can I use extern "C" { headerfile of c } - c++

Question

Instead of writing each function in " extern "C" {} ", can I write entire header file inside that block.
extern "C"
{
#include "myCfile.h"
}
I have tried this but Its not working at all, why it is not working ?
if we have to use 100 C functions in a c++ project, do we need provide all the functions in a
extern block, is there any other simple way ?
Ex:
extern "C"
{
void fun1();
void fun2();
void fun3();
void fun4();
void fun5();
.
.
.
.
fun100();
}
Is there any other simple way, like extern "C" { myCfunctions.h } ???

Answer 1

#include simply includes the specified header at the location of the #include. Whether it's valid depends on what "myCfile.h" contains. In particular, including any standard library headers in such a context is not valid, and may well break on commonly used implementations.
The usual way to handle this is to make the header itself safe to use from C++. A C-only header might contain
#ifndef H_MYCFILE
#define H_MYCFILE
#include <stddef.h>
void mycfunc1(void);
void mycfunc2(int i);
void mycfunc3(size_t s);
#endif
Adapting this to make it safe to use from C++:
#ifndef H_MYCFILE
#define H_MYCFILE
#include <stddef.h>
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
void mycfunc1(void);
void mycfunc2(int i);
void mycfunc3(size_t s);
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
#endif
With such a header, you wouldn't be able to safely put the entire header in an extern "C" block. However, that header itself can make sure not to put #include <stddef.h> in an extern "C" block, but still to put all function declarations in a single extern "C" block, avoiding having to repeat it for each one.

Answer 2

You are doing something wrong.
Because
extern "C" { myCfunctions.h }
should work. See below sample program.
Lets go by example code.
ctest1.c
#include<stdio.h>
void ctest1(int *i)
{
printf("This is from ctest1\n"); // output of this is missing
*i=15;
return;
}
ctest2.c
#include<stdio.h>
void ctest2(int *i)
{
printf("This is from ctest2\n"); // output of this is missing
*i=100;
return;
}
ctest.h
void ctest1(int *);
void ctest2(int *);
Now lets make c library from that
gcc -Wall -c ctest1.c ctest2.c
ar -cvq libctest.a ctest1.o ctest2.o
Now lets make cpp based file which will use this c apis
prog.cpp
#include <iostream>
extern "C" {
#include"ctest.h"
}
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int x;
ctest1(&x);
std::cout << "Value is" << x;
ctest2(&x);
std::cout << "Value is" << x;
}
Now lets compile this c++ program with C library
g++ prog.cpp libctest.a
Output is :
Value is15Value is100