'Build a Linux executable using GCC

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and compiling C++ files with GCC, but when I compile, gcc makes an a.out file that is the executable. How can I make Linux executables?



Solution 1:[1]

That executable is a "Linux executable" - that is, it's executable on any recent Linux system. You can rename the file to what you want using

rename a.out your-executable-name

or better yet, tell GCC where to put its output file using

gcc -o your-executable-name your-source-file.c

Keep in mind that before Linux systems will let you run the file, you may need to set its "executable bit":

chmod +x your-executable-name

Also remember that on Linux, the extension of the file has very little to do with what it actually is - your executable can be named something, something.out, or even something.exe, and as long as it's produced by GCC and you do chmod +x on the file, you can run it as a Linux executable.

Solution 2:[2]

To create an executable called myprog, you can call gcc like this:

gcc -c -o myprog something.c

You could also just rename the *.out file gcc generates to the desired name.

Solution 3:[3]

That is the executable. If you don't like a.out, you can pass an -o flag to the compiler. If the executable isn't marked with an executable bit, you need to do so yourself:

chmod u+x ./a.out
./a.out

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Peter Mortensen
Solution 2 Peter Mortensen
Solution 3 Peter Mortensen