From: Jeff Taylor <elric AT dcn DOT davis DOT ca DOT us>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: djgpp bug
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 10:45:51 -0700
Organization: University of California, Davis
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This is for backward compatibility.  In pre-ANSI C, external
declarations were very shaky and ill-defined.  What you have found was
the way it was expected to work.  The statement "int name;" was a
definition (i.e., the same as "extern int name;") in some compilers and
a declaration (with space allocation) in others.  "int name = 0;" was
the most portable way to force allocation.

Jeff

KOMODakis Nikolaos wrote:
> 
> I have accidentally found the following bug in djgpp:
> If you declare the same global (not static) variable in two different C
> files, the compiler doesn't tell you anything (not even a warning).
> However, it allocates the same space for the two definitions.
> 
> I guess that this is a problem of the COFF format (that djgpp uses) and
> the way this format handles global variables.
> 
> .. Nick ...