\377 character in c

Question

i am trying to read a file in c. i have a .txt file and it has that content:

file_one.txt file_two.txt file_three.txt file_four.txt

when i try to read this

Answer 1

The \377 is an octal escape sequence, decimal 255, all bits set. It comes from converting EOF - which usually has the value -1 - to a char, due to

while (!feof(filelist)) {

feof(filelist) only becoming true after you have tried to read past the file.

So at the end of the file, you enter the loop once more, and the getc() returns EOF.