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clinux-kernelminix

Meaning of public modificator for function in C

PUBLIC void main

This is from kernel.c from Minix source. What is the meaning of PUBLIC in this case?

Solution

  • It's probably defined like this:

    #define PUBLIC extern
#define PRIVATE static

    Ooops, just looked in my copy of Tanenbaum. It is defined as:

    #define PUBLIC

    i.e. as nothing. It's simply a bit of "self-documentation". PRIVATE is defined as I originally said. You can find these in the Minix source file const.h.