Sun Studio 12 Update 1: Fortran User's Guide

3.4.7 –C

Check array references for out of range subscripts and conformance at runtime.

Subscripting arrays beyond their declared sizes may result in unexpected results, including segmentation faults. The -C option checks for possible array subscript violations in the source code and during execution. -C also adds runtime checks for array conformance in array syntax expressions

Specifying -C may make the executable file larger.

If the -C option is used, array subscript violations are treated as an error. If an array subscript range violation is detected in the source code during compilation, it is treated as a compilation error.

If an array subscript violation can only be determined at runtime, the compiler generates range–checking code into the executable program. This may cause an increase in execution time. As a result, it is appropriate to enable full array subscript checking while developing and debugging a program, then recompiling the final production executable without subscript checking.