Browsing through a Pointer to Array of Structures

Hello, I'm working on some wacky shared memory using application for Unix.

Here is the thing, I use shmget and shmat to create and attach a shared memory block, but making it an array of structures.

The structure:

Code:

struct object{
   char nick[16];
   pid_t pid;
   key_t queue;
} *mem, *p;

SHM declaration:

Code:

if( (mem = (struct object*)shmat((key_t)argv[1], (void*)0, 0)) == (void*)-1 )        {
                  shmget((key_t)argv[1], SHMSIZE*sizeof(struct object), IPC_CREAT | 0666);
                  mem = (struct object*)shmat( (key_t)argv[1], (void*)0 , 0);
        }

And now the problematic part. I'm using this loop to browse through this thing.

Code:

for(p = mem; p< &mem[SHMSIZE]); p++)        {
            if(!p->nick)
            {
                key = ftok(".", randomize());  //randomize just provides a random integer from dev/random
                msgid = msgget(key, IPC_CREAT);


                p->nick = getenv("USERNAME");
                printf("%s", p->nick);
                p->pid = getpid();
                p->queue = msgid;
            }
            printf("lalala\n");
        }

But this one just doesn't work. Any suggestions please?

Can you run the code in gdb, and give us a more precise diagnostic than "it doesn't work".

> p->nick = getenv("USERNAME");
Maybe it's a compile problem, because nick is an array.
So perhaps use strcpy() here instead.

Well I tested the following:

Code:

for(p = mem; p< &mem[SHMSIZE]); p++)         {
             printf("lalala\n");
         }

also:

Code:

for(p = mem; p<=(mem+1023); p++)         {
             printf("lalala\n");
         }

neither did anything.

Ah, the code compiles just fine with -Wall.

Code:

if( (mem = (struct object*)shmat((key_t)argv[1], (void*)0, 0)) == (void*)-1 )        {
                  shmget((key_t)argv[1], SHMSIZE*sizeof(struct object), IPC_CREAT | 0666);
                  mem = (struct object*)shmat( (key_t)argv[1], (void*)0 , 0);
        }

Shouldn't you first call shmget() to get an id and then use that id as the first parameter for shmat()?

Code:

if ((id = shmget(key, size, flags)) != -1)
    mem = (struct object *) shmat(id, NULL, 0);

Bye, Andreas

Originally Posted by ryder052

But this one just doesn't work. Any suggestions please?

The statement if(!p->nick) will never trigger if nick is a character array. You probably mean if(!strlen(p->nick));

> for(p = mem; p< &mem[SHMSIZE]); p++)
> Ah, the code compiles just fine with -Wall.
Well the extra ) in this line would suggest otherwise.

Coupled with other mistakes (like your assignment and comparison mistakes with an array), I'm just going to wait until you post your real code, and not something you hacked in the post edit window.