Copyright Digital Equipment Corp. All rights reserved.

WEAK_EXTERNAL

 The WEAK_EXTERNAL attribute specifies that a variable or routine
 is  not  critical  to  the linking operation.  To resolve a weak
 reference, the linker searches only  the  named  input  modules.
 You  can  specify  an identifier with this attribute to indicate
 the name by which the  corresponding  object  is  known  to  the
 linker.


 Syntax:


    [WEAK_EXTERNAL]

 or,

    [WEAK_EXTERNAL(identifier)]

 or,

    [WEAK_EXTERNAL('string-literal')]


 The 'identifier' is the name of the  identifier  passed  to  the
 linker.  If you omit the identifier, the name of the variable is
 used.

 The 'string-literal' is the name of the string literal  that  is
 passed to the linker unmodified.

 Compilation units cannot  have  the  EXTERNAL  or  WEAK_EXTERNAL
 attribute.