needed.
Prepare the output string buffer. Concatenate the elements into the buffer.
Use the output string buffer.
Free the output string buffer.
This API is not particularly special, but fits this use case. Some other ad-hoc approach would work too, but this is IMHO a bit more elegant.
void strbuilder_free(struct strbuilder *builder)
{
free(builder->lengths);
free(builder->str);
memset(builder, 0, sizeof(*builder));
}
bool strbuilder_pass(struct strbuilder *builder, int *rc)
{
if (!builder->length) {// start of pass 1
builder->length = 1; /*term*/
*rc = EAGAIN;
return true;
}
else if (!builder->lengths) // end of pass 1
{
builder->lengths = malloc(sizeof(*builder->lengths) * builder->items);
if (builder->lengths)
return true;
*rc = ENOMEM;
}
else if (!builder->str) // end of pass 2
{
builder->dst = (builder->str = malloc(builder->length));
builder->item = 0;
builder->length = 0;
if (builder->dst) {
*builder->dst = '\0';
return true;
}
*rc = ENOMEM;
}
else if (builder->dst) // end of pass 3
{
while (*builder->dst) { // include optional content
builder->dst++; // skip
builder->length++;
}
builder->dst = NULL;
*rc = 0;
return true;
}
else if (!builder->dst) // end of pass 4 (if any)
{}
else {
*rc = EINVAL;
}
strbuilder_free(builder);
return false;
}
void strcat_str(struct strbuilder *builder, const char *src)
{
if (!src)
return;
if (!builder->lengths) // pass 1
builder->items ++;
else if (!builder->str) // pass 2
{
size_t len = strlen(src);
builder->lengths[builder->item++] = len;
builder->length += len;
}
else if (builder->dst) // pass 3
{
size_t len = builder->lengths[builder->item++];
if (*builder->dst && (!len || *builder->dst != *src))
{
builder->dst++;
builder->length++;
}
memcpy(builder->dst, src, len);
builder->dst += len;
builder->length += len;
*builder->dst = '\0';
}
}
void strcat_c_ifnone(struct strbuilder *builder, char c)
{
if (!builder->lengths) {} // pass 1
else if (!builder->str) // pass 2
{
if (c) builder->length ++;
}
else if (builder->dst) // pass 3
{
if (!builder->length || builder->dst[-1] != c)
*(builder->dst) = c;
}
}
bool strbuilder_is_freed(const struct strbuilder *builder)
{
return !builder || (!builder->lengths && !builder->str);
}
You probably want something like this (no error checking for brevity):
...
#include <string.h> // for str* functions
#include <unistd.h> // for access
#include <stdlib.h> // for malloc
...
int fileexists(const char *path, const char *filename)
{
char *name= malloc(strlen(path) + strlen(filename) + 1);
strcpy(name, path);
strcat(name, filename);
int retval = access(name, F_OK) == 0;
free(name);
return retval;
}
Call like this:
if (fileexists("/some/path/", "somefilename.txt")) ...

