entry point

[aneesh]

Hi all,
I would like to know whether we can specify another function instead
of main as entry point.
Thanks
Aneesh

 

[Morris Dovey]

I would like to know whether we can specify another function instead
of main as entry point.

Aneesh...

I must be missing something. The file containing main need not be
named main.c - main /is/ how you specify the executable's entry
point. If you want some other function than the one you called
main to be the primary entry point, then just rename the current
main to something else and call the other function main.

 

[Joona I Palaste]

I must be missing something. The file containing main need not be
named main.c - main /is/ how you specify the executable's entry
point. If you want some other function than the one you called
main to be the primary entry point, then just rename the current
main to something else and call the other function main.

Where did you see Aneesh mention main.c?

--
/-- Joona Palaste ([email protected]) ---------------------------\
| Kingpriest of "The Flying Lemon Tree" G++ FR FW+ M- #108 D+ ADA N+++|
| http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste W++ B OP+ |
\----------------------------------------- Finland rules! ------------/
"The question of copying music from the Internet is like a two-barreled sword."
- Finnish rap artist Ezkimo

 

[Morris Dovey]

Where did you see Aneesh mention main.c?

Joona...

Nowhere; but suggested as a possibility by the wording of the
question. Do you think I reached too far in trying to understand
where the question was coming from?

 

[Pieter Droogendijk]

On 30 Jul 2003 02:34:56 -0700

Hi all,
I would like to know whether we can specify another function instead
of main as entry point.
Thanks
Aneesh

Yes, we can, but how it's done is linker-specific. Arguments -e and --entry for
the GNU linker, for example. Try the newsgroup for your compiler, or read
it's documentation.

 

[Martin Ambuhl]

Hi all,
I would like to know whether we can specify another function instead
of main as entry point.

Not in a hosted environment, which is what you are probably using. In a
freestanding environment, the required "designated function" to be
executed at start-up need not be named "main," although it often is.

 

[Phil]

On 30 Jul 2003 02:34:56 -0700



Yes, we can, but how it's done is linker-specific. Arguments -e and --entry for
the GNU linker, for example. Try the newsgroup for your compiler, or read
it's documentation.

Er...

On GNU/Linux the default entry point for an ELF executable is named
_start, which is library function contained in libgcc_s (or sometimes
libc on older systems). _start hoiks the command and arguments out of
the OS-defined ABI positions and reformats them to the correct C ABI
positions for argc, argv (and argp, but lets not talk about that), then
calls main.

A similar bit of sysabi-specific code deals with the return vale of main
(or the argument ot exit()), it's usually called _exit.

So in fact, yes you can define the entry point to any symbol you desire,
_but_ you will be replacing _start and not main, and you almost
certainly don't want to do that.

I'd personally go for either a wrapper main function, or quicker but
dirtier, adding -Dmyfun=main to the preprocessor flags (CPPFLAGS).

Phil