[net.lang.c] use of

rday (01/03/83)

  A common use of the void type is to use it as a cast for functions
which normally return values, but you wish to ignore:

      strcpy(str1,str2)  will cause lint to respond that strcpy always
                         returns which is ignored, but

 (void) strcpy(str1,str2)  keeps lint happy.

  In either case, normal cc compiling will work correctly.

rday (01/03/83)

 My previous article should say ".. that strcpy always returns a value, ..."
That's what I get for using postnews instead of inews.

rjk (01/06/83)

Not only is void used in casting, it can be used (and IS used in USG 5.0
& System V) as function type declarations.  An example of such would be
the declaration of a function which is called as the second argument to
signal:

	void catchit(){ ++delcnt; }

	main()
	{	.
		.
		signal(SIG_INT, catchit);
		.
		.
						Randy King
						..we13!rjk