How to read a line from the console in C?

Question

What is the simplest way to read a full line in a C console program The text entered might have a variable length and we can't make any assumption about its content.

Answer 1

I came across the same problem some time ago, this was my solutuion, hope it helps.

/*
 * Initial size of the read buffer
 */
#define DEFAULT_BUFFER 1024

/*
 * Standard boolean type definition
 */
typedef enum{ false = 0, true = 1 }bool;

/*
 * Flags errors in pointer returning functions
 */
bool has_err = false;

/*
 * Reads the next line of text from file and returns it.
 * The line must be free()d afterwards.
 *
 * This function will segfault on binary data.
 */
char *readLine(FILE *file){
    char *buffer   = NULL;
    char *tmp_buf  = NULL;
    bool line_read = false;
    int  iteration = 0;
    int  offset    = 0;

    if(file == NULL){
        fprintf(stderr, "readLine: NULL file pointer passed!\n");
        has_err = true;

        return NULL;
    }

    while(!line_read){
        if((tmp_buf = malloc(DEFAULT_BUFFER)) == NULL){
            fprintf(stderr, "readLine: Unable to allocate temporary buffer!\n");
            if(buffer != NULL)
                free(buffer);
            has_err = true;

            return NULL;
        }

        if(fgets(tmp_buf, DEFAULT_BUFFER, file) == NULL){
            free(tmp_buf);

            break;
        }

        if(tmp_buf[strlen(tmp_buf) - 1] == '\n') /* we have an end of line */
            line_read = true;

        offset = DEFAULT_BUFFER * (iteration + 1);

        if((buffer = realloc(buffer, offset)) == NULL){
            fprintf(stderr, "readLine: Unable to reallocate buffer!\n");
            free(tmp_buf);
            has_err = true;

            return NULL;
        }

        offset = DEFAULT_BUFFER * iteration - iteration;

        if(memcpy(buffer + offset, tmp_buf, DEFAULT_BUFFER) == NULL){
            fprintf(stderr, "readLine: Cannot copy to buffer\n");
            free(tmp_buf);
            if(buffer != NULL)
                free(buffer);
            has_err = true;

            return NULL;
        }

        free(tmp_buf);
        iteration++;
    }

    return buffer;
}