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C Programming: string compare

I'm having trouble with a method that compares two strings. Specifically I need my program to understand the difference between "http://www.csun.edu/" and "http://www.csun.edu/~steve/" (see config file below).

If I pass "http://www.csun.edu/", how can I make my program understand I'm referring to the redirect line in my config file and not the cached line.

I tried doing strcat( URL, " " ) as well as strcat( URL, "\t" ) to add an extra space or tab character at the end of my URL, but then later in my code when I do strstr( URL_ConfigFile, URL ), it returns a NULL pointer saying that a the URL string doesn't exist inside of my config file.

I think it has something to do with the additional space ( " " ) I added.

# Example Configuration File for deflect:  
# deflect:  Daemon for HTTP Egress, Filtering, Load balancing, and Caching Trivially
#
# URL-prefix			Disposition	Host list

http://www.csun.edu/		redirected	130.166.238.195, redwing.csun.edu
http://facebook.com/		filtered
http://www.csun.edu/~steve/	cached		www.csun.edu

# Note that any URL that is not covered by any rule is transferred through the system 
# without any additional processing.

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ozo

What was in URL before the strcat, and how was URL_ConfigFile set?

pzozulka

ASKER

The URL before strcat was "http://www.csun.edu/".

The URL_ConfigFile was created using nano on a Linux machine. I tried editing that file to have tabs and spaces between the URL and the Disposition columns. I tried both ways. As of right now, I'm using tabs to separate the columns.

ozo

What was in URL_ConfigFile when strstr( URL_ConfigFile, URL ) was executed?

Can you do strstr( URL_ConfigFile, "http://www.csun.edu/") and then check the following character?

pzozulka

ASKER

The config file mentioned above was read() into a buffer. I then scanned the buffer, and replaced all \r or \n with \0. This broke the file into lines where each line is a string.

Then there is a for-loop that cycles through each line, treating each line as a string.

So to answer your question, during one of the iterations of the loop:
URL_ConfigFile = "http://www.csun.edu/ redirected 130.166.238.195, redwing.csun.edu"

URL = "http://www.csun.edu/ " //tab character at the end was added with strcat()

SOLUTION

ozo

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pzozulka

ASKER

For simplicity sake I said URL_ConfigFile, but in my code it's actually Lines[j]. See below.

So I tried strstr(Lines[j], "www.csun.edu/"), and it returns the line in the config file that says cached.

I tried comparing to "www.csun.edu/ " <-- (space char at the end), but no luck.
I also tried "www.csun.edu/ " <-- (tab char at the end), also no luck.

if(strstr(Lines[j], "www.csun.edu/") != NULL) {
					if(strstr(Lines[j], "redirected") != NULL) {
						m = 1;
					}
					else if(strstr(Lines[j], "filtered") != NULL) {
						m = 2;
					}
					else if(strstr(Lines[j], "cached") != NULL) {
						m = 3;
					}
				}
				else
					m = -1;

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ozo

You can't do strcat( "www.csun.edu/","\t" )

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

ozo

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pzozulka

ASKER

Here's what I get, very strange:

http://www.csun.edu/            redirected      130.166.238.195, redwing.csun.edu
R:       9
http://facebook.com/            filtered
http://www.csun.edu/~steve/     cached          www.csun.edu

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Code:

fprintf(configfp,"%s\n",Lines[i]);

				char *p;
				if( (p=strstr(Lines[i], "www.csun.edu/")) != NULL && p[13] != '~' )
				{
					fprintf(configfp, "R:%c %d\n",p[13],p[13]);
				}
				if(strstr(Lines[i], "www.csun.edu/") != NULL) {
					if(strstr(Lines[i], "redirected") != NULL) {
						m = 1;
					}
					else if(strstr(Lines[i], "filtered") != NULL) {
						m = 2;
					}
					else if(strstr(Lines[i], "cached") != NULL) {
						m = 3;
					}
				}
				else
					m = -1;

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SOLUTION

ozo

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pzozulka

ASKER

Thanks much, I think I know what happened. I kept on looping even after finding the correct line in my config file. Since the loop continued it would override my m variable that keeps track of this, and at the end would return the wrong thing.