static declaration of ‘main’ follows non-static declaration

[nispe]

Hi,

Im writing a queue based card game using a gcc compiler and Ive begun to get the errors :

war.c: In function ‘war_game’:
war.c:8: warning: ‘main’ is normally a non-static function
war.c:8: error: static declaration of ‘main’ follows non-static declaration
war.h:13: error: previous declaration of ‘main’ was here

where the function main is declared without arguments as below:

int main(void); // on line war.h:13:

and used in war.c as below:

int main(void)
{
...

It seems to me main() isn't declared or used as a static function but the compiler thinks it is.
I would just like some help as to what is causing this if anyone has come across it before.

Thanks,
Sam

[arnaudk]

Don't declare the function main() in your header files or anywhere else! It's a built-in function which represents the entry point of the program, all C/C++ compilers known to mankind already know about main() so use it without declaring it. Have a look at the hello world example for how to make a basic C++ program or google for some other tutorial on C if you prefer that (although I strongly recommend the former).

Arnaud

[nispe]

Thanks for you reply,

Ive removed the main definition from the header and it gets rid of the conflicting definitions but the compiler still thinks that main is static.

war.c: In function ‘war_game’:
war.c:8: warning: ‘main’ is normally a non-static function

It also produces the warning from funtion 'war_game' which is a function called from main and not the otherway round. Im still confused by the nature of this.

[arnaudk]

Remember the function main() is only to be used once, you can not call at leisure. If it's not too big, please post the code you have so far, especially the part containing the implementation of war_game. (Make sure you enclose your code in [CODE=c] ... [/code] brackets for readability).

Arnaud

[nispe]

main() does only runs when the program executes. The war_game() function is about 90 lines of code and compiles without errors relating to itself but causes the "‘main’ is normally a non-static function" warning when it is included. When the war_game function is commented out the code compiles without and errors or warnings (whether main is declared in the header or not).

I now assume the problem is with the war_game function but the compiler doesn't want to give any hints.

[arnaudk]

Try to debug war_game(): to home in on what is causing the error, comment out the entire body of the function then uncomment out more and more functionality until you reproduce the error. The error is then caused by the latest block of code to be uncommented. Make sure all { are matched with an }, include semicolons whenever necessary in particular after function calls but not after function definitions. It's hard to give more specific advice since I have no idea what you wrote. What arguments does war_game() take and what should it return? I think you can post your war_game() code here if it's 90 lines, remove empty lines and abridge comments.

Arnaud

[nispe]

Thank you for you persistance...
Here is my code, its a bit of a mess. All user function calls used work and have been tested by other implementations.

int war_game(stack *player_1,stack *player_2,stack *player_1_won,stack *player_2_won)
{
    int i;
    int war_count = 0;
    int winner_found = false;
    card tmp_array_1[DECK_SIZE/2];
    card tmp_array_2[DECK_SIZE/2];
 
    while((((player_1->count>0)||(player_1_won->count>0))&&((player_2->count>0)||(player_2_won->count>0)))&&(winner_found == false))
    {
        war_count++;
        printf("war count = %d\n", war_count);
        for( i = (war_count-1)*WAR_CARDS; i < (war_count * WAR_CARDS); i++)
        {    
            if((player_1->count > 0)&&(player_1_won->count>0))
            {
                if(player_1->count > 0)
                {
                    tmp_array_1[i] = pop(player_1);
                }
                else
                {
                    swap_stack(player_1, player_1_won);
                    tmp_array_1[i] = pop(player_1);
                }
                }
            if((player_2->count > 0)&&(player_2_won->count>0))
            {
                if(player_2->count > 0)
                {
                    tmp_array_2[i] = pop(player_2);
                }
 
                else
                {
                    swap_stack(player_2, player_2_won);
                    tmp_array_2[i] = pop(player_2);
                }
            }
        }
if(card_compare(tmp_array_1[(WAR_CARDS*war_count)-1],tmp_array_2[(WAR_CARDS*war_count)-1]) == 1)
        {
            for(i = 0; i < (war_count*WAR_CARDS); i++)
            {
                push(tmp_array_1[i], player_1);
                push(tmp_array_2[i], player_1);
            }
            winner_found = true;
        }
        else if(card_compare(tmp_array_1[(WAR_CARDS*war_count)-1],tmp_array_2[(WAR_CARDS*war_count)-1]) == 2)
        {
            for(i = 0; i < (war_count*WAR_CARDS); i++)
            {
                push(tmp_array_1[i], player_2);
                push(tmp_array_2[i], player_2);
            }
            winner_found = true;
        }
    return war_count;
}

Stack is a user defined ADT

Thanks

[nispe]

Bracket matching from the while loop was the problem... Thanks for the 'comment out code to find the error' technique. Worked wonders.