How do I declare several variables in a for (;;) loop in C?

If you really need the variables to stay in the scope of the loop you could write

{ char* ptr = bam; for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { ... } }

It's a bit ugly, but works.

It's true that you can't simultaneously declare and initialize declarators of different types. But this isn't specific to for loops. You'll get an error if you do:

int i = 0, char *ptr = bam;

too. The first clause of a for loop can be (C99 §6.8.5.3) "a declaration" or a "void expression". Note that you can do:

int i = 0, *j = NULL;
for(int i = 0, *j = NULL;;){}

because i and *j are both of type int. The exact syntax for a declaration is given in §6.7

You can (but generally shouldn't) use a local struct type.

for ( struct { int i; char* ptr; } loopy = { 0, bam };
      loopy.i < 10 && * loopy.ptr != 0;
      ++ loopy.i, ++ loopy.ptr )
    { ... }

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Since C++11, you can initialize the individual parts more elegantly, as long as they don't depend on a local variable:

for ( struct { int i = 0; std::string status; } loop;
      loop.status != "done"; ++ loop.i )
    { ... }

This is just almost readable enough to really use.

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C++17 addresses the problem with structured bindings:

for ( auto [ i, status ] = std::tuple{ 0, ""s }; status != "done"; ++ i )