C language standard, draft n1256:
5.1.2.2.1 Program startup
1 The function called at program startup is named
main
. The implementation declares no
prototype for this function. It shall be defined with a return type ofint
and with no
parameters:
int main(void) { /* ... */ }
or with two parameters (referred to here as
argc
andargv
, though any names may be
used, as they are local to the function in which they are declared):
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { /* ... */ }
or equivalent;9) or in some other implementation-defined manner.
Emphasis mine.