can figure out what this function does..

its so complicated
i cant see the general way

Code:

Node* what2(Node *head){
	Node *temp, *prev, *next, *prevmax, *newhead;	
	while(head->next){
		prevmax = prev = next = NULL;
		for(temp=head; temp; temp=temp->next){
			printf("%d ", temp->value);
			next = temp -> next;
			if((!prev || prev->value < temp->value) && 
(!next || temp->value > next->value)){
				if(! prevmax )
					newhead = temp;
				else
					prevmax->next= temp;
				prevmax = temp;
			}
			if(prev && prev!=prevmax)
				free(prev);
			prev = temp;
		}
		prevmax -> next = NULL;
		head = newhead;
		putchar('\n');
	}
	return head;
}

It would appear to find the largest element in a singly-linked-link, and free the entire list except for that element. I would also add that this code smells, and I can't tell you for certain that it is bug free/works. If it does indeed free everything but the largest element, then I would have written it:

Code:

Node *reduce(Node *head)
{
	Node *largest = NULL, *i, *temp;
	
	// Find the max
	for(i = head; i; i->next)
	{
		largest = (largest && largest->value > i->value ? largest : i);
	}
	
	// Free everything but the max
	for(i = head; i;)
	{
		temp = i;
		i = i->next;
		if(temp != largest)
		{
			free(temp);
		}
	}
	
	return largest;
}

About 15 lines less, much easier to read, and I can even tell you that it runs in O(N).