Linking multiple .c files - c

I have a C file named first.c in which I define an array and call a function which is defined in a C file named second.c. This is how first.c looks:
int main(void)
{
int array[100];
myFunc(*array);
}
second.c on the other hand looks like this:
void myFunc(int array)
{
...
}
But anytime I try to compile these, second.c gives me errors as if it had no idea about the array I passed to its function as an argument. I guess the function doesn't know that at the linking stage. I compile these like this:
gcc -O2 -std=c99 -Wall -pedantic -lm second.c -c
gcc -O2 -std=c99 -Wall -pedantic first.c -c
gcc second.o first.o -o finished
But that's just what I came up with and of course it doesn't work. I guess a Makefile would be in place, but I'm not sure how to implement it.

Your issue may lie in that the received value is not a pointer- so change void myFunc(int array) to void myFunc(int* array).

Related

Different behavior between clang and gcc-10 when linking to static library containing global variables

I have a statically linked library, containing a global variable barvar. I can compile the library with no problems with either gcc-10 or clang (this is on macOS Catalina). Interestingly, the behavior differs between the two when I try to link it into a program that uses the library. Here's the code:
In globvars.h, int barvar is declared:
#ifndef H_GLOBVARS_H
#define H_GLOBVARS_H
extern int barvar;
#endif
In globvars.c, int barvar is defined:
#include "globvars.h"
int barvar;
In foo.c, the function foo sets and prints barvar:
#include <stdio.h>
#include "globvars.h"
void foo()
{
barvar = 10;
printf("barvar is: %d\n", barvar);
return;
}
Here's test.c, the program that uses the library:
void foo();
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
foo();
return 0;
}
When I compile and link with gcc-10, no problems:
gcc-10 -c foo.c -o foo.o
gcc-10 -c globvars.c -o globvars.o
gcc-10 -c test.c -o test.o
gcc-ar-10 rcs liblinktest.a foo.o globvars.o
gcc -o testlinkrun test2.o -L. -llinktest
When I compile and link with clang, I get an undefined symbol error at the last step:
cc -c foo.c -o foo.o
cc -c globvars.c -o globvars.o
cc -c test.c -o test.o
ar rcs liblinktest.a foo.o globvars.o
cc -o testlinkrun test2.o -L. -llinktest
with error:
Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
"_barvar", referenced from:
_foo in liblinktest.a(foo.o)
Any ideas? Interestingly, it appears the only step that has to be done with gcc-10 is compiling globvars.c. I can use clang and the clang linker for all other steps, and everything is fine. Is it possible that clang is optimizing away all the variables in globvars.c? How can I prevent this?
As #EricPostpischil observed in this comment, the issue is that clang defaults to treating barvar as a common symbol. Either changing int barvar; to int barvar = 0;, or compiling with -fno-common, fix the issue.
Beginning with gcc-10, gcc's default behavior is -fno-common instead of -fcommon.

Use of extern variable in c

I have made two files in c i.e. file1.c file2.c. In file1.c I wrote
#include< stdio.h >
int s=10;
void main()
{
printf("This is file 1");
}
In file2.c
include < stdio.h >
extern int s;
void main() {
printf("%d",s);
}
When I compiled file2.c in ubuntu terminal I got undefined referenced to s error.
How can I resolve this error?
In the second case,
extern int s;
tells the compiler that "somewhere there" exists a variable s which has type int, but it actually does not "define" the variable. So, the linker has no clue where to find the variable, it cannot find the variable and throws the error.
You need to have a definition of the variable, either in a separate translation unit (the purpose of using extern) or in the same translation unit (if you want).
In file1.c
#include <stdio.h>
void myfunction( void );
int s=10;
void myfunction()
{
printf("This is file 1");
}
In file2.c
#include <stdio.h>
void myfunction( void );
extern int s;
int main( void )
{
myfunction();
printf("%d",s);
}
then compile (the example uses gcc
gcc -g -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -Wconversion -std=gnu11 -c file1.c -o file1.o
gcc -g -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -Wconversion -std=gnu11 -c file2.c -o file2.o
then link using:
gcc -g file1.o file2.o -o myexec
then run it as
./myexec
Of course, if your using Visual Studio, the command line statements will be slightly different

How to include helper functions in C?

