g77.info: Block Data and Libraries

Block Data and Libraries

   To ensure that block data program units are linked, especially a
concern when they are put into libraries, give each one a name (as in
`BLOCK DATA FOO') and make sure there is an `EXTERNAL FOO' statement in
every program unit that uses any common block initialized by the
corresponding `BLOCK DATA'.  `g77' currently compiles a `BLOCK DATA' as
if it were a `SUBROUTINE', that is, it generates an actual procedure
having the appropriate name.  The procedure does nothing but return
immediately if it happens to be called.  For `EXTERNAL FOO', where
`FOO' is not otherwise referenced in the same program unit, `g77'
assumes there exists a `BLOCK DATA FOO' in the program and ensures that
by generating a reference to it so the linker will make sure it is
present.  (Specifically, `g77' outputs in the data section a static
pointer to the external name `FOO'.)

   The implementation `g77' currently uses to make this work is one of
the few things not compatible with `f2c' as currently shipped.  `f2c'
currently does nothing with `EXTERNAL FOO' except issue a warning that
`FOO' is not otherwise referenced, and, for `BLOCK DATA FOO', `f2c'
doesn't generate a dummy procedure with the name `FOO'.  The upshot is
that you shouldn't mix `f2c' and `g77' in this particular case.  If you
use `f2c' to compile `BLOCK DATA FOO', then any `g77'-compiled program
unit that says `EXTERNAL FOO' will result in an unresolved reference
when linked.  If you do the opposite, then `FOO' might not be linked in
under various circumstances (such as when `FOO' is in a library, or
you're using a "clever" linker--so clever, it produces a broken program
with little or no warning by omitting initializations of global data
because they are contained in unreferenced procedures).

   The changes you make to your code to make `g77' handle this
situation, however, appear to be a widely portable way to handle it.
That is, many systems permit it (as they should, since the FORTRAN 77
standard permits `EXTERNAL FOO' when `FOO' is a block data program
unit), and of the ones that might not link `BLOCK DATA FOO' under some
circumstances, most of them appear to do so once `EXTERNAL FOO' is
present in the appropriate program units.

   Here is the recommended approach to modifying a program containing a
program unit such as the following:

     BLOCK DATA FOO
     COMMON /VARS/ X, Y, Z
     DATA X, Y, Z / 3., 4., 5. /
     END

If the above program unit might be placed in a library module, then
ensure that every program unit in every program that references that
particular `COMMON' area uses the `EXTERNAL' statement to force the
area to be initialized.

   For example, change a program unit that starts with

     INTEGER FUNCTION CURX()
     COMMON /VARS/ X, Y, Z
     CURX = X
     END

so that it uses the `EXTERNAL' statement, as in:

     INTEGER FUNCTION CURX()
     COMMON /VARS/ X, Y, Z
     EXTERNAL FOO
     CURX = X
     END

That way, `CURX' is compiled by `g77' (and many other compilers) so
that the linker knows it must include `FOO', the `BLOCK DATA' program
unit that sets the initial values for the variables in `VAR', in the
executable program.