Order of Object Initialization Across Translation Units

SUMMARY

The order of initialization of global objects is undefined across translation units. For example, if your application consists of three C++ modules and each module declares an object of xyz class, there is no guarantee during program initialization which of these objects will be constructed first.

In addition to not relying on the order of initialization, you should not use one object's address in another object's initialization when the two objects are contained in different translation units.

AT&T 2.1 does not define the order of initialization for global objects across translation units. The order of initialization is implementation-dependent.