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From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: OK, so why _does_ ld resolve text against data?
Message-ID: <13647@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 22 Aug 90 21:06:08 GMT
References: <37909@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <930@eplunix.UUCP> <141151@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Followup-To: comp.unix.wizards
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
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In article <141151@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> linden@eng.sun.com (Peter van der Linden) writes:
>it's even more heinous than the example he gives.  If you happen to 
>choose a function name that duplicates a library name, then your function 
>is used in preference to the library function both in your code AND in 
>any library routines you call!

This is the primary reason why the C standard severely constrains the
external-linkage identifiers that an implementation of the standard
library is permitted to use.

>Most of us know to avoid names like malloc, but everyone calls something
>index sooner or later.

This particular name is not a problem in a standard-conforming environment.

In general, when you link with nonstandard libraries, name-space collision
is a real possibility.  Ways for library designers to reduce this risk
have been discussed in the C newsgroup before.