The trouble with volatile

The trouble with volatile

You are right. IIRC, it is required for local variables with setjmp(). I forgot the other case. What was it ? (Hmm, I have my C99 standard somewhere here..)

In any case, it doesn't mean that it actually is a good idea. Requiring volatile for setjmp() is a terrible, fragile, ugly hack. It's been some time since I thought about this, but off the top of my head:

This requirement presumes that the compiler doesn't know anything about setjmp()/longjmp(). What if the function invoking setjmp() gets auto-inlined ? Obviously the programmer can't be required to use volatile for all variables in all functions up the call tree. What is to prevent the auto-inlining ?

I don't view the standard as a mantra. After all, it did standardize "atoi" ... There is no excuse for that. There are things in the C99 that strike me as absolutely horrible.