Compile and Execute C Program

Compile and Execute C Program

Let us see how to save the source code in a file, and how to compile and run it.

Following are the simple steps:

1. Open a text editor and add the above-mentioned code.

2. Save the file as hello.c

3. Open a command prompt and go to the directory where you have saved
the file.

4. Type gcc hello.c and press enter to compile your code.

5. If there are no errors in your code, the command prompt will take you to
the next line and would generate a.out executable file.

6. Now, type a.out to execute your program.

7. You will see the output "Hello World" printed on the screen.

$ gcc hello.c $ ./a.out Hello, World!

Make sure the gcc compiler is in your path and that you are running it in the
directory containing the source file hello.c.

Hello World Example

Hello World Example

A C program basically consists of the following parts:

· Pre-processor Commands· Functions· Variables· Statements & Expressions· Comments
Let us look at a simple code that would print the words "Hello World":

#include <stdio.h> int main() { /* my first program in C */ printf("Hello, World! \n"); return 0; }

Let us take a look at the various parts of the above program:

1. The first line of the program #include <stdio.h> is a preprocessor
command, which tells a C compiler to include stdio.h file before going to
actual compilation.

2. The next line int main() is the main function where the program execution
begins.

3. The next line /*...*/ will be ignored by the compiler and it has been put to
add additional comments in the program. So such lines are called
comments in the program.

4. The next line printf(...) is another function available in C which causes the
message "Hello, World!" to be displayed on the screen.

5. The next line return 0; terminates the main() function and returns the
value 0.

Local Environment Setup

Local Environment Setup

If you want to set up your environment for C programming language, you need
the following two software tools available on your computer, (a) Text Editor and
(b) The C Compiler.

Text Editor
This will be used to type your program. Examples of a few editors include
Windows Notepad, OS Edit command, Brief, Epsilon, EMACS, and vim or vi.

The name and version of text editors can vary on different operating systems.
For example, Notepad will be used on Windows, and vim or vi can be used on
Windows as well as on Linux or UNIX.

The files you create with your editor are called the source files and they contain
the program source codes. The source files for C programs are typically named
with the extension ".c".

Before starting your programming, make sure you have one text editor in place
and you have enough experience to write a computer program, save it in a file,
compile it and finally execute it.

The C Compiler
The source code written in source file is the human readable source for your
program. It needs to be "compiled" into machine language so that your CPU can
actually execute the program as per the instructions given.
The compiler compiles the source codes into final executable programs. The
most frequently used and free available compiler is the GNU C/C++ compiler,
otherwise you can have compilers either from HP or Solaris if you have the
respective operating systems.
The following section explains how to install GNU C/C++ compiler on various OS.
m We keep mentioning C/C++ together because GNU gcc compiler works for
both C and C++ programming languages.

Installation on UNIX/Linux

If you are using Linux or UNIX, then check whether GCC is installed on your
system by entering the following command from the command line:

$ gcc -v

If you have GNU compiler installed on your machine, then it should print a
message as follows:

Using built-in specs. Target: i386-redhat-linux Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr ....... Thread model: posix gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-46)

If GCC is not installed, then you will have to install it yourself using the detailed
instructions available at http://gcc.gnu.org/install/.

This tutorial has been written based on Linux and all the given examples have
been compiled on the Cent OS flavor of the Linux system.

Installation on Mac OS

If you use Mac OS X, the easiest way to obtain GCC is to download the Xcode
development environment from Apple's web site and follow the simple
installation instructions. Once you have Xcode setup, you will be able to use GNU
compiler for C/C++.

Xcode is currently available at developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/.

Installation on Windows

To install GCC on Windows, you need to install MinGW. To install MinGW, go to
the MinGW homepage, www.mingw.org, and follow the link to the MinGW
download page. Download the latest version of the MinGW installation program,
which should be named MinGW-<version>.exe.

While installing MinGW, at a minimum, you must install gcc-core, gcc-g++,
binutils, and the MinGW runtime, but you may wish to install more.
Add the bin subdirectory of your MinGW installation to your PATH environment
variable, so that you can specify these tools on the command line by their simple
names.

After the installation is complete, you will be able to run gcc, g++, ar, ranlib,
dlltool, and several other GNU tools from the Windows command line.

Before we study the basic building blocks of the C programming language, let us
look at a bare minimum C program structure so that we can take it as a
reference in the upcoming chapters.

Overview

OVERVIEW

C is a general-purpose, high-level language that was originally developed by Dennis M. Ritchie to develop the UNIX operating system at Bell Labs. C was originally first implemented on the DEC PDP-11 computer in 1972.
In 1978, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie produced the first publicly available description of C, now known as the K&R standard.
The UNIX operating system, the C compiler, and essentially all UNIX application programs have been written in C. C has now become a widely used professional language for various reasons:

• Easy to learn 
• Structured language
  
• It produces efficient programs 
• It can handle low-level activitiesIt can be compiled on a variety of computer platforms
  

Facts about C 

• C was invented to write an operating system called UNIX. 
• C is a successor of B language which was introduced around the early 1970s.
  

• The language was formalized in 1988 by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI).

• The UNIX OS was totally written in C.

• Today C is the most widely used and popular System Programming Language.

• Most of the state-of-the-art software have been implemented using C.

• Today's most popular Linux OS and RDBMS MySQL have been written in C.
  

WhyUse C?

C was initially used for system development work, particularly the programs that make-up the operating system. C was adopted as a system development language because it produces code that runs nearly as fast as the code written in assembly language. Some examples of the use of C might be: 

• Operating Systems
• Language Compilers
• Assemblers
• Text Editors
• Print Spoolers
• Network Drivers
• Modern Programs 
•  Database
• Language Interpreters 
• Utilities

C Programs
A C program can vary from 3 lines to millions of lines and it should be writteninto one or more text files with extension ".c"; for example, hello.c. You canuse "vi", "vim" or any other text editor to write your C program into a file.
This tutorial assumes that you know how to edit a text file and how to write
source code inside a program file.