Checking the goodness of MYSQL* handle

[Giovanni Txxxxxx]

Hello everybody,

I've written a C client application with a function that tries to do some checks before performing any query to the server.

In details, it uses mysql_ping(), eventually re-inits the connection with mysql_init() and mysql_real_connect() and then calls mysql_query().

I want to add a check at the beginning of the function, about the MYSQL* handle which is used also as parameter by mysql_ping().

In fact, if the handle is somehow unusable (overwritten / subturfuged / damaged / anything) I get a segfault when using it.
I tried both this checks:

===============
MYSQL* mysql;
[...]
if (mysql!=NULL) mysql_ping(mysql);
if (mysql) mysql_ping(mysql)
===============

but they do not work (segfault if handle is already damaged).

The only mean I have to avoid the segfault is to reinitialize the handle with mysql_init(), just before the point I know the handle is already damaged.

What I want to do is then the following:

===============
if (handle is not ok) handle=mysql_init()
===============

But I don't know how to check if the handle is ok without getting a segmentation fault.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions!