A C program consists of a sequence of external definitions. An external declaration becomes an external definition when it reserves storage for the object or function indicated. Within the entire program, all external declarations of the same identifier with external linkage refer to the same object or function. Within a particular translation unit, all external declarations of the same identifier with internal linkage refer to the same object or function. External declarations have the following syntax:
| external declaration: | function-definition declaration |
The syntax for external definitions that are not functions is the same as the syntax for the corresponding external declarations. The syntax for the corresponding external function definition differs from that of the declaration, because the definition includes the code for the function itself.
Function definitions have the following form:
| function-definition: | declaration-specifiersopt declarator declaration-listopt compound statement |
The form of a declarator used for a function definition can be as follows:
pointeropt direct-declarator ( parameter-type-listopt) pointeropt direct-declarator ( identifier-listopt) |
In this syntax, the simplest instance of a direct-declarator is an identifier. (For the exact syntax, see “Declarators” in Chapter 7.)
The only storage-class specifiers allowed in a function definition are extern and static.
If the function declarator has a parameter type list (see “Declarators” in Chapter 7), it is in function prototype form (as discussed in “Function Declarators and Prototypes” in Chapter 7), and the function definition cannot have a declaration list. Otherwise, the function declarator has a possibly empty identifier list, and the declaration list declares the types of the formal parameters. register is the only storage class specifier permitted in declarations that are in the declaration list. Any identifiers in the identifier list of the function declarator that do not have their types specified in the declaration list are assumed to have type int.
Each parameter has block scope and automatic storage duration. ANSI C and traditional C place parameters in different blocks. See “Scope” in Chapter 4, for details. Each parameter is also an lvalue, but because function calls in C are by value, the modification of a parameter of arithmetic type cannot affect the corresponding argument. Pointer parameters, while unmodifiable for this reason, can be used to modify the objects to which they point.
Argument promotion rules are discussed in “Function Calls” in Chapter 6.
The type of a function must be either void or an object type that is not an array.
A declaration of an object with file scope that has either an initializer or static linkage is an external object definition.
In ANSI C, a file-scope object declaration with external linkage that is declared without the storage-class specifier extern, and also without an initializer, results in a definition of the object at the end of the translation unit. See the discussion in “Preprocessor Changes” in Chapter 2, for more information.