typedef struct device {
  char *name;
} dev;

int
main (void) {

  FILE *fp;
  const int line_length=512;
  char config_line[line_length];
  const char *filename="config.txt";
  dev device_list[128];
  int attr=0;
  int i=0;
  int num_devices=0;
  char device_name[32];

  while (1) {

      if (NULL == (fp = fopen(filename, "r"))) {
        printf("file open failed for %s\n", filename);
        exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
      }

      while(fgets(config_line, sizeof(config_line), fp) != NULL) {

        sscanf(config_line, "%s %d", &device_name, &attr);
        device_list[num_devices].name=device_name;

        printf("device %d has name %s\n", num_devices, device_list[num_devices].name);
        ++num_devices;
      }
      fclose(fp);

      printf("num_devices read from configuration file: %d\n", num_devices);

      printf("printing array of structures\n");
      for(i=0;i<num_devices;i++) {
        printf("device %d has name %s\n", i, device_list[i].name);
      }

      sleep (7);
  }
  exit (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}





Result is this:
----------------
device 0 has name /dev/hda
device 1 has name /dev/hdb
device 2 has name /dev/hdc
num_devices read from configuration file: 3
printing array of structures
device 0 has name /dev/hdc    <-- why isn't it /dev/hda??
device 1 has name /dev/hdc    <-- why isn't it /dev/hdb??
device 2 has name /dev/hdc


for an input file:
------------------
/dev/hda 194
/dev/hdb 123
/dev/hdc 756