I have a TU whose global functions won't be used by any other TUs. I read that declaring them as static gives them internal linkage, and this is good from an optimization standpoint. But I want to know what are the correct situations in which I should use them. Should I always give global functions/variables internal linkage when I know they won't be used anywhere else in the program?
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template boy
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"and this is good from an optimization standpoint" no. – Cheers and hth. - Alf Sep 30 '14 at 22:14
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It's possible that your choice of what to do here will affect compile times, but it will be transparent at run time. – iwolf Sep 30 '14 at 22:16
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@Cheersandhth.-Alf It doesn't help the compiler optimize? – template boy Sep 30 '14 at 22:28
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1If they are not `static` and not in an unnamed namespace, then you risk a name clash with another TU doing the same thing, which will silently cause undefined behaviour. – M.M Sep 30 '14 at 23:05
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Put them in an unnamed namespace instead.
This is the idiomatic solution in C++ for functions that will be used only in the current TU.
