SIMPLE malloc & pointer question

[James Davies]

Just to beat this into the ground a bit further (like most simple
problems posted to the net, it's already halfway to the earth's core
by now...), the first thing to do when you have questions about
a particular program should be to run it through lint.
In this case, lint says:

	$ lint xxx.c
	xxx.c(11): warning: a may be used before set
	printf returns value which is always ignored

The first warning should be a strong clue as to what is wrong...
Is lint mentioned in the FAQ list?