> Is this a convention that compilers follow, or are intermediate object files required by the C standard? Does the standard say much at all about intermediate

> Is this a convention that compilers follow, or are intermediate object files required by the C standard? Does the standard say much at all about intermediate and final binary code? The standard only says that the implementation must preprocess, translate, and link the several "preprocessing translation units" to create the final program. It doesn't say anything about how the translation units are stored on the system. > This keyword is funny because in a global scope, it reduces the scope of the variable. But in a function scope, it increases the scope of the variable. Not quite: in a global scope, it gives the variable internal linkage, so that other translation units can use the same name to refer to their own variables. In a block scope, it gives the variable static storage duration, but it doesn't give it any linkage. In particular, it doesn't let the program refer to the variable outside its block.