Pointer and segfaults question

Hi in my program for some reason when I assign somthing to a certain pointer my program segfaults. I have tested this by calling exit(0) just before the assignment and it exits fine, just after the line and it segfaults. I have tried making a variable with a different name that is of the same type, and assigning that and it works fine.

So my question is, when could setting a pointer to point at somthing directly cause a segfault?

Ovbiously if I assigned it wrong and then tried to use what it pointed to it could segfault but actualy making it point at somthing is causing the problem!

This crashes:

Code:

struct Slevel *level;struct Slevel *test_level;

    /* Load the map if needed*/
    if (level == NULL)
    {
       test_level = load_level("levels/test.txt");
       level = test_level;
       exit(0);
    }

but this doesn't

Code:

struct Slevel *level;struct Slevel *test_level;

    /* Load the map if needed*/
    if (level == NULL)
    {
       test_level = load_level("levels/test.txt");
       exit(0);
       level = test_level;
    }

My code is an absolute mess at the moment, so if you could tell me an example that just setting a pointer could cause a segfault it would get me started as to what to look for. Thanks

The pointer assignment can never segfault. ( It probably can in special circumstances, but I think it's pretty safe to say that it's not the case here. ).

Try replacing the single / by a double // in your string literal. As it stands now, there is a tab ( /t ) in your path. That will probably fail somewhere down the line.

Edit: forget that tab stuff, I thought it was the other slash: \t

Man this is wierd, didn't think it coiuld really cause it! I think I'm going to try and split my code up into seperate files before trying to debug it. (its like 1100 lines long and its getting hard to find stuff)

The two versions with exit(0) don't prove that the assignment causes a segfault.( as nvoigt pointed out this is safe ).
It proves that the segfault happens in the function load_level(..). guess the file "levels/test.txt" doesn't exist or is somewhere else.
Kurt

Your probably right that the level loading stuff is to blame although your wrong about the file name, it definately finds that and I have it printing out variables as it loads them from files. Also I put an exit() at the end of load_level() just before it returned and it didnt segfault then.

The thing that really confuses me is I put the exit() a few lines further down after a function (and after the pointer is assigned) and it stops it from seg faulting! Wish I could get the dev-c++ debuger working.

Originally Posted by ZuK

It proves that the segfault happens in the function load_level(..).

This doesn't really mean anything though. Just because this is where it crashes, doesn't mean this is where the problem is. If you've trashed your memory by munging up your pointers some place else, it could just be that this is where it happens to manifest itsefl. The actual problem could be, and most likely is, elsewhere.


Quzah.