How to Compile C Programs in Linux

Article Word Count: 1400 Practical Index: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Common IDEs for compiling on Windows, while using gcc directly for compilation in Linux, is the foundation of Linux embedded programming and also a frequently asked question in embedded interviews.

Command Line Compilation and Detailed Compilation Process

Example code for hello.c:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{ 
 printf("Hello world\n");
 return 0;
}

Compilation:

gcc hello.c -o hello

If necessary, you should also be able to answer the detailed steps:

gcc -E hello.c -o hello.i  # Preprocessing stage
gcc -S hello.i -o hello.s  # Compilation stage
gcc -c hello.s -o hello.o  # Assembly stage
gcc hello.o -o hello       # Linking stage

Using Make to Compile

For a small number of files, you can use the above method to compile. When there are many source files, you can use the make tool. Make compiles by parsing the Makefile to execute some gcc commands.

First, create a Makefile, such as:

hello:hello.c
        gcc hello.c -o hello

Compile and run:

The Makefile for the more detailed compilation process above is as follows:

Using CMake to Generate Makefile

In actual development, it is rare to write a Makefile by hand as shown above; instead, you can use the cmake tool to generate it.

CMake is a cross-platform installation (compilation) tool that can describe the installation (compilation process) for all platforms with simple statements.

1. Command Line Operations

First, entercmake --version to check the CMake version. If it is not installed, execute the following command to install:

sudo apt install cmake

Next, we start the experimental demonstration. Ourcmake_test folder contains ahello.c file. Create a CMakeLists.txt file in the same folder:

Enter the following content:

cmake_minimum_required (VERSION 3.10.2)
project (cmake_test)
add_executable(cmake_test hello.c)

Then, in thecmake_test directory, sequentially enter the following commands to generate the Makefile:

mkdir build  # Create build folder
cd build     # Enter build folder
cmake ../    # Generate Makefile in cmake_test folder

The execution result is as follows:

Friends interested in the specific syntax of theCMakeLists.txt file can refer to materials for further study.

2. Using cmake-gui

The above method is for generating Makefile using cmake from the command line. We can also use the graphical interface to generate the Makefile. cmake-gui is a graphical tool for cmake. Below, we will demonstrate with an example.

We place the previous section’sCMakeLists.txt and hello.c files into a newly created folder called cmake-gui_test:

In the terminal, enter cmake-gui to start the cmake-gui graphical tool. If it is not installed, you can enter the following command to install:

sudo apt install cmake-qt-gui

For example:

Launch cmake-gui:

Check the cmake-gui_test folder:

Compile and run:

The above shares some compilation processes and methods, which are basic content that needs to be mastered. If you find this article helpful, feel free to share it.

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Every day, hardworking Xiaochuang,

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Using CMake to Generate Makefile

1. Command Line Operations

2. Using cmake-gui

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