Practical C++

Chapter 19. Compiling, Linking, and Debugging

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• Understand how compilers work

• Resolve compiler errors

• Understand how linkers work

• Resolve linker errors

• Automate builds using make files

• Find and fix buggy code

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Exploring the Compiler

After you have written the source code for a program, you must build an executable file by compiling your source files and linking the resulting object modules with any other object modules or libraries needed by the program. Chapter 1, “Getting Started with C++,” introduces you to the compiler, and by now, you’ve undoubtedly had some hands-on experience building programs. Let’s consider the compiler. Generally speaking, compiling is the process of converting your text files (source code) into binary object ...