Disable compilation and linking in Code::Blocks? - c

Programming newbie, I want to disable the compiler/linker and just look at the precompile/ preprocessor's preprocessed code for a program...not sure what this would be called or what the usual method is for doing something like this.
Using the GNU GCC compiler in Code::Blocks, and I looked thru all the various options but not sure the command or what the menu item is called/labeled.

gcc -E source.c -o myfile.i
Here -E is a flag stand's for PRE-Process only.
And -o is another flag which stores the PRE-Processed output of source.c into myfile.i (here .i is common extension given for PRE-Processed files in gcc)

You can use the following option to see the pre-processing files. Normally the compiler will create the files on the fly while trying to create an object file. But at the end removes them.
So in order to view them you can use the command with save-temps.
The output will have the following files:
hello.i-Pre-Processed Output
hello.s-Assembler Output
hello.o-Compiler Output
gcc -save-temps hello.c

Related

Get preprocessor output from C through MATLAB mex

I want to get the preprocessor output when compiling my c-code through mex of MATLAB using MinGW64 Compiler (C) so using gcc (right?).
From this post I got that you can do this with pure gcc passing the option -E to gcc.
However I installed gcc through MATLAB app and therefore cannot access it through command line (would also appreciate a command how to do that, without reinstalling MinGW64 and setting it up manually for use with MATLAB).
I tried to do the following assuming that compiler flags are the right way to pass the argument:
mex -c grampc_run.c -I../../include -I../include COMPFLAGS='$COMPFLAGS -E'
This just results in the creation of the object file.
COMPFLAGS is used by the MSCV compiler. The GCC compiler loos at CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS (for C and C++ compilation, respectively). See here. Thus, you should use the following syntax:
mex -c grampc_run.c -I../../include -I../include CFLAGS='$CFLAGS -E'
You might also want to add the -v option to mex. GCC puts the preprocessor output to the standard output, which mex might not show you. With -v it does show you all the output.

Name an executable file c

I know this seems like a stupid question but how do I name an executable file when using flags like -Wall and -pedantic in c?
I have a file named test.c and another one named function.c where I wrote the functions I need for my program test.c .
I use this command to compile: gcc -Wall -pedantic test.c
Where should I put the name of the executable file? I tried every place but it doesn't seem to work. Is my compiler lacking something or what?
You need to use the -o option, like this
gcc -Wall -pedantic -o MY_EXECUTABLE_NAME test.c
# ^ here (output file name option)
You know, you can always do gcc --help
Usage: gcc [options] file...
Options:
-pass-exit-codes Exit with highest error code from a phase
--help Display this information
--target-help Display target specific command line options
--help={common|optimizers|params|target|warnings|[^]{joined|separate|undocumented}}[,...]
Display specific types of command line options
(Use '-v --help' to display command line options of sub-processes)
--version Display compiler version information
-dumpspecs Display all of the built in spec strings
-dumpversion Display the version of the compiler
-dumpmachine Display the compiler's target processor
-print-search-dirs Display the directories in the compiler's search path
-print-libgcc-file-name Display the name of the compiler's companion library
-print-file-name=<lib> Display the full path to library <lib>
-print-prog-name=<prog> Display the full path to compiler component <prog>
-print-multiarch Display the target's normalized GNU triplet, used as
a component in the library path
-print-multi-directory Display the root directory for versions of libgcc
-print-multi-lib Display the mapping between command line options and
multiple library search directories
-print-multi-os-directory Display the relative path to OS libraries
-print-sysroot Display the target libraries directory
-print-sysroot-headers-suffix Display the sysroot suffix used to find headers
-Wa,<options> Pass comma-separated <options> on to the assembler
-Wp,<options> Pass comma-separated <options> on to the preprocessor
-Wl,<options> Pass comma-separated <options> on to the linker
-Xassembler <arg> Pass <arg> on to the assembler
-Xpreprocessor <arg> Pass <arg> on to the preprocessor
-Xlinker <arg> Pass <arg> on to the linker
-save-temps Do not delete intermediate files
-save-temps=<arg> Do not delete intermediate files
-no-canonical-prefixes Do not canonicalize paths when building relative
prefixes to other gcc components
-pipe Use pipes rather than intermediate files
-time Time the execution of each subprocess
-specs=<file> Override built-in specs with the contents of <file>
-std=<standard> Assume that the input sources are for <standard>
--sysroot=<directory> Use <directory> as the root directory for headers
and libraries
-B <directory> Add <directory> to the compiler's search paths
-v Display the programs invoked by the compiler
-### Like -v but options quoted and commands not executed
-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 <file> Place the output into <file>
-pie Create a position independent executable
-shared Create a shared library
-x <language> Specify the language of the following input files
Permissible languages include: c c++ assembler none
'none' means revert to the default behavior of
guessing the language based on the file's extension
Options starting with -g, -f, -m, -O, -W, or --param are automatically
passed on to the various sub-processes invoked by gcc. In order to pass
other options on to these processes the -W<letter> options must be used.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla>.
gcc -o output_name -Wall -pedant file.c
U should use -o before file name ,because it creates a object file of your code file.

