Warning: comparison with string literals results in unspecified behaviour

Question

I am starting a project of writing a simplified shell for linux in C. I am not at all proficient with C nor with Linux that\'s exactly the reason I decided it would be a goo

Answer 1

I ran across this issue today working with a clients program. The program works FINE in VS6.0 using the following: (I've changed it slightly)

//
// This is the one include file that every user-written Nextest programs needs.
// Patcom-generated files will also look for this file.
//
#include "stdio.h"
#define IS_NONE( a_key )   ( ( a_key == "none" || a_key == "N/A" ) ? TRUE : FALSE )

//
// Note in my environment we have output() which is printf which adds /n at the end
//
main {
    char *psNameNone = "none";
    char *psNameNA   = "N/A";
    char *psNameCAT  = "CAT";

    if (IS_NONE(psNameNone) ) {
        output("psNameNone Matches NONE");
        output("%s psNameNoneAddr 0x%x  \"none\" addr 0x%X",
            psNameNone,psNameNone,
            "none");
    } else {
        output("psNameNone Does Not Match None");
        output("%s psNameNoneAddr 0x%x  \"none\" addr 0x%X",
            psNameNone,psNameNone,
            "none");
    }

    if (IS_NONE(psNameNA) ) {
        output("psNameNA Matches N/A");
        output("%s psNameNA 0x%x  \"N/A\" addr 0x%X",
        psNameNA,psNameNA,
        "N/A");
    } else {
        output("psNameNone Does Not Match N/A");
        output("%s psNameNA 0x%x  \"N/A\" addr 0x%X",
        psNameNA,psNameNA,
        "N/A");
    }
    if (IS_NONE(psNameCAT)) {
        output("psNameNA Matches CAT");
        output("%s psNameNA 0x%x  \"CAT\" addr 0x%X",
        psNameNone,psNameNone,
        "CAT");
    } else {
        output("psNameNA does not match CAT");
        output("%s psNameNA 0x%x  \"CAT\" addr 0x%X",
        psNameNone,psNameNone,
        "CAT");
    }
}

If built in VS6.0 with Program Database with Edit and Continue. The compares APPEAR to work. With this setting STRING pooling is enabled, and the compiler optimizes all STRING pointers to POINT TO THE SAME ADDRESSS, so this can work. Any strings created on the fly after compile time will have DIFFERENT addresses so will fail the compare. Changing the setting to Program Database only will build the program so that it will fail.