• brad beveridge (15/15) Feb 25 2005 I was going to attach this to another thread about extern linking, but
• Ben Hinkle (9/24) Feb 25 2005 My first time bumping into this was on 1/31
• Matthew (4/20) Feb 25 2005 Ah, you're after link-unit-local variables. Interesting.
• brad beveridge (14/18) Feb 25 2005 I'm not sure that I get what you mean. The nolink attribute would be

brad beveridge <brad nowhere.com> writes:

I was going to attach this to another thread about extern linking, but 
couldn't find it.  Basically, the issue is that any global exported 
symbols in a C library need to be put into a seperate D file that gets 
imported, but not linked.  For example, see phobos/std/c/linux.
Could we perhaps introduce a "nolink" attribute, that would work as such

extern (C){
	void someFunc();

	nolink {
		int someGlobal;
	}
}

I think that would fit in with the current attribute syntax, and would 
stop us needing to do the import but don't like trick.  Is this easy, 
and is this trick required enough to make it a language feature?

Brad

"Ben Hinkle" <bhinkle mathworks.com> writes:

"brad beveridge" <brad nowhere.com> wrote in message 
news:cvo54j$1jka$1 digitaldaemon.com...
I was going to attach this to another thread about extern linking, but 
couldn't find it.  Basically, the issue is that any global exported symbols 
in a C library need to be put into a seperate D file that gets imported, 
but not linked.  For example, see phobos/std/c/linux.
 Could we perhaps introduce a "nolink" attribute, that would work as such

 extern (C){
 void someFunc();

 nolink {
 int someGlobal;
 }
 }

 I think that would fit in with the current attribute syntax, and would 
 stop us needing to do the import but don't like trick.  Is this easy, and 
 is this trick required enough to make it a language feature?

 Brad

My first time bumping into this was on 1/31 
http://www.digitalmars.com/drn-bin/wwwnews?digitalmars.D/15427

There's a pragma for 'build' that works for the entire module:
version(build) { pragma(nolink); }
In case you don't have an URL for build it is 
http://www.dsource.org/projects/build/

It would be nice to have a way to do what you suggest, though. 

"Matthew" <admin stlsoft.dot.dot.dot.dot.org> writes:

Ah, you're after link-unit-local variables. Interesting.

Doesn't a private variable suffice?



"brad beveridge" <brad nowhere.com> wrote in message 
news:cvo54j$1jka$1 digitaldaemon.com...
I was going to attach this to another thread about extern linking, but 
couldn't find it.  Basically, the issue is that any global exported 
symbols in a C library need to be put into a seperate D file that gets 
imported, but not linked.  For example, see phobos/std/c/linux.
 Could we perhaps introduce a "nolink" attribute, that would work as 
 such

 extern (C){
 void someFunc();

 nolink {
 int someGlobal;
 }
 }

 I think that would fit in with the current attribute syntax, and would 
 stop us needing to do the import but don't like trick.  Is this easy, 
 and is this trick required enough to make it a language feature?

 Brad 

brad beveridge <brad nowhere.com> writes:

Matthew wrote:
 Ah, you're after link-unit-local variables. Interesting.
 
 Doesn't a private variable suffice?
 

I'm not sure that I get what you mean.  The nolink attribute would be 
purely for interfacing to C code.  The C lib defines and exports a 
symbol.  However, in D all symbol definitions also create storage for 
that symbol, so you end up with the same variable being exported from 
the C lib and from D - ending up with a symbol conflict when you link. 
Currently the way to do it is to put all symbols that need to be used in 
a seperate D module so that D code can resolve the symbols, but then you 
don't link that particular D module.
The "nolink" attribute would tell D to resolve the symbol while doing 
the compile, but not to allocate storage for it or anything else, 
because the linker will find that symbol elsewhere at link time.
nolink would be analoguous to the "extern" keyword in C.

Brad