There are 4 files:
helper.h //contains the signatures of functions in helper.c
helper.c //implements the signatures in helper.h
file.h //has all the includes needed to run file.h
file.c //this file includes file.h and helper.h
In file.c, I need to use the function that is defined in helper.c in my main function. However, file.c is saying that there is an undefined reference to 'func_found_in_helper.c'
Is this structure correct?
Yes, provided file.c contains
#include "helper.h"
and when building your program you link together helper.o and file.o.
You also need to ensure you compile each of the files with -c so that the compiler only compiles (and not links); do the link later with all the object files.
Here's a working example (I don't actually need a main.h but if you have one of those, #include it from main.c):
main.c
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include "helper.h"
int
main (int argc, char **argv)
{
test ();
exit (0);
}
helper.c
#include <stdio.h>
void
test ()
{
printf ("Hello world\n");
}
helper.h
void test ();
To compile
gcc -Wall -Werror -c -o main.o main.c
gcc -Wall -Werror -c -o helper.o helper.c
To link
gcc -Wall -Werror -o test main.o helper.o
In a Makefile
test: main.o helper.o
gcc -Wall -Werror -o test main.o helper.o
%.o: %.c
gcc -c -Wall -Werror -o $# $<
clean:
rm -f *.o test
To run
$ ./test
Hello world
It's a bit difficult to tell what else might be wrong without the program; my guess is you simply forgot the -c flag to gcc, or forgot to link in helper.o.
undefined reference to 'func_found_in_helper.c'
That's a little odd, as it suggests you have tried to call the function using the '.c' extension, rather than just the function name. Maybe the '.' is just a typo in the question ?
Also a linker will flag an undefined symbol, so it may also be that you have not told the linker where to find helper.o ( the helper.c file compiled to the an object file ). The compiler will start the linker automatically. Did you compile helper.c first ?

compiler isn't issue error/warning in mismatch function parameter

I have the next code :
test.c
#include "a1.h"
int main() {
int a = 8;
foo(a);
return a;
}
a1.h
void foo (int a);
a1.c
int f = 0;
void foo (int a, int b){
f=5+a+b;
return;
}
Pay attention that in a1.c foo has 1 more parameter than the prototype defined in a1.h.
The compiler isn't issue a warning or an error and so as coverity :
make all
Building file: ../src/a1.c
Invoking: GCC C Compiler
gcc -O0 -g3 -Wall -c -fmessage-length=0 -MMD -MP -MF"src/a1.d" -MT"src/a1.d" -o "src/a1.o" "../src/a1.c"
Finished building: ../src/a1.c
Building file: ../src/test.c
Invoking: GCC C++ Compiler
gcc -O0 -g3 -Wall -c -fmessage-length=0 -MMD -MP -MF"src/test.d" -MT"src/test.d" -o "src/test.o" "../src/test.c"
Finished building: ../src/test.c
Building target: test
Invoking: GCC C++ Linker
gcc -o "test" ./src/a1.o ./src/test.o
Finished building target: test
How can I defend myself in those cases ? I know that if I will add #include "a1.h" in the a1.c file I will get an error but is there a way to get an error without the "include " ?
Compiler isn't issuing a warning because it does not know that foo(int) from a1.h header and foo(int,int) from a1.c file is the same function. C++ allows functions to be overloaded, so both functions could potentially coexist. That is why C++ compiler cannot detect this problem, so you need to wait until the linking stage.
If you were compiling using C, not C++, you could have the compiler detect this condition simply by including a1.h at the top of a1.c file.
You're overloading foo. The version with only one parameter is never defined, hence you should get a linker error when using it.
How can I defend myself in those cases ?
You can't defend yourself from function overloading. Just make sure that you've got the same signature in both the header as the source file.

Why doesn't __attribute__((constructor)) work in a static library?

In the following example, the program should print "foo called\n":
// foo.c
#include <stdio.h>
__attribute__((constructor)) void foo()
{
printf("foo called\n");
}
// main.c
int main()
{
return 0;
}
If the program is compiled like this, it works:
gcc -o test main.c foo.c
However, if foo.c is compiled into a static library, the program prints nothing.
gcc -c main.c
gcc -c foo.c
as rcs foo.a foo.o
gcc -o test foo.a main.o
Why does this happen?
The linker does not include the code in foo.a in the final program because nothing in main.o references it. If main.c is rewritten as follows, the program will work:
//main.c
void foo();
int main()
{
void (*f)() = foo;
return 0;
}
Also, when compiling with a static library, the order of the arguments to gcc (or the linker) is significant: the library must come after the objects that reference it.
gcc -o test main.o foo.a
As it was stated, unreferenced symbols from archive does not make it to the output binary, because linker discards them by default.
To override this behaviour when linking with static library, --whole-archive/--no-whole-archive options for the linker may be used, like this:
gcc -c main.c
gcc -c foo.c
ar rcs foo.a foo.o
gcc -o test -Wl,--whole-archive foo.a -Wl,--no-whole-archive main.o
This may lead to bloated binary, because all symbols from foo.a will be included by the linker to the output, but sometimes it is justified.

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