Storage class specifiers

The storage class specifiers are a part of the decl-specifier-seq of a name’s declaration syntax. Together with the scope of the name, they control two independent properties of the name: its storage duration and its linkage.

# Notes

Names at the top-level namespace scope (file scope in C) that are const and not extern have external linkage in C, but internal linkage in C++.

Since C++11, auto is no longer a storage class specifier; it is used to indicate type deduction.

In C, the address of a register variable cannot be taken, but in C++, a variable declared register is semantically indistinguishable from a variable declared without any storage class specifiers.

In C++, unlike C, variables cannot be declared register.

Names of thread_local variables with internal or external linkage referred from different scopes may refer to the same or to different instances depending on whether the code is executing in the same or in different threads.

The extern keyword can also be used to specify language linkage and explicit template instantiation declarations, but it’s not a storage class specifier in those cases (except when a declaration is directly contained in a language linkage specification, in which case the declaration is treated as if it contains the extern specifier).

Storage class specifiers, except for thread_local, are not allowed on explicit specializations and explicit instantiations:

A const (may be implied by constexpr) variable template used to have internal linkage by default, which was inconsistent with other templated entities. Defect report CWG2387 corrected this.

# Example

#include <iostream>
#include <mutex>
#include <string>
#include <thread>
 
thread_local unsigned int rage = 1;
std::mutex cout_mutex;
 
void increase_rage(const std::string& thread_name)
{
    ++rage; // modifying outside a lock is okay; this is a thread-local variable
    std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(cout_mutex);
    std::cout << "Rage counter for " << thread_name << ": " << rage << '\n';
}
 
int main()
{
    std::thread a(increase_rage, "a"), b(increase_rage, "b");
 
    {
        std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(cout_mutex);
        std::cout << "Rage counter for main: " << rage << '\n';
    }
 
    a.join();
    b.join();
}

# Defect reports

# See also

• C documentation