__extension__ union { double d; int i[2]; } u = { d: -0.25 }; /* This assumes the endianness of words in a long long is the same as that for doubles, which doesn't hold for a few platforms, but we can probably special case them here, as appropriate. */ long long endianness_test = 1; #define MSW (*(int*)&endianness_test) int signbit(double x) { __extension__ union { double d; int i[2]; } u = { d: x }; return u.i[MSW] < 0; } int main(void) { if (2*sizeof(int) != sizeof(double) || u.i[MSW] >= 0) exit(0); if (!signbit(-0.25)) abort(); exit(0); }