00_compile_cprogram.md

Compile a C program

Consider the following snippet in C, that prints Hello, World!.

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("Hello, World!\n");
}

Save it in a file called hello.c.

In order to be able to execute the C code, you need to compile it first, meaning that you will execute a command that will transform the source code into a proper system executable.

Note

This might sound like more work compared to Python, but I promise you will get used to it!

Go to your terminal, and run the following command where your hello.c file is:

gcc hello.c -o hello_bin

for Linux, or replace gcc with clang for macOS.

This will create an executable called hello_bin.

For Windows, the command is:

cl hello.c

which will generate a hello.exe file.