The Secret Life of C++: Day 3: Initializing Globals

Global variables are tricky in C++, since they can have constructors and destructors.

Simple Global Objects

Lets look at a simple example of initializing a global object: global.cc, global.s, global.listing.

Basically, global constructors and destructors get "registered" and called at program start and shutdown, using the _init and _fini sections of the executable. Precisely how they get there is linker magic. TODO: Figure out linker magic.

Richard Tibbetts

Last modified: Wed Jan 21 17:36:31 EST 2004