## page was renamed from TCPL/A.12.4 File Inclusion

=== A.12.4 File Inclusion ===

A control line of the form

  # include <filename>

causes the replacement of that line by the entire contents of the file filename. The characters in the name filename must not include > or newline, and the effect is undefined if it contains any of ", ', \, or /*. The named file is searched for in a sequence of implementation-defined places.

Similarly, a control line of the form

  # include "filename"

searches first in association with the original source file (a deliberately implementation-dependent phrase), and if that search fails, then as in the first form. The effect of using ', \, or /* in the filename remains undefined, but > is permitted.

Finally, a directive of the form

  # include token-sequence

not matching one of the previous forms is interpreted by expanding the token sequence as for normal text; one of the two forms with <...> or "..." must result, and is then treated as previously described.

#include files may be nested.