Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ptsfa!ames!think!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!gea@Juliet.Caltech.EDU
From: gea@Juliet.Caltech.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Local string storage -- *guaranteed* static?
Message-ID: <7690@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 3-Jun-87 18:16:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.7690
Posted: Wed Jun  3 18:16:37 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Jun-87 04:19:52 EDT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 26

Someone asked whether strings in functions like

func() {
    char *str = "some string";
    ...
    return(str);
}

are static, and several people affirmed that they were, but without
any evidence.  Certainly on all architectures that I am familiar with,
even on most that I can imagine, it will be far easier on the compiler
if these are static data.  But is there any guarantee, either in K&R
or in the Draft Standard, that this data will be static?

By the way, the question can be avioded if the function is re-written as:

func() {
    static char str[] = "some string";
    ...
    return(str);
}

Moral:  Don't make assumptions when you can tell the compiler what you mean.

	Gary Ansok
	gea@romeo.caltech.edu	or	ansok@scivax.arpa