Node:Test Functions, Previous:Guidelines, Up:Run Time

Test Functions

Function declarations in test programs should have a prototype conditionalized for C++. In practice, though, test programs rarely need functions that take arguments.

#ifdef __cplusplus
foo (int i)
#else
foo (i) int i;
#endif

Functions that test programs declare should also be conditionalized for C++, which requires extern "C" prototypes. Make sure to not include any header files containing clashing prototypes.

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" void *malloc (size_t);
#else
char *malloc ();
#endif

If a test program calls a function with invalid parameters (just to see whether it exists), organize the program to ensure that it never invokes that function. You can do this by calling it in another function that is never invoked. You can't do it by putting it after a call to exit, because GCC version 2 knows that exit never returns and optimizes out any code that follows it in the same block.

If you include any header files, make sure to call the functions relevant to them with the correct number of arguments, even if they are just 0, to avoid compilation errors due to prototypes. GCC version 2 has internal prototypes for several functions that it automatically inlines; for example, memcpy. To avoid errors when checking for them, either pass them the correct number of arguments or redeclare them with a different return type (such as char).