问题描述
What exactly does putting extern "C"
into C++ code do?
For example:
extern "C" {
void foo();
}
extern "C"
makes a function-name in C++ have C linkage (compiler does not mangle the name) so that client C code can link to (use) your function using a C compatible header file that contains just the declaration of your function. Your function definition is contained in a binary format (that was compiled by your C++ compiler) that the client C linker will then link to using the C name.
Since C++ has overloading of function names and C does not, the C++ compiler cannot just use the function name as a unique id to link to, so it mangles the name by adding information about the arguments. A C compiler does not need to mangle the name since you can not overload function names in C. When you state that a function has extern "C"
linkage in C++, the C++ compiler does not add argument/parameter type information to the name used for linkage.
Just so you know, you can specify extern "C"
linkage to each individual declaration/definition explicitly or use a block to group a sequence of declarations/definitions to have a certain linkage:
extern "C" void foo(int);
extern "C"
{
void g(char);
int i;
}
If you care about the technicalities, they are listed in section 7.5 of the C++03 standard, here is a brief summary (with emphasis on extern "C"
):
extern "C"
is a linkage-specification- Every compiler is required to provide "C" linkage
- A linkage specification shall occur only in namespace scope
- See Richard's Comment: Only function names and variable names with external linkage have a language linkage
- Two function types with distinct language linkages are distinct types even if otherwise identical
- Linkage specs nest, inner one determines the final linkage
extern "C"
is ignored for class members- At most one function with a particular name can have "C" linkage (regardless of namespace)
- See Richard's comment:
static
insideextern "C"
is valid; an entity so declared has internal linkage, and so does not have a language linkage - Linkage from C++ to objects defined in other languages and to objects defined in C++ from other languages is implementation-defined and language-dependent. Only where the object layout strategies of two language implementations are similar enough can such linkage be achieved
这篇关于外部“C"的作用是什么?在 C++ 中?的文章就介绍到这了,希望我们推荐的答案对大家有所帮助,也希望大家多多支持!