Alias or command to compile and link all C files

I recently started compiling/linking my C files by hand using the gcc command. However it requires all of the source files to be typed at the end of the command. When there are many files to compile/link it can be boring.
That's why I had the idea of making a bash alias for the command which would directly type all *.h and *.c files of the folder.
My line in .bashrc is this:
alias compile='ls *.c *.h | gcc -o main'
I found it to work some times but most of the time compile will return this :
gcc: fatal error: no input files
compilation terminated.
I thought that pipe would give the results of ls *.c *.h as arguments to gcc but it doesn't seem to work that way. What am I doing wrong? Is there a better way to achieve the same thing?
Thanks for helping
A pipe does not create command line arguments. A pipe feeds standard input.
You need xargs to convert standard input to command line arguments.
But you don't need (or want) xargs or ls or standard input here at all.
If you just want to compile every .c file into your executable then just use:
gcc -o main *.c
(You don't generally need .h files on gcc command lines.)
As Kay points out in the comments the pedantically correct and safer version of the above command is (and I don't intend this in a pejorative fashion):
gcc -o main ./*.c
See Filenames and Pathnames in Shell: How to do it Correctly for an extensive discussion of the various issues here.
That being said you can use any of a number of tools to save you from needing to do this and from needing to rebuild everything when only some things change.
Tools like make or its many clones, "front-ends" (e.g. the autotools, cmake) or replacements (tup, scons, cons, and about a million other tools).
Have you tried using a makefile? It sounds like that might be more efficient for what you're trying to do.
If you really want to do it with BASH aliases, you have to use xargs to get standard input to command line arguments.
There are several misconceptions here:
the pipe redirects the standard output of the first command to the standard input of the second command; however, gcc doesn't accept the files to compile on stdin, but on the command line;
the wildcard syntax is not something that is magical just to ls, it's the shell that performs their expansion on the command line;
header files are not to be compiled - you compile .c files, which in turn may include headers.
Armed with this knowledge, you'll understand that the correct command something like
gcc -o main *.c
Actually we can do better: first of all, you'll want to change the *.c to ./*.c; this prevents files whose name start with a - from being interpreted as command line options.
Most importantly, you should really enable the compiler warnings, they can be life saver. You'll want to add -Wall and -Wextra.
gcc -Wall -Wextra -o main ./*.c
Finally, it's worth saying that by default you are compiling with optimizations disabled. If you are debugging that's OK, but you want also to add -g to have an executable usable in debugging; otherwise, if the target is speed you should at least add -O2.

Find all functions generated by macros

I am trying to generate various functions using macros in C. Is there any way for me to see all the functions generated during compilation?
If you are using gcc, the option -save-temps saves the intermediate steps of compilation (preprocessed files and assembly code) while generating binary.
You can see a brief description here.
You could use nm on the object file to get the name of public (non static) functions.
You could pass the -v option to the cc1 to get the the name of compiled functions.
You could also extend your recent GCC compiler using MELT
And of course, you could get the preprocessed form, as other answers suggested.
You can use -E option of the gcc compiler to view the preprocessed file.
gcc -E main.c > main.i

Generate assembler code from C file in linux

I would like to know how to generate assembler code from a C program using Unix.
I tried the gcc: gcc -c file.c
I also used firstly cpp and then try as but I'm getting errors.
I'm trying to build an assembler program from 3 different programs
prog1.c prog2.c prog.h
Is it correct to do gcc -S prog1.c prog2.c prog.h?
Seems that is not correct. I don't know if I have to generate the assembler from each of them and then link them
Thanks
According the manual:
`-S'
Stop after the stage of compilation proper; do not assemble. The
output is in the form of an assembler code file for each
non-assembler input file specified.
By default, the assembler file name for a source file is made by
replacing the suffix `.c', `.i', etc., with `.s'.
Input files that don't require compilation are ignored.
so try gcc -S file.c.
From man gcc:
-S Stop after the stage of compilation proper; do not
assemble. The output is an assembler code file for
each non-assembler input file specified.
By default, GCC makes the assembler file name for a
source file by replacing the suffix `.c', `.i',
etc., with `.s'. Use -o to select another name.
GCC ignores any input files that don't require com-
pilation.
If you're using gcc (as it seems) it's gcc -S.
Don't forget to specify the include paths with -I if needed.
gcc -I ../my_includes -S my_file.c
and you'll get my_file.s with the Assembler instructions.
objdump -d also works very nicely, and will give you the assembly listing for the whole binary (exe or shared lib).
This can be a lot clearer than using the compiler generated asm since calls to functions within the same source file can show up not yet resolved to their final locations.
Build your code with -g and you can also add --line and/or --source to the objdump flags.

Resources