Compilation can involve up to four stages: preprocessing, compilation
proper, assembly and linking, always in that order. GCC is capable of
preprocessing and compiling several files either into several
assembler input files, or into one assembler input file; then each
assembler input file produces an object file, and linking combines all
the object files (those newly compiled, and those specified as input)
into an executable file.
For any given input file, the file name suffix determines what kind of
compilation is done:
file.c
C source code which must be preprocessed.
file.i
C source code which should not be preprocessed.
file.ii
C++ source code which should not be preprocessed.
file.m
Objective-C source code. Note that you must link with the library
libobjc.a to make an Objective-C program work.
file.mi
Objective-C source code which should not be preprocessed.
file.h
C or C++ header file to be turned into a precompiled header.
C++ source code which must be preprocessed. Note that in .cxx,
the last two letters must both be literally x. Likewise,
.C refers to a literal capital C.
file.hh, file.H
C++ header file to be turned into a precompiled header.
file.f, file.for, file.FOR
Fortran source code which should not be preprocessed.
file.F, file.fpp, file.FPP
Fortran source code which must be preprocessed (with the traditional
preprocessor).
file.r
Fortran source code which must be preprocessed with a RATFOR
preprocessor (not included with GCC).
, for more details of the handling of
Fortran input files.
file.ads
Ada source code file which contains a library unit declaration (a
declaration of a package, subprogram, or generic, or a generic
instantiation), or a library unit renaming declaration (a package,
generic, or subprogram renaming declaration). Such files are also
called specs.
file.adb
Ada source code file containing a library unit body (a subprogram or
package body). Such files are also called bodies.
file.s
Assembler code.
file.S
Assembler code which must be preprocessed.
other
An object file to be fed straight into linking.
Any file name with no recognized suffix is treated this way.
You can specify the input language explicitly with the -x option:
-x language
Specify explicitly the language for the following input files
(rather than letting the compiler choose a default based on the file
name suffix). This option applies to all following input files until
the next -x option. Possible values for language are:
c c-header cpp-output
c++ c++-header c++-cpp-output
objective-c objective-c-header objc-cpp-output
assembler assembler-with-cpp
ada
f77 f77-cpp-input ratfor
java
treelang
-x none
Turn off any specification of a language, so that subsequent files are
handled according to their file name suffixes (as they are if -x
has not been used at all).
-pass-exit-codes
Normally the gcc program will exit with the code of 1 if any
phase of the compiler returns a non-success return code. If you specify
-pass-exit-codes, the gcc program will instead return with
numerically highest error produced by any phase that returned an error
indication.
If you only want some of the stages of compilation, you can use
-x (or filename suffixes) to tell gcc where to start, and
one of the options -c, -S, or -E to say where
gcc is to stop. Note that some combinations (for example,
-x cpp-output -E) instruct gcc to do nothing at all.
-c
Compile or assemble the source files, but do not link. The linking
stage simply is not done. The ultimate output is in the form of an
object file for each source file.
By default, the object file name for a source file is made by replacing
the suffix .c, .i, .s, etc., with .o.
Unrecognized input files, not requiring compilation or assembly, are
ignored.
-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.
-E
Stop after the preprocessing stage; do not run the compiler proper. The
output is in the form of preprocessed source code, which is sent to the
standard output.
Input files which don't require preprocessing are ignored.
-o file
Place output in file file. This applies regardless to whatever
sort of output is being produced, whether it be an executable file,
an object file, an assembler file or preprocessed C code.
If you specify -o when compiling more than one input file, or
you are producing an executable file as output, all the source files
on the command line will be compiled at once.
If -o is not specified, the default is to put an executable file
in a.out, the object file for source.suffix in
source.o, its assembler file in source.s, and
all preprocessed C source on standard output.
-v
Print (on standard error output) the commands executed to run the stages
of compilation. Also print the version number of the compiler driver
program and of the preprocessor and the compiler proper.
-###
Like -v except the commands are not executed and all command
arguments are quoted. This is useful for shell scripts to capture the
driver-generated command lines.
-pipe
Use pipes rather than temporary files for communication between the
various stages of compilation. This fails to work on some systems where
the assembler is unable to read from a pipe; but the GNU assembler has
no trouble.
-help
Print (on the standard output) a description of the command line options
understood by gcc. If the -v option is also specified
then -help will also be passed on to the various processes
invoked by gcc, so that they can display the command line options
they accept. If the -Wextra option is also specified then command
line options which have no documentation associated with them will also
be displayed.
-target-help
Print (on the standard output) a description of target specific command
line options for each tool.
-version
Display the version number and copyrights of the invoked GCC.
