Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for RHEL 8

Chapter 2. Creating C or C++ Applications

2.1. Building Code with GCC

Learn about situations where source code must be transformed into executable code.

2.1.1. Relationship between code forms

Prerequisites

  • Understanding the concepts of compiling and linking

Possible code forms

The C and C++ languages have three forms of code:

  • Source code written in the C or C++ language, present as plain text files.

    The files typically use extensions such as .c, .cc, .cpp, .h, .hpp, .i, .inc. For a complete list of supported extensions and their interpretation, see the gcc manual pages: 

    $ man gcc

  • Object code, created by compiling the source code with a compiler. This is an intermediate form.

    The object code files use the .o extension.

  • Executable code, created by linking object code with a linker.

    Linux application executable files do not use any file name extension. Shared object (library) executable files use the .so file name extension.

Note

Library archive files for static linking also exist. This is a variant of object code that uses the .a file name extension. Static linking is not recommended. See Section 2.2.2, “Static and dynamic linking”.

Handling of code forms in GCC

Producing executable code from source code is performed in two steps, which require different applications or tools. GCC can be used as an intelligent driver for both compilers and linkers. This allows you to use a single gcc command for any of the required actions (compiling and linking). GCC automatically selects the actions and their sequence:

  1. Source files are compiled to object files.
  2. Object files and libraries are linked (including the previously compiled sources).

It is possible to run GCC so that it performs only compiling, only linking, or both compiling and linking in a single step. This is determined by the types of inputs and requested type of output(s).

Because larger projects require a build system which usually runs GCC separately for each action, it is better to always consider compilation and linking as two distinct actions, even if GCC can perform both at once.

Additional resources

2.1.2. Compiling source files to object code

To create object code files from source files and not an executable file immediately, GCC must be instructed to create only object code files as its output. This action represents the basic operation of the build process for larger projects.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory containing the source code file(s).

  2. Run gcc with the -c option: 

    $ gcc -c source.c another_source.c

    Object files are created, with their file names reflecting the original source code files: source.c results in source.o.

    Note

    With C++ source code, replace the gcc command with g++ for convenient handling of C++ Standard Library dependencies.

Additional resources

2.1.3. Enabling debugging of C and C++ applications with GCC

Because debugging information is large, it is not included in executable files by default. To enable debugging of your C and C++ applications with it, you must explicitly instruct the compiler to create it.

To enable creation of debugging information with GCC when compiling and linking code, use the -g option: 

$ gcc ... -g ...
  • Optimizations performed by the compiler and linker can result in executable code which is hard to relate to the original source code: variables may be optimized out, loops unrolled, operations merged into the surrounding ones, and so on. This affects debugging negatively. For improved debugging experience, consider setting the optimization with the -Og option. However, changing the optimization level changes the executable code and may change the actual behaviour including removing some bugs.
  • To also include macro definitions in the debug information, use the -g3 option instead of -g.
  • The -fcompare-debug GCC option tests code compiled by GCC with debug information and without debug information. The test passes if the resulting two binary files are identical. This test ensures that executable code is not affected by any debugging options, which further ensures that there are no hidden bugs in the debug code. Note that using the -fcompare-debug option significantly increases compilation time. See the GCC manual page for details about this option.

Additional resources

2.1.4. Code optimization with GCC

A single program can be transformed into more than one sequence of machine instructions. You can achieve a more optimal result if you allocate more resources to analyzing the code during compilation.

With GCC, you can set the optimization level using the -Olevel option. This option accepts a set of values in place of the level.

LevelDescription

0

Optimize for compilation speed - no code optimization (default).

1, 2, 3

Optimize to increase code execution speed (the larger the number, the greater the speed).

s

Optimize for file size.

fast

Same as a level 3 setting, plus fast disregards strict standards compliance to allow for additional optimizations.

g

Optimize for debugging experience.

For release builds, use the optimization option -O2.

During development, the -Og option is useful for debugging the program or library in some situations. Because some bugs manifest only with certain optimization levels, test the program or library with the release optimization level.

GCC offers a large number of options to enable individual optimizations. For more information, see the following Additional resources.

Additional resources

2.1.5. Options for hardening code with GCC

When the compiler transforms source code to object code, it can add various checks to prevent commonly exploited situations and increase security. Choosing the right set of compiler options can help produce more secure programs and libraries, without having to change the source code.

