Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!hpda!hpcuhb!hpcllla!hpclisp!hpclscu!shankar
From: shankar@hpclscu.HP.COM (Shankar Unni)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: C linkage query
Message-ID: <660038@hpclscu.HP.COM>
Date: 13 Jun 89 19:55:35 GMT
References: <9449@alice.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Calif. Language Lab
Lines: 16

> > >I.e., if you compile a file containing
> > >	extern int foo;
> > >	main() {}
> > >and link that *with no other object files and with no libraries that
> > >define "foo"*, will the link fail?
> I have since learned that this is explicitly legal in ANSI C.

True. Section 3.7.1, footnote 75 in the Dec 88 draft.

From the Dec 88 dpANS:

  75. Thus, if an identifier declared with external linkage is not used
      in an expression, there need be no external definition for it.

---
Shankar.