Question

For some reason I am not able to access procNames.count. All I need to do is increment the counter. I am not sure why. Anyone sees the problem?

struct config_line {
    char name[MAX_WORD];
    int time;
};

struct config {
    struct config_line *lines;
    int count;
};

//global variable
struct config configData;

// allocate memory to procNames
procNames = malloc(sizeof(struct config));
if ( procNames == NULL ) {
    printf("problem allocating memory, for procNames. int procnanny(void)");
    return 0;       
}
//local variable
struct config *procNames;

procNames = &configData;
// the problem
procNames.count++;

Answer 1

Use:

procNames->count++;

procNames is a pointer, so you need to use that or the long-winded:

(*procNames).count++;

You can only use the . operator when the value on the LHS is a structure. When you have a pointer to a structure, you have to either use -> or dereference the pointer and then apply the . operator, which requires parentheses as well as the * because . binds tighter than unary (dereferencing) *.