Segmentation Fault before main

Question

so I've been running into a problem where somehow my code is causing segmentation faults before any of my main actually runs. I've never had this happen before and I hardly have a quarter's worth of coding experience so I'm not sure if there's something I'm doing wrong. Everything compiles, at least on my computer, but upon running it my main is never reached.

Context: I'm trying to connect Vertices and Edges in an adjacency matrix and then use Prim's algorithm to build an MST, but that's for later. I built a header file, which originally contained only typdef calls for the structures and the functions. However, I switched the structure definitions to the header file because I was getting memory errors; hence why I think there's an issue with the structs.

graph.h:

//Leland Wong 00000897031 //graph header file    #include<stdio.h> #include<stdlib.h> #include<string.h> #include<math.h>  #ifndef GRAPH_H #define GRAPH_H  typedef struct vertex {     double longitude;     double latitude;     char city[30];     int index;     int visited; //0: not visited, 1: visited, 2: visited     struct edge* nexte;     struct vertex* nextv;     double projected; }VERTEX;   typedef struct edge {     struct vertex* start;     struct vertex* destination;     double distance;     struct edge* nexte; }EDGE;   typedef struct graph {     struct vertex* list[756];     struct edge* matrix[756][756]; }GRAPH;   /* typedef struct vertex VERTEX; typedef struct edge EDGE; typedef struct graph GRAPH; */  double findDistance(VERTEX* v1, VERTEX* v2); //compute the distance between two locations EDGE* connect(VERTEX* v1, VERTEX* v2); //connects two vertices and returns the connecting EDGE GRAPH primMatrix(GRAPH *g); //connects all vertices using Prim's Algorithm in an adjacency matrix //void lPrimConnect(VERTEX v); //connects all vertices using Prim's Algorithm in an adjacency list EDGE* findSmallestEdge(VERTEX v, GRAPH *g); //finds the smallest EDGE connected to v   #endif 

graph.c: contains the implementations of all my functions

//functions  //computes the distance between v1 and v2 double findDistance(VERTEX* v1, VERTEX* v2) {     printf("findDistance");     double long1 = v1->longitude;     double long2 = v2->longitude;     double lat1 = v1->latitude;     double lat2 = v2->latitude;     double distance = 0;      if(long1 < 0)         long1 += 360;     if(long2 < 0)         long2 += 360;      distance = powf((long1-long2), 2) + powf((lat1 - lat2), 2);     distance = sqrt(distance);     return distance; }  //creates and returns an edge that connects v1 and v2 EDGE* connect(VERTEX* v1, VERTEX* v2) {     printf("connect");     EDGE *new;      new->start = v1;     new->destination = v2;     new->distance = findDistance(v1, v2);     return new; }   //finds smallest edge connected to v in GRAPH g EDGE* findSmallestEdge(VERTEX v, GRAPH *g) {     printf("findSmallestEdge");     EDGE *tempe;     int i, index;     index = v.index;      //set tempe equal to the first edge connected to v     tempe = g->matrix[index][0];     //find smallest edge connected to v     for(i = 0; i < 756; i++)     {         if(g->matrix[index][i] -> distance < tempe->distance && g->list[index]->visited == 0)         {             tempe = g->matrix[index][i];         }     }     return tempe; }  //creates an MST out of GRAPH g using Prim's algorithm GRAPH primMatrix(GRAPH *g) {     printf("primMatrix");     GRAPH new; // = malloc(sizeof(GRAPH));     EDGE *smallest;     EDGE *tempe;     int i, x;     i = 1;     x = 0;      new.list[0] = g->list[0];   //add root node to MST     g->list[0]->visited = 2;     smallest = findSmallestEdge(*new.list[0], g);      new.matrix[0][smallest->destination->index] = smallest;     //MST will contain all 756 nodes, so run this 755 times to ensure all nodes are reached     while(i < 756)     {         x = 0;         smallest = findSmallestEdge(*new.list[i], g);         //i = number of vertices already reached         while(x < i)         {             tempe = findSmallestEdge(*new.list[x], g);             if(tempe -> distance < smallest -> distance)             {                 smallest = tempe;             }             x++;         }         new.list[i] = smallest -> destination;         smallest -> destination -> visited = 2;         new.matrix[smallest->start->index][smallest->destination->index] = smallest;         i++;     }     return new; } 

graphmatrixmain.c: my main function which builds the graphs

#include "graph.h"  int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {     FILE *fp;     static GRAPH g;     char buffer[200];     int i, j;     char city[30];     char *long1;     char *lat1;      if(argc == 1)     {            printf("could not open file\n");         return 0;     }      else         fp = fopen(argv[1], "r");      //read in line of data from txt file, build a new vertex, and insert into list     while(fgets(buffer, 200, fp) != NULL)     {         VERTEX *new =  malloc(sizeof(VERTEX));          printf("%s", buffer);         sscanf(buffer, "%s %s %s", city, long1, lat1);         //sscanf(buffer, "%[^\t]\t%[^\t]\t%s", city, long1, lat1);          printf("scanned in data\n");         new->longitude = atof(long1);         new->latitude = atof(lat1);         new->index = i;         g.list[i] = new;         printf("%s: (%lf, %lf)", new->city, new->longitude, new->latitude);         i++;     }     //create EDGE and make connects between every VERTEX in list     for(i = 0; i < 756; i++)     {         for(j = 0; j < 756; j++)         {             g.matrix[i][j] = connect(g.list[i], g.list[j]);             if(j == 0)             {                 g.list[i]->nexte = g.matrix[i][j];             }         }     }     return 0; } 

In case its necessary, this is the file i'm reading in from: cities.txt it contains 756 entries total but as far as the code is concerned size shouldn't be relevant

Shanghai    121.47  31.23 Bombay  72.82   18.96 Karachi 67.01   24.86 Buenos Aires    -58.37  -34.61 Delhi   77.21   28.67 Istanbul    29  41.1 Manila  120.97  14.62 Sao Paulo   -46.63  -23.53 Moscow  37.62   55.75 

Answer 1

I've been running into a problem where somehow my code is causing segmentation faults before any of my main actually runs.

Usually, this means that the data structures that your main tries to place in the automatic storage area overflow the stack. In your situation, it looks like the GRAPH is a suitable suspect to do just that: it has a 2D array with 571536 pointers, which could very well overflow the stack before your main gets a chance to start.

One solution to this problem would be moving the GRAPH into the static area: since you allocate it in the main, it's going to be only one instance of it anyway, so declaring it static should fix the problem:

static GRAPH g; 

You might also want to allocate it in the dynamic area using malloc, but in this case it probably does not matter.