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(libc.info)Calling Variadics

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Calling Variadic Functions
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   You don't have to do anything special to call a variadic function.
Just put the arguments (required arguments, followed by optional ones)
inside parentheses, separated by commas, as usual.  But you must declare
the function with a prototype and know how the argument values are
converted.

   In principle, functions that are _defined_ to be variadic must also
be _declared_ to be variadic using a function prototype whenever you
call them.  (Note: Variadic Prototypes, for how.)  This is because
some C compilers use a different calling convention to pass the same set
of argument values to a function depending on whether that function
takes variable arguments or fixed arguments.

   In practice, the GNU C compiler always passes a given set of argument
types in the same way regardless of whether they are optional or
required.  So, as long as the argument types are self-promoting, you can
safely omit declaring them.  Usually it is a good idea to declare the
argument types for variadic functions, and indeed for all functions.
But there are a few functions which it is extremely convenient not to
have to declare as variadic--for example, `open' and `printf'.

   Since the prototype doesn't specify types for optional arguments, in
a call to a variadic function the "default argument promotions" are
performed on the optional argument values.  This means the objects of
type `char' or `short int' (whether signed or not) are promoted to
either `int' or `unsigned int', as appropriate; and that objects of
type `float' are promoted to type `double'.  So, if the caller passes a
`char' as an optional argument, it is promoted to an `int', and the
function can access it with `va_arg (AP, int)'.

   Conversion of the required arguments is controlled by the function
prototype in the usual way: the argument expression is converted to the
declared argument type as if it were being assigned to a variable of
that type.