Question

I am trying to save some files using C, with this code:

sprintf(playerinput,"%s",end);
sprintf(fileloc,"%s/.notend",getenv("HOME"));
playerdata = fopen(fileloc, "w+"); /*create the new file*/
if (!playerdata)
{
printf("\n\t\t\tCould not save settings file.");    
return;
} else {
fputs(playerinput,playerdata); 
fclose(playerdata); 
}

It should set playerinput to the end variable, which works on Linux, then set the file location to the homearea/.notend, then make or edit the file, and put it out. In Linux (gcc), this works fine. The same code, however, on Windows (i586-mingw32msvc-gcc, does not work. Am I doing something wrong, or is another header file needed? Currently I have:

#define _CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS
#include <stdio.h>   
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define MAX_NOTES 200
#define MAX_NAMES_TEXT 200
#define MAX_NOTES_TEXT 2000

as my headers and defines. If you need more information, just ask.

Answer 1

The environment variable HOME is not a default environment variable on Windows so:

getenv("HOME");

will return NULL. You need to use a different function to obtain a user’s home directory on Windows, SHGetFolderPath will provide this:

char path[MAX_PATH + 1] = "";

if (SUCCEEDED(SHGetFolderPath(0, 
                              CSIDL_LOCAL_APPDATA,
                              0,
                              SHGFP_TYPE_CURRENT,
                              path)))
{
    std::cout << path << "\n";
}

This output:

C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Local Settings\Application Data

on my machine.