A program shall contain a global function named main, which is the designated start of the program.
int main () { body } | (1) | |
int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { body } | (2) | |
int main (int argc, char *argv[] , other_parameters ) { body } | (3) |
| argc | - | Non-negative value representing the number of arguments passed to the program from the environment in which the program is run. |
| argv | - | Pointer to the first element of an array of pointers to null-terminated multibyte strings that represent the arguments passed to the program from the execution environment (argv[0] through argv[argc-1]). The value of argv[argc] is guaranteed to be 0. |
| body | - | The body of the main function |
| other_parameters | - | Implementations may allow additional forms of the main function as long as the return type remains int. A very common extension is passing a third argument of type char*[] pointing at an array of pointers to the execution environment variables. |
The names argc and argv are arbitrary, as well as the representation of the types of the parameters: int main(int ac, char** av) is equally valid.
Explanation
The main function is called at program startup after initialization of the non-local objects with static storage duration. It is the designated entry point to a program that is executed in hosted environment (that is, with an operating system). The entry points to freestanding programs (boot loaders, OS kernels, etc) are implementation-defined.
The parameters of the two-parameter form of the main function allow arbitrary multibyte character strings to be passed from the execution environment (these are typically known as command line arguments), the pointers argv[1] .. argv[argc-1] point at the first characters in each of these strings. argv[0] is the pointer to the initial character of a null-terminated multibyte strings that represents the name used to invoke the program itself (or an empty string "" if this is not supported by the execution environment). The strings are modifiable, although these modifications do not propagate back to the execution environment: they can be used, for example, with std::strtok. The size of the array pointed to by argv is at least argc+1, and the last element, argv[argc], is guaranteed to be a null pointer.
The main function has several special properties:
main in the global namespace is reserved for functions (although it can be used to name classes, namespaces, enumerations, and any entity in a non-global namespace, except that a function called "main" cannot be declared with C language linkage in any namespace (since C++17))main without encountering a return statement, the effect is that of executing return 0;.std::exit with the same argument as the argument of the return. (std::exit then destroys static objects and terminates the program)std::exit) are not caught by it.auto main() {... is not allowed)See also
C documentation for main function |
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