gcc-20001027: Funny business with types on return

[Joseph S. Myers]

On Sat, 28 Oct 2000, Horst von Brand wrote:

> The following gets the bogus warning:
>
> /tmp/tst.c:7: warning: return from incompatible pointer type
>
> struct {
>    char name[8];
> } a;
>
> char *f()
> {
>      return &a.name;
> }

Not a bug.  a.name has type "array of char"; as the operand of & it does
not decay to a pointer, so &a.name has type "pointer to array of char".
This type isn't compatible with "pointer to char" according to the rules
for function returns and assignments in 6.5.16.1 (C99), hence the warning,
which is given by all of 2.7.2.3, 2.95.2 and current CVS.  You want
"return a.name;"; there, a.name will decay to type "pointer to char".

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
jsm28@cam.ac.uk