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C language compilers

Preprocessing directives

Preprocessing operators

The preprocessing operators are evaluated left to right, without any defined precedence.


#
A macro parameter preceded by the # preprocessing operator has its corresponding unexpanded argument tokens converted into a string literal. (Any double quotes and backslashes contained in character constants or part of string literals are escaped by a backslash). The # character is sometimes referred to as the ``stringizing'' operator. This rule applies only within function-like macros.

##
If a replacement token sequence contains a ## operator, the ## and any surrounding white space are deleted and adjacent tokens are concatenated, creating a new token. This occurs only when the macro is expanded. See ``Macro definition and expansion''

Macro definition and expansion

File inclusion

Conditional compilation

Different segments of a program may be compiled conditionally. Conditional compilation statements must observe the following sequence:

  1. One of: #if or #ifdef or #ifndef.

  2. Any number of optional #elif lines.

  3. One optional #else line.

  4. One #endif line.

Line control

Assertions

A line of the form

   #assert predicate (token-sequence)
associates the token-sequence with the predicate in the assertion name space (separate from the space used for macro definitions). The predicate must be an identifier token.
   #assert predicate
asserts that predicate exists, but does not associate any token sequence with it.

The compiler provides the following predefined predicates by default on the 3B2:

   #assert machine ( u3b2 )
   #assert system ( unix )
   #assert cpu ( M32 )
The following defaults apply to the Intel386(TM) microprocessor:
   #assert machine ( i386 )
   #assert system ( unix )
   #assert cpu ( i386 )

Any assertion may be removed by using #unassert, which uses the same syntax as assert. Using #unassert with no argument deletes all assertions on the predicate; specifying an assertion deletes only that assertion.

An assertion may be tested in a #if statement with the following syntax:

   #if #predicate(non-empty token-list)
For example, the predefined predicate system can be tested with the following line:
   #if #system(unix)
which will evaluate true.

Version control

The #ident directive is used to help administer version control information.

   #ident "version"
puts an arbitrary string in the .comment section of the object file. The .comment section is not loaded into memory when the program is executed.

Pragmas

Error generation

A preprocessing line consisting of

   #error token-sequence
causes the compiler to produce a diagnostic message containing the token-sequence, and stop.

Predefined names

The following identifiers are predefined as object-like macros:


__LINE__
The current line number as a decimal constant.

__FILE__
A string literal representing the name of the file being compiled.

__DATE__
The date of compilation as a string literal in the form ``Mmm dd yyyy.''

__TIME__
The time of compilation, as a string literal in the form ``hh:mm:ss.''

__STDC__
The constant 1 under compilation mode -Xc, otherwise 0.

__USLC__
A positive integer constant; its definition signifies a USL C compilation system.

With the exception of __STDC__, these predefined names may not be undefined or redefined. Under compilation mode -Xt, __STDC__ may be undefined (#undef __STDC__) to cause a source file to think it is being compiled by a previous version of the compiler.


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