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Setup developement environment and first program

This document covers setting up compilers and a text editor. It also covers a basic program, that can run to check if everything works.

C is a compiled language, so inorder to run your C program, you need a compiler. GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) is a widely used compiler because its free, open source, and widely available.

You also need a text editor to write your code. You can use anything from command line text editors like Vi(m), Nano or Emacs, to graphical text editors like VS-Code, KATE, Gedit, Notepad(++). This reference assumes you want to use VS-Code. This is because VS-Code is a good beginner's text editor and has support for a wide variety of plugins, some of which are used and mentioned in this reference document. This allows users to compile and run with the click of a button. VS-code is also widely available across many operating systems.

We will also be using Make, a powerfull build tool for automating C builds.

Download and install GCC and Make​

GCC and make are available in most linux distributions.

Arch Linux​

On Arch Linux or derivatives distributions, GCC can be looked for or installed by:

# Check if GCC and make are present in your system:
pacman -Qi gcc
pacman -Qi make

# If gcc is not present, install GCC
sudo pacman -S gcc make

# Install everything:
sudo pacman -S base-devel

Debian/Ubuntu​

On Debian, Ubuntu or it's derivatives,

# Check if GCC is present in your system:
apt search gcc
apt search make

# If gcc is not present, install GCC
sudo apt install gcc make

# Install everything:
sudo apt install build-essential

Fedora/RHEL​

For RHEL, Fedora, CentOS, or it's derivatives,

# Check if GCC is present in your system:
dnf info gcc
dnf info make

# If gcc is not present, install GCC
sudo dnf install gcc make

# Install everything:
sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools"

MacOS X​

For MacOS, download the HomeBrew package manager and install gcc and make by:

brew install gcc make

Windows 10/11​

For Windows, ideally the best option is to use Windows Subsystem for Linux - WSL, and then follow the steps for either Debian/Ubuntu, Arch or Fedora.

Alternatively, you can install MinGW, and a UNIX like terminal such as MobaXTerm.

Download Visual Studio Code​

Visual Studio Code, commonly referred to as VS Code, is an integrated development environment developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, MacOS and web browsers.

Arch Linux​

On Arch Linux or derivatives distributions, the AUR version should be installed. This is because the VS Code version in the repository doesn't have support for extensions.

# Install manually (requires git)
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/visual-studio-code-bin.git
cd visual-studio-code-bin
makepkg -sirc

# If you have chaotic AUR enabled,
sudo pacman -S visual-studio-code-bin

# Use a build tool
paru visual-studio-code-bin
yay -S visual-studio-code-bin

Debian/Ubuntu​

On Debian, Ubuntu or their derivatives, you can download the .deb file and install it using

sudo apt install ./<file>.deb

You can also enable Microsoft repositories. This allows you to update vs-code via apt upgrade.

sudo apt install wget gpg -y

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/packages.microsoft.gpg > /dev/null

echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/packages.microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/code stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update

sudo apt install code -y

Fedora/RHEL​

For Fedora, RHEL, CentOS or derivative operating systems, you can download .rpm file. You can install this file using dnf or rpm

# dnf
sudo dnf install ./vscode.rpm -y

# rpm
sudo rpm -i vscode.rpm

Just like Debian, you can optionally enable Microsoft repositories and get VS Code from there. This allows you to update vs-code via dnf check-update.

# Add Microsoft Repository
sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/vscode.repo <<EOF
[code]
name=Visual Studio Code
baseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/vscode
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
EOF

# Update Package List:
sudo dnf check-update

# Install VS Code:
sudo dnf install code -y

MacOS​

VS Code can be installed on MacOS using HomeBrew.

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Windows​

Download VS Code, and follow the instructions to install VS Code on Windows.

Setup VS Code​

Once you open VS Code, press CTRL + SHIFT + X to open the extensions window. We will install the following extensions,

  • Code Runner
  • C/C++ extension from Microsoft (for Intellisense)
  • Makefile tools

Search for these, and click on install to install them. You may need to restart VS Code in order for them to work properly.

Enable run code in Code Runner​

In Code runner, select the following settings:

  • Clear Previous Output
  • Run In Terminal
  • Save File Before Run
  • Show Run Command In Editor Title Menu

Some of them might have already been checked so just check the one's that aren't.

First Program​

Copy and paste the program below into a new text file in VS Code. Name the file hello.c.

#include <stdio.h>  // Include standard I/O library

int main() {
    printf("Hello, World!\n");  // Print to console
    return 0;  // Exit program successfully
}

Test Code Runner​

Press the run button on the top right hand side of the editor.

Test Make​

In order to test make, create a new file, name it Makefile, and copy the following code in it. While this might seem like an overkill for just a simple program, it is an important tool for large applications.

CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -Wall

all: hello

hello: hello.c
	$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o hello hello.c

clean:
	rm -f hello

You can build and run using,

# Build the binary
make

# Run the binary
./hello

# Remove the binary
make clean

Directory Structure​

.
├── hello.c
└── Makefile

1 directory, 2 files

Program Explaination​

Header File​

#include <stdio.h> is the C standard input and output library. It contains the function declation for the printf() function. We will look at this in more details when we cover modular programming.

Functions​

This program contains two functions. Functions will be covered later. The two functions are

  • main()
  • printf()

main() is the starting point of a C program. Every C program should have a main(). It is called at program startup in C. The type of this function in int. In older C books, main is written without int. This is because older C compilers assumed the type of main to be int. However, in modern C, it is a good practice to set the type of main to int.

printf() is a C standard library function that formats text and writes it to standard output.

Escape Sequence​

\n is a newline escape sequence. It ensures that the next bit of text is printed on the newline.

Return Statement​

Since the type of main() is int, it needs to return an integer. The return keyword specifies what the program should return. In this case, we want the program to return 0, which means that it ran successfully.

Comments​

A single line comment can be made using //. It can be used anywhere, after a statement, or in newline. A multiline comment can be made using /* */.

Last updated on by demonkiller