Tips on using GCC as a new user

Question

I am really new to GCC and I don't know how to use it. I already have a copy of a pre-compiled gcc binaries I've downloaded from one of the mirror sites in the gcc website. Now, I don't know where to go from here. Please give me some tips on how I can proceed.

I am sorry for the rather vague question..

What I want are tips on how to use GCC. I've programmed in C in the past using the TC compiler. Thanks!

I really appreciate all of your suggestions. Thanks again.. :)

Answer 1

Baby steps to start with.

Create the file you want to compile (hi.c) in your favorite editor, like:

#include <stdio.h>
int main (void) {
    printf ("Hi there\n");
    return 0;
}

Then from the command prompt, execute:

gcc -o hi hi.c

That will give you an executable you can then run.

Beyond that, it really depends on how much C (or C++ or other GCC language) you know. If you're a beginner at C, rather than just the GCC toolchain, get yourself a good beginner's book on the language and start reading. Most importantly, do the exercises, play with the code and so forth.

---

Based on your update that you're comfortable with C itself (the Borland line), you'll probably only be interested in the immediate GCC differences.

GCC is a command-line compiler. There are IDEs that use it but GCC itself is not an IDE. That means you'll probably be doing command-line compilation.

The basic forms of this are:

# creates an executable "exe" from your source file "src.c"
gcc -o exe src.c
# creates an executable "exe" from your source files "src.c" and "extra.c"
gcc -o exe src.c extra.c
# creates object files from your source files
gcc -c -o src.o src.c
gcc -c -o extra.o extra.c
# creates an executable file "exe" from your object files
gcc -o exe src.o extra.o

Once you get sick of doing that, you'll want to learn how to use make, a way of automating the build process with a file containing rules (dependencies and actions to take), such as:

all: exe

clean:
    rm -rf exe src.o extra.o

rebuild: clean all

exe: src.o extra.o
    gcc -o exe src.o extra.o

src.o: src.c
    gcc -o src.o src.c

extra.o: extra.c
    gcc -o extra.o extra.c

I don't do justice to the power of make here, it's far more expressive than it looks.