8.6.7 Including Source Text

Additional source text may be included in the processing of the source file via the INCLUDE directive:

     INCLUDE filename

The source text to be included is identified by filename, which is a literal GNU Fortran character constant. The meaning and interpretation of filename depends on the implementation, but typically is a filename.

(g77 treats it as a filename that it searches for in the current directory and/or directories specified via the -I command-line option.)

The effect of the INCLUDE directive is as if the included text directly replaced the directive in the source file prior to interpretation of the program. Included text may itself use INCLUDE. The depth of nested INCLUDE references depends on the implementation, but typically is a positive integer.

This virtual replacement treats the statements and INCLUDE directives in the included text as syntactically distinct from those in the including text.

Therefore, the first non-comment line of the included text must not be a continuation line. The included text must therefore have, after the non-comment lines, either an initial line (statement), an INCLUDE directive, or nothing (the end of the included text).

Similarly, the including text may end the INCLUDE directive with a semicolon or the end of the line, but it cannot follow an INCLUDE directive at the end of its line with a continuation line. Thus, the last statement in an included text may not be continued.

Any statements between two INCLUDE directives on the same line are treated as if they appeared in between the respective included texts. For example:

     INCLUDE 'A'; PRINT *, 'B'; INCLUDE 'C'; END PROGRAM

If the text included by `INCLUDE 'A'' constitutes a `PRINT *, 'A'' statement and the text included by `INCLUDE 'C'' constitutes a `PRINT *, 'C'' statement, then the output of the above sample program would be

     A
     B
     C

(with suitable allowances for how an implementation defines its handling of output).

Included text must not include itself directly or indirectly, regardless of whether the filename used to reference the text is the same.

Note that INCLUDE is not a statement. As such, it is neither a non-executable or executable statement. However, if the text it includes constitutes one or more executable statements, then the placement of INCLUDE is subject to effectively the same restrictions as those on executable statements.

An INCLUDE directive may be continued across multiple lines as if it were a statement. This permits long names to be used for filename.