help with debuging system call

Hi

could you please help me with debugging my code.
I've define :char write_buffer[]="COLORTERM=gnome-terminal";
the out file is:environment

Q - why the environment file content is:
COLORTERM=gnome-terminalCCOLORTERM=gnome-terminalOLORTERM=gnome-terminalCOLORTERCOLORTERM=gnome-terminal$

I'll expect it to be:COLORTERM=gnome-terminal

thanks in advanced

Code:

#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif


#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>  //used for exit()
#include <string.h>

#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <error.h>


//prototypes


/*******************************************************************************/
int main()
{
    #define WorkPATH "//My_solution//environment"
    #define file "environment"
    int fd,length=0;
    int size;
    char read_buffer[30];
    char write_buffer[]="COLORTERM=gnome-terminal";
    
    
    //open the file, if it doesn't exist create it with the following permission access
    fd = open (WorkPATH,/* O_RDONLY */ O_RDWR  |O_CREAT,0775);
    if (fd == -1) 
    {
        /* The open failed. Print an error message and exit. */
        printf("error opening file: \n");
        exit(-1);
    }
    /* Read the size of the data in the  file. */
    //Use the systems calls in order to read from $path via read only permissions
    length = read (fd, read_buffer, sizeof (write_buffer));
    
    //Try to write to it ,with the same read only permissions
    length = write (fd, write_buffer, strlen (write_buffer));
    
        printf("The file Content is: \n");
           system("cat //My_solution//environment");    
    // Close the file descriptor, 
    close (fd);
         
     

    
}

> length = read (fd, read_buffer, sizeof (write_buffer));
Why are you using the size of the write buffer here?

Are you confusing O_TRUNC with O_CREAT ?

Originally Posted by ilans11il

Q - why the environment file content is:
COLORTERM=gnome-terminalCCOLORTERM=gnome-terminalOLORTERM=gnome-terminalCOLORTERCOLORTERM=gnome-terminal$

I'll expect it to be:COLORTERM=gnome-terminal

Two problems: 1. you are reading and then writing, so your read/write pointer will start at file index 30 because you just read 30 bytes with the call to read. 2. After you do the write, you are going to leave whatever was already leftover in the file.

As a solution, get rid of the `read' call and then call write like this:

Code:

length = write (fd, write_buffer, strlen (write_buffer));
ftruncate(fd, length);

Then the file referred to by filedescriptor fd will be truncated to length bytes after the call to write.

EDIT: One more thing... the above is not guaranteed to write the entire write_buffer. For example, say write_buffer is 10000 bytes long. The purpose of the return value is to tell you how many bytes were actually written so that you can continue writing in a loop. The system is only guaranteed to write at least one byte (assuming this is possible).