Pointer to FILE nulling itself without being used at all

Question

Hello, in the following code when ran will produce a Segmentation Fault, due to a FILE* being passed to fclose which contains no address (NULL). I'm wondering why this is happening, the FILE* isn't being used what so over. The FILE* is named urandom and is passed to fclose in the main function.

Thanks

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

struct property
{
    char *name;
    unsigned int value;
    unsigned int owner;
    unsigned int type;
};

struct player
{
    unsigned int id;
    unsigned int money;
    unsigned int position;
};

int rollDice(FILE *);
int amountOfLines(FILE *);
int createArrayOfPtrs(int ,void ***);
int makeArryOfPropertyPtrs(int ,struct property **);
int FillArryPropertyData(struct property **,int ,FILE *);
int splitBuffer(char *,unsigned int *,char **);
int bufferPropertyFile(FILE *,char **,int );
i    nt fillPropertyStruct(struct property *,unsigned int ,char *);

int main(void)
{   
    int linesInPropertyFile = 0;
    struct property **arrayForProperties = 0;

    //Open /dev/urandom for rollDice
    FILE *urandom = fopen("/dev/urandom","rb");
    FILE *propertyFile = fopen("/home/jordan/Documents/Programming/Monopoly Project/properties","rb");
    if(propertyFile == NULL || urandom == NULL)
    {
        puts("ERROR: error in opening file(s)");
        return 1;
    }
    linesInPropertyFile = amountOfLines(propertyFile);
    //DEBUG
    printf("%d is contained within \"linesInPropertyFile\"\n",linesInPropertyFile);

    if(createArrayOfPtrs(linesInPropertyFile,(void ***)&arrayForProperties))
    {
        puts("ERROR: error from createArrayOfPointers()");
        return 1;
    }
    //DEBUG
    printf("Outside Pointer: %p\n",arrayForProperties);

    if(makeArryOfPropertyPtrs(linesInPropertyFile,arrayForProperties))
    {
        puts("ERROR: error from createArrayOfPointersForProperties()");
        return 1;
    }
    if(FillArryPropertyData(arrayForProperties,linesInPropertyFile,propertyFile))
    {
        puts("ERROR: error from FillArryPropertyData()");
    }

    //Close FILE stream for /dev/urandom
    fclose(urandom);
    fclose(propertyFile);
    return 0;
}

int FillArryPropertyData(struct property **array,int amntOfProperties,FILE *fp)
{
    int bufferUsed = 100;
    int i = 0;
    int returnValue = 0;
    int returnValue2 = 0;
    unsigned int money = 0;
    char *name;
    char *buffer;

    rewind(fp);

    while(returnValue == 0)
    {
        buffer = malloc(bufferUsed);
        returnValue = bufferPropertyFile(fp,&buffer,bufferUsed);
        if(returnValue && returnValue != -1)
        {
            puts("ERROR: error from bufferPropertyFile()");
            return -1;
        }       
        if(returnValue == -1)
        {
            break;
        }
        if(buffer[0] != '\0')
        {
            returnValue2 = splitBuffer(buffer,&money,&name);
        }
        if(returnValue2)
        {
            puts("ERROR: error in splitBuffer()");
            return 1;
        }
        if(fillPropertyStruct(array[i],money,name))
        {
            puts("ERROR: error in fillPropertyStruct()");
            return 1;
        }
        money = 0;
        i++;
    }
    free(buffer);

    return 0;
}

int fillPropertyStruct(struct property *array,unsigned int money,char *name)
{
    int nameSize = 100;
    int i = 0;
    array->name = malloc(nameSize);
    array->value = money;
    while(1)
    {
        if(i >= nameSize)
        {
            void *tmp = realloc(array->name,nameSize * 2);
            nameSize *= 2;
            if(tmp)
            {
                array->name = tmp;
            }
            else
            {
                return -1;
            }
        }
        if(name[i] == '\0')
        {
            break;
        }
        array->name[i] = name[i];
        i++;
    }
    array->name[i] = '\0';

    return 0;
}
int splitBuffer(char *buffer,unsigned int *money,char **name)
{
    int i = 0;
    int j = 1;
    int nameSize = 100;

