CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c
user1054965
user1054965

Reputation: 41

Syntax error for time_t st_mtime line?

Why does this program produce a syntax error when built in Ubuntu?

#include "stdio.h"  
#include "stdlib.h"     
#include "string.h"    
#include "time.h"  
#include "sys/types.h"  
#include "sys/stat.h"

int main()
{
    time_t st_mtime;  
    printf("Hello\n");  
    return 0;  
}

Here's what I get when I try to build this:

$ gcc -o test1 test1.c  
test1.c: In function ?main?:
test1.c:10: error: expected ?=?, ?,?, ?;?, ?asm? or ?__attribute__? before ?.? token  
test1.c:10: error: expected expression before ?.? token

Inspecting the preprocessor output: 

$  gcc -E test1.c > test1.d

Shows line 10 as:

time_t st_mtim.tv_sec;

The error occurs only if I include both "sys/stat.h" & "time.h" files.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 1118

Answers (1)

Dan Fego
Dan Fego

Reputation: 13994

If you grep /usr/include for st_mtime, you'll find the following:

$ grep -r st_mtime /usr/include | grep define
/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/bits/stat.h:# define st_mtime st_mtim.tv_sec

So the problem stems from your use of the variable name st_mtime.

Upvotes: 5

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