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Comment: Updated reference from C11->C23.

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  • No linkage: If an identifier has no linkage, then any further declaration using the identifier declares something new, such as a new variable or a new type.

According to the to the C Standard, 6.2.2 paragraph 3 [ISO/IEC 9899:20112024], linkage is determined as follows:

If the declaration of a file scope identifier for:
    - an object contains any of the storage-class specifiers static
 or contexpr;

    - or, a function contains the storage-class specifier static,

 then the identifier has internal linkage.

For an identifier declared with the storage-class specifier extern in a scope in which a prior declaration of that identifier is visible, if the prior declaration specifies internal or external linkage, the linkage of the identifier at the later declaration is the same as the linkage specified at the prior declaration. If no prior declaration is visible, or if the prior declaration specifies no linkage, then the identifier has external linkage.

If the declaration of an identifier for a function has no storage-class specifier, its linkage is determined exactly as if it were declared with the storage-class specifier extern. If the declaration of an identifier for an object has file scope and no does not contain the storage-class specifier static or contexpr, its its linkage is external.

The following identifiers have no linkage: an identifier declared to be anything other than an object or a function; an identifier declared to be a function parameter; a block scope identifier for an object declared without the storage-class specifier extern.


Use of an identifier (within one translation unit) classified as both internally and externally linked is undefined behavior. (See also undefined behavior 8.) A translation unit includes the source file together with its headers and all source files included via the preprocessing directive #include.

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