Thread: Segmentation fault on fclose

Why am I getting a "Segmentation fault" error? I tried out gdb and determined that the fclose command is causing the error.

Code:

> cat fopen.c#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
  FILE *fp;
  fp=fopen("bak/test.txt", "r");
  printf("Hello, World!\n");
  fclose(fp);
  return 0;
}
> gcc -g -o fopen fopen.c
> ./fopen
Hello, World!
Segmentation fault

Thanks for help.

You aren't testing that you actually opened the file. Perhaps you're fclose() is being down on a file that was never opened?

Test the file pointer directly, instead of using redirection, to see if it's open.

Can I retract this (very embarrassing) question? Note that there is no file named "test.txt" in the directory named "bak" below the directory I'm executing from. You think that could cause it? Hmm? Maybe? (Hint: The answer is yes).

Originally Posted by Adak

You aren't testing that you actually opened the file. Perhaps you're fclose() is being down on a file that was never opened?

Test the file pointer directly, instead of using redirection, to see if it's open.

As long as you answered before I could retract this, how do you "test the file pointer directly"? I'm only up to the heading fclose C File I/O Tutorial - Cprogramming.com on this tutorial. That tutorial doesn't provide an example of testing the file pointer.

fopen() returns NULL to the file pointer if the file can't be opened for any reason.

So
if(fp == NULL) or simply if(!fp) { //file didn't open, print an error message and direct the program accordingly. (program stops, program tries again, etc.).