How do I share variables between different .c files? [duplicate]

Question

In fileA.c:

int myGlobal = 0;

In fileA.h

extern int myGlobal;

In fileB.c:

#include "fileA.h"
myGlobal = 1;

So this is how it works:

• the variable lives in fileA.c
• fileA.h tells the world that it exists, and what its type is (int)
• fileB.c includes fileA.h so that the compiler knows about myGlobal before fileB.c tries to use it.

if the variable is :

int foo;

in the 2nd C file you declare:

extern int foo;

1. Try to avoid globals. If you must use a global, see the other answers.
2. Pass it as an argument to a function.

In 99.9% of all cases it is bad program design to share non-constant, global variables between files. There are very few cases when you actually need to do this: they are so rare that I cannot come up with any valid cases. Declarations of hardware registers perhaps.

In most of the cases, you should either use (possibly inlined) setter/getter functions ("public"), static variables at file scope ("private"), or incomplete type implementations ("private") instead.

In those few rare cases when you need to share a variable between files, do like this:

// file.h
extern int my_var;

// file.c
#include "file.h"
int my_var = something;

// main.c
#include "file.h"
use(my_var);

Never put any form of variable definition in a h-file.