Standard C

This document provides all the information you need to read and write programs in the Standard C programming language. It describes all aspects of Standard C that are the same on all implementations that conform to the standard for C. Whenever your goal is to produce code that is as portable as possible, this document tells you what you can count on. And by omission, it lets you know what you cannot count on -- nothing in this document is peculiar to any nonstandard dialect of C.

This document is intended as a comprehensive reference for the Standard C programming language, including its support library. In many ways, this material is best described by what it is not. It is not a history of the development of the language, nor is it a rationale for the current state of the language. Equally, this document is not a tutorial on Standard C, nor is it a lesson on how to write computer programs. It does not describe how to use any particular implementation of Standard C. Consult the documentation that comes with the particular translator (compiler or interpreter) that you are using for specific instructions on translating and executing programs.