Thread: Using argc without argv. (-Wfatal-errors)

Hi,

I'm starting to notice how much I reuse certain code. For instance, this is a common `test` in many of my programs:

Code:

if(SOME_TEST == FAILED)
{
    fprintf(stderr, "%s: FUNCTION_NAME error: LAST_COMMAND failed (%s)\n", program_name, strerror(errno));
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

I recently learned about some gcc variables, namely `program_invocation_short_name` which give the basename of the called program, and `__func__` which gives the name of the called function.

Now, `program_invocation_short_name` is useful to me as in the main function of every program, I do the following to get the program name (`program_name` being a global variable):

Code:

int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
// Get program name for error reporting.
    strcpy(program_name, basename(argv[0]));

// Check number of arguments.
    if(argc != 1)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s\n", program_name);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

// Run process.
    run_process();

// Exit cleanly.
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

So using `program_invocation_short_name` stops me from having a global variable and I don't have to load `libgen.h`. The problem I'm running into is needing to test the number of variables from the command line, but no longer needed any of the `argv` arguments.

I also try to program with a lot of gcc flags to make my programming better. But the `-Wfatal-errors` flag won't allow unused variables. If I don't use `basename(argv[0])` to get the program name, the compiler complains that `argv` is unused. If I try to remove just the `argv` declaration from the main function, then gcc complains with a lie to me:

Code:

dea_template.c:28:5: error: ‘main’ takes only zero or two arguments [-Werror=mai
   28 | int main (int argc)
      |     ^~~~
compilation terminated due to -Wfatal-errors.
cc1: all warnings being treated as errors

I say that what gcc reports is a lie, because the following generates zero errors:

Code:

int main(int argc, char * argv[], char *envp[])

So is there a way to stop the compiler from complaining without removing the `-Wfatal-errors` flag or by adding:

Code:

if(argv[0])
    {;}

? My ultimate goal is to try to make my `tests` into a macro to reduce the clutter of my programs.