question about scope & linkage

[Conor P. Cahill]

In article <57257 at tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, cml at giza.cis.ohio-state.edu (Christopher Lott) writes:
> 
> I am asking about the scope and declaration of a variable; I have
> read K&Rv2, p. 227-228, Scope and Linkage, but can't seem to dig out
> the answer.  (what is a 'translation unit' ??)
> 

1. I believe a translation unit is a .c file.
2. Definitions of global data elements:
		real definition:	a declaration with an initialization
		tentative definition:   a declaration without an initialization

A global symbol may have unlimited tentative definitions, but only 1 real
definition.  In other words, you can have "int i;" in every .c and they 
will all refer to the same data space.  You can even have "int i=3;" in 
one (but only one) of the source files and they will still refer to the 
same data space.  But if you have more than one "int i=2;", even if you 
set the initial value to the same value, the loader (ld) will complain 
about multipley defined symbols.