extern declaration inconsistency

[Gary Samad]

I spent hours debugging this--anyone know why it is a problem?
Is it a 'feature' or is it a 'bug'?

in file foo.c:
	char ch[32];
	foo()
	{
	    strcpy(ch,"string");
	    printf("&ch=%x\n",ch);
	}

in file ref.c:
	extern char *ch;
	ref()
	{
	    printf("&ch=%x\n",ch);
	    printf(ch);
	}

in file main.c:
	main()
	{
	    foo();
	    ref();
	}

The program prints:
	&ch=2eb4
	&ch=64abc
	Segmentation fault (core dumped)

(The addresses are aproximately correct)
The compiler didn't resolve the extern char correctly!
Replacing the 'extern char *ch' with 'extern char ch[]' fixes it!

Does anyone know why?
By the way, this is with the 4.1BSD compiler running under Eunice.

		Gary Samad
		decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!gary