Release version options

The following list of options is the recommended minimum for developers targeting Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 

$ gcc ... -O2 -g -Wall -Wl,-z,now,-z,relro -fstack-protector-strong -fstack-clash-protection -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 ...
  • For programs, add the -fPIE and -pie Position Independent Executable options.
  • For dynamically linked libraries, the mandatory -fPIC (Position Independent Code) option indirectly increases security.

Development options

Use the following options to detect security flaws during development. Use these options in conjunction with the options for the release version: 

$ gcc ... -Walloc-zero -Walloca-larger-than -Wextra -Wformat-security -Wvla-larger-than ...

Additional resources

2.1.6. Linking code to create executable files

Linking is the final step when building a C or C++ application. Linking combines all object files and libraries into an executable file.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory containing the object code file(s).

  2. Run gcc: 

    $ gcc ... objfile.o another_object.o ... -o executable-file

    An executable file named executable-file is created from the supplied object files and libraries.

    To link additional libraries, add the required options after the list of object files. For more information, see Section 2.2, “Using Libraries with GCC”.

    Note

    With C++ source code, replace the gcc command with g++ for convenient handling of C++ Standard Library dependencies.

Additional resources

2.1.7. Example: Building a C program with GCC (compiling and linking in one step)

This example shows the exact steps to build a simple sample C program.

In this example, compiling and linking the code is done in one step.

Prerequisites

  • You must understand how to use GCC.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory hello-c and change to it: 

    $ mkdir hello-c
$ cd hello-c

  2. Create file hello.c with the following contents: 

    #include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  printf("Hello, World!\n");
  return 0;
}

  3. Compile and link the code with GCC: 

    $ gcc hello.c -o helloworld

    This compiles the code, creates the object file hello.o, and links the executable file helloworld from the object file.

  4. Run the resulting executable file: 

    $ ./helloworld
Hello, World!

Additional resources

2.1.8. Example: Building a C program with GCC (compiling and linking in two steps)

This example shows the exact steps to build a simple sample C program.

In this example, compiling and linking the code are two separate steps.

Prerequisites

  • You must understand how to use GCC.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory hello-c and change to it: 

    $ mkdir hello-c
$ cd hello-c

  2. Create file hello.c with the following contents: 

    #include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  printf("Hello, World!\n");
  return 0;
}

  3. Compile the code with GCC: 

    $ gcc -c hello.c

    The object file hello.o is created.

  4. Link an executable file helloworld from the object file: 

    $ gcc hello.o -o helloworld

  5. Run the resulting executable file: 

    $ ./helloworld
Hello, World!

Additional resources

2.1.9. Example: Building a C++ program with GCC (compiling and linking in one step)

This example shows the exact steps to build a sample minimal C++ program.

In this example, compiling and linking the code is done in one step.

Prerequisites

  • You must understand the difference between gcc and g++.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory hello-cpp and change to it: 

    $ mkdir hello-cpp
$ cd hello-cpp

  2. Create file hello.cpp with the following contents: 

    #include <iostream>

int main() {
  std::cout << "Hello, World!\n";
  return 0;
}

  3. Compile and link the code with g++: 

    $ g++ hello.cpp -o helloworld

    This compiles the code, creates the object file hello.o, and links the executable file helloworld from the object file.

  4. Run the resulting executable file: 

    $ ./helloworld
Hello, World!

2.1.10. Example: Building a C++ program with GCC (compiling and linking in two steps)

This example shows the exact steps to build a sample minimal C++ program.

In this example, compiling and linking the code are two separate steps.

Prerequisites

  • You must understand the difference between gcc and g++.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory hello-cpp and change to it: 

    $ mkdir hello-cpp
$ cd hello-cpp

  2. Create file hello.cpp with the following contents: 

    #include <iostream>

int main() {
  std::cout << "Hello, World!\n";
  return 0;
}

  3. Compile the code with g++: 

    $ g++ -c hello.cpp

    The object file hello.o is created.

  4. Link an executable file helloworld from the object file: 

    $ g++ hello.o -o helloworld

  5. Run the resulting executable file: 

    $ ./helloworld
Hello, World!

2.2. Using Libraries with GCC

Learn about using libraries in code.

2.2.1. Library naming conventions

A special file name convention is used for libraries: a library known as foo is expected to exist as file libfoo.so or libfoo.a. This convention is automatically understood by the linking input options of GCC, but not by the output options:

  • When linking against the library, the library can be specified only by its name foo with the -l option as -lfoo: 

    $ gcc ... -lfoo ...
  • When creating the library, the full file name libfoo.so or libfoo.a must be specified.

