C/C++ String Problem.

I'm trying to write a simple program to act as a middle man for Borland's command line compiler. This way, I save the time of typing out many different options. But I keep encountering a problem at runtime and the program closes.

My problem, I think, is with a C style string, but since most of my code is C++, I decided to post it here. However, I did try using a C++ style string, but I got the same error at runtime. I managed to pinpoint the line on which the error occurs, each time, but as you know, this doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Code:

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#include <stdio.h>

#include "WindowProcedures.h"

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 {
  string Borland = "bcc32";
  string SetBorlandDirectory = "cd C:\\Borland\\Bcc55\\Bin";
  string source;
  char* csource = reinterpret_cast<char*>(malloc(MAX_PATH));
  int csourcesize;
  string directory;
  string resetdirectory;
  char cshortexecutable[MAX_PATH];
  for(int index = 0; index < MAX_PATH; ++index)
    cshortexecutable[index] = 0;
  string shortexecutable;
  string executable;
  string arguments;

  if(argc == 1)
  {
    system("C:\\Borland\\Bcc55\\Bin\\bcc32");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
  }

  source = argv[1];
  csource = strcpy(csource, argv[1]);
  for(int index = 0; 1; ++index)
  {
    if(csource[index] != 0)
      ++csourcesize;
    else
      break;
  }
  for(int index = csourcesize; index >= 0; --index)
  {
    if(csource[index] == '\\') // ERROR OCCURS HERE...
    {
      for(; index < csourcesize; ++index)
        csource[index] = 0;
      break;
    }
  }

  directory = csource;
  resetdirectory = "cd \"" + directory + "\"";

  csource = strcpy(csource, argv[1]);
  for(int index = csourcesize + 1; index >= 0; --index)
  {
    if(csource[index] == '\\')
    {
      for(int index2 = 0; index < csourcesize; ++index2)
      {
        ++index;
        if(csource[index] != '.')
          cshortexecutable[index2] = csource[index];
        else
        {
          cshortexecutable[index2] = '.';
          cshortexecutable[++index2] = 'e';
          cshortexecutable[++index2] = 'x';
          cshortexecutable[++index2] = 'e';
          break;
        }
      }
      break;
    }
  }
  shortexecutable = cshortexecutable;
  executable = directory + shortexecutable;

  arguments = Borland + " -I\"" + directory + "\" -e\"" + executable + "\" \"" + source + "\"";
  cout << SetBorlandDirectory << endl;
  cout << arguments << endl;
  cout << resetdirectory << endl;
/*  system(SetBorlandDirectory.c_str());
  system(arguments.c_str());
  system(resetdirectory.c_str());*/

  free(csource);
  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
 }

---

You never initialized csourcesize to 0.

.......that I didn't.....good Lord.....it's always something stupid. Thanks a lot, man.

You could have just used strlen. Even better, you could just use C++ strings for everything. They have a length() method, and copying is as simple as a single assignment.

(C mixed with C++) casting malloc != good: faq
shouldn't even have to use malloc() in c++

Code:

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char* csource = reinterpret_cast<char*>(malloc(MAX_PATH));

---

this:

Code:

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else
        {
          cshortexecutable[index2] = '.';
          cshortexecutable[++index2] = 'e';
          cshortexecutable[++index2] = 'x';
          cshortexecutable[++index2] = 'e';
          break;
        }

---

can probably be written like this:

Code:

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cshortexecutable += ".exe";    // overloaded += operator for the <string> class simulates the strcat( ) cstring function

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Ok.. down to what I think is your error:

Here you have csource as a char pointer

Code:

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char* csource = reinterpret_cast<char*>(malloc(MAX_PATH));

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Here.. you are assigning your char pointer to an int.. ?

Code:

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for(int index = csourcesize;

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maybe this would work better:

Code:

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for(int index = strlen(csourcesize);      //from the <cstring> library

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system() requires <stdlib.h>. So does malloc() (at least it does if you don't want warnings about not having a cast).

Quote:

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Here.. you are assigning your char pointer to an int.. ?

Code:

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for(int index = csourcesize;

---

maybe this would work better:

Code:

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for(int index = strlen(csourcesize);      //from the <cstring> library

---

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csourcesize isn't a char*. csource is, but csourcesize isn't. It's an int.

And I am including stdlib.h. My will not compile without a reinterpret_cast. I read that article on casting malloc a long time ago, but in C++, you must use a cast to convert void pointers.

Yes but in C++ we use new and delete instead of malloc, calloc, and free.
So this:

Code:

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char* csource = reinterpret_cast<char*>(malloc(MAX_PATH));

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Should be:

Code:

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char* csource = new char[MAX_PATH];

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And to clean up

Code:

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delete [] csource;

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