[c] How to read from stdin with fgets()?

I've written the following code to read a line from a terminal window, the problem is the code gets stuck in an infinite loop. The line/sentence is of undefined length, therefore I plan to read it in parts into the buffer, then concatenate it to another string which can be extended via realloc accordingly. Please can somebody spot my mistake or suggest a better way of achieving this?

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define BUFFERSIZE 10

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char buffer[BUFFERSIZE];
    printf("Enter a message: \n");
    while(fgets(buffer, BUFFERSIZE , stdin) != NULL)
    {
        printf("%s\n", buffer);
    }
    return 0;
}

You have a wrong idea of what fgets returns. Take a look at this: http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/clibrary/cstdio/fgets/

It returns null when it finds an EOF character. Try running the program above and pressing CTRL+D (or whatever combination is your EOF character), and the loop will exit succesfully.

How do you want to detect the end of the input? Newline? Dot (you said sentence xD)?

Assuming that you only want to read a single line, then use LINE_MAX, which is defined in <limits.h>:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <limits.h>
...
char line[LINE_MAX];
...
if (fgets(line, LINE_MAX, stdin) != NULL) {
...
}
...

Exits the loop if the line is empty(Improving code).

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

// The value BUFFERSIZE can be changed to customer's taste . Changes the
// size of the base array (string buffer )    
#define BUFFERSIZE 10

int main(void)
{
    char buffer[BUFFERSIZE];
    char cChar;
    printf("Enter a message: \n");
    while(*(fgets(buffer, BUFFERSIZE, stdin)) != '\n')
    {
        // For concatenation
        // fgets reads and adds '\n' in the string , replace '\n' by '\0' to 
        // remove the line break .
/*      if(buffer[strlen(buffer) - 1] == '\n')
            buffer[strlen(buffer) - 1] = '\0'; */
        printf("%s", buffer);
        // Corrects the error mentioned by Alain BECKER.       
        // Checks if the string buffer is full to check and prevent the 
        // next character read by fgets is '\n' .
        if(strlen(buffer) == (BUFFERSIZE - 1) && (buffer[strlen(buffer) - 1] != '\n'))
        {
            // Prevents end of the line '\n' to be read in the first 
            // character (Loop Exit) in the next loop. Reads
            // the next char in stdin buffer , if '\n' is read and removed, if
            // different is returned to stdin 
            cChar = fgetc(stdin);
            if(cChar != '\n')
                ungetc(cChar, stdin);
            // To print correctly if '\n' is removed.
            else
                printf("\n");
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Exit when Enter is pressed.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <assert.h>

#define BUFFERSIZE 16

int main(void)
{
    char buffer[BUFFERSIZE];
    printf("Enter a message: \n");
    while(true)
    {
        assert(fgets(buffer, BUFFERSIZE, stdin) != NULL);
        // Verifies that the previous character to the last character in the
        // buffer array is '\n' (The last character is '\0') if the
        // character is '\n' leaves loop.
        if(buffer[strlen(buffer) - 1] == '\n')
        {
            // fgets reads and adds '\n' in the string, replace '\n' by '\0' to 
            // remove the line break .
            buffer[strlen(buffer) - 1] = '\0';
            printf("%s", buffer);
            break;
        }
        printf("%s", buffer);   
    }
    return 0;
}

Concatenation and dinamic allocation(linked list) to a single string.

/* Autor : Tiago Portela
   Email : [email protected]
   Sobre : Compilado com TDM-GCC 5.10 64-bit e LCC-Win32 64-bit;
   Obs : Apenas tentando aprender algoritimos, sozinho, por hobby. */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <assert.h>

#define BUFFERSIZE 8

typedef struct _Node {
    char *lpBuffer;
    struct _Node *LpProxNode;
} Node_t, *LpNode_t;

int main(void)
{
    char acBuffer[BUFFERSIZE] = {0};
    LpNode_t lpNode = (LpNode_t)malloc(sizeof(Node_t));
    assert(lpNode!=NULL);
    LpNode_t lpHeadNode = lpNode;
    char* lpBuffer = (char*)calloc(1,sizeof(char));
    assert(lpBuffer!=NULL);
    char cChar;