Additional resources

2.2.2. Static and dynamic linking

Developers have a choice of using static or dynamic linking when building applications with fully compiled languages. It is important to understand the differences between static and dynamic linking, particularly in the context using the C and C++ languages on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. To summarize, Red Hat discourages the use of static linking in applications for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Comparison of static and dynamic linking

Static linking makes libraries part of the resulting executable file. Dynamic linking keeps these libraries as separate files.

Dynamic and static linking can be compared in a number of ways:

Resource use

Static linking results in larger executable files which contain more code. This additional code coming from libraries cannot be shared across multiple programs on the system, increasing file system usage and memory usage at run time. Multiple processes running the same statically linked program will still share the code.

On the other hand, static applications need fewer run-time relocations, leading to reduced startup time, and require less private resident set size (RSS) memory. Generated code for static linking can be more efficient than for dynamic linking due to the overhead introduced by position-independent code (PIC).

Security
Dynamically linked libraries which provide ABI compatibility can be updated without changing the executable files depending on these libraries. This is especially important for libraries provided by Red Hat as part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, where Red Hat provides security updates. Static linking against any such libraries is strongly discouraged.
Compatibility

Static linking appears to provide executable files independent of the versions of libraries provided by the operating system. However, most libraries depend on other libraries. With static linking, this dependency becomes inflexible and as a result, both forward and backward compatibility is lost. Static linking is guaranteed to work only on the system where the executable file was built.

Warning

Applications linking statically libraries from the GNU C library (glibc) still require glibc to be present on the system as a dynamic library. Furthermore, the dynamic library variant of glibc available at the application’s run time must be a bitwise identical version to that present while linking the application. As a result, static linking is guaranteed to work only on the system where the executable file was built.

Support coverage
Most static libraries provided by Red Hat are in the CodeReady Linux Builder channel and not supported by Red Hat.
Functionality

Some libraries, notably the GNU C Library (glibc), offer reduced functionality when linked statically.

For example, when statically linked, glibc does not support threads and any form of calls to the dlopen() function in the same program.

As a result of the listed disadvantages, static linking should be avoided at all costs, particularly for whole applications and the glibc and libstdc++ libraries.

Cases for static linking

Static linking might be a reasonable choice in some cases, such as:

  • Using a library which is not enabled for dynamic linking.
  • Fully static linking can be required for running code in an empty chroot environment or container. However, static linking using the glibc-static package is not supported by Red Hat.

Additional resources

2.2.3. Using a library with GCC

A library is a package of code which can be reused in your program. A C or C++ library consists of two parts:

  • The library code
  • Header files

Compiling code that uses a library

The header files describe the interface of the library: the functions and variables available in the library. Information from the header files is needed for compiling the code.

Typically, header files of a library will be placed in a different directory than your application’s code. To tell GCC where the header files are, use the -I option: 

$ gcc ... -Iinclude_path ...

Replace include_path with the actual path to the header file directory.

The -I option can be used multiple times to add multiple directories with header files. When looking for a header file, these directories are searched in the order of their appearance in the -I options.

Linking code that uses a library

When linking the executable file, both the object code of your application and the binary code of the library must be available. The code for static and dynamic libraries is present in different forms:

  • Static libraries are available as archive files. They contain a group of object files. The archive file has a file name extension .a.
  • Dynamic libraries are available as shared objects. They are a form of an executable file. A shared object has a file name extension .so.

To tell GCC where the archives or shared object files of a library are, use the -L option: 

$ gcc ... -Llibrary_path -lfoo ...

Replace library_path with the actual path to the library directory.

The -L option can be used multiple times to add multiple directories. When looking for a library, these directories are searched in the order of their -L options.

The order of options matters: GCC cannot link against a library foo unless it knows the directory with this library. Therefore, use the -L options to specify library directories before using the -l options for linking against libraries.

Compiling and linking code which uses a library in one step

When the situation allows the code to be compiled and linked in one gcc command, use the options for both situations mentioned above at once.

Additional resources

2.2.4. Using a static library with GCC

Static libraries are available as archives containing object files. After linking, they become part of the resulting executable file.

Note

Red Hat discourages use of static linking for security reasons. See Section 2.2.2, “Static and dynamic linking”. Use static linking only when necessary, especially against libraries provided by Red Hat.

Prerequisites

Note

Most libraries which are part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are supported for dynamic linking only. The steps below only work for libraries which are not enabled for dynamic linking. See Section 2.2.2, “Static and dynamic linking”.

