What are the valid signatures for C's main() function?

Question

What really are the valid signatures for main function in C? I know:

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

Are there other valid ones?

Answer 1

The current standard explicitly mentions these two:

int main(void);
int main(int argc, char* argv[]);

but also provides for more (implementation-defined) possibilities.

The relevant section (5.1.2.2.1 in the n1362 draft of c1x, which is what I work from but this particular aspect is unchanged from C99) states:

The function called at program startup is named main. The implementation declares no prototype for this function. It shall be defined with a return type of int and with no parameters:

int main(void) { /* ... */ }

or with two parameters (referred to here as argc and argv, though any names may be used, as they are local to the function in which they are declared):

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { /* ... */ }

or equivalent; or in some other implementation-defined manner.

If they are declared, the parameters to the main function shall obey the following constraints:

• The value of argc shall be nonnegative.

• argv[argc] shall be a null pointer.

• If the value of argc is greater than zero, the array members argv[0] through argv[argc-1] inclusive shall contain pointers to strings, which are given implementation-defined values by the host environment prior to program startup. The intent is to supply to the program information determined prior to program startup from elsewhere in the hosted environment. If the host environment is not capable of supplying strings with letters in both uppercase and lowercase, the implementation shall ensure that the strings are received in lowercase.

• If the value of argc is greater than zero, the string pointed to by argv[0] represents the program name; argv[0][0] shall be the null character if the program name is not available from the host environment. If the value of argc is greater than one, the strings pointed to by argv[1] through argv[argc-1] represent the program parameters.

• The parameters argc and argv and the strings pointed to by the argv array shall be modifiable by the program, and retain their last-stored values between program startup and program termination.

Answer 2

int main(void)

Under some OS (for example, Windows) also such is valid:

int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp)

where envp gives an environment, otherwise accessible through getenv()

Answer 3

POSIX supports execve(), which in turn supports

int main(int argc, char *argv[], char *envp[])

The added argument is the environment, i.e. an array of strings of the form NAME=VALUE.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_function_(programming)#C_and_C.2B.2B

Besides the usual int main(int argc, char *argv[]) and the POSIX int main(int argc, char **argv, char **envp), on Mac OS X also supports

int main(int argc, char* argv[], char* envp[], char* apple[]);

Of course it's Mac-only.

On Windows there's

int wmain(int argc, wchar_t* argv[], wchar_t* envp[]);

as the Unicode (actually, wide-character) variant. Of course there is WinMain too.

Answer 5

What about void main() and void main(int argc, char *argv[])? I know it's not kosher, bug gcc accepts them with just a warning.