#include struct basehdr_t { int id; int version; }; int main( int argc, char **argv ) { FILE *fp = fopen( argv[1], "rb" ); basehdr_t *phdr = new basehdr_t; fread( phdr, 1, 8, fp ); //only bother reading 8 bytes, it's all we need to get the version. fclose( fp ); printf( "Version: %i\n", phdr->version ); delete phdr; return 0; }