+const unsigned int CSTRING_BUFFER_LENGTH = 128;
+/* recursive parser that returns cstrings of arbitrary length
+ * from a FILE*
+ */
+static char *
+cstring_alloc(FILE* f, int depth)
+{
+ char *cstring;
+ char buffer[CSTRING_BUFFER_LENGTH];
+ int target = CSTRING_BUFFER_LENGTH * depth;
+ int c, i, len, size;
+
+ /* fill buffer */
+ i = 0;
+ while ((c = fgetc(f)) != EOF) {
+ buffer[i] = (char) c;
+ if (buffer[i++] == 0x0a) { break; }
+ if (i == CSTRING_BUFFER_LENGTH) { break; }
+ }
+ len = i;
+
+ /* recurse or malloc? */
+ if (len == CSTRING_BUFFER_LENGTH) {
+ cstring = cstring_alloc(f, (depth + 1));
+ } else {
+ /* [special case] EOF */
+ if ((depth | len) == 0) { return NULL; }
+
+ /* malloc */
+ size = target + len + 1;
+ cstring = malloc(size);
+ if (!cstring) { return NULL; }
+ cstring[size - 1] = 0;
+ }
+
+ /* copy buffer */
+ if (cstring) {
+ memcpy(&cstring[target], buffer, len);
+ }
+ return cstring;
+}
+
+/*
+ * wrapper around recursive cstring_alloc
+ * it's the caller's responsibility to free the cstring
+ */
+char *
+cstring_lineFromFile(FILE *f)
+{
+ return cstring_alloc(f, 0);
+}