Question

I am writing something in C using Netbeans 6.9.1 (its a requirement) and I stumbled upon a peculiar bug. When I try to run this code from Netbeans:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "company_description.h"


company_description read_company_description() {
    char file_name[FILE_NAME_BUFFER_SIZE];
    FILE *company_description_file;
    company_description cd;


    printf("Please enter the name of the file containing the "
            "company's description: \n");
    scanf("%50s", file_name);


    company_description_file = fopen(file_name, "r");
    if(company_description_file != NULL) {
        printf("file is not null\n");
    }
    fscanf(company_description_file, "%s%s%s%s%s%s", cd.company_name,
        cd.name_file_deliveries_info, cd.name_file_industrial_park,
        cd.name_file_places, cd.name_file_roads, cd.name_file_vans_info);
    return cd;
}

I get this output:

Please enter the name of the file containing the company's description: 
name_file.txt
Segmentation fault
Press [Enter] to close the terminal ...

Ok I say to myself, from my point of vie there is nothing wrong with this code and I go to
~/path/to/NetbeansProject/dist/Debug/GNU-Linux-x86 and try to run the executable from there and it works. I forgot to mention that the file that should be read is in that same folder, exactly where the executable is. Now there might be a mistake on my side but I don’t see it so any thoughts about this would be helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

As to why it doesn’t run in Netbeans: working directory is probably incorrect – when you run from Netbeans, the working directory is not necessarily the same as where the executable resides.

I do not have Netbeans installed, but you can set the working directory (what directory the system thinks the executable was executed in) in your project’s settings.

I also agree with aschelper’s answer – if you don’t get a valid FILE * back you don’t want to continue running that file code.