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Q&A What is the purpose of having underscored names and then defining a non-underscored alias to it?

In a C implementation in <stdio.h> on Linux I saw something like: extern FILE *__stdinp; extern FILE *__stdoutp; extern FILE *__stderrp; And then: #define stdin __stdinp #define stdou...

1 answer  ·  posted 6mo ago by 90 98‭  ·  last activity 6mo ago by aghast‭

#2: Post edited by user avatar Alexei‭ · 2023-11-29T10:32:53Z (6 months ago)
added relevant tags
#1: Initial revision by user avatar 90 98‭ · 2023-11-29T04:49:20Z (6 months ago)
What is the purpose of having underscored names and then defining a non-underscored alias to it?
In a C implementation in `<stdio.h>` on Linux I saw something like:
```
extern FILE *__stdinp;
extern FILE *__stdoutp;
extern FILE *__stderrp;
```
And then:
```
#define stdin __stdinp
#define stdout __stdoutp
#define stderr __stderrp
```
My question is, for what reason would an implementation provide the `__name` items and then create aliases to them instead of just providing the canonical name to begin with?
c