Who needs main() anyway?

Want to inflict terrible things on other programmers who show up later to do maintenance work? Write C++ code that doesn't need a main(). Then write C++ code that doesn't *have* a main(). Yes.

I mentioned this quite a while back, calling it "spooky action at a distance" in code, but looking at that now, it seems like it was a very long and drawn out demonstration.

Instead, tonight, I present a far simpler version. Usual disclaimers apply: may summon Ancient Ones who will haunt your soul. Probably won't work on all systems or compilers. It didn't work for me until I gave it -O2, and even then, it still gives a magnificent segfault.

At any rate, enjoy the evil.

$ cat hhhehehehe.cc
#include <unistd.h>
 
class wat {
 public:
  wat() { write(1, "wat\n", 4); }
};
 
static wat wat_;
 
// no main.  nothing else.
$ g++ -O2 -Wall -nostartfiles -o hhhehehehe hhhehehehe.cc
/usr/bin/ld: warning: cannot find entry symbol _start; [...]
$ ./hhhehehehe 
wat
Segmentation fault
$ 

That's it.