Pointer to main function in c

Question

When we make a pointer to the main function and call it is it duplicating the data in the stack memory like in recursive or just point at it and start over.

Answer 1

This is valid C code:

int main(void) {
    main();
}

If you compile and run it, you will notice it will crash with a segmentation fault. You're basically blowing up the stack. This shows it is actually consuming a bit of the stack on each nested call.

---

As a further example:

Like any recursive function, you need to have a mechanism that guarantees a recursion limit within the range of what your environment allows you to use.

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    if (argc > 1) {
        main(--argc, ++argv);
        printf("%s\n", *argv);
    }
}

This will print all command line arguments in reverse order.