Linux command line gcc

Mastering Linux C Compiler Command Line: A Step-by-Step Guide

Learn how to compile and run C programs on Linux using the command line with the gcc compiler. Follow our step-by-step guide and become a Linux C programming expert.

• Setting Up the Environment
• Writing a C Program
• How to Compile and Run C program Using GCC on Ubuntu (Linux)
• Compiling the C Program
• Using Make to Compile Programs
• Debugging C Programs
• Other quick examples of code for Linux C compiler command line
• Conclusion
• How to compile C in Linux terminal?
• How to compile C in terminal?
• Does Linux have C compiler?
• Can you use C in Linux terminal?

Linux is one of the most popular operating systems, especially among developers and software engineers. One of the reasons for its popularity is the ability to use the command line interface to perform various tasks. In this article, we will discuss how to write and compile a C program in Linux using the command line. We will focus on the gcc compiler, which is the most widely used compiler for C programs in Linux. By the end of this article, you will have a clear understanding of the basic commands and techniques required to compile and run a C program in Linux using the command line.

Setting Up the Environment

Before we start writing and compiling our C program, we need to set up our environment. We will need to install the gcc compiler, which is the most widely used compiler for C programs in Linux. We will also need a text editor to write and edit our C code. Vim is a popular editor that we will use in this article.

Install gcc compiler

To install the gcc compiler, open the terminal and type the following command:

This command will install the latest version of the gcc compiler on your system.

Install a text editor

After installing the gcc compiler, we need a text editor to write and edit our C code. Vim is a popular editor that can be installed using the following command:

Now that we have installed the necessary tools, we can start writing our C program.

Writing a C Program

The first step in writing a C program is to open the text editor. Open the terminal and type the following command:

This command will open the Vim editor and create a new file called “file.c”. You can replace “file” with any name you want. The “.c” extension is used to indicate that this is a C program file.

Next, we will write our C program code in the Vim editor. Here is an example of a simple “Hello, World!” program:

This program will print the message “Hello, World!” to the console. Once you have written your code, save the file and exit the editor.

How to Compile and Run C program Using GCC on Ubuntu (Linux)

Compiling the C Program

After writing our C program, we need to compile it. Compiling is the process of translating our human-readable code into machine-readable code that the computer can understand and execute. Here are the basic steps to compile and run a C program:

Navigate to the directory

Use the “cd” command to navigate to the directory where the C program file is saved. For example:

Compile the code

Use the following command to compile the C program:

This command will compile the “file.c” program and create an executable file called “file”. The “-o” flag is used to specify the name of the output file. You can replace “file” with any name you want.

Run the program

To run the program, use the following command:

This command will execute the “file” program and print the message “Hello, World!” to the console.

Using Make to Compile Programs

As your C programs become more complex, the process of compiling them using the gcc command can become tedious and error-prone. Make is a utility that can be used to automate the process of compiling and linking C programs. Here are the steps to use Make to compile our C program:

Install make

Make can be installed using the following command:

Create a Makefile

Create a Makefile in the directory where the C program is saved. Here is an example Makefile for our “Hello, World!” program:

CC=gcc CFLAGS=-Wallall: filefile: file.o $(CC) $(CFLAGS) file.o -o filefile.o: file.c $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c file.cclean: rm -rf *.o file 

This Makefile defines the compilation rules for our program. The “CC” variable specifies the name of the compiler, and the “CFLAGS” variable specifies any additional compiler flags we want to use. The “all” target specifies that we want to compile the “file” program. The “file” target specifies that we want to compile the “file.o” object file and link it to create the “file” executable. The “file.o” target specifies that we want to compile the “file.c” source file into an object file. The “clean” target specifies that we want to remove any generated files. You can replace “file” with any name you want.

Use make

To compile our program using make, use the following command:

This command will compile the “file” program according to the rules specified in the Makefile. To run the program, use the following command:

This command will execute the “file” program and print the message “Hello, World!” to the console.

Debugging C Programs

Debugging is the process of finding and fixing errors and bugs in our code. Here are some techniques we can use to debug our C programs:

Use gdb

Gdb is a debugger that can be used to debug C programs in Linux. To install gdb, use the following command:

Add debug information

To enable debugging information in our C program, we need to add the “-g” flag to the gcc command when compiling our program. For example:

This command will generate debug information for our program, which can be used by gdb to help us find and fix errors.