    *name = malloc(nameSize);
    while(1)
    {
        if(buffer[j] != '"')
        {
            (*name)[j-1] = buffer[j];
        }
        else
        {
            i++;
        }
        j++;
        if(i)
        {
            break;
        }
        if(j >= nameSize)
        {
            void *tmp = 0;
            tmp = realloc(*name,nameSize * 2);
            nameSize = nameSize * 2;
            if(tmp != NULL)
            {
                *name = tmp;
            }
            else
            {
                puts("ERROR: error in splitBuffer");
                return -1;
            }
        }
    }
    name[j-1] = '\0';

    while(buffer[j] != '$')
    {
        if(buffer[j] == '\0')
        {
                puts("ERROR: error in splitBuffer()");
            return -2;
        }
        j++;
    }
    j++;
    while(buffer[j] != '\0')
    {
        *money += (buffer[j] - '0');
        if(buffer[j+1] != '\0')
        {
            *money *= 10;
        }
        j++;
    }
    printf("BUFFER: %s\n",buffer);
    printf("NAME: %s\n",*name);
    printf("MONEY: %d\n",*money);
    return 0;
}

int bufferPropertyFile(FILE *fp,char **buffer,int i)
{   
    int j = (i - i);

    if(feof(fp))
    {
        //-1 Returned if EOF detected
        return -1;
    }
    char retr = 0;
    while(1)
    {
        if(j + 1 >= i)
        {
            void *tmp = realloc(*buffer,i * 2);
            if(tmp != NULL)
            {
                *buffer = tmp;
                i = i * 2;
            }
            else
            {
                puts("ERROR: error in bufferPropertyFile()");
                return -2;
            }
        }
        retr = fgetc(fp);
        if(retr == '\n' || feof(fp))
        {
            break;
        }
        (*buffer)[j] = retr;
        j++;
    }
    (*buffer)[j] = '\0';
    if(**buffer == '\0')
    {
        return -1;
    }
    return 0;
}




int rollDice(FILE *fp)
{
    int seed = fgetc(fp);
    srand(seed);
    return (rand() % 6) + 1;
}

int amountOfLines(FILE *file)
{
    int i = 0;
    int retr = 0;

    while(1)
    {
        retr = fgetc(file);
        if(retr == EOF)
        {
            break;
        }
        if(retr == '\n' )
        {
            i++;
        }
    }
    return i;
}
int createArrayOfPtrs(int numberOfPointers,void ***pointer)
{
    void *tmp = malloc(numberOfPointers * sizeof (tmp));
    if(tmp != NULL)
    {
        *pointer = tmp;
        //DEBUG
        printf("Pointer: %p\n",*pointer);
    }
    else
    {
        return 1;
    }
    return 0;
}

int makeArryOfPropertyPtrs(int numberOfPointers,struct property **pointer)
{
    int i = 0;
    void *tmp;
    for(i = 0;i < numberOfPointers;i++)
    {
        tmp = malloc(sizeof(struct property));
        if(tmp == NULL)
        {
            return 1;
        }
        pointer[i] = (struct property *)tmp;
    }
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

int createArrayOfPtrs(int ,void ***);

if(createArrayOfPtrs(linesInPropertyFile,(void ***)&arrayForProperties))

This is undefined behaviour, a (void***) is not compatible to a (struct property ***). Why do you even use it here, all the other functions use struct property pointers?

Since the array is located right before the file pointer in the local variables of main, maybe the problem is that the array creation/initialization overwrites urandom?

Answer 2

here it givest an access violation in splitBuffer on this line:

name[j-1]='\0';

which probably should be

(*name)[j-1]='\0';

indeed that memory is not allocated anywhere, in other words, undefined behaviour, which indeed in your case might overwrite the urandom variable: both urandom and name are allocated on stack so depending on value of j it might write over urandom..

apart from that, there might be more errors, the number and use of pointers/mallocs/reallocs and lack of frees is a bit scary