Compilation Stages in GCC
The Four Stages of Compiling a C Program
- Pre-Processor
- Translator
- Assembler
- Linker
1) Pre-Processor:-
i) Include header file
ii)Replace macro
iii)Remove the comments
iv)Convert .c file to .i file
v) .i file is also called pure c file
To convert .c to .i file use below command:-(suppose we have p1.c)
cc -E p1.c -o p1.i
2) Translator:-
i)It convert the program into Assembly language
ii)It also check syntactical error
To convert .i file to .s file use below command :-
cc -s p1.i -o p1.s
3) Assembler:-
i)Convert the program in machine understandable language.
ii)Convert .s file to .o file (Op-Code)
To convert .s file to .o file use below command :-
cc -c p1.s -o p1.o
4)
Linker:-
i) Links with in built library & adds some OS related information.ii)Creates an executable file (a.out)
To convert .o file to binary file use below command :-
cc p1.o -o p1