shared global variables in C

Question

How can I create global variables that are shared in C? If I put it in a header file, then the linker complains that the variables are already defined. Is the only way to declare the variable in one of my C files and to manually put in externs at the top of all the other C files that want to use it? That sounds not ideal.

Answer 1

In one header file (shared.h):

extern int this_is_global;

In every file that you want to use this global symbol, include header containing the extern declaration:

#include "shared.h"

To avoid multiple linker definitions, just one declaration of your global symbol must be present across your compilation units (e.g: shared.cpp) :

/* shared.cpp */
#include "shared.h"
int this_is_global;