On Wed, 7 Mar 2007 10:16:17 -0800 Randall R Schulz <rschulz@sonic.net> wrote:
The space required would be recorded in the object file, but unless there's an initializer present, the space implied by the declaration would not be occupied in the object file. The allocation would occur only when setting up the BSS area (uninitialized data) during execution (i.e., the exec(2) system call) of the program. I didn't want to get too specific. Yes, it would go into the .bss section (uninitialized data). More specifically, the memory pages would not be created until written to. It used to be that when a program loads, its text, data (initialized), and bss (uninitialized) would be set up when a program is loaded, even in a virtual memory environment, but now only the necessary pages are loaded. (I'm generalizing a bit here). -- Jerry Feldman <gaf@blu.org> Boston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9