Use print statements

One of the simplest ways to debug our C programs is to insert print statements in our code. For example, we can add the following line to our “Hello, World!” program:

printf("Debug: The program is about to print \"Hello, World!\"\n"); 

This line will print a debug message to the console before printing the main message. By adding print statements to our code, we can identify the location of errors and bugs.

Other quick examples of code for Linux C compiler command line

In Shell , onlne compiler c linux code example

In Shell case in point, online linux c compiler code example

//Online linux C compiler with working fork https://rextester.com/l/c_online_compiler_gcc

In Shell , for instance, how to run c in linux code sample

gcc hexdump.c -o hexdump //hexdump is an example for a file name

Conclusion

Compiling and running a C program in Linux using the command line can be done by following a few basic steps, including setting up the environment, writing the code, compiling the program, and debugging if necessary. Using the gcc compiler and a text editor like Vim, along with the make utility and gdb debugger, can make the process of C programming in Linux more efficient and manageable. By mastering these tools and techniques, you can become a more proficient and productive C programmer in Linux.

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Linux command line gcc

When you invoke GCC, it normally does preprocessing, compilation, assembly and linking. The “overall options” allow you to stop this process at an intermediate stage. For example, the -c option says not to run the linker. Then the output consists of object files output by the assembler. See Options Controlling the Kind of Output.

Other options are passed on to one or more stages of processing. Some options control the preprocessor and others the compiler itself. Yet other options control the assembler and linker; most of these are not documented here, since you rarely need to use any of them.

Most of the command-line options that you can use with GCC are useful for C programs; when an option is only useful with another language (usually C++), the explanation says so explicitly. If the description for a particular option does not mention a source language, you can use that option with all supported languages.

The usual way to run GCC is to run the executable called gcc , or machine -gcc when cross-compiling, or machine -gcc- version to run a specific version of GCC. When you compile C++ programs, you should invoke GCC as g++ instead. See Compiling C++ Programs, for information about the differences in behavior between gcc and g++ when compiling C++ programs.

The gcc program accepts options and file names as operands. Many options have multi-letter names; therefore multiple single-letter options may not be grouped: -dv is very different from ‘ -d -v ’ .

You can mix options and other arguments. For the most part, the order you use doesn’t matter. Order does matter when you use several options of the same kind; for example, if you specify -L more than once, the directories are searched in the order specified. Also, the placement of the -l option is significant.

Many options have long names starting with ‘ -f ’ or with ‘ -W ’—for example, -fmove-loop-invariants , -Wformat and so on. Most of these have both positive and negative forms; the negative form of -ffoo is -fno-foo . This manual documents only one of these two forms, whichever one is not the default.

Some options take one or more arguments typically separated either by a space or by the equals sign (‘ = ’) from the option name. Unless documented otherwise, an argument can be either numeric or a string. Numeric arguments must typically be small unsigned decimal or hexadecimal integers. Hexadecimal arguments must begin with the ‘ 0x ’ prefix. Arguments to options that specify a size threshold of some sort may be arbitrarily large decimal or hexadecimal integers followed by a byte size suffix designating a multiple of bytes such as kB and KiB for kilobyte and kibibyte, respectively, MB and MiB for megabyte and mebibyte, GB and GiB for gigabyte and gigibyte, and so on. Such arguments are designated by byte-size in the following text. Refer to the NIST, IEC, and other relevant national and international standards for the full listing and explanation of the binary and decimal byte size prefixes.

See Option Index, for an index to GCC’s options.

• Option Summary
• Options Controlling the Kind of Output
• Compiling C++ Programs
• Options Controlling C Dialect
• Options Controlling C++ Dialect
• Options Controlling Objective-C and Objective-C++ Dialects
• Options to Control Diagnostic Messages Formatting
• Options to Request or Suppress Warnings
• Options That Control Static Analysis
• Options for Debugging Your Program
• Options That Control Optimization
• Program Instrumentation Options
• Options Controlling the Preprocessor
• Passing Options to the Assembler
• Options for Linking
• Options for Directory Search
• Options for Code Generation Conventions
• GCC Developer Options
• Machine-Dependent Options
• Specifying Subprocesses and the Switches to Pass to Them
• Environment Variables Affecting GCC
• Using Precompiled Headers
• C++ Modules

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