Compile a C/C++ Program on Ubuntu Linux

This article will show you how to compile a C/C++ program on Ubuntu Linux using the GNU gcc/g++ compiler. Additions were made in order to simplify and clarify the creation of a C/C++ program on Ubuntu Linux. Hopefully this article will serve as a guide and tutorial to compiling GNU C/C++ programs on Ubuntu Linux.

Steps

  1. Open up a terminal on Ubuntu Linux and install the build-essential package by typing the following command in the terminal
    • Type/Copy/Paste: sudo apt-get install build-essential
    • This will install the necessary C/C++ development libraries for your Ubuntu Linux system to create C/C++ programs.
  2. Create a directory and a sub directory to hold your C/C++ programs and your main HelloWorld program.
    • Type/Copy/Paste: mkdir -p CCPP/HelloWorld
    • We are using CCPP for the main directory to hold our created C/C++ programs which stands for C and C+ + programs directory and we are using the sub directory HelloWorld to hold our main program.
  3. Then we will change into our created directory by issuing the following command
    • Type/Copy/Paste: cd CCPP/HelloWorld
  4. Next we will use a text editor such as gedit or nano to create our C or C++ source code using the following command.
  5. For example for a C source code file we would issue the following command
    • 'To edit with gedit: Type/Copy/Paste:' gedit main.c
    • or
    • 'To edit with nano (the screenshots in this tutorial show nano): Type/Copy/Paste:' nano main.c
  6. Enter the following C source code below:
    • Type/Copy/Paste:
    • #include<stdio.h>
    • #include<stdlib.h>
    • int main()
    • {
    • printf("\nHello World,\nWelcome to my first C program in Ubuntu Linux\n\n");
    • return(0);
    • }
  7. Save the file as main.c and exit
  8. For example for a C++ source code file we issue the following command
    • Type/Copy/Paste: gedit main.cpp
    • or
    • Type/Copy/Paste: nano main.cpp
  9. Add the following lines below to create your C++ source code:
    • Type/Copy/Paste:
    • #include<iostream>
    • using namespace std;
    • int main()
    • {
    • cout<<"\nHello World,\nWelcome to my first C ++ program on Ubuntu Linux\n\n"<<endl;
    • return(0);
    • }
  10. Save the file as main.cpp and exit
  11. Compiling your C/C++ program
    • Important: Make sure you are in the CCPP/HelloWorld directory before you compile your C/C++ programs.
  12. If you are compiling the C program version of Hello World type in the terminal
    • Type/Copy/Paste: gcc -Wall -W -Werror main.c -o HelloWorldC
    • The first line will invoke the GNU C compiler to compile the file main.c and output (-o) it to an executable called HelloWorldC.
    • The options -Wall -W and -Werror instruct the compiler to check for warnings.
  13. If you are compiling the C++ program version of Hello World type in the terminal
    • Type/Copy/Paste: g++ -Wall -W -Werror main.cpp -o HelloWorldCPP
  14. If you should happen to get permission errors, you need to make the file executable. You can do this by issuing the following commands below
    • Type/Copy/Paste: chmod +x HelloWorldC
    • or
    • Type/Copy/Paste: chmod +x HelloWorldCPP
  15. In order to execute your program you will have to type in the following commands.
    • To execute the C program version of the program:
    • Type/Copy/Paste: ./HelloWorldC
    • To execute the the C++ program version of the program:
    • Type/Copy/Paste: ./HelloWorldCPP

Warnings

  • If you don't use the -o option the name of the executable will be a.out (by default).

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