CODEWITHSUNDEEP
carrayssegmentation-faultprintf
f4lco
f4lco

Reputation: 3814

C: Array initialization segfaults depending on size and call to printf()

Another student asked me what could be wrong with his C code. I successfully reproduced the erroneous behavior and have completely no idea why this segfaults. Consider this tiny C programm:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    int N = 590;
    double A[N][N];
    double B[N][N];
    double C[N][N];
    printf("done");
}

What's the reason for this? Can anybody explain?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 189

Answers (3)

James
James

Reputation: 9278

You're getting a stack overflow. However I can reproduce it here both with and without the printf with VC++. My best guess is that the operation of pushing arguments to the printf on the stack causes the error to manifest itself. Does it still happen if you call a function that takes no paramters?

Upvotes: 0

mah
mah

Reputation: 39807

The amount of stack you have available to your app is very system dependent, and automatic variables (such as your double arrays) consume stack space. Calling a function requires additional stack space (for its variables, and housekeeping such as saved registers and a return point). You're going off the end of your stack and trying to access memory you're forbidden to access.

Upvotes: 2

LihO
LihO

Reputation: 42083

You try to allocate more memory than it's available on the stack which causes stack overflow. Usually it is much better to allocate huge arrays like that dynamically by using malloc, calloc or realloc. Don't forget to free this memory by calling free when you finish with it :)

These questions will help you too:
C/C++ maximum stack size of program
Segmentation Fault on creating an array in C
Segmentation Fault When Using Variable To Initiate Array

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions