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    CWG Issue 1886</TITLE>
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<P><EM>This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21
  Core Issues List revision 118b.
  See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official
  list.</EM></P>
<P>2025-09-28</P>
<HR>
<A NAME="1886"></A><H4>1886.
  
Language linkage for <TT>main()</TT>
</H4>
<B>Section: </B>6.10.3.1&#160; [<A href="https://wg21.link/basic.start.main">basic.start.main</A>]
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Status: </B>CD4
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Submitter: </B>Richard Smith
 &#160;&#160;&#160;

 <B>Date: </B>2014-03-04<BR>


<P>[Moved to DR at the May, 2015 meeting.]</P>



<P>There does not appear to be any restriction on giving
<TT>main()</TT> an explicit language linkage, but it should
probably be either ill-formed or conditionally-supported.</P>

<P><B>Proposed resolution (November, 2014):</B></P>

<OL>
<LI><P>Change 6.10.3.1 [<A href="https://wg21.link/basic.start.main#2">basic.start.main</A>] paragraph 2 as follows:</P></LI>

<BLOCKQUOTE>

An implementation shall not predefine the <TT>main</TT>
function. This function shall not be overloaded. <DEL>It</DEL>
<INS>Its type shall have C++ language linkage and it</INS> shall
have a declared return type of type <TT>int</TT>, but
otherwise its type is implementation-defined. An
implementation shall allow both...

</BLOCKQUOTE>

<LI><P>Change 6.10.3.1 [<A href="https://wg21.link/basic.start.main#3">basic.start.main</A>] paragraph 3 as follows:</P></LI>

<BLOCKQUOTE>

The function <TT>main</TT> shall not be used within a
program. The linkage (6.7 [<A href="https://wg21.link/basic.link">basic.link</A>])
of <TT>main</TT> is implementation-defined.  A program that
defines <TT>main</TT> as deleted or that
declares <TT>main</TT> to be <TT>inline</TT>, <TT>static</TT>, or
<TT>constexpr</TT> is ill-formed. <INS>The <TT>main</TT> function
shall not be declared with a <I>linkage-specification</I>
(9.12 [<A href="https://wg21.link/dcl.link">dcl.link</A>]).  A program that declares a variable
<TT>main</TT> at global scope or that declares the name
<TT>main</TT> with C language linkage (in any namespace) is
ill-formed.</INS> The name <TT>main</TT> is not otherwise
reserved...

</BLOCKQUOTE>

</OL>

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