Serializing/deserializing problem

Hi, I'm using a trie for fast storing/retrieval of strings and associated value, and the trie API includes functions for de/serializing the trie. So I need to implement a save() and load() methods, that will call serialize() and deserialize() in trie.c. I'm having problems to get this working, it compiles fine, and I can serialize data to disk, but I can't deserialize data to create a trie from the file. I don't know wheter the problem is in how I write trie's data to
disk, or when I load it from disk, or both.

I copy below the code of a test program that uses the trie API, and I add links to the trie header and definitions. The program reads a file with strings (one per line) and stores them in the trie, storing a value with each string. The serialize function in trie.c will call _write_to_handle() for each key in the trie, and _write_value_to_handle() for each value associated with a key.

Code:

/* Usage:
#test -save /tmp/words.txt      read strings, store in trie, and save trie to disk.
#test -load                             load data from disk and builds a trie from it.
*/

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <string.h>
#include "trie.h"

#define LINESZ 1024

static int total_words = 0;
int total_values=0;

const void *value;
Trie trie;

/* Methods called when serialing trie data */
static int _write_handle(const void *towrite, const int length, void *handle)
{
    fwrite(&towrite, length, 1, (FILE *) handle);  
    return 1;	
}

static int _write_value_handle(const void *towrite, void *handle)
{
    fwrite(&towrite, sizeof(int), 1, handle);  
    return 1;
}

/* Methods called when deserialing trie data */
static int _read_handle(void *wasread, const int length, void *handle)
{   
     printf("_read_handle called. length: &#37;d\n",length);
     fread(wasread, length, 1, (FILE *) handle);   
     printf("wasread is: %s\n",wasread);   
     return 1;	
}

static void * _read_value_handle(void *handle)   //returns a pointer to the value
{
//In my tests, this method never gets called, because a problem happens with
// the data read in _read_handle(). No error given, deserialize() function just quits.
    int *value;
    printf("_read_value_handle called.");
    fread(&value, sizeof(int), 1, handle);  
    printf("value read is: %d",value);
    return value;
}

/* Methods to serialize and deserialize the trie  */
int trie_save(){   
  FILE *out = fopen("savefile.txt", "wb"); 
  int success=Trie_serialize(trie, _write_handle, _write_value_handle, (void *)out); 
  fclose(out);		   
  return success;
}

int trie_load(){ 
   int success=1;
   FILE *in = fopen("savefile.txt", "rb"); 
   trie = Trie_deserialize(_read_handle, _read_value_handle,in);
   if(!trie) {
      success=0;
      printf("Error: trie could not be created from data.\n");
  }
  fclose(in);		   
  return success;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
  char s[LINESZ];
  int myval;
  
  if(!strcmp(argv[1], "-load")) { 
         int success=trie_load();
  	 printf("load sucess is: %d\n",success);
  }

  if(!strcmp(argv[1], "-save")) {
  
FILE *in = fopen(argv[2], "r");  // e.g. /tmp/words.txt 
  trie=Trie_new();
  value=(const void *)1;
  	
  if (!in) {
    perror(argv[1]);
    return 1;
  }
  while (fgets(s, LINESZ, in)) {
    int len = strlen(s);
    if (len) {
      s[len-1] = '\0';  // chop newline 
       total_words++; 
      // add to trie  //arg3 is the value
      Trie_set(trie, (const unsigned char*) s, (const void*) total_words); 
    }
  }
  fclose(in);
  
  int success=trie_save();
  printf("serialized trie success: %d\n",success);
  
  }
  fprintf(stderr, "Checked %d total words.\n", total_words);
  fprintf(stderr, "Trie length is: %d .\n", Trie_len(trie));

  Trie_del(trie);
  return 0;
}

trie.h, trie.c


I'd much appreciate any suggestions about what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks.

Maybe you should do some error checking with your fread() and fwrite(). You always basically tell trie that its results were fine and dandy, but perhaps they aren't. And what sort of value is _read_handle() and _write_handle() supposed to return? fread() and fwrite() return the amount of data processed upon success, not 1.

> _write_handle, _write_value_handle
Why are you writing to the file in BOTH of these functions?

> fwrite(&towrite, length, 1, (FILE *) handle);
Don't you mean
fwrite( towrite, length, 1, (FILE *) handle);

Thanks for the answers.

>Maybe you should do some error checking with your fread() and fwrite()
I had checked this and I saw it could both read/write some data from/to the file.

>Why are you writing to the file in BOTH of these functions?
because first function writes the key in the trie, and the second function handles the value associated to that key.

>Don't you mean fwrite( towrite, length, 1, (FILE *) handle);
That's what I had initially, but it gave me a segmentation fault, and I changed it as '&towrite' and the seg fault disappeared. Now I have tried to change that only for arg1 of the two functions that write/read the value (not the key), and everything works fine!

Thanks