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Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file

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Steve Keller <keller@no.invalid> writes:

> Hm, I wonder why all of you state that having
>
> 	int foo;
>
> in multiple translation units violates the standard.  In 6.9.2 this is
> called a tentative definiton

Yup, it's a tentative definition.

> and my understanding has always been that
> you can have multiple tentative definition plus zero or one definitions
> with an initializer.

The fact that it's "tentative" simply means that it is not finally
defined yet, in this translation unit.  It will be properly defined
either by the presence of a non-tentative definition or by the end of
the translation unit.

> In 6.9.2 the standard at least says that you can
> have multiple tentative definition in one translation unit (from some
> c99 draft):

Yes, you can.

> All compilers I know allow multiple tentative also in several
> translation units and implement this by putting foo into the common
> block (i.e. not .bss or .data section) and the linker allows mutliple
> object files to have the same symbol in their common block.  Even the
> relatively new LLVM/clang does it that way.

Sure, but "all compilers I know" is rarely enough!  Have you, for
example, tried tcc?  By default, tcc will reject a program like that.
And gcc can be asked to with -fno-common (which is handy when checking
code for portability).

> So now I wonder if my understanding of tentative definitions is
> totally wrong.

No, not totally wrong, but C does not care how a definition came about.
A translation unit with a tentative definition contains a definition just
as surely as one with an explicit

  int foo = 42;

in it.  The "at most one definition rule" does not care how the
definition came about.

<snip>
-- 
Ben.

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Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Steve Keller <keller@no.invalid> - 2017-06-06 19:33 +0200
  Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file "James R. Kuyper" <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-06-06 14:21 -0400
    Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Steve Keller <keller@no.invalid> - 2017-06-12 11:07 +0200
      Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-06-12 11:03 +0100
      Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-06-12 11:40 +0100
      Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-06-12 07:33 -0400
        Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Steve Keller <keller@no.invalid> - 2017-06-12 18:00 +0200
          Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file "James R. Kuyper" <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2017-06-12 12:11 -0400
            Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-06-12 17:27 +0100
          Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-06-12 17:18 +0100
          Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-12 09:44 -0700
      Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-12 07:55 -0700
        Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-06-12 16:51 +0100
  Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-06-06 19:21 +0100
  Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2017-06-06 19:54 +0000
  Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> - 2017-06-06 18:37 -0700
    Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-07 07:54 -0700
      Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-06-07 17:23 +0200
        Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-07 11:10 -0700
          Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-06-07 22:13 +0200
            Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-07 14:57 -0700
              Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-06-08 00:05 +0200
              Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-06-07 23:19 +0100
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-07 16:16 -0700
              Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-06-08 12:56 +1200
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2017-06-08 08:51 +0200
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file David Thompson <dave.thompson2@verizon.net> - 2017-07-09 22:43 -0400
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-07-10 08:46 -0700
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2017-07-10 21:00 -0500
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-07-10 21:08 -0700
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2017-07-11 01:18 -0500
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2017-06-08 10:10 +0100
                Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) - 2017-06-17 18:08 +0000
            Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file "Patrick.Schluter" <Patrick.Schluter@free.fr> - 2017-06-10 08:36 +0200
    Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-06-09 10:09 -0700
      Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-06-09 12:17 -0700
  Re: Style question: Declaration of globals in header file Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-06-09 09:52 -0700

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