Anyone have a non-terminating C compile? (Other than X11. I compiled that from s...

machrider · on Nov 23, 2011

C doesn't support metaprogramming, unless you count the preprocessor language. With the preprocessor, you could have a couple files mutually #include each other...

ars · on Nov 23, 2011

I tried it:

    error: #include nested too deeply

malkia · on Nov 23, 2011

struct cthulhu { char b[1024 * 1024 * 1024]; const char* name; } F = { {0}, "cthulhu" };

lell · on Nov 23, 2011

Indeed, this crashed my gcc. How does it work? If I had enough memory would it terminate? looks like it.

malkia · on Nov 23, 2011

Because the structure is initialized, the compiler has to lay it out in memory, and fill out the fields.

If it was left uninitialized, it would've simply reserve space for it, but won't allocate anything in memory (compiler memory), and then the linker is just going to increase the BSS section (uninitialized data) with it's size.

Later the program may or may not run. Some systems might allow many gigabytes of uninitialized data. Others simply won't.