cincludestatic-librariesc-libraries

Why such warning even though type is specified in .h file

There are 2 files libtest.h and libtest.c

libtest.h

int a;

libtest.c

#include "libtest.h"

a = 10;

When I compile libtest.c

cc -c libtest.c

libtest.o is generated but I get this warning. What is the reason ?

libtest.c:3:1: warning: type specifier missing, defaults to 'int' [-Wimplicit-int]
a = 10;
^

If I do the same thing, but inside some function in libtest.c

#include "libtest.h"

int foo()
{
    a = 10;
    return(0);
}

cc -c libtest.c

compiles without any warnings. What is the difference ?

Solution

  • You cannot assign a variable outside a function, only define and initialise. Syntactically your a = 10; is a re-definition of a, which presumably subsequent errors make clear.

    To provide static initialisation of a, in the header you should have;

    extern int a ;

    and then in the C source;

    #include "libtest.h"

int a = 10 ;