Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!bellcore!att!cbnewsd!tainter From: tainter@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (johnathan.tainter) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: C linkage query Message-ID: <186@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> Date: 12 Jun 89 16:40:30 GMT References: <9449@alice.UUCP> <1795@auspex.auspex.com> Reply-To: tainter@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (johnathan.tainter,ih,) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 19 In article <1795@auspex.auspex.com> guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) writes: >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? >Several people have given examples where it *doesn't* fail, but I don't >know that those are interesting in this case; the existence of 1 million >compiler/linker pairs in which it doesn't fail doesn't demonstrate that >no compiler/linker pair exists in which it *does* fail. I have an example where this is mishandled. The Alcyon Developers Package for the Atari ST certainly does this. It makes using interface header files an unpleasant prospect. --johnathan.a.tainter-- att!ihlpb!tainter