Indexes function playing a sort of infinite loop

Question

My indexes function recognizes some file's names (not all) and then continues to throw out garbarge data '\000' as file names. Here is the code I wrote for indexes:

char* indexes(const char* path) { // ensure path is readable and executable if (access(path, R_OK | X_OK) == -1) { error(403); return NULL; } // open directory DIR* dir = malloc(sizeof(int)); dir = opendir(path); if (dir == NULL) { return NULL; } bool php_file = false; bool html_file = false; // iterate over directory entries struct dirent *dp = malloc (sizeof(int)); if (dp == NULL) { return NULL; } // declares variable count int count = 0; // read the next file in directory while ((dir) && count = 0) {
if ((dp = readdir(dir)) != NULL) { char *name = malloc (15); name = dp->d_name; if (strcmp(name, "index.php") == 0) { php_file = true; closedir(dir); count++; } else if (strcmp(name, "index.html") == 0) { html_file = true; closedir(dir); count++; } free(name); } else { closedir(dir); count++; } } if (php_file) { char php = malloc (11); if (php == NULL) { return NULL; } php = "/index.php"; return strcat((char)path, php); free (php); } else if (html_file) { char html = malloc (12); if (html == NULL) { return NULL; } html = "/index.html"; return strcat((char) path, html); free (html); } else { return NULL; } free (dir); free (dp); }

EDIT #1 I remade the function in an attempt to get it simpler, following a helpful comment but I am getting a segfault after entering into _if (access(path1), R_OK | X_OK) == -1)_ and after free(php) (which by the way is wrong because there is no index.php file in my public directory). Any clue would be very much appreciated! char* indexes(const char* path) { // ensure path is readable and executable if (access(path, R_OK | X_OK) == -1) { error(403); return NULL; } // declare a string for php and html char *php = malloc(11); if (php == NULL) { return NULL; } php = "index.php"; char html = malloc(12); if (html == NULL) { return NULL; } html = "index.html"; char path1 = malloc(sizeof(path) + 11); if (path1 == NULL) { return NULL; } path1 = strcat((char*)path, php); char* path2 = malloc(sizeof(path) + 12); if (path2 == NULL) { return NULL; } path2 = strcat((char*)path, html); // check if index.html or index.php exists and returns else returns NULL if (access(path1, R_OK | X_OK) == -1) { free (php); free (html); free (path2); return path1; } else if (access(path2, R_OK | X_OK) == -1) { free (php); free (html); free (path1); return (path2); } else { free(php); free(html); free(path1); free(path2); return NULL;
}
}

Answer 1

Response to edit#1:

NB: The code post turned char* html = malloc(12); into this char html = malloc(12); which was only confusing for a little while :)

A major problem you are encountering is your use of strcat. I think you are encountering the segfault right here:

path1 = strcat((char*)path, php);

At least in the context of this class, you should never recast a function argument. (Probably never in any context, but my C-world is small).The function author wrote it that way for specific reasons. According to the man page for strcat:

The strcat() function appends the src string to the dest string,

Which means it will change the dest string. Therefore you only need to strcat(path1,php);, and all things being equal, that will create the path1 you want. Naturally, this applies to path2 too. (Something to contemplate: do you really need two paths?)

I can't say that this change will solve all your problems. But you need to start there and see what happens next.

Re: the frees: You should not allocate (char* php = malloc(11);) and then set to a literal (php = "index.php";). If you free it, you will get some munmap_chunk(): invalid pointer: error. If you don't free it, you will have a memory leak. char* php = "index.php" will suffice, system takes care of allocation/free. (Something else to contemplate: do you really need literals? strcat(path1,"index.php"); would accomplish the same thing.)

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Response to original question: This function can be much simpler. You have the crux right here:

if (access(path, R_OK | X_OK) == -1)
    {
        error(403);
        return NULL;
    }

Consider testing for path/index.php and path/index.html the same way. Of course, you will have to construct some sort of entity that is a concatenation of path and index.php/html. Something like you've done here:

    php = "/index.php";
    return strcat((char)path, php);
    free (php);  

There is no need to inspect all the contents of the directory. And remember, free(php); will not execute because it is after the return.