Write a script that compiles a C file but does not link

Bash script that does preprocessing, compiling, and assembly without linking

UpdatedJune 4, 2022

Write a script that compiles a C file but does not link

Heya! 👋 I love helping people, and one of the best ways I do this is by sharing my knowledge and experiences. My journey reflects the power of growth and transformation, and I’m here to document and share it with you.

I started as a pharmacist, practicing at a tertiary hospital in the Northern Region of Ghana. There, I saw firsthand the challenges in healthcare delivery and became fascinated by how technology could offer solutions. This sparked my interest in digital health, a field I believe holds the key to revolutionizing healthcare.

Determined to contribute, I taught myself programming, mastering tools like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, PHP, and more. But I craved deeper knowledge and practical experience. That’s when I joined the ALX Software Engineering program, which became a turning point. Spending over 70 hours a week learning, coding, and collaborating, I transitioned fully into tech.

Today, I am a Software Engineer and Digital Health Solutions Architect, building and contributing to innovative digital health solutions. I combine my healthcare expertise with technical skills to create impactful tools that solve real-world problems in health delivery.

Imposter syndrome has been part of my journey, but I’ve learned to embrace it as a sign of growth. Livestreaming my learning process, receiving feedback, and building in public have been crucial in overcoming self-doubt. Each experience has strengthened my belief in showing up, staying consistent, and growing through challenges.

Through this platform, I document my lessons, challenges, and successes to inspire and guide others—whether you’re transitioning careers, exploring digital health, or diving into software development.

I believe in accountability and the value of shared growth. Your feedback keeps me grounded and motivated to continue this journey. Let’s connect, learn, and grow together! 🚀

Comments (4)

Join the discussion

Zabita Quliyeva2y ago

It is second blog I read written by you and I can say that your explanation is just awesome

Chidiebere Emereuwa2y ago

Your article so far has made me understand c better. Been 4 days now trying to do my first task in ALX.. this is awesome. Thanks

Experience Ten3y ago

I found blogs better to understand compared to videos

Experience Ten3y ago

also in med school bro...Just got into the world of tech. It was confusing at first but its been better since I found this blog

C Programming

Part 2 of 40

From today, I will be starting lessons on C programming in my ALX Software Engineering class and I look forward to sharing with you everything I learn through this series.

Up next

Write a script that compiles a C file and creates an executable named myApp

The question above doesn't expect you to write a C program but rather a bash script that will be used for compiling various C programs. This means you will need to know how to write bash scripts to be able to answer this question. If you don't know w...

More from this blog

Choosing the Right AI Model for the Job

Imagine you have access to several AI models. One is extremely powerful but expensive. Another is fast and cheap but less capable. A third is excellent at coding but weaker at reasoning. Which on

Jun 16, 202610 min read

How Source Documents Make AI More Reliable

In the last lesson, you learned something important: AI can generate information that sounds convincing while still being completely wrong. That happens because AI primarily predicts patterns in langu

Jun 2, 20268 min read

Why AI Sounds Smart Even When It Is Wrong

One of the strangest things about modern AI is this: It can sound extremely intelligent while still being completely wrong. That is what makes AI both impressive and dangerous at the same time. You

Jun 2, 20269 min read

Prompt Engineering: Thinking Like a Professional AI User

At this point, you already understand something many AI users never fully realize: AI does not read prompts like humans do. It processes: tokens patterns structure and attention distribution Tha

May 30, 20268 min read

How AI actually processes your prompt under the hood

One of the biggest mistakes people make when using AI is assuming the AI reads like a human. It does not. Humans: infer meaning read between the lines fill in missing context guess intentions AI

May 30, 20268 min read

Dr. Ehoneah Obed

86 posts

Software engineer writing about systems: in code, in learning, in life. I reverse-engineer complex problems into frameworks. Pharmacist → SWE → Founder.

In my previous post, I wrote on how you can write a script that preprocesses a C source code and produce the output into a new file.

In that article I described the four main stages of C program compilation;

Preprocessing
Actual compilation
Assembly
Linking

The import of this task is to focus on just the first three stages and returning a result for the third stage.

Thus, the script you write as a solution to this problem will have to take the C source code through preprocessing, followed by the actual compilation stage and finally the assemby stage.

Hence, the output that will be returned is the outcome of the assembly process. Let's take a practical example to discuss how to go about this.

A practical example:

Write a script that compiles a C file but does not link.

- The C file name will be saved in the variable $MYFILE
- The output file should be named the same as the C file, but with the extension .o instead of .c.
- Example: if the C file is test.c, the output file should be test.o

What does the question actually mean?

It is important for you to know that this question is not demanding that you write a C program.

Instead, it is asking that you create a bash script that will be used for the compilation of a given C program and give the output of the assembly process.

However, to be able to write such a bash script, you need to understand how you can compile a C program and convert that step/command into a bash script.

How do I get my C program to be compiled?

There are a number of C compilers that you can use. One of the most common compilers available in almost every Linux distribution is the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).

With the GCC, you can use gcc command in your terminal to compile your C program.

This command can, however, take up different options. The options provided will determine which stages of the compilation your source code will be taken through and the kind of output file you will get.

What `gcc` option is used for the first three stages?

The option to get the output of the assembly stage (including preprocessing, and compilation) is -c.

This means that if you want to do all the first three stages of the compilation, then you have to run the command below;

gcc -c name_of_source_file

where name_of_source_file is the name of the file containing your source code.

You may provide the name you want to give the output file as an attribute to the gcc command with the help of the option -o. That will look like;

gcc -c name_of_source_file -o name_of_output_file

The gcc -c command gives you an output file with the .o extension. Also, if you don't provide the name of the final output file, then it automatically uses the same name as the source code file.

Solution to the practical question

The question was

Write a script that compiles a C file but does not link.

- The C file name will be saved in the variable $MYFILE
- The output file should be named the same as the C file, but with the extension .o instead of .c.
- Example: if the C file is test.c, the output file should be test.o

If you don't know how to write a bash script then check out my previous post on how to do that.

It is also worth noting that the C file which is to be our source code has been saved into a variable called $MYFILE. This means that you should replace the name of the source code file in your command with the variable $MYFILE.

The solution thus will be like:

#!/bin/bash
gcc -c $MYFILE

This means that the script above will compile any source code stored to the variable $MYFILE and give the output in assembler language with the extension .o.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed reading this and it made you understand how to solve a problem like this. I would like to hear back from you, is there anything I missed, or explained wrongly or something you want me to elaborate more on?

Share with me what you also think, mind you I am also learning and your feedback will be valuable to me.

Thanks for reading and I will love to connect personally with you. If you are on Twitter then you can send me a DM and let's have a good chat.

Command Palette