Can the arguments of main's signature in C++ have the unsigned and const qualifiers?

Question

The standard explicitly states that main has two valid (i.e., guaranteed to work) signatures; namely:

int main();
int main(int, char*[]);

My question is simple, would something like the following be legal?

int main(const unsigned int, const char* const* argv);

My tests say 'yes', but I'm unsure of the answer because am I not overloading main by changing int to unsigned int as well as the non top-level const-ness of argv? If I am, then that's clearly prohibited.

So, are these modifications guaranteed to work on a standards conforming compiler?

Answer 1

The C++98 standard says in section 3.6.1 paragraph 2

An implementation shall not predefine the main function. This function shall not be overloaded. It shall have a return type of type int, but otherwise its type is implementation-defined. All implementations shall allow both the following definitions of main: int main() and int main(int argc, char* argv[])

So it's not mandated by the standard that the env accepting main is acceptable but it is permissible.

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Because this is referred to often, here is the previous paragraph exempting freestanding environments from anything but documenting their behavior:

A program shall contain a global function called main, which is the designated start of the program. It is implementation defined whether a program in a freestanding environment is required to define a main function. [Note: in a freestanding environment, startup and termination is implementation defined; startup contains the execution of constructors for objects of namespace scope with static storage duration; termination contains the execution of destructors for objects with static storage duration. ]