*** stack smashing detected ***: <unknown> terminated Aborted (core dumped) error

C
#1

Hie there, when executing the following code, I get “*** stack smashing detected ***: terminated Aborted (core dumped)”. I’m using using gcc version ((Ubuntu 8.2.0-7ubuntu1) 8.2.0)

my main file contains the following code

//Header Files
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

char** maze; //Stores maze characters as a 2D array
int** visited;
int rows;
int cols;
int start_row;
int start_col;
enum enviro_terrain{
    empty,
    wall,
    goal,
    crumb
};

void alloc_maze(){
    maze = malloc(rows * sizeof(char*));
    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        maze[i] = malloc(cols * sizeof(char*));
    }
}

void alloc_visited(){
    visited = malloc(rows * sizeof(char*));
    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        visited[i] = malloc(cols * sizeof(char*));
    }
}

void get_maze(char* file_name){
    char c;
    char rows_s[3] = {'\0'}; //'\0'-String terminator
    char cols_s[3] = {'\0'};
    int rows_i = 0; //get the row number
    int cols_i = 0; //get the column number
    int swap = 0;

    FILE* file = fopen(file_name, "r");
    if (file){
        while((c = getc(file) != EOF)){
            if (c == '\n'){
                break;
            }else if (c == ','){
                swap = 1;
            }else if (!swap){
                rows_s[rows_i] = c;
                rows_i++;
            }else {
                cols_s[cols_i] = c;
                cols_i++;
            }
        }
    }
    rows = atoi(rows_s);
    cols = atoi(cols_s);

    alloc_maze();

    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++){
            c = getc(file);

            if (c == '\n'){
                c =  getc(file);
            }

            maze[i][j] = c;

            if (c == 's'){
                start_row = i;
                start_col = j;
            }
        }
    }
    fclose(file);
}

void get_visited(){
    alloc_visited();

    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++){
            if (maze[i][j] == '+'){
                visited[i][j] = wall;
            } else if (maze[i][j] == 'g'){
                visited[i][j] = goal;
            } else {
                visited[i][j] = empty;
            }
        }
    }
}

int dfs(int row, int col){
    int* current = &visited[row][col];
    if (*current == goal){
        return 1;
    }

    if (*current == empty){
        *current = crumb;

        if (dfs(row, col -1)){
            *current = crumb;
            return 1;
        }
        if (dfs(row + 1,col)){
            *current = crumb;
            return 1;
        }
        if (dfs(row, col + 1)){
            *current = crumb;
            return 1;
        }
        if (dfs(row - 1, col)){
            *current = crumb;
            return 1;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

void add_crumb(){
    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++){
            if (maze[i][j] != 's'){
                if (visited[i][j] ==crumb){
                    maze[i][j] = '.';

                }
            }
        }   
    }
}
void print_visited(){
    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++){
            printf("%d", visited[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
    printf("\n");
}

void print_maze(){
    for (int i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        for (int j = 0; j < cols; j++){
            printf("%c", maze[i][j]);
        }
        printf("\n");
    }
    printf("\n");
}
int main(){
    get_maze("mazedata.txt");

    get_visited();
    print_maze();

    dfs(start_row, start_col);
    add_crumb();
    print_maze();
    return 0;
}

My data file for the maze is here Data file

#2

This error occurs at execution, the code compiles without problems

#3

Unfortunatley don’t know C yet. But that’s a cool error message: stack smashing detected :sunglasses:

2 Likes
#4

Well it’s nice that ubuntu can detect this now. So, debugging things like this is nearly impossible from just looking at the code. What you need to do is either run this under gdb (the gnu debugger) and then when it aborts look at the stack trace…

Or, run this under valgrind and it’ll report all the errors you can imagine. Both should be packages inside ubuntu. You may need to even use both to figure it out.

In general this means you are taking a variable from one of your function arguments and attempting to write directly to it. I suspect it’s in get_maze().

Finally, see how it said “core dumped”. That means it took a snapshot of the program right when it died and saved it “somewhere”. You can actually load the file in gdb and see where it crashed. Keep in mind that for gdb to work you have to compile with debug symbols on.

#5

Thanks very much @zedshaw

#6

The file you attempted to read might have been missing.