Ordinarily, any name at file scope (that is, not nested inside a class or function) is visible throughout all translation units in a program. This is often called external linkage because at link time the name is visible to the linker everywhere, external to that translation unit. Global variables and ordinary functions have external linkage.

There are times when you’d like to limit the visibility of a name. You might like to have a variable at file scope so all the functions in that file can use it, but you don’t want functions outside that file to see or access that variable, or to inadvertently cause name clashes with identifiers outside the file.

An object or function name at file scope that is explicitly declared static is local to its translation unit (in the terms of this book, the cpp file where the declaration occurs). That name has internal linkage. This means that you can use the same name in other translation units without a name clash.

One advantage to internal linkage is that the name can be placed in a header file without worrying that there will be a clash at link time. Names that are commonly placed in header files, such as const definitions and inline functions, default to internal linkage. (However, const defaults to internal linkage only in C++; in C it defaults to external linkage.) Note that linkage refers only to elements that have addresses at link/load time; thus, class declarations and local variables have no linkage.