C String Return Function Returns Garbage

Question

I\'m having trouble return a string from a function. It prints out a garbage value in the main method. I saw a similar question on this forum but the results on that page didn\'

Answer 1

You cannot return a local array (like your path_name) from a function. That local array is inside the call frame, which gets popped on return.

As others replied, you should do

strncpy(result, path_name, MAX_PATH_LEN);

and document the convention that the caller should free the result.

BTW, your code is quite inefficient; you are allocating a rather large chunk of MAX_PATH_LEN (often 4096) for a string which often is much smaller.

If using GNU extensions you could simply use asprintf(3) (see this) or at least remove your malloc and return strdup(path_name); and use strdup(3) (which is standard, not requiring any GNU extension).

And learn how to use valgrind.