Unexpected Acess violation reading (tail)

Question

Here is my tail code (for first 10 lines):

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <ctype.h>

typedef char storage_datatype;

#define MAXLINESIZE 1000
#define STORAGESIZE 10000
#define MAXLINES 100

int mgetline(char*, int);
char* alloc(int n);
void cp(char*, char*);

char *lines[MAXLINES];

storage_datatype storage[STORAGESIZE];
storage_datatype *storagep = storage;

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    int space, i;
    space = i = 0;
    char line[MAXLINESIZE];
    char* p;
    while ((space = mgetline(line, MAXLINESIZE)) > 0) {
        p = alloc(space);
        cp(p, line);
        lines[i++] = p;
    }
    i = 0;
    while (i < 10) {
        if (*lines[i]) {
            printf("%s", lines[i++]);
        }
    }
    getchar();
    return 0;
}

int mgetline(char *s, int lim)
{
    int c;
    char *t = s;

    while (--lim > 0 && (c = getchar()) != EOF && c != '\n')
        *s++ = c;
    if (c == '\n')
        *s++ = c;

    *s = '\0';

    return s - t;
}

char* alloc(int n) {
    if (storage + STORAGESIZE - storagep >= n) {
        storagep += n;
        return storagep - n;
    }
    else
        return 0;
}

void cp(char *s, char *t) {
    while ((*s++ = *t++));
}

I am getting this error:

Access violation reading location 0x0000000000000000.

on this line:

if (*lines[i]) {

And i am not able to understand why. I hope someone can explain me this.

Answer 1

while (space = mgetline(line, MAXLINESIZE) > 0)...

performs the comparison:

mgetline(line, MAXLINESIZE) > 0

and stores the result (1 - true or 0 - false) in space.

To store the result of mgetline to space and then check if the value is larger then 0:

while ((space = mgetline(line, MAXLINESIZE)) > 0)...