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Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:02:46 -0400
From: pete <pfiland@mindspring.com>
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Subject: Re: A short-but-bizarre program that shouldn't work but does.
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Robbie Hatley wrote:
> 
> Regarding "int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)",
> "Pete" writes:
> 
> > It's called a "Common extension".
> >
> > ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E)
> >
> > Annex J
> > (informative)
> > Portability issues
> > 1 This annex collects some information about portability
> >    that appears in this International Standard.
> >
> > J.5 Common extensions
> >
> > J.5.1 Environment arguments
> > 1 In a hosted environment,
> >    the main function receives a third argument,
> >    char *envp[],
> >    that points to a null-terminated array of pointers to char,
> >    each of which points to a string
> >    that provides information about the environment
> >    for this execution of the program (5.1.2.2.1).
> 
> Ah-ha!  Thanks so much for the explanation.  Obviously, then,
> this program's author made use of that, and my OS (Win-XP)
> and compiler (DJGPP's port of GCC) do support that, so when
> I compile it and run it, it works as intended.  Not portable,
> but on my setup works quite well.  Could be useful for certain
> file maintenance utilities I write from time to time if they
> need to look at an environmental variable in real time.

You're welcome.

-- 
pete