C - Reading from a file and saving the info on a variable

im having a problem reading from these 2 files bellow, file1 and file2, and then saving their information in 2 variables.
From the file1 i want to save the name of channels, and from the file2 i want to save the name of the users and the channel where they are signed.
I was thinking of creating 2 typedef struct(shown bellow) and then create 2 variables(shown bellow) and open the files and put the info on those lists.
I also know of another way to do it which is making a 2D array like this char[100][100], the only problem with both these solutions is that I have to impose an upper limit on the amount of the channels the list/array has.
Im not sure if these are the best ways to do it or if there is a better and easier way to do it, could you guys help?
If you guys need any more information just say so, Thanks!
Edit1: i've added the read from the file1 code that i have right now and i think it is working or so it seems but my problem/question was more of is it the right way to save the information to a variable or is there a better/easier way to do it? thanks.
Channel channels[MAX_CHANNELS];
Registration registrations[MAX_REGISTRATIONS];
typedef struct{
char name_channel[20];
int id;
} Channel;
typedef struct{
char username[50];
char name_channel[20];
} Registration;
File1:
General
SO
PCD
FBD
File2:
2016-09-26 14:00:01 paul General
2016-09-26 14:01:11 mary SO
2016-09-27 10:33:17 paul SO
2016-09-27 13:32:10 rachel General
2016-09-27 13:32:12 rachel FBD
code to read the file(i have only done the file1 yet).
File *file1 = fopen("channels.txt", "r");
if(file1==NULL){ perror("Reading error: "); exit(1); } ;
char line[100];
int i = 0;
int w=0;
for(w;w<MAX_CHANNELS;w++){
channels[w].id=-1;
strcpy(channels[w].name, "n");
}
while(fgets(line, 100, file1) != NULL){
printf("Line read: %s", line);
line[ strlen(line) -1 ] = 0;
Channel a;
strcpy(a.name , line);
a.id=1;
channels[i]=a;
i++;
}
fclose(canais);
int k;
for(k=0; k<MAX_CHANNELS; k++){
if(channels[k].id!=-1)
printf("testing var with channels: %s\n", channels[k].name);
}
Just a few tips that might help(in the code comments) :) I think its fine the way you are doing it. I think this is extensible as well since you can add a new member to a struct if you want to enrich you data further. I have seen strtok used to parse through data quite a bit. Strtok should eliminate the need for you to overwrite the newline due to the way it works.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#define MYSTRINGLEN (50) // In general "magic numbers"
//in code makes it hard to read, though these are fairly apparent,
//but try using #define where you can
typedef struct {
char name[MYSTRINGLEN];
// int id;
}Channel;
typedef struct {
char username[MYSTRINGLEN];
char name[MYSTRINGLEN];
} Registration;
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
int i = 0;
//int w = 0; not needed
int k = 0;
char line[100];
Channel channels[BUFSIZ] = {{{0}}}; // num of brackets depends on num of nested data structure
Registration registrations[BUFSIZ] = {{{0}}};
/* init all to zero instead w/ bracket syntax
for (w = 0; w < BUFSIZ; w++){
channels[w].id = -1;
strcpy(channels[w].name, "n");
}
*/
FILE * file1 = fopen("channels.txt", "r");
//Many people use strtok to get done what you are doing here if you are interested
while(fgets(line,100,file1)){ // do not need to explicitly state NULL
printf("Line read %s\n", line);
line[strlen(line) -1] = 0;
//Channel a; You have already initialized a whole array of struct, just use them
strcpy(channels[i].name, line);
//a.id = 1;
//channels[i]=a;
i++;
}
fclose(file1);
for(k = 0; k < BUFSIZ; k++){
if (0 != channels[k].name[0]){ //can test if string was populated, dont need id flag
printf("testing var with channels: %s\n", channels[k].name);
}
}
return 0;
}
de here

User entered string run a particular function in c

Guys so I'm working on the web service assignment and I have the server dishing out random stuff and reading the uri but now i want to have the server run a different function depending on what it reads in the uri. I understand that we can do this with function pointers but i'm not exactly sure how to read char* and assign it to a function pointer and have it invoke that function.
Example of what I'm trying to do: http://pastebin.com/FadCVH0h
I could use a switch statement i believe but wondering if there's a better way.
For such a thing, you will need a table that maps char * strings to function pointers. The program segfaults when you assign a function pointer to string because technically, a function pointer is not a string.
Note: the following program is for demonstration purpose only. No bounds checking is involved, and it contains hard-coded values and magic numbers
Now:
void print1()
{
printf("here");
}
void print2()
{
printf("Hello world");
}
struct Table {
char ptr[100];
void (*funcptr)(void)
}table[100] = {
{"here", print1},
{"hw", helloWorld}
};
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int i = 0;
for(i = 0; i < 2; i++){
if(!strcmp(argv[1],table[i].ptr) { table[i].funcptr(); return 0;}
}
return 0;
}
I'm gonna give you a quite simple example, that I think, is useful to understand how good can be functions pointers in C. (If for example you would like to make a shell)
For example if you had a struct like this:
typedef struct s_function_pointer
{
char* cmp_string;
int (*function)(char* line);
} t_function_pointer;
Then, you could set up a t_function_pointer array which you'll browse:
int ls_function(char* line)
{
// do whatever you want with your ls function to parse line
return 0;
}
int echo_function(char* line)
{
// do whatever you want with your echo function to parse line
return 0;
}
void treat_input(t_function_pointer* functions, char* line)
{
int counter;
int builtin_size;
builtin_size = 0;
counter = 0;
while (functions[counter].cmp_string != NULL)
{
builtin_size = strlen(functions[counter].cmp_string);
if (strncmp(functions[counter].cmp_string, line, builtin_size) == 0)
{
if (functions[counter].function(line + builtin_size) < 0)
printf("An error has occured\n");
}
counter = counter + 1;
}
}
int main(void)
{
t_function_pointer functions[] = {{"ls", &ls_function},
{"echo", &echo_function},
{NULL, NULL}};
// Of course i'm not gonna do the input treatment part, but just guess it was here, and you'd call treat_input with each line you receive.
treat_input(functions, "ls -laR");
treat_input(functions, "echo helloworld");
return 0;
}
Hope this helps !