    printf("Enter a message: \n");
    // Exit when Enter is pressed
/*  while(true)
    {
        assert(fgets(acBuffer, BUFFERSIZE, stdin)!=NULL);
        lpNode->lpBuffer = (char*)malloc((strlen(acBuffer) + 1) * sizeof(char));
        assert(lpNode->lpBuffer!=NULL);
        strcpy(lpNode->lpBuffer, acBuffer);
        if(lpNode->lpBuffer[strlen(acBuffer) - 1] == '\n')
        {
            lpNode->lpBuffer[strlen(acBuffer) - 1] = '\0';
            lpNode->LpProxNode = NULL;
            break;
        }
        lpNode->LpProxNode = (LpNode_t)malloc(sizeof(Node_t));
        lpNode = lpNode->LpProxNode;
        assert(lpNode!=NULL);
    }*/

    // Exits the loop if the line is empty(Improving code).
    while(true)
    {
        assert(fgets(acBuffer, BUFFERSIZE, stdin)!=NULL);
        lpNode->lpBuffer = (char*)malloc((strlen(acBuffer) + 1) * sizeof(char));
        assert(lpNode->lpBuffer!=NULL);
        strcpy(lpNode->lpBuffer, acBuffer);
        if(acBuffer[strlen(acBuffer) - 1] == '\n')
            lpNode->lpBuffer[strlen(acBuffer) - 1] = '\0';
        if(strlen(acBuffer) == (BUFFERSIZE - 1) && (acBuffer[strlen(acBuffer) - 1] != '\n'))
        {
            cChar = fgetc(stdin);
            if(cChar != '\n')
                ungetc(cChar, stdin);
        }
        if(acBuffer[0] == '\n')
        {
            lpNode->LpProxNode = NULL;
            break;
        }
        lpNode->LpProxNode = (LpNode_t)malloc(sizeof(Node_t));
        lpNode = lpNode->LpProxNode;
        assert(lpNode!=NULL);
    }


    printf("\nPseudo String :\n");
    lpNode = lpHeadNode;
    while(lpNode != NULL)
    {
        printf("%s", lpNode->lpBuffer);
        lpNode = lpNode->LpProxNode;
    }


    printf("\n\nMemory blocks:\n");
    lpNode = lpHeadNode;
    while(lpNode != NULL)
    {
        printf("Block \"%7s\" size = %lu\n", lpNode->lpBuffer, (long unsigned)(strlen(lpNode->lpBuffer) + 1));
        lpNode = lpNode->LpProxNode;
    }


    printf("\nConcatenated string:\n");
    lpNode = lpHeadNode;
    while(lpNode != NULL)
    {
        lpBuffer = (char*)realloc(lpBuffer, (strlen(lpBuffer) + strlen(lpNode->lpBuffer)) + 1);
        strcat(lpBuffer, lpNode->lpBuffer);
        lpNode = lpNode->LpProxNode;
    }
    printf("%s", lpBuffer);
    printf("\n\n");

    // Deallocate memory
    lpNode = lpHeadNode;
    while(lpNode != NULL)
    {
        lpHeadNode = lpNode->LpProxNode;
        free(lpNode->lpBuffer);
        free(lpNode);
        lpNode = lpHeadNode;
    }
    lpBuffer = (char*)realloc(lpBuffer, 0);
    lpBuffer = NULL;
    if((lpNode == NULL) && (lpBuffer == NULL))
    {

        printf("Deallocate memory = %s", (char*)lpNode);
    }
    printf("\n\n");

    return 0;
}

If you want to concatenate the input, then replace printf("%s\n", buffer); with strcat(big_buffer, buffer);. Also create and initialize the big buffer at the beginning: char *big_buffer = new char[BIG_BUFFERSIZE]; big_buffer[0] = '\0';. You should also prevent a buffer overrun by verifying the current buffer length plus the new buffer length does not exceed the limit: if ((strlen(big_buffer) + strlen(buffer)) < BIG_BUFFERSIZE). The modified program would look like this:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#define BUFFERSIZE 10
#define BIG_BUFFERSIZE 1024

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char buffer[BUFFERSIZE];
    char *big_buffer = new char[BIG_BUFFERSIZE];
    big_buffer[0] = '\0';
    printf("Enter a message: \n");
    while(fgets(buffer, BUFFERSIZE , stdin) != NULL)
    {
        if ((strlen(big_buffer) + strlen(buffer)) < BIG_BUFFERSIZE)
        {
            strcat(big_buffer, buffer);
        }
    }
    return 0;
}