Procedure

To link a program from source and object files, adding a statically linked library foo, which is to be found as a file libfoo.a:

  1. Change to the directory containing your code.

  2. Compile the program source files with headers of the foo library: 

    $ gcc ... -Iheader_path -c ...

    Replace header_path with a path to a directory containing the header files for the foo library.

  3. Link the program with the foo library: 

    $ gcc ... -Llibrary_path -lfoo ...

    Replace library_path with a path to a directory containing the file libfoo.a.

  4. To run the program later, simply: 

    $ ./program
Warning

The -static GCC option related to static linking forbids all dynamic linking. Instead, use the -Wl,-Bstatic and -Wl,-Bdynamic options to control linker behavior more precisely. See Section 2.2.6, “Using both static and dynamic libraries with GCC”.

2.2.5. Using a dynamic library with GCC

Dynamic libraries are available as standalone executable files, required at both linking time and run time. They stay independent of your application’s executable file.

Prerequisites

  • GCC must be installed on the system.
  • A set of source or object files forming a valid program, requiring some dynamic library foo and no other libraries.
  • The foo library must be available as a file libfoo.so.

Linking a program against a dynamic library

To link a program against a dynamic library foo: 

$ gcc ... -Llibrary_path -lfoo ...

When a program is linked against a dynamic library, the resulting program must always load the library at run time. There are two options for locating the library:

  • Using a rpath value stored in the executable file itself
  • Using the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable at run time

Using a rpath Value Stored in the Executable File

The rpath is a special value saved as a part of an executable file when it is being linked. Later, when the program is loaded from its executable file, the runtime linker will use the rpath value to locate the library files.

While linking with GCC, to store the path library_path as rpath: 

$ gcc ... -Llibrary_path -lfoo -Wl,-rpath=library_path ...

The path library_path must point to a directory containing the file libfoo.so.

Important

Do not add a space after the comma in the -Wl,-rpath= option.

To run the program later: 

$ ./program

Using the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable

If no rpath is found in the program’s executable file, the runtime linker will use the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. The value of this variable must be changed for each program. This value should represent the path where the shared library objects are located.

To run the program without rpath set, with libraries present in path library_path: 

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=library_path:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
$ ./program

Leaving out the rpath value offers flexibility, but requires setting the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable every time the program is to run.

Placing the Library into the Default Directories

The runtime linker configuration specifies a number of directories as a default location of dynamic library files. To use this default behaviour, copy your library to the appropriate directory.

A full description of the dynamic linker behavior is out of scope of this document. For more information, see the following resources:

  • Linux manual pages for the dynamic linker: 

    $ man ld.so

  • Contents of the /etc/ld.so.conf configuration file: 

    $ cat /etc/ld.so.conf

  • Report of the libraries recognized by the dynamic linker without additional configuration, which includes the directories: 

    $ ldconfig -v

2.2.6. Using both static and dynamic libraries with GCC

Sometimes it is required to link some libraries statically and some dynamically. This situation brings some challenges.

Prerequisites

Introduction

gcc recognizes both dynamic and static libraries. When the -lfoo option is encountered, gcc will first attempt to locate a shared object (a .so file) containing a dynamically linked version of the foo library, and then look for the archive file (.a) containing a static version of the library. Thus, the following situations can result from this search:

  • Only the shared object is found, and gcc links against it dynamically.
  • Only the archive is found, and gcc links against it statically.
  • Both the shared object and archive are found, and by default, gcc selects dynamic linking against the shared object.
  • Neither shared object nor archive is found, and linking fails.

Because of these rules, the best way to select the static or dynamic version of a library for linking is having only that version found by gcc. This can be controlled to some extent by using or leaving out directories containing the library versions, when specifying the -Lpath options.

Additionally, because dynamic linking is the default, the only situation where linking must be explicitly specified is when a library with both versions present should be linked statically. There are two possible resolutions:

  • Specifying the static libraries by file path instead of the -l option
  • Using the -Wl option to pass options to the linker

Specifying the static libraries by file

Usually, gcc is instructed to link against the foo library with the -lfoo option. However, it is possible to specify the full path to file libfoo.a containing the library instead: 

$ gcc ... path/to/libfoo.a ...

From the file extension .a, gcc will understand that this is a library to link with the program. However, specifying the full path to the library file is a less flexible method.

Using the -Wl option

The gcc option -Wl is a special option for passing options to the underlying linker. Syntax of this option differs from the other gcc options. The -Wl option is followed by a comma-separated list of linker options, while other gcc options require space-separated list of options.

