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From: kaleb@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley	)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Scope of 'static' variables
Keywords: extern, static
Message-ID: <1990Dec7.214859.13727@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: 7 Dec 90 21:48:59 GMT
References: <2175@tuvie> <1990Dec7.051955.2883@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <14680@smoke.brl.mil>
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 28

In article <14680@smoke.brl.mil> gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>In article <1990Dec7.051955.2883@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> dstailey@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Doug Stailey) writes:
>>But what if you want to call a function returning a static from another
>>source module?  Say for instance, in main.c you have a function declared:
>>static char *get_cmd(FILE *fp)
>
>"static" applies to the function; it has NOTHING to do with the value
>returned.  Thus "function returning a static" is incorrect terminology.
>"The function is statically defined" would be acceptable.
>
>	extern char *example(void);
>
>	char *example(void) {
>		static char buffer[100];
>		/*...*/
>		return buffer;
>	}

To (perhaps) clarify.  A static function is not "public", i.e. you may
not call a static function from another module; it is invisible to all
but file it is in.  By default, all C functions are "public" unless
explicity declared "private" with the static keyword.

-- 
Kaleb Keithley                      Jet Propulsion Labs
kaleb@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov

You can please all of the people some of the time,