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According to the C Standard, 76.4.2.1 .3 paragraph 7 [ISO/IEC 9899:20112024],

Some identifiers are reserved.

    —  All All identifiers that begin with an underscore and either a double underscore (__) or begin with an underscore (_) followed by an uppercase letter or another underscore are always reserved for any use, except those identifiers which are lexically identical to keywords.

All     —  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.

All identifiers with external linkage (including future library directions) and errno are always reserved for use as identifiers with external linkage.

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.

Additionally, subclause 7.31 defines many other reserved identifiers for future library directions.

No other identifiers are reserved. (Note that the POSIX standard extends the set of identifiers reserved by the C Standard to include an open-ended set of its own. See Portable Operating System Interface [POSIX^®], Base Specifications, Issue 7, Section 2.2, "The Compilation Environment" [IEEE Std 1003.1-2013].) The behavior of a program that declares or defines an identifier in a context in which it is reserved or that defines a reserved identifier as a macro name is undefined (see undefined behavior 106).

Noncompliant Code Example (Header Guard)

A common, but noncompliant, practice is to choose a reserved name for a macro used in a preprocessor conditional guarding against multiple inclusions of a header file. (See also PRE06-C. Enclose header files in an inclusion guard.) The name may clash with reserved names defined by the implementation of the C standard library in its headers or with reserved names implicitly predefined by the compiler even when no C standard library header is included.

Other identifiers may be reserved, see 7.1.3.

C Standard, 7.1.3 paragraph 1 [ISO/IEC 9899:2024],

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 potentially reserved identifiers (including ones listed in the future library directions) that are provided by an implementation with an external definition are reserved for any use. An implementation shall not provide an external definition of a potentially reserved identifier unless that identifier is reserved for a use where it would have external linkage. All other potentially reserved identifiers that are provided by an implementation (including in the form of a macro) are reserved for any use when the associated header is included. No other potentially reserved identifiers are reserved.

    — 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) and errno are always reserved for use as identifiers with external linkage.

    — 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.

Additionally, subclause 7.33 defines many other reserved identifiers for future library directions.

No other identifiers are reserved. (The POSIX standard extends the set of identifiers reserved by the C Standard to include an open-ended set of its own. See Portable Operating System Interface [POSIX^®], Base Specifications, Issue 7, Section 2.2, "The Compilation Environment" [IEEE Std 1003.1-2013].) The behavior of a program that declares or defines an identifier in a context in which it is reserved or that defines a reserved identifier as a macro name is undefined. (See undefined behavior 106.)

Noncompliant Code Example (Include Guard)

A common, but noncompliant, practice is to choose a reserved name for a macro used in a preprocessor conditional guarding against multiple inclusions of a header file. (See also PRE06-C. Enclose header files in an include guard.) The name may clash with reserved names defined by the implementation of the C standard library in its headers or with reserved names implicitly predefined by the compiler even when no C standard library header is included.

#ifndef _MY_HEADER_H_

#ifndef _MY_HEADER_H_
#define _MY_HEADER_H_

/* Contents of <my_header.h> */

#endif /* _MY_HEADER_H_ */

Compliant Solution (

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Include Guard)

This compliant solution avoids using leading underscores in the macro name of the header include guard:

#ifndef MY_HEADER_H
#define MY_HEADER_H

/* Contents of <my_header.h> */

#endif /* MY_HEADER_H */

...

In this noncompliant code example, because the C standard library header <inttypes.h> is specified to include <stdint.h>, the name SIZE_MAX conflicts with a standard macro of the same name, which is used to denote the upper limit of size_t. In addition, although the name INTFAST16_LIMIT_MAX is not defined by the C standard library, it is a reserved identifier because it begins with the INT prefix and ends with the _MAX suffix. (see See the C Standard, 7.33.3114.10).

#include <inttypes.h>
#include <stdio.h>

static const int_fast16_t INTFAST16_LIMIT_MAX = 12000;

void print_fast16(int_fast16_t val) {
  enum { SIZE_MAX = 80 };
  char buf[SIZE_MAX];
  if (INTFAST16_LIMIT_MAX < val) {
    sprintf(buf, "The value is too large");
  } else {
    snprintf(buf, SIZE_MAX, "The value is %" PRIdFAST16, val);
  }
}

...

Noncompliant Code Example (Identifiers with External Linkage)

...

Identifiers with External Linkage)

This noncompliant example provides definitions for the C standard library functions malloc() and free(). Although this practice is permitted by many traditional implementations of UNIX (for example, the Dmalloc library), it is undefined behavior according to the C Standard. Even on systems that allow replacing malloc(), doing so without also replacing aligned_alloc(), calloc(), and realloc() is likely to cause problems.

...

Noncompliant Code Example (errno))

In addition to symbols defined as functions in each C standard library header, identifiers with external linkage include errno and math_errhandling.  According to the C Standard, 7.5, paragraph 2 [ISO/IEC 9899:2011], the behavior of a program is undefined when

a macro A macro definition of errno is suppressed in order to access an actual object, or the program defines an identifier with the name errno. 

...

/*
  The following declarations of reserved identifiers exist in the glibc implementation of
  <stdio.h>. The original source code may be found at:
  https://sourceware.org/git/?p=glibc.git;a=blob_plain;f=include/stdio.h;hb=HEAD
*/
 
#  define __need_size_t
# 
#  define __need_size_t
#  include <stddef.h>
/* Generate a unique file name (and possibly open it).  */
extern int __path_search (char *__tmpl, size_t __tmpl_len,
			  const char *__dir, const char *__pfx,
			  int __try_tempdir);

Risk Assessment

Using reserved identifiers can lead to incorrect program operation.

Automated Detection

 include <stddef.h>
/* Generate a unique file name (and possibly open it).  */
extern int __path_search (char *__tmpl, size_t __tmpl_len,
			  const char *__dir, const char *__pfx,
			  int __try_tempdir);

Risk Assessment

Using reserved identifiers can lead to incorrect program operation.

Automated Detection

Related Guidelines

Related Guidelines

Key here (explains table format and definitions)

Bibliography

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