Question

I have the compiler error:

libvncserver/main.c:245: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments

And line 245 is:

fprintf(stderr,buf);

where buf is “char buf[256];”

I don’t see what is wrong with line 245 and how can I fix it?
When I comment out that line, the program compiles.

Answer 1

What is wrong is that any printf function expects a const char * while you are providing just a char *. Since the buffer can contain whatever you want the compiler is not sure that it will contain a correct format string. Just do

fprintf(stderr,"%s",buf);

so that it will be sure that you are not going to pass something strange.