How to initialize a pointer to a struct in C?

Question

Given this struct:

struct PipeShm
{
    int init;
    int flag;
    sem_t *mutex;
    char * ptr1;
    char * ptr2;
    int status1;
    int status2;
    in         


        

Answer 1

You can do it like so:

static struct PipeShm * myPipe = &(struct PipeShm) {
    .init = 0,
    /* ... */
};

This feature is called a "compound literal" and it should work for you since you're already using C99 designated initializers.

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Regarding the storage of compound literals:

6.5.2.5-5

If the compound literal occurs outside the body of a function, the object has static storage duration; otherwise, it has automatic storage duration associated with the enclosing block.