static initialisation of a char array in a constant struct from C to C++

Question

I have some existing code in C:

extern const struct sockaddr_un addr =
{
    .sun_family = AF_UNIX,
    .sun_path   = "myreallylongpath"
};

Where sun_path is a character array.

This used to compile fine as C in an older version of GCC. I have now converted it to C++ and am using GCC v4.7.2. I keep getting the error:

"C99 designator 'sun_path' outside aggregate intializer"

Is it not possible to do what I am doing in C++, or is the syntax different from the old C?

Answer 1

Designated initializers were introduced in C99, GCC also supports them as an extension in GNU89, but not in C++.

So you need to use the C89 style, which is also supported in C++. Since the struct has only these two fields:

extern const struct sockaddr_un addr =
{
    AF_UNIX,
    "myreallylongpath"
};

Reference: Designated Initializers