why a "char*" can point to a "const char*"?

Question

the following code can be compiled correctly on both VC or gcc:

char *str = "I am a const!";
str[2] = 'n';

however, obviously there is a run-time-error. Since "I am a const!" is a const char*, why the compiler doesn't give an error or even a warning ??

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Besides, if I define char a[] = "I am const!", all the elements in a can be modified, why this time the string literals become nonconst ?

Answer 1

As far as C is concerned, that string literal is not const, it's a char[14] which you assign to a char*, which is perfectly fine.

However, C does say that changing a string literal is undefined behavior.