Redirecting stdout to array and restoring it back in C

How can I capture stdout in array or file then restore it back in C?

That is a hard question. You can redirect stdout very easily, problem arises when you try to restore it back. Here is the code snippet to redirect and save the stdout status:

int stdout_save;
char buffer[BIG_ENOUGH];
fflush(stdout); //clean everything first
stdout_save = dup(STDOUT_FILENO); //save the stdout state
freopen("NUL", "a", stdout); //redirect stdout to null pointer
setvbuf(stdout, buffer, _IOFBF, 1024); //set buffer to stdout

The reason we redirect stdout to NULL is to see no output on screen. This is handy if you want to modify the data before printing on screen. setvbuf sets a buffer to stdout and it will fill the buffer when it reaches 1024 bytes.

In order to restore stdout and be able to print to screen again:

freopen("NUL", "a", stdout); //redirect stdout to null again
dup2(stdout_save, STDOUT_FILENO); //restore the previous state of stdout
setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, MDT_BUFSIZE); //disable buffer to print to screen instantly

Enjoy!