Unused Static Stack Varibles

Hey /prog/,

In C, are variables located in the stack recycled/freed when they are no longer needed? I suppose that this depends on the compiler, but does anyone know if GCC does this?

To be a little clearer, let's say I have these two translation units...

main.c/.h
settings.c/.h

main() calls the function get_settings() (located in settings.c) which will fill the variables (located in main.c) with data read from a file and then returns.

Since there is no longer any purpose for the staic variables declared in settings.c, are they freed once get_settings() returns?

>>13
Is this even related to this thread or is it just your way of saying "I haven't read SICP"? Registers have no fucking relation to the discussion.

Considering the question is about “freeing variables”, it's pretty fucking related that variables are likely not to exist anywhere that could even be freed.