How can I compile and run C/C++ code in a Unix console or Mac terminal?

If it is a simple single-source program,

make foo

where the source file is foo.c, foo.cpp, etc., you don’t even need a makefile. Make has enough built-in rules to build your source file into an executable of the same name, minus the extension.

Running the executable just built is the same as running any program - but you will most often need to specify the path to the executable as the shell will only search what is in $PATH to find executables, and most often that does not include the current directory (.).

So to run the built executable foo:

./foo

gcc main.cpp -o main.out
./main.out

All application execution in a Unix (Linux, Mac OS X, AIX, etc.) environment depends on the executable search path.

You can display this path in the terminal with this command:

echo $PATH

On Mac OS X (by default) this will display the following colon separated search path:

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

So any executable in the listed directories can by run just by typing in their name. For example:

cat mytextfile.txt

This runs /bin/cat and displays mytextfile.txt to the terminal.

To run any other command that is not in the executable search path requires that you qualify the path to the executable. So say I had an executable called MyProgram in my home directory on Mac OS X I can fully qualify it like so:

/Users/oliver/MyProgram

If you are in a location that is near the program you wished to execute you can qualify the name with a partial path. For example, if MyProgram was in the directory /Users/oliver/MyProject I and I was in my home directory I can qualify the executable name like this, and have it execute:

MyProject/MyProgram

Or say I was in the directory /Users/oliver/MyProject2 and I wanted to execute /Users/oliver/MyProject/MyProgram I can use a relative path like this, to execute it:

../MyProject/MyProgram

Similarly if I am in the same directory as MyProgram I need to use a "current directory" relative path. The current directory you are in is the period character followed by a slash. For example:

./MyProgram

To determine which directory you are currently in use the pwd command.

If you are commonly putting programs in a place on your hard disk that you wish to run without having to qualify their names. For example, if you have a "bin" directory in your home directory for regularly used shell scripts of other programs it may be wise to alter your executable search path.

This can be does easily by either creating or editing the existing .bash_profile file in your home directory and adding the lines:

#!/bin/sh
export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

Here the tilde (~) character is being used as a shortcut for /Users/oliver. Also note that the hash bang (#!) line needs to be the first line of the file (if it doesn't already exist). Note also that this technique requires that your login shell be bash (the default on Mac OS X and most Linux distributions). Also note that if you want your programs installed in ~/bin to be used in preference to system executables your should reorder the export statement as follows:

export PATH=~/bin:$PATH

Assuming the current directory is not in the path, the syntax is ./[name of the program].

For example ./a.out

Add the following to get the best warnings, and you will not regret it. If you can, compile using WISE (warning is error).

- Wall -pedantic -Weffc++ -Werror

Step 1 - create a cpp file using the command

touch test.cpp

Step 2 - Run this command

g++ test.cpp

Step 3 - Run your cpp file

./a.out

I am on a new MacBook Pro with the Apple M1 Pro chip. I have my Xcode installed - both IDE and command line tools. This is how it worked for me:

g++ one.cpp -o one

./one

Use a makefile. Even for very small (= one-file) projects, the effort is probably worth it because you can have several sets of compiler settings to test things. Debugging and deployment works much easier this way.

Read the make manual. It seems quite long at first glance, but most sections you can just skim over. All in all, it took me a few hours and made me much more productive.

Just enter in the directory in which your .c/.cpp file is.

For compiling and running C code.

gcc filename.c
./a.out filename.c

For compiling and running C++ code.

g++ filename.cpp
./a.out filename.cpp

In order to compile and run C++ source code from a Mac terminal, one needs to do the following:

1. If the path of .cpp file is somePath/fileName.cpp, first go the directory with path somePath
2. To compile fileName.cpp, type c++ fileName.cpp -o fileName
3. To run the program, type ./fileName

For running C++ files, run the below command, assuming the file name is "main.cpp".

1. Compile to make an object file from C++ file.

   g++ -c main.cpp -o main.o
   

2. Since #include <conio.h> is not supported on macOS, we should use its alternative which is supported on Mac. That is #include <curses.h>. Now the object file needs to be converted to an executable file. To use file curses.h, we have to use library -lcurses.

   g++ -o main main.o -lcurses
   

3. Now run the executable.

   ./main
   

You need to go into the folder where you have saved your file. To compile the code: gcc fileName You can also use the g++ fileName This will compile your code and create a binary. Now look for the binary in the same folder and run it.