NAME¶

cc — front-end to the C compiler

SYNOPSIS¶

DESCRIPTION¶

The cc utility provides a front-end to the “portable C compiler”. Multiple files may be given on the command line. Unrecognized options are sent directly to ld(1).

Filenames that end with .c are passed via cpp(1) → ccom(1) → as(1) → ld(1).

Filenames that end with .i are passed via ccom(1) → as(1) → ld(1).

Filenames that end with .s are passed via as(1) → ld(1).

Filenames that end with .S are passed via cpp(1) → as(1) → ld(1).

Filenames that end with .o are passed directly to ld(1).

The options are as follows:

-ansi

Synonym for -std=c89.

-Bprefix

Define alternate prefix path for cpp(1), ccom(1), as(1), or ld(1) executables.

-C

Passed to the cpp(1) preprocessor to not discard comments.

-c

Stop after generating object code with as(1). Do not link. The resulting object output is saved as a filename with a “.o” suffix unless -o option is used. Note: cannot be combined with -o if multiple files are given.

-D macro[=value]

Passed to the cpp(1) preprocessor to define macro with an optional value.

-dflags

Debug options. flags is a string of characters, which signify the following actions.

M

Cause the preprocessor to output a list of macro definitions.

any unknown flags are ignored.

-E

Stop after preprocessing with cpp(1). Do not compile, assemble, or link. Output is sent to standard output unless the -o option is used.

-ffreestanding

Assume a freestanding environment.

-fPIC

Generate PIC code.

-fpic

Tells C compiler to generate PIC code and tells assembler that PIC code has been generated.

-funsigned-char

Tell the compiler to treat ‘char’ types as if they were unsigned unless explicitly defined otherwise. -fsigned-char can be used to signify the opposite behaviour. The default for the ‘char’ type depends on the compiler target architecture.

-fstack-protector

Tell the compiler to wrap functions with code which checks at runtime that a stack overflow has not occurred. When stack protection is in effect, the __SSP__ macro will be defined.

-g

Send -g flag to ccom(1) to create debug output. Debug information output can be disabled with -g0.

-I path

Passed to the cpp(1) preprocessor to add header search directory to override system defaults.

-include file

Tells the cpp(1) preprocessor to include the file during preprocessing.

-isystem path

Defines path as a system header directory for the cpp(1) preprocessor.

-k

Generate PIC code. See -fpic option.

-Lpath

Passed to the linker, to add path to the list of directories searched for shared libraries.

-M

Pass -M flag to cpp(1) to generate dependencies for make(1).

-moption

Target-dependent options. Multiple -m options can be given, the following are supported:

ARM

-mlittle-endian -mbig-endian -mfpe=fpa -mfpe=vpf -msoft-float -march=armv1 -march=armv2 -march=armv2a -march=armv3 -march=armv4 -march=armv4t -march=armv4tej -march=armv5 -march=armv6 -march=armv6t2 -march=armv6kz -march=armv6k -march=armv7

HPPA

 

i386

 

MIPS

-mlittle-endian -mbig-endian -mhard-float -msoft-float

PDP-10

 

PowerPC

 

Sparc64

 

VAX

 

-nodefaultlibs

Do not link with the system default libraries (libc, etc.)

-nostartfiles

Do not link with the system startup files (crt0.c, etc.)

-nostdinc

Do not use the system include paths (/usr/include, etc.)

-nostdlib

Do not link with the system default libraries or startup files.

-O[level]

Enable compiler optimizations. Currently, for levels higher than zero, this defines __OPTIMIZE__ in the cpp(1) preprocessor, and passes -xdce, -xdeljumps, -xtemps and -xinline to ccom(1). If no level is given the optimization level is -O1. Optimizations can be disabled using -O0. In situations where multiple optimization flags are given, the last flag is the one used.

-o outfile

Save result to outfile.

-P

Inhibit generation of line markers in preprocessor output. This is sometimes useful when running the preprocessor on something other than C code.

-pg

Enable profiling on the generated executable.

-pthread

Defines the _PTHREADS preprocessor identifier for cpp(1), and adds -lpthread to the ld(1) linker arguments.

-S

Stop after compilation by ccom(1). Do not assemble and do not link. The resulting assembler-language output is saved as a filename with a “.s” suffix unless the -o option is used. Note: cannot be combined with -o if multiple files are given.

-s

Passed to ld(1) to remove all symbol table and relocation information from the generated executable. This option is silently ignored if cc does not invoke the linker.

-shared

Create a shared object of the result. Tells the linker not to generate an executable.

-static

Do not use dynamic linkage. By default, it will link using the dynamic linker options and/or shared objects for the platform.

-std=standard

Compile to the specified standard. Accepted values for standard are c89, c99, gnu89, gnu99, gnu9x, and c11.

-t

Passed to cpp(1) to suppress some default macro definitions and enable use of traditional C preprocessor syntax.

-U macro

Passes to the cpp(1) preprocessor to remove the initial macro definition.

-v

Outputs the version of cc and shows commands as they are run with their command line arguments.

-###

As per -v except that the commands are not run, and the arguments will be quoted if they contain unusual characters or spaces.

-Wa,options

Comma separated list of options for the assembler.

-Wc,options

Comma separated list of options for the compiler.

-Wl,options

Comma separated list of options for the linker.

-Wp,options

Comma separated list of options for the preprocessor.

-X

Don't remove temporary files on exit.

-x language

GCC compatibility option; specify the language in use rather than interpreting the filename extension. Currently known language values are none, c, c++, assembler and assembler-with-cpp. Any unknown -x options are passed to ccom(1).

-z keyword

Passed to ld(1). Please refer to the documentation of your linker for acceptable values of keyword.

SEE ALSO¶

as(1), ccom(1), cpp(1), ld(1)

HISTORY¶

The cc command comes from the original Portable C Compiler by
S. C. Johnson, written in the late 70's.

This product includes software developed or owned by Caldera International, Inc.