What does double underscore ( __const) mean in C?

Question

extern int ether_hostton (__const char *__hostname, struct ether_addr *__addr)
 __THROW;

I found the above function definition in /usr/include/netinet/ether.h on a Linux box.

Can someone explain what the double underscores mean in front of const (keyword), addr (identifier) and at last __THROW.

Answer 1

By convention in some libraries, this indicates that a particular symbol is for internal use and not intended to be part of the public API of the library.

Answer 2

The underscore in __const means that this keyword is a compiler extension and using it is not portable (The const keyword was added to C in a later revision, 89 I think). The __THROW is also some kind of extension, I assume that it gets defined to some __attribute__(something) if gcc is used, But I'm not sure on that and too lazy to check. The __addr can mean anything the programmer wanted it to mean, It's just a name.

Answer 3

Names with double leading underscores are reserved for use by the implementation. This does not necessarily mean they are internal per se, although they often are.

The idea is, you're not allowed to to use any names starting with __, so the implementation is free to use them in places like macro expansions, or in the names of syntax extensions (e.g. __gcnew is not part of C++, but Microsoft can add it to C++/CLI confident that no existing code should have something like int __gcnew; in it that would stop compiling).

To find out what these specific extensions mean, i.e. __const you'll need to consult the documentation for your specific compiler/platform. In this particular case, you should probably consider the prototype in the documentation (e.g. http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/online/pages/man3/ether%5Faton.3.html) to be the function's interface and ignore the __const and __THROW decorations that appear in the actual header.

Answer 4

In C, symbols starting with an underscore followed by either an upper-case letter or another underscore are reserved for the implementation. You as a user of C should not create any symbols that start with the reserved sequences. In C++, the restriction is more stringent; you the user may not create a symbol containing a double-underscore.

Given:

extern int ether_hostton (__const char *__hostname, struct ether_addr *__addr)
__THROW;

The __const notation is there to allow for the possibility (somewhat unlikely) that a compiler that this code is used with supports prototype notations but does not have a correct understanding of the C89 standard keyword const. The autoconf macros can still check whether the compiler has working support for const; this code could be used with a broken compiler that does not have that support.

The use of __hostname and __addr is a protection measure for you, the user of the header. If you compile with GCC and the -Wshadow option, the compiler will warn you when any local variables shadow a global variable. If the function used just hostname instead of __hostname, and if you had a function called hostname(), there'd be a shadowing. By using names reserved to the implementation, there is no conflict with your legitimate code.

The use of __THROW means that the code can, under some circumstances, be declared with some sort of 'throw specification'. This is not standard C; it is more like C++. But the code can be used with a C compiler as long as one of the headers (or the compiler itself) defines __THROW to empty, or to some compiler-specific extension of the standard C syntax.

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Section 7.1.3 of the C standard (ISO 9899:1999) says:

7.1.3 Reserved identifiers

Each header declares or defines all identifiers listed in its associated subclause, and optionally declares or defines identifiers listed in its associated future library directions subclause and identifiers which are always reserved either for any use or for use as file scope identifiers.

— All identifiers that begin with an underscore and either an uppercase letter or another underscore are always reserved for any use.

— All identifiers that begin with an underscore are always reserved for use as identifiers with file scope in both the ordinary and tag name spaces.

— Each macro name in any of the following subclauses (including the future library directions) is reserved for use as specified if any of its associated headers is included; unless explicitly stated otherwise (see 7.1.4).

— All identifiers with external linkage in any of the following subclauses (including the future library directions) are always reserved for use as identifiers with external linkage.¹⁵⁴⁾

— Each identifier with file scope listed in any of the following subclauses (including the future library directions) is reserved for use as a macro name and as an identifier with file scope in the same name space if any of its associated headers is included.

No other identifiers are reserved. If the program declares or defines an identifier in a context in which it is reserved (other than as allowed by 7.1.4), or defines a reserved identifier as a macro name, the behavior is undefined.

If the program removes (with #undef) any macro definition of an identifier in the first group listed above, the behavior is undefined.

Footnote 154) The list of reserved identifiers with external linkage includes errno, math_errhandling, setjmp, and va_end.

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See also What are the rules about using an underscore in a C++ identifier; a lot of the same rules apply to both C and C++, though the embedded double-underscore rule is in C++ only, as mentioned at the top of this answer.