Here i provide simple command line options which can prove to be quite useful.
- The simplest way to use GCC to compile a C source file is
$ gcc -o test test1.c test2.c
gcc is the C compiler, test1.c and test2.c are the input C source files and -o lets us specify the name of the output file. Here it is "test". Without the -o option, "a.out" is the default executable that gets created. - The preprocessor:
$ gcc -E test.c > test.out
This option, ensures the compilation process stops after the pre-processor has run. This helps us in figuring out issues/problems in macros. - The Compiler:
$ gcc -c test.c -o test.o
This option ensures the compilation process completes but doesn't invoke the linker/loader. This is useful if you want to just remove compilation warnings and errors. - Header Files:
$gcc -c test.c -I /location/of/header/files -o test
Many a times the headers files you want to use, is located is some other directory. A "bad" practice followed is to include the direct path of the header files in the C src file.
Instead use this option. It tells the compiler which directories to look in for the mentioned header files. The -I options can be used multiple times for multiple directories where header files are located. - Library Files:
$ gcc -c test.c -lpthread -L /usr/lib/libpthread
Another requirement that is frequently required is using standard libraries ( NPTL Threads etc) or non-standard ones (expat etc). '-l' option tells which library to use while linking while '-L' tells where the find this library. In the above example during linking, it will search for pthread library in the dir /usr/lib/libpthread. - Warnings, Errors, etc:
$gcc test.c -o test -Wall -Werror
-Wall options shows all warnings that are typically not shown during regular compilation. These errors are easy fixable like "Unused varniables", "implicit function declaration" etc. -Werror options tells the compiler to treat all warnings as errors and stop compilation instantly.
Sometimes -Werror can be too strict for our purpose. Instead you can treat only certain warnings are errors.
eg. -Werror-implicit-function-declaration: Treat only implicit function declaration warnings as errors. For more such options check the gcc man pages. - Debugging:
$gcc -g test.c -o test
This option activates all the debugging symbols. This is required if one plans to use gdb for debugging (which is mostly the case). - Optimizations:
$gcc -O2 test.c -o test
This option lets the compiler optimize the code . -O can take 0,1,2 levels of optimizations.
More info is available in the man pages of gcc.
