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From: rbt@sftig.UUCP (R.Thomas)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: C help wanted
Message-ID: <474@sftig.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Nov-84 17:05:27 EST
Article-I.D.: sftig.474
Posted: Sat Nov 10 17:05:27 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Nov-84 05:27:31 EST
References: <19300024@uiucdcsb.UUCP> <421@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Summit, NJ
Lines: 20

> ~|  i have a program that generates a rather complex model of an object
> ~| (this is for computer graphics) that is composed of records. each record
> ~| contains data and pointers to other records. this entire data structure
> ~| is irregular. how can i save this structure in a file so that it can
> ~| be used by another program? keep in mind that this structure is not
> ~| tree-like in any way; it more closely resembles something a spider did
> ~| under influence of drugs.
> 
> Store all the data in structures declared in consecutive locations
> in memory, and save it in a file with a single write(2) call with address
> beginning at the start of all the records, and a size large enough to cover
> all the data. Read it in the same way. It's cheating, but it works.
> 
One more thing that makes this a little easier is to keep all pointers
relative to the beginning of the area you will write out.  This way
you can read it all back in to a different porgram without having to
adjust all the pointers for the offset between the old beginning
address and the new one.

Rick Thomas