2 Compiling a C program

This chapter describes how to compile C programs using gcc. Programs can be compiled from a single source file or from multiple source files, and may use system libraries and header files.

Compilation refers to the process of converting a program from the textual source code, in a programming language such as C or C++, into machine code, the sequence of 1's and 0's used to control the central processing unit (CPU) of the computer. This machine code is then stored in a file known as an executable file, sometimes referred to as a binary file.