Compiling C files

• Compiling C files with gcc, step by step

Compilation is the translation of source code (the code we write) into object code (sequence of statements in machine language) by a compiler.

The compilation process has four different steps:

• The preprocessing
• The compiling
• The assembling
• The linking

The preprocessor

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gcc -E main.c

The compiler

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gcc -S main.c

The assembler

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gcc -c main.c

The linker

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gcc main.c
./a.out

or

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gcc main.c -o my_program
./my_program