i'm compiling these source code....and its appear liked below....

(the code)

/*
* Format the data and write it out to the output file
*/
tm_ptr = localtime( (time_t *)&data.time_tag.tv_sec );
switch( data.data_type )
{
case INTEGER_TYPE:
(163) fprintf(out_file,"%02d:%02d:%02d.%06d -- %d -- %d\n", tm_ptr->tm_hour, tm_ptr->tm_min,tm_ptr->tm_sec, data.time_tag.tv_usec, data.seq_num, data.raw_data.int_value);
break;
case FLOAT_TYPE:
(166) fprintf(out_file,"%02d:%02d:%02d.%06d -- %d -- %f\n", tm_ptr->tm_hour, tm_ptr->tm_min,tm_ptr->tm_sec, data.time_tag.tv_usec, data.seq_num, data.raw_data.float_value);
break;
default:
fprintf(stderr,"Recevied invalid packet type!\n");
}


(the error)

ams@lan ex7]$ gcc -c dataSink.c
dataSink.c: In function `main':
dataSink.c:159: warning: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
dataSink.c:163: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
dataSink.c:163: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
dataSink.c:163: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
dataSink.c:166: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
dataSink.c:166: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type
dataSink.c:166: dereferencing pointer to incomplete type

can anyone help me?

It looks that line 159 is the localtime call. Are you sure tmp_ptr is really struct tm * ? There's problem with this or data is not what it should. Check also headers to see if you include all that's needed.

here is the full code of dataSink...

#include <sys/time.h> /* gettimeofday() */
#include <sys/types.h> /* miscelaneous calls */
#include <sys/stat.h> /* I/O, open()/close() */
#include <unistd.h> /* gettimeofday() and others */
#include <fcntl.h> /* I/O, open()/close() */
#include <stdio.h> /* Standard I/O, fprintf() */
#include <errno.h> /* perror() */
#include <termios.h> /* terminal functions */
#include <signal.h> /* signal functions */


/*
* Local header files
*/
#include "serialLib.h"
#include "dataFormat.h"

/*
* This is the input device, it is machine dependent and probably will need
* to be changed depending upon what machine you are on.
*
* Linux: /dev/ttyS1
* AIX: /dev/
* SunOS: /dev/
* Lynx: /dev/
*/
#define INPUT_DEVICE "/dev/ttyS1"


/*
* The main program
*/
int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
{

/*
* The time structures
*/
struct timeval start_time;
struct timeval end_time;

/*
* The data packet buffer and data
*/
data_t data;
char *buffer = (char *)&data;

/*
* The file pointer were the data will be written to
*/
FILE *out_file;

/*
* Miscellaneous variables
*/
int fp;
int i = 0;
int size;
struct tm *tm_ptr;
int bytes;
int total_bytes = 0;


/*
* Open the serial port using the serialLib calls. Note that for the
* reader, blocking I/O is used.
*/
if( (fp = serialOpen(INPUT_DEVICE, O_RDONLY)) == -1 )
{
exit(1);
}


/*
* Open the output file were the results will be written to
*/
if( (out_file = fopen( "out.file", "w" )) == (FILE *)NULL )
{
fprintf(stderr,"Could not open output file!\n");
serialClose(fp);
exit(1);
}


/*
* Get the start time of the processing
*/
gettimeofday(&start_time,NULL);


/*
* Loop for the number of packets expected
*/
while( i < NUM_OF_PACKETS )
{

/*
* The following sequence of code will read exactly one data packet
* from the serial port. Since the read statement will not always
* return the exact size of the packet, additional steps must be taken
* to be sure that a complete packet is read.
*
* First, the number of bytes read is initialized to zero. As long
* as the number of bytes read is less than the size of the data
* structure, a read will be performed. The number of bytes to read
* is simple the number of bytes read thus far (bytes) subtracted from
* the number of bytes in a packet (sizeof(data_t)). Each time a read
* is completed, the number of bytes read (size) is added to the bytes
* read (bytes). This continues until the packet is read from the
* serial port.
*/
bytes = 0;
while( bytes < sizeof(data_t) )
{
if( (size = read( fp, buffer + bytes, sizeof(data_t) - bytes)) == -1 )
{
perror("read failed");
serialClose(fp);
exit(1);
}
bytes += size;
}
total_bytes += bytes;


/*
* Verify that the sequence number in the packet matches the sequence
* number that is expected.
*/
if( data.seq_num != i )
{
fprintf(stderr,"Sequence number mismatch, current: %d -- recevied: %d\n", data.seq_num, i );
fprintf(stderr,"Adjusting sequence number to recieved value!\n");
i = data.seq_num;
}


/*
* Format the data and write it out to the output file
*/
tm_ptr = localtime( (time_t *)&data.time_tag.tv_sec );
switch( data.data_type )
{
case INTEGER_TYPE:
fprintf(out_file,"%02d:%02d:%02d.%06d -- %d -- %d\n", tm_ptr->tm_hour, tm_ptr->tm_min,
tm_ptr->tm_sec, data.time_tag.tv_usec, data.seq_num, data.raw_data.int_value);
break;
case FLOAT_TYPE:
fprintf(out_file,"%02d:%02d:%02d.%06d -- %d -- %f\n", tm_ptr->tm_hour, tm_ptr->tm_min,
tm_ptr->tm_sec, data.time_tag.tv_usec, data.seq_num, data.raw_data.float_value);
break;
default:
fprintf(stderr,"Recevied invalid packet type!\n");
}


/*
* Increment the number of packets received and complete the loop
*/
i++;
}


/*
* Get the ending time
*/
gettimeofday(&end_time,NULL);


/*
* Close the serial port
*/
serialClose(fp);


/*
* Close the output file
*/
fclose(out_file);


/*
* Calculate some statistics based on the data collected
*/
printf("----- Reciever -----\n");
printf("Total Packets: %d\n", i );
printf("Total Bytes Received: %d\n", bytes );
printf("Interval: %0.6f\n",
((float)(end_time.tv_sec - start_time.tv_sec) +
((float)(end_time.tv_usec - start_time.tv_usec)/1000000)));
printf("Data Rate: %0.6f\n",
((float)(i * sizeof(data_t))) /
((float)(end_time.tv_sec - start_time.tv_sec) +
((float)(end_time.tv_usec - start_time.tv_usec)/1000000)));

exit(0);
}

to run this thing...will only needs...these files...:

dataSource.c, dataSink.c, serialLib.c, serialLib.h, dataFormat.h

hope that this will help a little...

Please use code tags when posting code. It's so hard to read it otherwise...

Add #include <time.h>