Since I didn't have the original email to reply-to, here is the link: https://www.redhat.com/archives/libvirt-cim/2012-December/msg00029.html Should the following return 0 as well?: + if (ret != 1) { + CU_DEBUG("Failed to translate xml into struct domain"); + } Especially since get_dominfo_from_xml() will free and initialize dominfo to NULL. You'll also need a "free(xml);" if you return. That's a memory leak. What probably should be done is (btw: 8 space tabs are hard to do!) ret = get_dominfo_from_xml(xml, dominfo); if (ret == 0) { CU_DEBUG("Failed to translate xml into struct domain"); goto out; } ret = virDomainGetAutostart(dom, &start); if (ret != 0) { CU_DEBUG("Failed to get dom autostart with libvirt API."); goto out; } (*dominfo)->autostrt = start; out: free(xml); return ret; John