Compiling C with VMware

[mschneider]

I'm trying to learn how to code in C. So i wrote a very simple plugin and tried to compile it in the VMware image using "cc file.c"
I get a ton of errors when compiling and get no output file (no surprise there).
I even just tried writing a simple helloworld

Code: [Select]

main()
{
    printf("Hello, world\n")
}

I get all of the same errors. Is the VMware image just not set up to compile like that (if it isn't does anyone have any suggestions about what i could use to compile) or am i doing something wrong?

[saratoga]

Depends what the error is.  If its " error: expected ; before } token", then its because you didn't put a semicolon after you printf statement.

Since the vmware image can compile rockbox, I doubt the c compiler is broken.  If adding the semicolon doesn't fix it, post the log from your command window.

[mschneider]

sorry, there was a semicolon there (i wasnt copy/pasting my code). Here are the errors i get:

Code: [Select]

user@debian:~$ cc hello.c
hello.c:1: error: syntax error before '{' token
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:1: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2:24: too many decimal points in number
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:2: error: syntax error before "par"
hello.c:3: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:3: error: syntax error before '{' token
hello.c:3: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:4: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:5: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:5: error: stray '\' in program
hello.c:7:1: warning: null character(s) ignored
hello.c:7:1: warning: no newline at end of file

[tdtooke]

Do you have #include stdio.h in there somewhere?

[mschneider]

Why should i have to? Its just a simple printf statement.

[Llorean]

Because "A simple printf statement" still has to be defined somewhere. "stdio" is short for standard input/output (if I recall correctly). printf is part of the standard output.

[saratoga]

It should compile without the include since gcc includes stdio.h by default on every machine i've tried.

More interesting is what is on lines 1 and 2?  I see thats where the errors are coming from, but you haven't included them in your code.

[tdtooke]

When I tried to compile that with wxdevcpp it required me to have that include.  When I just ran mingw32-gcc it did compile.  Not sure what the deal is since wxdevcpp would've just ran mingw32-gcc to compile that anyway, but it's a thought.

Edit: It compiles with cygwin as well.  Only thing I can think of at this point is making sure there is a blank line at the end of your file.  Some compilers seem to like that in my experiences.

[mschneider]

Ok, but what about all the "stray '\' in program" errors? The helloworld code i posted first is the entire file i'm trying to compile. But there are not backslashes on lines 1, 2 or 4.

[saratoga]

Ok, but what about all the "stray '\' in program" errors? The helloworld code i posted first is the entire file i'm trying to compile. But there are not backslashes on lines 1, 2 or 4.

The program you posted is 5 lines long, the one you tried to compile is 7 lines long.  Type "cat hello.c" and post what it gives you.

[GodEater]

Also - the "cc" command is ambiguous across different linux distros. Make *sure* your VMWare image is calling gcc, and not some bizarre alias to it by explicitly calling it - so do :

gcc hello.c -o hello

[mschneider]

Alright, thanks for all of your help. I'll give it a try.

[bluebrother]

I also suggest reading a good C book while trying -- "The C programming language" by Kernighan & Ritchie isn't the easiest book for beginners but a really good one.

[mschneider]

  In Fact, that's exactly what i've been reading! My dad had a couple lying around so i've been using that to get me started for the past week or so.

[mschneider]

Ok, so i've got everything compiling (it turns out all the stray '\'s were a result of how i was saving the file). I get a.out but i cant run it. When it type a.out into the terminal i just get a "command not found". I'm probably not going about running this the right way so could someone help me?