Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Question

I am relatively new on C, I am trying to run a simple program and I get this Error message: Segmentation fault (core dumped) I just want to print any value of the array bits but I can not, I'd appreciate any help on this error.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <malloc.h>

int main()
{
    const long int N = 1000000000;
    const int smallN = 125000000;
    char bits[smallN];

    for(int i=0; i<smallN; i++){
        bits[i]=0xff;
    }

    printf("character = %c \n", bits[5]);
}

Answer 1

The array seems to be exceeding the stack size (bits is an array on the stack). You can either try making it global or allocating the array using malloc.

Answer 2

Note that this is the kind of thing that Valgrind is good at pinpointing for you. If you had done this inside a large chunk of code, Valgrind would point you to the line that was wrong.

For learning C in this day and age, Valgrind it indispensable.