The C Programming Language Second Edition, global values.

Hello.

I'm currently using the book "The C programming Language" as my top tool to understand the programming patterns of the C language.

In chapter 4 they were structuring functions and I've managed to split successfully some other programs declaring prototype functions in headers as well as defining them in their correspondent source code. However, by using the debugger "gdb 7.12" I've found the next odd behaviour.

Code:

---

#include "getch.h"

#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>


#define SIZE 10


int getint(int *pn){
    int character;
    int sign;
    int second_character;

    while (isspace(character = getch())) // call to getch()
        ;
...

---

Code:

---

#include <stdio.h>


#define BUFSIZE 100


char buf[BUFSIZE];

// Supposedly, this global initialization should assign 0 to all bufp variables
int bufp = 0;


void ungetch(int character){
    if (bufp >= BUFSIZE)
        printf("Existen muchos caracteres\n");
    else
        buf[bufp++] = character;
}


// Entry point of getch() call
int getch(void){
    // It never executed the statement int bufp = 0 according to dbg
    return (bufp > 0) ? buf[--bufp] : getchar();
}

---

As I have stated, I'm stuck in explaining why the compiler "gcc 6.3.0" does not execute the statement that assign bufp before returning the values in the getch function. Also, I have compiled using both c99 and c89 standards discarding any incompatibilities in that matter.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I don't understand what you mean by "all bufp variables". There's only one. But it all works perfectly fine.

Code:

---

// main.c ///////////////////////////////////////////
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include "getch.h"

// A main to test it.
int main(){
    int ch;
    while (isspace(ch = getch()))
        ;
    printf("[%c]\n", ch);
    ungetch(ch);
    printf("[%c]\n", getch());
    printf("[%c]\n", getch());
    return 0;
}

// getch.h ///////////////////////////////////////////
#ifndef GETCH_H
#define GETCH_H
void ungetch(int ch);
int getch(void);
#endif

// getch.c ///////////////////////////////////////////
#include <stdio.h>
// We would usually include the header here, too (but it works either way)
#include "getch.h"

#define BUFSIZE 100

// These would normally be static (but it works either way)
static char buf[BUFSIZE];
static int bufp = 0;

void ungetch(int character){
    if (bufp >= BUFSIZE)
        printf("Existen muchos caracteres\n");
    else
        buf[bufp++] = character;
}

int getch(void){
    return (bufp > 0) ? buf[--bufp] : getchar();
}

---

To compile and run it:

Code:

---

$ gcc -c main.c
$ gcc -c getch.c
$ gcc main.o getch.o
$ ./a.out
    hello
[h]
[h]
[e]


---

> // It never executed the statement int bufp = 0 according to dbg
Well no it won't.

Global variables are initialised by the program loader, not the program itself.
Data segment - Wikipedia

Thank you very much for you kind reply and I'm sorry for not making myself clear "by all bufp variables" I meant bufp variable ocurrences throughout the code. Anyhow, what troubles me is the value of bufp once the getch function enters in. In line 44, dbg show that bufp has random values instead of 0. Also, I use netbeans 8.2 IDE which generates an automatic makefile to compile my files, I don't know if that info may be useful.

Also, knowing the existence of a program loader is very useful, I will study the internals of this language.

Mmm, it is as I would expect here.

Code:

---

$ gdb -q ./a.out
Reading symbols from ./a.out...done.
(gdb) b getch
Breakpoint 1 at 0x4006f3: file getch.c, line 19.
(gdb) run
Starting program: ./a.out

Breakpoint 1, getch () at getch.c:19
19            return (bufp > 0) ? buf[--bufp] : getchar();
(gdb) print bufp
$1 = 0
(gdb)

---

> Also, I use netbeans 8.2 IDE which generates an automatic makefile to compile my files, I don't know if that info may be useful.
You need to make sure it's passing the "-g" flag to the compiler, to ensure all debug information is present.

Actually, in this case, as in many programs, global variables are not recommended.

Create the local variables in main(), then pass a pointer to the data to other functions, especially for passing arrays, or structs.

In some programs, some minimal globals may be needed, but should be used with caution.

A Google search on "Global variables are bad in C", will lead you to many sites explaining the issue.

Thank you very much, all your responses were very useful, I've got more insight in how the compiler works.