Problem reading data from file and record it for use in program

Hey everyone,

I have got a problem with reading data from a file and use it during the process of the program.

I have a program that controls an interface card and that is working fine. At this moment I configure the settings in the code, but what I want is the possibility to set the configuration of the interface by using a file. I'm programming in C and use a Linux Kernel.

The layout of the file will be as follow;

# Standard network interface parameters
DEVICE=sync0
# Other media options are x21, v24 and v35
MEDIA=x21
# Network protocols are PPP, RAW or CISCO
PROTO=RAW
# We are a DCE and provide clock at the specified rate
CLOCK=64000

So what I want is that the code does something like this:

when you find "DEVICE=" record the device name
when you find "MEDIA=" record the media type (v24, v35, x21)
when you find "PROTO=" record the proto type
when you find "CLOCK=" record the clock speed

After this it must be possible to use the recorded value's in other parts of the program.

Only I don't now how to create this. Can someone help me!!
Thanks for all your support.

Allart

fgets will retrieve a line of text. An if statement will check if the first character is a # and therefore a comment. For lines which are not comments, a sscanf call will extract the property name and value into seperate variables.

OK, thanks.
I now know how to use fgets.
Only how can I use sscanf to extract the property name and the value into seperate variables? I have search for some examples and I have read some tutorials, but don't know for sure. Can someone please explain me the best way to realise this. Maybee you can do this by using an example?

Thanks for your support.

this is an example of how to use the sscanf(), here is sample code

Code:

---

#include<stdio.h>

int main()
{
    char str[20]={"hello world 2005"};
    char str1[10];
    int year;
   
    sscanf(str,"%s %*s %d",str1,&year);
   
    printf("%s -> %d",str1,year);
   
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

---

my output

Code:

---

hello -> 2005

---

NOTE:

Code:

---

sscanf(str,"%s %*s %d",str1,&year);

---

the const char "%*s" this means that read the data from the buffer but ingore it.(*)

- s. s. harish

But the data in his in file is not separated by white space. How would you use sscanf on strings like these:

Code:

---

PARAM1=hello
PARAM10=2600

---

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  static const char filename[] = "file.txt";
  FILE *file = fopen(filename, "r");
  if ( file )
  {
      char line[80];
      while ( fgets(line, sizeof line, file) )
      {
        char key[40], value[40];
        if ( *line != '#' &&sscanf(line, "%39[^=]=%39[^\n]", key, value) == 2 )
        {
            printf("key = \"%s\", value = \"%s\"\n", key, value);
        }
      }
      fclose(file);
  }
  return 0;
}

/* my output
key = "DEVICE", value = "sync0"
key = "MEDIA", value = "x21"
key = "PROTO", value = "RAW"
key = "CLOCK", value = "64000"
*/

---

What about a line like this:

Code:

---

const char *input = "      KEY1=val1    KEY2=val2    \t# comment"

---

"%*[ ]%39[^=]=%39[^ \t#\n]%n"

Could you explain this format a little bit? Is it a regular expression? Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dave_Sinkula

"%*[ ]%39[^=]=%39[^ \t#\n]%n"

---

"%*[ ]" reads any amount of white space and discards it. You could change it to "%*[ \t]" if you want to detect tabs as well.

"%39[^=]" reads at most 39 characters, until a '=' is detected. Which ever happens first.

"=" Expect a '=' here to separate the key from val.

"%39[^ \t#\n]" reads at most 39 characters until a blank, tab, '#' or newline is encountered.

"%n" is the number of characters read so far. I don't know why he put it there since it's not needed.

>I don't know why he put it there since it's not needed.

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  const char *input = "      KEY1=val1    KEY2=val2    \t# comment";
  char key[40], value[40];
  int n;
  while ( sscanf(input, "%*[ ]%39[^=]=%39[^ \t#\n]%n", key, value, &n) == 2 )
  {
      printf("key = \"%s\", value = \"%s\"\n", key, value);
      input += n;
  }
  return 0;
}

/* my output
key = "KEY1", value = "val1"
key = "KEY2", value = "val2"
*/

---

How would you deal with a situation, where a configuration file allows lines to look like any of the following:

Code:

---

"KEY1=val1"
"KEY1=val1  \t KEY2=val2 # Comment\n"
"    \t\tKEY1=val1  \t KEY2=val2 # Comment\n"
" KEY1=val1  \t KEY2=val2 \t KEY3=val3\n"
"KEY1 = val1 # Comment\n"

---

Basically, you want to filter an arbitrary amount of white space anywhere on the line, and stop reading a line when a '#' character is encountered. And you do not know how many key/val pairs are on each line either.

The program should print an error message if input failure occurs.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ^xor

How would you deal with a situation, where a configuration file allows lines to look like any of the following:

---

Probably by writing a custom parser, looking for a regex package, or trying to rework the specification to have a tighter format.

> Probably by writing a custom parser, looking for a regex package, or trying to rework the specification to have a tighter format.
%[...] doesn't support regex does it? From what I can tell, %*[ \t\n]%39[^=]...snip must match at least one tab, blank or newline in the beginning, so if you put KEY=val at the beginning of the line, that scan will fail?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ^xor

> Probably by writing a custom parser, looking for a regex package, or trying to rework the specification to have a tighter format.
%[...] doesn't support regex does it? From what I can tell, %*[ \t\n]%39[^=]...snip must match at least one tab, blank or newline in the beginning, so if you put KEY=val at the beginning of the line, that scan will fail?

---

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
  const char *input = "KEY1=val1";
  char key[40] = {0}, value[40] = {0};
  int n, items = sscanf(input, "%*[ \t]%39[^=]=%39[^ \t#\n]%n", key, value, &n);
  printf("items = %d, key = \"%s\", value = \"%s\", n = %d\n",
          items, key, value, n);
  return 0;
}

/* my output
items = 2, key = "KEY1", value = "val1", n = 1
*/

---

Hmm.

Quote:

---

n [...]If the conversion specification includes an assignment suppressing character or a field width, the behavior is undefined.

---

Bad me. :(