Thread: recursive main

Originally Posted by paperbox005

just wondering if calling main() recursively is a good thing to do?

[code]

int main()
{
//something here
main();
}

You actually can call main recursively. It is rarely done as it it bad practice and who knows what depth of recursion you can call it too. I actually had tested this one time. But it can be done. Implementing it is up to you.

Thantos may be referring to C++ in that the standard specifically says you cannot call main recusrsively. However in C the standard doesn't explicity state this.

Remove all doubt by doing this

Code:

int mymain ( int argc, char *argv[] ) {
   // blah
   return mymain ( argc-1, argv+1 );
}

int main ( int argc, char *argv[] ) {
  return mymain( argc, argv );
}

It's just a couple of extra lines

main() is unique in that it may have a unique calling convention which is incompatible with recursive calls.

>main() is unique in that it may have a unique calling convention which is incompatible with recursive calls.

Maybe I'm missing what you are saying here? (It wouldn't surprise me.)

Code:

#include <stdio.h>

int mymain ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
   if ( !argc )
   {
      return 0;
   }
   printf("argc = %d, argv[0] = %s\n", argc, argv[0]);
   return mymain ( argc-1, argv+1 );
}

int main ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
   return mymain( argc, argv );
}

/* my output
H:\>test one two three
argc = 4, argv[0] = H:\test.exe
argc = 3, argv[0] = one
argc = 2, argv[0] = two
argc = 1, argv[0] = three
*/

I think the point was "Why call main recursively when it takes only a few more lines to call a regular function recursively instead?".

Quzah.