does static function declaration require static definition?

does static function declaration require static definition?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  from my 5th edition of harbison and steele, p. 83, i read that the
"static" storage class specifier on a function "indicates that the
declared function will be defined -- with storage class static --
later in the file."

  doesn't this read that, once you declare the function as static, you
*must* define it as static as well?  gcc doesn't seem to have a
problem with leaving "static" off of the definition.

  of course, gcc certainly complains if you forget the "static" on the
declaration but put it on the definition further down.

rday

Re: does static function declaration require static definition?

[Steve Graegert]

On 8/2/05, Robert P. J. Day <rpjday@mindspring.com> wrote:
> 
>  from my 5th edition of harbison and steele, p. 83, i read that the
> "static" storage class specifier on a function "indicates that the
> declared function will be defined -- with storage class static --
> later in the file."
> 
>  doesn't this read that, once you declare the function as static, you
> *must* define it as static as well?  gcc doesn't seem to have a
> problem with leaving "static" off of the definition.

For GCC it should be sufficient to declare a function as static and
omit the static keyword in the definition (but I prefer to see it in
both, declarations and definitions):

	/* declaration */
	static void func(int, int);
	
	/* definition */
	void func(int a, int b) {
		/* do some work here */
	}

Please note that static functions are only visible to other functions
in the same translation unit.  Also note that C99 (p. 141 §4) says:

"The storage-class specifier, if any, in the declaration specifiers
shall be either extern or static."

The static keyword is optional in function definitions.

Regards

       \Steve
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