In programming, to understand the complete flow of software generation, you need to very clear in compiling process steps. 5 Stages of the compiling process (refer to the below Image)
- Pr-processing.
- Compiler.
- Assembler,
- Linker,
- Executable file.
Here is the example of hello world program to understand the entire compiling process. Usually, we will use some IDE like Code Block or Dev C++ for our c program to compile and generate the executable file. In my case, I used the portable IDE.
Contents
Run GCC without installation on the Windows Platform
If you have a question like how can I run the GCC without install in windows? Here your solution
- Download the Dev C ++ portable version from the internet. ( I have downloaded the portable version Dev-Cpp 5.7.1 MinGW 4.8.1 Portable.7z)
- In my case, I have kept the potable version directories (Folders) in this location
D:\ArunEworld\@ Software\Dev C++\Portable\ - Refer to the below hello world example code and save it as
HelloWorld.cin the directoryD:\ArunEworld\@ Software\Dev C++\Portable\Dev-Cpp 5.7.1 MinGW 4.8.1 Portable\Dev-Cpp\MinGW32\bin
Code: HelloWord.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("ArunEworld");
return 0;
}Compile and Run using GCC in the command prompt
| Action | Steps |
|---|---|
| Open the command prompt in GCC.exe directory | You can do this in two ways. The first option is to click WINDOWS + R, enter the text cmd and click ENTER, Command prompt will be open, then use the CD command to change the directory to D:\ArunEworld\@ Software\Dev C++\Portable\Dev-Cpp 5.7.1 MinGW 4.8.1 Portable\Dev-Cpp\MinGW32\binThe second option is to go to the directory D:\ArunEworld\@ Software\Dev C++\Portable\Dev-Cpp 5.7.1 MinGW 4.8.1 Portable\Dev-Cpp\MinGW32\bin using windows explore and Click the PATH area and type cmd the text then click ENETR. |
| GCC commands | --help – for display the help--version Display compiler version information-E Preprocess only; do not compile, assemble or link-S Compile only; do not assemble or link-c Compile and assemble, but do not link-o Place the output into |
Compile HelloWorld.c using GCC | In command, Prompt type the following and compile the code. (Observe the new HelloWorld.exe file generation while compiling time in the same directory)>gcc.exe HelloWoldExample.c -o HelloWoldExample |
| Run the Executable file | >HelloWorld.exeOutput will be ArunEworld |
Hope you learned how to compile the c program in GCC and run the GCC without install in Windows. Now we are going to learn the complete compiling process.
Pre-Processor
Preprocessing stage of the HelloWorld.c using gcc in Windows
-E Compile only; do not assemble or link.
Run : gcc.exe -E HelloWorld.c
Output:
# 1 "HelloWold.c"
# 1 "<command-line>"
# 1 "HelloWold.c"
[lines omitted for brevity]
extern int __vsnprintf_chk (char * restrict, size_t,
int, size_t, const char * restrict, va_list);
# 28 "d:\\ArunEworld\\@ software\\dev c++\\portable\\dev-cpp 5.7.1 mingw 4.8.1 portable\\dev-cpp\\mingw32\\include\\stdio.h" 2 3
# 2 "HelloWorld.c" 2
void main(void) {
printf("ArunEworld");
}
Example-2
This code is for just only macro.
#define WEBSITE "www.aruneworld.com"
int main()
{
WEBSITE;
return 0;
}
- gcc -E ArunEworld.c
# 1 "test.c"
# 1 "<command-line>"
# 1 "test.c"
int main()
{
"www.aruneworld.com";
return 0;
}
Compiler
Syntax Verification & Convert C program into Assembly Code.
Compiling stage of the HelloWorld.c using gcc in Windows
-S Compile only; do not assemble or link
Run : gcc.exe -S HelloWorld.c
Output: HelloWorld.s
.file "HelloWold.c" .def ___main; .scl 2; .type 32; .endef .section .rdata,"dr" LC0: .ascii "ArunEworld\0" .text .globl _main .def _main; .scl 2; .type 32; .endef _main: LFB6: .cfi_startproc pushl %ebp .cfi_def_cfa_offset 8 .cfi_offset 5, -8 movl %esp, %ebp .cfi_def_cfa_register 5 andl $-16, %esp subl $16, %esp call ___main movl $LC0, (%esp) call _printf leave .cfi_restore 5 .cfi_def_cfa 4, 4 ret .cfi_endproc LFE6: .ident "GCC: (GNU) 4.8.1" .def _printf; .scl 2; .type 32; .endef
Assembler
Assembly language into Machine code(0s and 1s)
Compiling stage of the HelloWorld.c using gcc in windows
-C Compile and assemble, but do not link
Run : gcc.exe -c HelloWorld.c
Output: HelloWold.o
Linker & Executable
Link all Library Files and generate an exe file. In Windows -o command will two both process.
Linking & Generate .exe stage of the HelloWorld.c using gcc in Windows
-o Place the output into.
Run : gcc.exe HelloWorld.c -o HelloWorld
Output: HelloWold.exe