The ld linker used by gcc offers the options -Bstatic and -Bdynamic to specify whether libraries following this option should be linked statically or dynamically, respectively. After passing -Bstatic and a library to the linker, the default dynamic linking behaviour must be restored manually for the following libraries to be linked dynamically with the -Bdynamic option.

To link a program, link library first statically (libfirst.a) and second dynamically (libsecond.so): 

$ gcc ... -Wl,-Bstatic -lfirst -Wl,-Bdynamic -lsecond ...
Note

gcc can be configured to use linkers other than the default ld.

Additional resources

2.3. Creating libraries with GCC

Learn about the steps to creating libraries and the necessary concepts used by the Linux operating system for libraries.

2.3.1. Library naming conventions

A special file name convention is used for libraries: a library known as foo is expected to exist as file libfoo.so or libfoo.a. This convention is automatically understood by the linking input options of GCC, but not by the output options:

  • When linking against the library, the library can be specified only by its name foo with the -l option as -lfoo: 

    $ gcc ... -lfoo ...
  • When creating the library, the full file name libfoo.so or libfoo.a must be specified.

Additional resources

2.3.2. The soname mechanism

Dynamically loaded libraries (shared objects) use a mechanism called soname to manage multiple compatible versions of a library.

Prerequisites

Problem introduction

A dynamically loaded library (shared object) exists as an independent executable file. This makes it possible to update the library without updating the applications that depend on it. However, the following problems arise with this concept:

  • Identification of the actual version of the library
  • Need for multiple versions of the same library present
  • Signalling ABI compatibility of each of the multiple versions

The soname mechanism

To resolve this, Linux uses a mechanism called soname.

A foo library version X.Y is ABI-compatible with other versions with the same value of X in a version number. Minor changes preserving compatibility increase the number Y. Major changes that break compatibility increase the number X.

The actual foo library version X.Y exists as a file libfoo.so.x.y. Inside the library file, a soname is recorded with value libfoo.so.x to signal the compatibility.

When applications are built, the linker looks for the library by searching for the file libfoo.so. A symbolic link with this name must exist, pointing to the actual library file. The linker then reads the soname from the library file and records it into the application executable file. Finally, the linker creates the application that declares dependency on the library using the soname, not a name or a file name.

When the runtime dynamic linker links an application before running, it reads the soname from application’s executable file. This soname is libfoo.so.x. A symbolic link with this name must exist, pointing to the actual library file. This allows loading the library, regardless of the Y component of a version, because the soname does not change.

Note

The Y component of the version number is not limited to just a single number. Additionally, some libraries encode their version in their name.

Reading soname from a file

To display the soname of a library file somelibrary: 

$ objdump -p somelibrary | grep SONAME

Replace somelibrary with the actual file name of the library you wish to examine.

2.3.3. Creating dynamic libraries with GCC

Dynamically linked libraries (shared objects) allow:

  • resource conservation through code reuse
  • increased security by making it easier to update the library code

Follow these steps to build and install a dynamic library from source.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Change to the directory with library sources.

  2. Compile each source file to an object file with the Position independent code option -fPIC: 

    $ gcc ... -c -fPIC some_file.c ...

    The object files have the same file names as the original source code files, but their extension is .o.

  3. Link the shared library from the object files: 

    $ gcc -shared -o libfoo.so.x.y -Wl,-soname,libfoo.so.x some_file.o ...

    The used major version number is X and minor version number Y.

  4. Copy the libfoo.so.x.y file to an appropriate location, where the system’s dynamic linker can find it. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the directory for libraries is /usr/lib64: 

    # cp libfoo.so.x.y /usr/lib64

    Note that you need root permissions to manipulate files in this directory.

  5. Create the symlink structure for soname mechanism: 

    # ln -s libfoo.so.x.y libfoo.so.x
# ln -s libfoo.so.x libfoo.so

Additional resources

2.3.4. Creating static libraries with GCC and ar

Creating libraries for static linking is possible through conversion of object files into a special type of archive file.

Note

Red Hat discourages the use of static linking for security reasons. Use static linking only when necessary, especially against libraries provided by Red Hat. See Section 2.2.2, “Static and dynamic linking” for more details.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create intermediate object files with GCC. 

    $ gcc -c source_file.c ...

    Append more source files if required. The resulting object files share the file name but use the .o file name extension.

  2. Turn the object files into a static library (archive) using the ar tool from the binutils package. 

    $ ar rcs libfoo.a source_file.o ...

    File libfoo.a is created.

  3. Use the nm command to inspect the resulting archive: 

    $ nm libfoo.a
  4. Copy the static library file to the appropriate directory.

