LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] How to tell what to do with a man page?

Maybe this is a moron question. I'm not sure. I'm finding that as I try to use various things in the C standard lib + a few others that it is a bit of trial and error to get them to work. This is an example of my biggest problem.

From the manpage for getline

Code:

      #include <stdio.h>



      ssize_t getline(char **restrict lineptr, size_t *restrict n,

                      FILE *restrict stream);

      ssize_t getdelim(char **restrict lineptr, size_t *restrict n,

                      int delim, FILE *restrict stream);

Yet this is the code that is needed to make it work. I wrapped it in a function for easy reuse.

Code:

char *

getline_stdin_mem_alloc(void)

{

  // declare & initialize

  size_t buflen = 0;

  char * buffer = NULL;

  if (getline(&buffer,

              &buflen,

              stdin) == -1) {

    free(buffer); buffer = NULL;

  }

  buffer[strcspn(buffer,

                "\n")] = '\0';



  return(buffer);

}

So I suppose my question is how do I know when I'm supposed to target the address of the pointer verses passing a pointer. I'm worried this will be stupidly obvious and I'll slap my forehead when someone tells me but I just can't see it, short of trial and error anyway.

Code:

&ptr vs *ptr