How do I use extern to share variables between sou

Question

I know that global variables in C sometimes have the extern keyword. What is an extern variable? What is the declaration like? What is its scope?

This is related to sharing variables across source files, but how does that work precisely? Where do I use extern?

Answer 1

extern keyword is used with the variable for its identification as a global variable.

It also represents that you can use the variable declared using extern keyword in any file though it is declared/defined in other file.

Answer 2

Extern is the keyword you use to declare that the variable itself resides in another translation unit.

So you can decide to use a variable in a translation unit and then access it from another one, then in the second one you declare it as extern and the symbol will be resolved by the linker.

If you don't declare it as extern you'll get 2 variables named the same but not related at all, and an error of multiple definitions of the variable.

Answer 3

I like to think of an extern variable as a promise that you make to the compiler.

When encountering an extern, the compiler can only find out its type, not where it "lives", so it can't resolve the reference.

You are telling it, "Trust me. At link time this reference will be resolvable."

Answer 4

The correct interpretation of extern is that you tell something to the compiler. You tell the compiler that, despite not being present right now, the variable declared will somehow be found by the linker (typically in another object (file)). The linker will then be the lucky guy to find everything and put it together, whether you had some extern declarations or not.

Answer 5

An extern variable is a declaration (thanks to sbi for the correction) of a variable which is defined in another translation unit. That means the storage for the variable is allocated in another file.

Say you have two .c-files test1.c and test2.c. If you define a global variable int test1_var; in test1.c and you'd like to access this variable in test2.c you have to use extern int test1_var; in test2.c.

Complete sample:

$ cat test1.c 
int test1_var = 5;
$ cat test2.c
#include <stdio.h>

extern int test1_var;

int main(void) {
    printf("test1_var = %d\n", test1_var);
    return 0;
}
$ gcc test1.c test2.c -o test
$ ./test
test1_var = 5

Answer 6

In C a variable inside a file say example.c is given local scope. The compiler expects that the variable would have its definition inside the same file example.c and when it does not find the same , it would throw an error.A function on the other hand has by default global scope . Thus you do not have to explicitly mention to the compiler "look dude...you might find the definition of this function here". For a function including the file which contains its declaration is enough.(The file which you actually call a header file). For example consider the following 2 files :
example.c

#include<stdio.h>
extern int a;
main(){
       printf("The value of a is <%d>\n",a);
}

example1.c

int a = 5;

Now when you compile the two files together, using the following commands :

step 1)cc -o ex example.c example1.c step 2)./ex

You get the following output : The value of a is <5>