char *str = "string";

分配一个指向字符串字面量的指针，编译器将其放入可执行文件中不可修改的部分;

char str[] = "string";

分配并初始化一个可修改的本地数组

The C FAQ that @matli linked to mentions it, but no one else here has yet, so for clarification: if a string literal (double-quoted string in your source) is used anywhere other than to initialize a character array (ie: @Mark's second example, which works correctly), that string is stored by the compiler in a special static string table, which is akin to creating a global static variable (read-only, of course) that is essentially anonymous (has no variable "name"). The read-only part is the important part, and is why the @Mark's first code example segfaults.

5.5节K&R的字符指针和功能也讨论了这个主题:

There is an important difference between these definitions: char amessage[] = "now is the time"; /* an array */ char *pmessage = "now is the time"; /* a pointer */ amessage is an array, just big enough to hold the sequence of characters and '\0' that initializes it. Individual characters within the array may be changed but amessage will always refer to the same storage. On the other hand, pmessage is a pointer, initialized to point to a string constant; the pointer may subsequently be modified to point elsewhere, but the result is undefined if you try to modify the string contents.

// create a string constant like this - will be read only
char *str_p;
str_p = "String constant";

// create an array of characters like this 
char *arr_p;
char arr[] = "String in an array";
arr_p = &arr[0];

// now we try to change a character in the array first, this will work
*arr_p = 'E';

// lets try to change the first character of the string contant
*str_p = 'G'; // this will result in a segmentation fault. Comment it out to work.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 *  String constants can't be modified. A segmentation fault is the result,
 *  because most operating systems will not allow a write
 *  operation on read only memory.
 *-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

//print both strings to see if they have changed
printf("%s\n", str_p); //print the string without a variable
printf("%s\n", arr_p); //print the string, which is in an array. 

首先是一个不能修改的常量字符串。第二个是一个初始化值的数组，因此它可以被修改。

在第一个代码中，"string"是一个字符串常量，字符串常量永远不应该被修改，因为它们通常被放置在只读内存中。"str"是一个用来修改常量的指针。

在第二段代码中，"string"是一个数组初始化器，类似于

char str[7] =  { 's', 't', 'r', 'i', 'n', 'g', '\0' };

"str"是堆栈上分配的数组，可以自由修改。