  5. When linking against the library, GCC will automatically recognize from the .a file name extension that the library is an archive for static linking. 

    $ gcc ... -lfoo ...

Additional resources

  • Linux manual page for ar(1): 

    $ man ar

2.4. Managing More Code with Make

The GNU make utility, commonly abbreviated make, is a tool for controlling the generation of executables from source files. make automatically determines which parts of a complex program have changed and need to be recompiled. make uses configuration files called Makefiles to control the way programs are built.

2.4.1. GNU make and Makefile overview

To create a usable form (usually executable files) from the source files of a particular project, perform several necessary steps. Record the actions and their sequence to be able to repeat them later.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux contains GNU make, a build system designed for this purpose.

Prerequisites

  • Understanding the concepts of compiling and linking

GNU make

GNU make reads Makefiles which contain the instructions describing the build process. A Makefile contains multiple rules that describe a way to satisfy a certain condition (target) with a specific action (recipe). Rules can hierarchically depend on another rule.

Running make without any options makes it look for a Makefile in the current directory and attempt to reach the default target. The actual Makefile file name can be one of Makefile, makefile, and GNUmakefile. The default target is determined from the Makefile contents.

Makefile details

Makefiles use a relatively simple syntax for defining variables and rules, which consists of a target and a recipe. The target specifies what is the output if a rule is executed. The lines with recipes must start with the TAB character.

Typically, a Makefile contains rules for compiling source files, a rule for linking the resulting object files, and a target that serves as the entry point at the top of the hierarchy.

Consider the following Makefile for building a C program which consists of a single file, hello.c. 

all: hello

hello: hello.o
        gcc hello.o -o hello

hello.o: hello.c
        gcc -c hello.c -o hello.o

This example shows that to reach the target all, file hello is required. To get hello, one needs hello.o (linked by gcc), which in turn is created from hello.c (compiled by gcc).

The target all is the default target because it is the first target that does not start with a period (.). Running make without any arguments is then identical to running make all, when the current directory contains this Makefile.

Typical makefile

A more typical Makefile uses variables for generalization of the steps and adds a target "clean" - remove everything but the source files. 

CC=gcc
CFLAGS=-c -Wall
SOURCE=hello.c
OBJ=$(SOURCE:.c=.o)
EXE=hello

all: $(SOURCE) $(EXE)

$(EXE): $(OBJ)
        $(CC) $(OBJ) -o $@

%.o: %.c
        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@

clean:
        rm -rf $(OBJ) $(EXE)

Adding more source files to such Makefile requires only adding them to the line where the SOURCE variable is defined.

Additional resources

2.4.2. Example: Building a C program using a Makefile

Build a sample C program using a Makefile by following the steps in this example.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Create a directory hellomake and change to this directory: 

    $ mkdir hellomake
$ cd hellomake

  2. Create a file hello.c with the following contents: 

    #include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  printf("Hello, World!\n");
  return 0;
}

  3. Create a file Makefile with the following contents: 

    CC=gcc
CFLAGS=-c -Wall
SOURCE=hello.c
OBJ=$(SOURCE:.c=.o)
EXE=hello

all: $(SOURCE) $(EXE)

$(EXE): $(OBJ)
        $(CC) $(OBJ) -o $@

%.o: %.c
        $(CC) $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@

clean:
        rm -rf $(OBJ) $(EXE)
    Important

    The Makefile recipe lines must start with the tab character! When copying the text above from the documentation, the cut-and-paste process may paste spaces instead of tabs. If this happens, correct the issue manually.

  4. Run make: 

    $ make
gcc -c -Wall hello.c -o hello.o
gcc hello.o -o hello

    This creates an executable file hello.

  5. Run the executable file hello: 

    $ ./hello
Hello, World!

  6. Run the Makefile target clean to remove the created files: 

    $ make clean
rm -rf hello.o hello

Additional resources

2.4.3. Documentation resources for make

For more information about make, see the resources listed below.

Installed documentation

  • Use the man and info tools to view manual pages and information pages installed on your system: 

    $ man make
$ info make

Online documentation

2.5. Changes in toolchain since RHEL 7

The following sections list changes in toolchain since the release of the described components in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. See also Release notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0.

