GNU Info

(g77-295.info)Procedures

---

Next: Functions Prev: Main Program Unit Up: Debugging and Interfacing

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Procedures (SUBROUTINE and FUNCTION)
====================================

   Currently, `g77' passes arguments via reference--specifically, by
passing a pointer to the location in memory of a variable, array, array
element, a temporary location that holds the result of evaluating an
expression, or a temporary or permanent location that holds the value
of a constant.

   Procedures that accept `CHARACTER' arguments are implemented by
`g77' so that each `CHARACTER' argument has two actual arguments.

   The first argument occupies the expected position in the argument
list and has the user-specified name.  This argument is a pointer to an
array of characters, passed by the caller.

   The second argument is appended to the end of the user-specified
calling sequence and is named `__g77_length_X', where X is the
user-specified name.  This argument is of the C type `ftnlen' (see
`egcs/libf2c/g2c.h.in' for information on that type) and is the number
of characters the caller has allocated in the array pointed to by the
first argument.

   A procedure will ignore the length argument if `X' is not declared
`CHARACTER*(*)', because for other declarations, it knows the length.
Not all callers necessarily "know" this, however, which is why they all
pass the extra argument.

   The contents of the `CHARACTER' argument are specified by the
address passed in the first argument (named after it).  The procedure
can read or write these contents as appropriate.

   When more than one `CHARACTER' argument is present in the argument
list, the length arguments are appended in the order the original
arguments appear.  So `CALL FOO('HI','THERE')' is implemented in C as
`foo("hi","there",2,5);', ignoring the fact that `g77' does not provide
the trailing null bytes on the constant strings (`f2c' does provide
them, but they are unnecessary in a Fortran environment, and you should
not expect them to be there).

   Note that the above information applies to `CHARACTER' variables and
arrays *only*.  It does *not* apply to external `CHARACTER' functions
or to intrinsic `CHARACTER' functions.  That is, no second length
argument is passed to `FOO' in this case:

     CHARACTER X
     EXTERNAL X
     CALL FOO(X)

Nor does `FOO' expect such an argument in this case:

     SUBROUTINE FOO(X)
     CHARACTER X
     EXTERNAL X

   Because of this implementation detail, if a program has a bug such
that there is disagreement as to whether an argument is a procedure,
and the type of the argument is `CHARACTER', subtle symptoms might
appear.