Where are static variables stored in C and C++?

Question

In what segment (.BSS, .DATA, other) of an executable file are static variables stored so that they don't have name collision? For example:

foo.c:                         bar.c:
static int foo = 1;            static int foo = 10;
void fooTest() {               void barTest() {
  static int bar = 2;            static int bar = 20;
  foo++;                         foo++;
  bar++;                         bar++;
  printf("%d,%d", foo, bar);     printf("%d, %d", foo, bar);
}                              }

If I compile both files and link it to a main that calls fooTest() and barTest repeatedly, the printf statements increment independently. Makes sense since the foo and bar variables are local to the translation unit.

But where is the storage allocated?

To be clear, the assumption is that you have a toolchain that would output a file in ELF format. Thus, I believe that there has to be some space reserved in the executable file for those static variables.
For discussion purposes, lets assume we use the GCC toolchain.

Answer 1

they're both going to be stored independently, however if you want to make it clear to other developers you might want to wrap them up in namespaces.

Answer 2

Where your statics go depends on if they are 0 initialized or not. 0 initialized static data goes in .BSS (Block Started by Symbol), non 0 initialized data goes in .DATA

Answer 3

Data declared in a compilation unit will go into the .BSS or the .Data of that files output. Initialised data in BSS, uninitalised in DATA.

The difference between static and global data comes in the inclusion of symbol information in the file. Compilers tend to include the symbol information but only mark the global information as such.

The linker respects this information. The symbol information for the static variables is either discarded or mangled so that static variables can still be referenced in some way (with debug or symbol options). In neither case can the compilation units gets affected as the linker resolves local references first.

Answer 4

static variable stored in data segment or code segment as mentioned before.
You can be sure that it will not be allocated on stack or heap.
There is no risk for collision since static keyword define the scope of the variable to be a file or function, in case of collision there is a compiler/linker to warn you about.
A nice example

Answer 5

I tried it with objdump and gdb, here is the result what I get:

(gdb) disas fooTest
Dump of assembler code for function fooTest:
   0x000000000040052d <+0>: push   %rbp
   0x000000000040052e <+1>: mov    %rsp,%rbp
   0x0000000000400531 <+4>: mov    0x200b09(%rip),%eax        # 0x601040 <foo>
   0x0000000000400537 <+10>:    add    $0x1,%eax
   0x000000000040053a <+13>:    mov    %eax,0x200b00(%rip)        # 0x601040 <foo>
   0x0000000000400540 <+19>:    mov    0x200afe(%rip),%eax        # 0x601044 <bar.2180>
   0x0000000000400546 <+25>:    add    $0x1,%eax
   0x0000000000400549 <+28>:    mov    %eax,0x200af5(%rip)        # 0x601044 <bar.2180>
   0x000000000040054f <+34>:    mov    0x200aef(%rip),%edx        # 0x601044 <bar.2180>
   0x0000000000400555 <+40>:    mov    0x200ae5(%rip),%eax        # 0x601040 <foo>
   0x000000000040055b <+46>:    mov    %eax,%esi
   0x000000000040055d <+48>:    mov    $0x400654,%edi
   0x0000000000400562 <+53>:    mov    $0x0,%eax
   0x0000000000400567 <+58>:    callq  0x400410 <printf@plt>
   0x000000000040056c <+63>:    pop    %rbp
   0x000000000040056d <+64>:    retq   
End of assembler dump.

(gdb) disas barTest
Dump of assembler code for function barTest:
   0x000000000040056e <+0>: push   %rbp
   0x000000000040056f <+1>: mov    %rsp,%rbp
   0x0000000000400572 <+4>: mov    0x200ad0(%rip),%eax        # 0x601048 <foo>
   0x0000000000400578 <+10>:    add    $0x1,%eax
   0x000000000040057b <+13>:    mov    %eax,0x200ac7(%rip)        # 0x601048 <foo>
   0x0000000000400581 <+19>:    mov    0x200ac5(%rip),%eax        # 0x60104c <bar.2180>
   0x0000000000400587 <+25>:    add    $0x1,%eax
   0x000000000040058a <+28>:    mov    %eax,0x200abc(%rip)        # 0x60104c <bar.2180>
   0x0000000000400590 <+34>:    mov    0x200ab6(%rip),%edx        # 0x60104c <bar.2180>
   0x0000000000400596 <+40>:    mov    0x200aac(%rip),%eax        # 0x601048 <foo>
   0x000000000040059c <+46>:    mov    %eax,%esi
   0x000000000040059e <+48>:    mov    $0x40065c,%edi
   0x00000000004005a3 <+53>:    mov    $0x0,%eax
   0x00000000004005a8 <+58>:    callq  0x400410 <printf@plt>
   0x00000000004005ad <+63>:    pop    %rbp
   0x00000000004005ae <+64>:    retq   
End of assembler dump.

here is the objdump result

Disassembly of section .data:

0000000000601030 <__data_start>:
    ...

0000000000601038 <__dso_handle>:
    ...

0000000000601040 <foo>:
  601040:   01 00                   add    %eax,(%rax)
    ...

0000000000601044 <bar.2180>:
  601044:   02 00                   add    (%rax),%al
    ...

0000000000601048 <foo>:
  601048:   0a 00                   or     (%rax),%al
    ...

000000000060104c <bar.2180>:
  60104c:   14 00                   adc    $0x0,%al

So, that's to say, your four variables are located in data section event the the same name, but with different offset.

Answer 6

The storage location of the data will be implementation dependent.

However, the meaning of static is "internal linkage". Thus, the symbol is internal to the compilation unit (foo.c, bar.c) and cannot be referenced outside that compilation unit. So, there can be no name collisions.