Tiny C Compiler - C Scripting Everywhere - The Smallest ANSI C compiler

Features:

• SMALL! You can compile and execute C code everywhere, for example on rescue disks.

• FAST! tcc generates optimized x86 code. No byte code overhead. Compile, assemble and link about 7 times faster than 'gcc -O0'.

• UNLIMITED! Any C dynamic library can be used directly. TCC is heading toward full ISOC99 compliance. TCC can of course compile itself.

• SAFE! tcc includes an optional memory and bound checker. Bound checked code can be mixed freely with standard code.

• Compile and execute C source directly. No linking or assembly necessary. Full C preprocessor included.

• C script supported : just add '#!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run' at the first line of your C source, and execute it directly from the command line.

Documentation:

1) Installation on a i386/x86_64/arm/aarch64/riscv64 Linux/macOS/FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD hosts.

./configure make make test make install

Notes: For FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD, gmake should be used instead of make. For Windows read tcc-win32.txt.

makeinfo must be installed to compile the doc. By default, tcc is installed in /usr/local/bin. ./configure --help shows configuration options.

2) Introduction

We assume here that you know ANSI C. Look at the example ex1.c to know what the programs look like.

The include file can be used if you want a small basic libc include support (especially useful for floppy disks). Of course, you can also use standard headers, although they are slower to compile.

You can begin your C script with '#!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run' on the first line and set its execute bits (chmod a+x your_script). Then, you can launch the C code as a shell or perl script :-) The command line arguments are put in 'argc' and 'argv' of the main functions, as in ANSI C.

3) Examples

ex1.c: simplest example (hello world). Can also be launched directly as a script: './ex1.c'.

ex2.c: more complicated example: find a number with the four operations given a list of numbers (benchmark).

ex3.c: compute fibonacci numbers (benchmark).

ex4.c: more complicated: X11 program. Very complicated test in fact because standard headers are being used ! As for ex1.c, can also be launched directly as a script: './ex4.c'.

ex5.c: 'hello world' with standard glibc headers.

tcc.c: TCC can of course compile itself. Used to check the code generator.

tcctest.c: auto test for TCC which tests many subtle possible bugs. Used when doing 'make test'.

4) Full Documentation

Please read tcc-doc.html to have all the features of TCC.

Additional information is available for the Windows port in tcc-win32.txt.

License:

TCC is distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (see COPYING file).

Fabrice Bellard.