Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request From: mjk@puffed.rice.edu (Mark J. Kilgard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Alloca Implementation Keywords: Miscellaneous Message-ID: <1634@brazos.Rice.edu> Date: 24 Sep 89 00:43:05 GMT Sender: root@rice.edu Organization: Sun-Spots Lines: 21 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 131, message 7 of 11 The header for alloca, ie. /usr/lib/alloca.h reads as follows: /* @(#)alloca.h 1.3 88/02/07 SMI */ #if defined(sparc) # define alloca(x) __builtin_alloca(x) #endif Why? It seems very strange to me that alloca is implemented this way. Is Sun just trying to be annoying, or is there a purpose. alloca is in libc.a on a Sun3. In libc.a, alloca is no where to be found. But __builtin_alloca is. I had thought maybe alloca was implemented inline on a Sparc and maybe this was a some kind of justification but that doesn't seem to be the case. Mark Kilgard Rice University