static list initialization

[ajw]

Here's a fragment of code I find myself staring at glumly from
time to time.  It sets up the nucleus of a 2-way list, into
which extra malloc'd nodes will be inserted.

    struct whatever {
        struct whatever *next;            /* next node */
        struct whatever *prev;            /* previous node */
        int    eresting_stuff;            /* blah, blah, ... */
    };
    extern struct whatever tail;
    static struct whatever head = { &tail, (struct whatever *)0 };
    static struct whatever tail = { (struct whatever *)0, &head };

Without the 'extern', the compiler can't initialize 'head'.  But
with it, I get a 'non-standard extension' warning, although
everything works just fine.

Question is, is there a way to achieve this initialization within
the letter of the law, leaving 'head' and 'tail' both static?

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