From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261804AbULGNIn (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Dec 2004 08:08:43 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261805AbULGNIm (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Dec 2004 08:08:42 -0500 Received: from e5.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.145]:63627 "EHLO e5.ny.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261804AbULGNIl (ORCPT ); Tue, 7 Dec 2004 08:08:41 -0500 Subject: Re: what does __foo means. From: Josh Boyer To: Jan Engelhardt Cc: krishna , Linux Kernel In-Reply-To: References: <41B5A5E1.9010608@globaledgesoft.com> Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1102424919.4118.2.camel@weaponx.rchland.ibm.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.5 (1.4.5-7) Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2004 07:08:39 -0600 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, 2004-12-07 at 06:54, Jan Engelhardt wrote: > >Hi all, > > > > Can anyone tell me does double underscore before a function mean? > > In which scenario a programmer must use it. > > From the POV of a compiler, _ is like [a-z]. The programmer may use it freely. Yes, yes, but I don't think that was the question :). In the kernel a function that begins with __ usually denotes an internal function for that file or subsystem. Not always, but usually. josh