 <p>Logically, that copy/paste is exactly what happens. I'm afraid there isn't any more to it. You don't need the <code>;</code>, though.</p> <p>Your specific example is covered by the spec, section <strong>6.10.2 Source file inclusion</strong>, paragraph 3:</p> <blockquote> <p>A preprocessing directive of the form</p> <p><strong><code># include</code></strong> <code>"</code><em>q-char-sequence</em><code>"</code> <em>new-line</em></p> <p>causes the replacement of that directive by the entire contents of the source file identified by the specified sequence between the <code>"</code> delimiters.</p> </blockquote>