cant open file - says no file or directory

I have a weird issue. Can some one help.

When I hardcode abc.bin to inputFileName - I can open the file in cpp. But when I pass the same using an optional argument, it fails. Note that in both cases, fprintf, prints the inputFileName as abc.bin properly.

I get can't open - no file or directory.

Code:

---

  main()
  {
  char * inputFileName;
  char * optarg;
  inputFileName = optarg;  //doesn't work.
  //inputFileName = "abc.bin"; //Works
    fprintf(stderr, "inputFileName:%s \n",inputFileName);
  }

Another function:
    FILE *inFile;
    if ( inFile != NULL )
    {
        inFile = fopen(inputFileName, "r+b");
        if ( inFile == NULL )
        {
            fprintf(stderr,
                    "%s: can't open file %s: %s\n",
                    ProgName, inputFileName, strerror(errno));
            return NULL;
        }
    }

---

Thank you

1. optarg has just been declared, not defined, so who knows what that pointer points to
2. since inputfilename is assigned to optarg, it also points to who knows what

try something like char *optarg = "abc.bin";

actually if you are on a non-Microsoft platform, optarg is part of getopt as exemplified here. In any event you can't just assign it to a string and go for it. Here is how to use it (notice some bits missing in your code?)

Code:

---

/*************************************************
 * File: timer_main.cpp
 *************************************************/
#include "timer.hpp"
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <getopt.h>

#define CMDOPTS "hi:"



void Usage()
{
    cout << "Usage: Blah blah" << endl;
    exit(-1);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  cout << "timer_test 1.0" << endl;
  string inputFile = "";
  int nRC = 0;
  opterr = 0;
  int c;
  while((c = getopt(argc, argv, CMDOPTS)) != EOF)
  {
      switch(c)
      {
        case 'h':
        {
            Usage();
            break;
        }
        case 'i':
        {
            inputFile = optarg;
            break;
        }
      }
  }

  /// ignore all this; from another experiment...
  //timer(60);
  int *board = create_board(3,3);
  int nValue = 0;
  for(int x=1; x<4; x++)
  {
      for(int y = 1; y < 4; y++)
      {
        for(int z = 1; z < 10; z++)
        {
            board[x][y][z] = nValue++;
           
        }
       
      }

  }
  cout << "End processing." << endl;

  return nRC;
}

---

Am I in wrong forum? jeffcobb?