Fastest way to print a certain number of characters to stdout in C

I have to print a certain number of blank spaces to stdout, but this number is not fixed. I'm using putchar(), but I'm not sure if this is fast. What is the fastest way to print a certain number of characters to stdout in C? Also, I cannot use system functions.
Thanks for you help!
I would just use fwrite. Simple. Correct. Easy.
void put_spaces(int n)
{
static const char SPACES[32] = " ";
for (; n >= 32; n -= 32)
fwrite(SPACES, 32, 1, stdout);
if (n)
fwrite(SPACES, n, 1, stdout);
}
Note, however, that the naive version is also quite fast:
void put_spaces(int n)
{
while (n--)
putchar(' ');
}
Why is it fast? On most systems, putchar is a macro which writes directly into a buffer most of the time. If you're not sure it's fast, the correct answer is profile your application, not "optimize first".
Stay away from malloc (it's just unnecessary), puts (which adds a '\n' every time you call it), and printf (it's too complicated for such a simple task).
I would try to use the system commands instead of making my own.
something like:
void print_spaces(unsigned int number_of_spaces) {
char* spaces = malloc(sizeof(char)*number_of_spaces + 1);
memset (spaces,' ',number_of_spaces);
spaces[number_of_spaces] = '\0';
printf("%s",spaces);
free(spaces);
}
would do the trick.
printf() allows you to adjust the number of spaces to be print, but this has to be stated in the format string. Se here for reference.
char format[256];
sprintf(format, "%%%ds", number_of_spaces); // creates the format string
printf(format, " ");
I'm assuming by "system functions", you mean non-standard extensions. In which case, it all depends on whether you mean fastest to write or fastest to execute?
If the former, and assuming there's an upper limit, you can just use something like:
void outSpaces (unsigned int num) {
static char *lotsaSpaces = " ";
printf ("%*.*s", num, num, lotsaSpaces);
}
If the latter, something like this should be a good starting point:
void outSpaces (unsigned int num) {
static char *hundredSpaces = "<<insert 100 spaces here>>";
while (num >= 100) {
puts (hundredSpaces);
num -= 100;
}
printf ("%*.*s", num, num, hundredSpaces);
}
You need to be aware that function calls can be expensive, even with output buffering. In that case, it may be best to call puts once to output a hundred characters rather than call putchar a hundred times.
Perhaps:
void PrintSpaces (int num_spaces)
{
char *spaces = " "; /* twenty spaces */
while (num_spaces > 20)
{
puts (spaces);
num_spaces -= 20;
}
if (num_spaces)
{
puts (&spaces [19 - num_spaces]);
}
}
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stddef.h>
int main() {
const size_t size = 5;
char* const data = (char*)malloc(size * sizeof(char) + 1);
if (!data) {
return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
memset(data, ' ', size);
data[size] = '\0'; // not needed (in this case)
fwrite(data, sizeof(char), size, stdout);
free(data);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
(If the number of spaces isn't outrageous)
I don't known c, but here is the basic idea.
create an array of size 8192, and completely fill that particular array with spaces, now you can use puts or write system call or use something which is efficient, and then print this array.
Here I have a code snippet in go, but if you prefer c, you can see an example of how you do it, its actually GNU's yes program which is freaking fast at printing things, there is followed up explanation over there.
package main
import (
"bufio"
"os"
)
func main() {
t := []byte{'y', '\n'}
var used int
const tot = 8192
buf := make([]byte, 0, tot)
for used < tot {
buf = append(buf, t...)
used += 2
}
//Filled complete array named as buf with "y\n"
w := bufio.NewWriter(os.Stdout)
for {
w.Write(buf) //using write system call to print.
}
w.Flush()
}
//syscall.Write({without buf}) : 1.40MiB/s
//syscall.Write(buf) : 1.5GiB/s

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