2.5.1. Changes in GCC in RHEL 8

In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, the GCC toolchain is based on the GCC 8.2 release series. Notable changes since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 include:

  • Numerous general optimizations have been added, such as alias analysis, vectorizer improvements, identical code folding, inter-procedural analysis, store merging optimization pass, and others.
  • The Address Sanitizer has been improved.
  • The Leak Sanitizer for detection of memory leaks has been added.
  • The Undefined Behavior Sanitizer for detection of undefined behavior has been added.
  • Debug information can now be produced in the DWARF5 format. This capability is experimental.
  • The source code coverage analysis tool GCOV has been extended with various improvements.
  • Support for the OpenMP 4.5 specification has been added. Additionally, the offloading features of the OpenMP 4.0 specification are now supported by the C, C++, and Fortran compilers.
  • New warnings and improved diagnostics have been added for static detection of certain likely programming errors.
  • Source locations are now tracked as ranges rather than points, which allows much richer diagnostics. The compiler now offers “fix-it” hints, suggesting possible code modifications. A spell checker has been added to offer alternative names and ease detecting typos.

Security

GCC has been extended to provide tools to ensure additional hardening of the generated code.

For more details, see Section 2.5.2, “Security enhancements in GCC in RHEL 8”.

Architecture and processor support

Improvements to architecture and processor support include:

  • Multiple new architecture-specific options for the Intel AVX-512 architecture, a number of its microarchitectures, and Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) have been added.
  • Code generation can now target the 64-bit ARM architecture LSE extensions, ARMv8.2-A 16-bit Floating-Point Extensions (FPE), and ARMv8.2-A, ARMv8.3-A, and ARMv8.4-A architecture versions.
  • Handling of the -march=native option on the ARM and 64-bit ARM architectures has been fixed.
  • Support for the z13 and z14 processors of the 64-bit IBM Z architecture has been added.

Languages and standards

Notable changes related to languages and standards include:

  • The default standard used when compiling code in the C language has changed to C17 with GNU extensions.
  • The default standard used when compiling code in the C++ language has changed to C++14 with GNU extensions.
  • The C++ runtime library now supports the C++11 and C++14 standards.
  • The C++ compiler now implements the C++14 standard with many new features such as variable templates, aggregates with non-static data member initializers, the extended constexpr specifier, sized deallocation functions, generic lambdas, variable-length arrays, digit separators, and others.
  • Support for the C language standard C11 has been improved: ISO C11 atomics, generic selections, and thread-local storage are now available.
  • The new __auto_type GNU C extension provides a subset of the functionality of C++11 auto keyword in the C language.
  • The _FloatN and _FloatNx type names specified by the ISO/IEC TS 18661-3:2015 standard are now recognized by the C front end.
  • The default standard used when compiling code in the C language has changed to C17 with GNU extensions. This has the same effect as using the --std=gnu17 option. Previously, the default was C89 with GNU extensions.
  • GCC can now experimentally compile code using the C++17 language standard and certain features from the C++20 standard.
  • Passing an empty class as an argument now takes up no space on the Intel 64 and AMD64 architectures, as required by the platform ABI. Passing or returning a class with only deleted copy and move constructors now uses the same calling convention as a class with a non-trivial copy or move constructor.
  • The value returned by the C++11 alignof operator has been corrected to match the C _Alignof operator and return minimum alignment. To find the preferred alignment, use the GNU extension __alignof__.
  • The main version of the libgfortran library for Fortran language code has been changed to 5.
  • Support for the Ada (GNAT), GCC Go, and Objective C/C++ languages has been removed. Use the Go Toolset for Go code development.

Additional resources

2.5.2. Security enhancements in GCC in RHEL 8

This following are changes in GCC related to security and added since the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0.

New warnings

These warning options have been added:

OptionDisplays warnings for

-Wstringop-truncation

Calls to bounded string manipulation functions such as strncat, strncpy, and stpncpy that might either truncate the copied string or leave the destination unchanged.

-Wclass-memaccess

Objects of non-trivial class types manipulated in potentially unsafe ways by raw memory functions such as memcpy or realloc.

The warning helps detect calls that bypass user-defined constructors or copy-assignment operators, corrupt virtual table pointers, data members of const-qualified types or references, or member pointers. The warning also detects calls that would bypass access controls to data members.

-Wmisleading-indentation

Places where the indentation of the code gives a misleading idea of the block structure of the code to a human reader.

-Walloc-size-larger-than=size

Calls to memory allocation functions where the amount of memory to allocate exceeds size. Works also with functions where the allocation is specified by multiplying two parameters and with any functions decorated with attribute alloc_size.

-Walloc-zero

Calls to memory allocation functions that attempt to allocate zero amount of memory. Works also with functions where the allocation is specified by multiplying two parameters and with any functions decorated with attribute alloc_size.

