Is there a way to just get the compiler binaries?..

Is there a way to just get the compiler binaries?..

[Alex K]

Hello,

I wanted to try the C compiler -- just the compiler, no libraries or IDEs.
The latest TAR expands for hours and has a lot of stuff I do not need.

I want a tool which I can use on command line, provide some options and get the EXE file.
Is this available?

================================
Alex.

Re: Is there a way to just get the compiler binaries?..

[Jonathan Wakely]

On Wed, 24 Feb 2021, 19:55 Alex K via Gcc-help, <gcc-help@gcc.gnu.org>
wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I wanted to try the C compiler -- just the compiler, no libraries or IDEs.
>

GCC doesn't come with an IDE, nor a C library.


The latest TAR expands for hours


Are you doing it on a pocket calculator?



 and has a lot of stuff I do not need.


> I want a tool which I can use on command line, provide some options and
> get the EXE file.
> Is this available?
>

That's what GCC is.

We don't provide precompiled binaries for GCC though, you'll need to
download that from somewhere else. I'm guessing from "EXE" you are in
Windows, so consider the MinGW or mingw-w64 projects.



>
>

Re: Is there a way to just get the compiler binaries?..

[David Brown]

On 24/02/2021 20:24, Alex K via Gcc-help wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I wanted to try the C compiler -- just the compiler, no libraries or IDEs.
> The latest TAR expands for hours and has a lot of stuff I do not need.
> 
> I want a tool which I can use on command line, provide some options and get the EXE file.
> Is this available?
> 

gcc /is/ basically just the compiler.  But if you download the tarball
from the gcc website, you get the source code for the entire compiler
collection - including support for multiple languages (not just C), and
language support libraries.  It's a big, complex piece of software, and
you won't be able to use it until you have compiled it.  (But it has no
IDE, debugger, or other tools.)

You don't want "just the compiler" anyway - because that is not
sufficient for producing executables.  You /need/ key libraries, as well
as an assembler and a linker, at a minimum.

If you are using a Linux (or other *nix) system, your distribution will
have all you need - something like "apt-get install build-essential"
will get you the compiler.

For Windows, I recommend installing the msys2 system.  It has a lot more
than just the compiler, but I find it all very useful.  Different people
have different needs and tastes, however.  mingw-64 is probably more
compact if you are short on disk space or bandwidth.


However, the best way to try out gcc (or other compilers) is probably by
using an online compiler.  I can thoroughly recommend the excellent
<https://godbolt.org> site - I use it regularly myself.