how much to malloc for struct stat *

[mr.wu]

The following seg faults eventually

#include <sys/stat.h>
struct stat *fmt;

fmt=malloc(sizeof(struct stat *));
do{
  if(0!=stat(file,fmt)){
    printf("cannot watch the time stamp for the journal file\n");
    exit(1);
    }
  if(wait<MAX_WAIT) wait++;
  epoch=fmt->st_mtime;
  } while(old_epoch>epoch);
free(fmt);

If I replace the malloc line with

fmt=malloc(100+sizeof(struct stat *));

seg faults goes away.

What is the correct way to do this?

Thanks

[rags_to_riches]

No need for malloc.

struct stat fmt;
if (0 != stat(file, &fmt))
{
   /* Handle error */
}
else
  epoch = fmt.st_mtime;

[mr.wu]

That's much better. Thanks.

[laserlight]

If you really did want to use malloc, it should be:

fmt = malloc(sizeof(struct stat));

or better yet:

fmt = malloc(sizeof(*fmt));