-Walloca

All calls to the alloca function.

-Walloca-larger-than=size

Calls to the alloca function where the requested memory is more than size.

-Wvla-larger-than=size

Definitions of Variable Length Arrays (VLA) that can either exceed the specified size or whose bound is not known to be sufficiently constrained.

-Wformat-overflow=level

Both certain and likely buffer overflow in calls to the sprintf family of formatted output functions. For more details and explanation of the level value, see the gcc(1) manual page.

-Wformat-truncation=level

Both certain and likely output truncation in calls to the snprintf family of formatted output functions. For more details and explanation of the level value, see the gcc(1) manual page.

-Wstringop-overflow=type

Buffer overflow in calls to string handling functions such as memcpy and strcpy. For more details and explanation of the level value, see the gcc(1) manual page.

Warning improvements

These GCC warnings have been improved:

  • The -Warray-bounds option has been improved to detect more instances of out-of-bounds array indices and pointer offsets. For example, negative or excessive indices into flexible array members and string literals are detected.
  • The -Wrestrict option introduced in GCC 7 has been enhanced to detect many more instances of overlapping accesses to objects via restrict-qualified arguments to standard memory and string manipulation functions such as memcpy and strcpy.
  • The -Wnonnull option has been enhanced to detect a broader set of cases of passing null pointers to functions that expect a non-null argument (decorated with attribute nonnull).

New UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer

A new run-time sanitizer for detecting undefined behavior called UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer has been added. The following options are noteworthy:

OptionCheck

-fsanitize=float-divide-by-zero

Detect floating-point division by zero.

-fsanitize=float-cast-overflow

Check that the result of floating-point type to integer conversions do not overflow.

-fsanitize=bounds

Enable instrumentation of array bounds and detect out-of-bounds accesses.

-fsanitize=alignment

Enable alignment checking and detect various misaligned objects.

-fsanitize=object-size

Enable object size checking and detect various out-of-bounds accesses.

-fsanitize=vptr

Enable checking of C++ member function calls, member accesses, and some conversions between pointers to base and derived classes. Additionally, detect when referenced objects do not have correct dynamic type.

-fsanitize=bounds-strict

Enable strict checking of array bounds. This enables -fsanitize=bounds and instrumentation of flexible array member-like arrays.

-fsanitize=signed-integer-overflow

Diagnose arithmetic overflows even on arithmetic operations with generic vectors.

-fsanitize=builtin

Diagnose at run time invalid arguments to __builtin_clz or __builtin_ctz prefixed builtins. Includes checks from -fsanitize=undefined.

-fsanitize=pointer-overflow

Perform cheap run-time tests for pointer wrapping. Includes checks from -fsanitize=undefined.

New options for AddressSanitizer

These options have been added to AddressSanitizer:

OptionCheck

-fsanitize=pointer-compare

Warn about comparison of pointers that point to a different memory object.

-fsanitize=pointer-subtract

Warn about subtraction of pointers that point to a different memory object.

-fsanitize-address-use-after-scope

Sanitize variables whose address is taken and used after a scope where the variable is defined.

Other sanitizers and instrumentation

  • The option -fstack-clash-protection has been added to insert probes when stack space is allocated statically or dynamically to reliably detect stack overflows and thus mitigate the attack vector that relies on jumping over a stack guard page provided by the operating system.
  • A new option -fcf-protection=[full|branch|return|none] has been added to perform code instrumentation and increase program security by checking that target addresses of control-flow transfer instructions (such as indirect function call, function return, indirect jump) are valid.

Additional resources

  • For more details and explanation of the values supplied to some of the options above, see the gcc(1) manual page: 

    $ man gcc

2.5.3. Compatibility-breaking changes in GCC in RHEL 8

C++ ABI change in std::string and std::list

The Application Binary Interface (ABI) of the std::string and std::list classes from the libstdc++ library changed between RHEL 7 (GCC 4.8) and RHEL 8 (GCC 8) to conform to the C++11 standard. The libstdc++ library supports both the old and new ABI, but some other C++ system libraries do not. As a consequence, applications that dynamically link against these libraries will need to be rebuilt. This affects all C++ standard modes, including C++98. It also affects applications built with Red Hat Developer Toolset compilers for RHEL 7, which kept the old ABI to maintain compatibility with the system libraries.

GCC no longer builds Ada, Go, and Objective C/C++ code

Capability for building code in the Ada (GNAT), GCC Go, and Objective C/C++ languages has been removed from the GCC compiler.

To build Go code, use the Go Toolset instead.