Thread: Structure inside Shared Memory [Segmentation Fault Problem]

Okay guys, first off I am new here, thanks for this forum, I guess this is a nice place to get some good answers to many problems
I will try to be clearly and fast, so I can get your help easly

So what I am trying to do is:

Store 30 structures inside a shared memory. Its like a app to store notes, 30 notes, like I said.
My problem is on the iteration between structures that are on shared memory.

My code:

Code:

struct note{    //Okay here is my structure for each note
       int date;
       char title[30];
       char text[900];
       char user[20];
}
struct nota mynote_structure;   //here I declare a note structure

main(){
      struct note *ptr;   //here I declare a pointer to a structure, I will need this for the shared memory

      int shmID;  //here the ID for shmget
      shmID = shmget(1000, sizeof(mynote_structure) * 30, 0600 | IPC_CREAT); // I put the size of structure * 30, so I have room for 30 structures (30 notes) in that shared memory

      if(shmID < 0){
             printf("Error creating shared memory");
             exit(1);
      }

     ptr = shmat(shmID, NULL, 0);  // now I attach the shared memory to a pointer of type note , that is the type of my notes structure.
     
     if(ptr == NULL){
          printf("Error attaching shared memory");
          exit(1);
     }

     //and now i test if actually there are structures, reading the int date, that should return 0;
     printf("Date is %d", (*ptr).date); 

     //this should return the date of the first structure on the shared memory, if I would like the second structure date, I would do (*ptr+1).date, I guess.
}

The problem is that I am getting segmentation fault on that last printf, when I search for the date.

Guys I am begginer on C, I would really appreciate some help on this, I cant get it on my mind, I study the pointers on arrays of chars, and this is how it works, I guess that it should work for structures too, that are on shared memory right?

Thanks alot in advance,
DarkLink

Are you sure it's on the last printf? How do you know? Seg faults can manifest themselves somewhere other than where the pointer gets screwed up. Assuming it is there, that seg fault tells me you don't have read access to whatever value is in ptr, since *ptr is causing the seg fault. The only obvious thing I see is:

Originally Posted by man shmat

RETURN VALUE
On success shmat() returns the address of the attached shared memory segment; on error (void *) -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the cause of the error.

You're incorrectly checking for if shmat fails, so you may have a bogus ptr. It should be if (ptr == (void *) -1).

Do you know how to use a debugger? If not, you should leard. Then you can examine the state of your entire program as you walk through it step by step, and find what line causes the seg fault.

Also, instead of (*ptr).date, you could use ptr->date, (ptr+1)->date. But really, since you're allocating 30 of these in a row, you basically have an array, so you should use ptr[0].date, ptr[1].date, etc.

Okay look, first I would like to thank you for you reply
I keep awake this night trying to solve this, and I managed to not getting a segmentation fault by doing this:

//Declaring a structure
struct nota my_struct;

//and after I attach shmat to the pointer ptr I do this:
ptr = %my_struct;

//and then when I test it to see the int on structure I do this:
printf("My int is = %d", ptr->date);


The result is that I get this on console:
My int is = 1
But why? I should get a zero!! i didnt initialize that argument of the structure, it should show me 0 . I am not getting this..
The initialization is working..
If I do before the printf
ptr->date = 3;

I get My int is = 3;
But I why when I dont initialize it, I am not getting zero as default?
Thanks by the way mate.

You don't get 0 because you didn't put a 0 there. C doesn't intitialize anything for you, you have to do that yourself. What you are getting is the random garbage in the memory where your struct is instantiated.

Also; are you sure you want... ptr = %my_struct; ... not... ptr = &my_struct;...?

Thanks for your reply CommonTater
Yes I mean & not %, but my problem is that I am getting segmentation fault when everything seems to be okay... :s
Look my code, I am trying to store 30 structures inside shared memory..

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <strings.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/ipc.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <sys/msg.h>


struct nota{
    int n;
    char text[30];
    char titulo[100];
    char login[20];
};

main()
{    
    
    
    int shmID;
    struct nota *evernota;
    struct nota um;
        um.n = 1;

    shmID = shmget(1009, sizeof(struct nota)*30 , 0666 | IPC_CREAT);
    printf("shmID = %d\n", shmID);
    if(shmID < 0){
        printf("Failed to create shm\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    evernota =  shmat(shmID, NULL, 0);


    if(ptr_mem < 0){
        printf("Falha no attach");
        exit(1);
    }

    
    memcpy(&evernota[0], &um, sizeof(struct nota));
    
    printf("o meu int é %d\n", evernota[0].n);
}

Any clue?
Thanks alot..

Problem solved guys!!
I was missing an include!! :s my bad!
#include <sys/shm.h>

Thanks alot all!!
Really appreciated!

Presumably you were missing a prototype that sys/shm.h provided. If you're using gcc, the -Wall flag will catch missing prototypes. You should always use -Wall if you're using gcc. Almost every warning it provides is indicative of problematic code.

Originally Posted by cas

Presumably you were missing a prototype that sys/shm.h provided. If you're using gcc, the -Wall flag will catch missing prototypes. You should always use -Wall if you're using gcc. Almost every warning it provides is indicative of problematic code.

Hmm didnt know about that, thanks mate!