Xref: utzoo comp.unix.questions:24230 comp.unix.wizards:23237 comp.lang.c:30712
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!ncifcrf!lhc!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: _why_ does the UNIX linker not distinguish text and data addresses???
Message-ID: <13464@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 1 Aug 90 14:01:58 GMT
References: <1990Jul30.104726.22660@mtcchi.uucp>
Followup-To: comp.unix.questions
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 12

In article <1990Jul30.104726.22660@mtcchi.uucp> levy@mtcchi.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes:
>Now my question is, why does the linker silently resolve the function reference
>to the global variable without even a whisper of a warning?

The original UNIX linker "ld", written I think by Dennis Ritchie,
was remarkably simple compared to typical system linkers.  This
has since been fixed in UNIX System V COFF-based systems.

>Yes I know this is a stupid thing to do, I'm just asking hypothetically.

UNIX was never designed to keep people from doing stupid things,
because that policy would also keep them from doing clever things.