title: Why do I require multiple EOF (CTRL+Z) characters?
body: <p>As a little background, I am quite new to the C Programming Language and as such have been attempting to work through some of the exercises in the second edition of the Kernighan &amp; Ritchie manual. I do realize that I could probably deal with certain issues more succinctly by utilizing the standard library more, but am trying to keep my repertoire of useful commands in sync with the book as much as possible.</p>
  
  <p>If it makes a difference, I am compiling my source in a Windows XP environment using the Tiny C Compiler (TCC) and am executing the binaries within the XP Console (cmd.exe).</p>
  
  <p><strong>Problem</strong>: handling of <code>End-of-File (EOF) characters</code>. I've put together a small test case to illustrate the issue. The program seems to handle the EOF character (partially). I will try to demonstrate the issue with sample inputs/outputs.</p>
  
  <pre><code>#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
  
  int main() 
  {
      int character, count;
  
      character = 0;
      character = getchar();
  
      for (count = 0; character != EOF; ++count) 
      {
          character = getchar();
      }
  
      printf("Count: %d", count);
      return 0;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Sample input 1: <code>abcd^Z[enter]</code> (where ^Z/CTRL+Z represents the EOF character and [enter] represents the Enter key.)</p>
  
  <p>Sample output 1: <code>Count: 4</code> (waits for more input or ends properly on ^C/^Z[enter])</p>
  
  <p>Sample input 2: <code>abcd^Zefgh</code></p>
  
  <p>Sample output 2: <code>Count: 4</code> (waits for more input or ends properly on ^C/^Z[enter])</p>
  
  <p>As noted in both examples, the character count is not output until a ^C/^Z[enter] sequence is initiated. Until initiated, the program waits (and indeed processes) more input. However, as noted in example 2, when the program encounters the initial ^Z, it stops processing that line of input, waiting for more input or returning the correct count if a ^C/^Z[enter] sequence is initiated.</p>
  
  <p>I can't figure out why the program is only partially handling the EOF character. Seems to me that if it is truncating the end of sample 2 that it should also be breaking out of the loop entirely. Any ideas why upon recognition of an EOF character the program doesn't immediately print the current count and exit?</p>