Question

Does ** have any special meaning in C?

Like this:

static intparse_one (int argc, char **argv)
{
    cmd_line       *slot;
    int             value;
    Flag_name       flag_name;
    int         i;

printf("argv %s\n",argv);
printf("argv[0] %c\n",**argv);

If so, does the line

**argv

make sense? A program I am trying to get to run is choking on it. If I try to print it I get a segmentation fault.

The first printf prints the string fine. The second printf fails.

Here is what I am getting for the output (The first line is correct):

argv -aps_instance1001-aps_ato0-aps_ipc_debug3

Segementation Fault (core dumped)

Answer 1

“Does ** have any special meaning in C?”

No, it is just two dereferences.

char **argv

means: argv dereferenced two times is a char. In other words argv is a pointer to a pointer to char.

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The same for:

“If so, does the line: **argv make sense?”

The declaration says that **argv is a char. At runtime argv will be dereferenced two times; the value is the char that argv, the pointer to a pointer to char, is pointing to.