DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / tcc / tcc.1.en
TCC-DOC(1) Tiny C Compiler TCC-DOC(1)

tcc - Tiny C Compiler

usage: tcc [options] [infile1 infile2...] [-run infile args...]

TCC options are a very much like gcc options. The main difference is that TCC can also execute directly the resulting program and give it runtime arguments.

Here are some examples to understand the logic:

"tcc -run a.c"
Compile a.c and execute it directly
"tcc -run a.c arg1"
Compile a.c and execute it directly. arg1 is given as first argument to the "main()" of a.c.
"tcc a.c -run b.c arg1"
Compile a.c and b.c, link them together and execute them. arg1 is given as first argument to the "main()" of the resulting program.
"tcc -o myprog a.c b.c"
Compile a.c and b.c, link them and generate the executable myprog.
"tcc -o myprog a.o b.o"
link a.o and b.o together and generate the executable myprog.
"tcc -c a.c"
Compile a.c and generate object file a.o.
"tcc -c asmfile.S"
Preprocess with C preprocess and assemble asmfile.S and generate object file asmfile.o.
"tcc -c asmfile.s"
Assemble (but not preprocess) asmfile.s and generate object file asmfile.o.
"tcc -r -o ab.o a.c b.c"
Compile a.c and b.c, link them together and generate the object file ab.o.

Scripting:

TCC can be invoked from scripts, just as shell scripts. You just need to add "#!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run" at the start of your C source:

        #!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run
        #include <stdio.h>
        
        int main() 
        {
            printf("Hello World\n");
            return 0;
        }

TCC can read C source code from standard input when - is used in place of infile. Example:

        echo 'main(){puts("hello");}' | tcc -run -

Generate an object file.
Put object file, executable, or dll into output file outfile.
Compile file source and run it with the command line arguments args. In order to be able to give more than one argument to a script, several TCC options can be given after the -run option, separated by spaces: 

        tcc "-run -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11" ex4.c

In a script, it gives the following header:

        #!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run -L/usr/X11R6/lib -lX11
Display TCC version.
Show included files. As sole argument, print search dirs. -vvv shows tries too.
Display compilation statistics.

Preprocessor options:

Specify an additional include path. Include paths are searched in the order they are specified.

System include paths are always searched after. The default system include paths are: /usr/local/include, /usr/include and PREFIX/lib/tcc/include. (PREFIX is usually /usr or /usr/local).

Define preprocessor symbol sym to val. If val is not present, its value is 1. Function-like macros can also be defined: -DF(a)=a+1
Undefine preprocessor symbol sym.
Preprocess only, to stdout or file (with -o).

Compilation flags:

Note: each of the following options has a negative form beginning with -fno-.

Let the "char" type be unsigned.
Let the "char" type be signed.
Do not generate common symbols for uninitialized data.
Add a leading underscore at the beginning of each C symbol.
Allow a MS C compiler extensions to the language. Currently this assumes a nested named structure declaration without an identifier behaves like an unnamed one.
Allow dollar signs in identifiers

Warning options:

Disable all warnings.

Note: each of the following warning options has a negative form beginning with -Wno-.

Warn about implicit function declaration.
Warn about unsupported GCC features that are ignored by TCC.
Make string constants be of type "const char *" instead of "char *".
Abort compilation if warnings are issued.
Activate all warnings, except -Werror, -Wunusupported and -Wwrite-strings.

Linker options:

Specify an additional static library path for the -l option. The default library paths are /usr/local/lib, /usr/lib and /lib.
Link your program with dynamic library libxxx.so or static library libxxx.a. The library is searched in the paths specified by the -L option and LIBRARY_PATH variable.
Set the path where the tcc internal libraries (and include files) can be found (default is PREFIX/lib/tcc).
Generate a shared library instead of an executable.
set name for shared library to be used at runtime
Generate a statically linked executable (default is a shared linked executable).
Export global symbols to the dynamic linker. It is useful when a library opened with "dlopen()" needs to access executable symbols.
Generate an object file combining all input files.
Put custom search path for dynamic libraries into executable.
When putting a custom search path for dynamic libraries into the executable, create the new ELF dynamic tag DT_RUNPATH instead of the old legacy DT_RPATH.
Use fmt as output format. The supported output formats are:
"elf32-i386"
ELF output format (default)
"binary"
Binary image (only for executable output)
"coff"
COFF output format (only for executable output for TMS320C67xx target)
Export global symbols to the dynamic linker. It is useful when a library opened with "dlopen()" needs to access executable symbols.
Set type for PE (Windows) executables.
Modify executable layout.
Set DT_SYMBOLIC tag.
Turn on/off linking of all objects in archives.

Debugger options:

Generate run time debug information so that you get clear run time error messages: " test.c:68: in function 'test5()': dereferencing invalid pointer" instead of the laconic "Segmentation fault".
Generate additional support code to check memory allocations and array/pointer bounds. -g is implied. Note that the generated code is slower and bigger in this case. The bound checking code is not included in shared libraries. The main executable should always be compiled with the -b.

There are five environment variables that can be used:

Print warning when pointer add creates an illegal pointer.
Print bound checking calls. Can be used for debugging.
Print heap objects that are not freed at exit of program.
Print statistic information at exit of program.
Try to continue in case of a bound checking error.

Note: -b is only available on i386 (linux and windows), x86_64 (linux and windows), arm, arm64 and riscv64 for the moment.

Display N callers in stack traces. This is useful with -g or -b. With executables, additional support for stack traces is included.

A function " int tcc_backtrace(const char *fmt, ...); " is provided to trigger a stack trace with a message on demand.

Misc options:

Generate makefile fragment with dependencies.
Use depfile as output for -MD.
Print the configured installation directory and a list of library and include directories tcc will search.
Print version.

Target specific options:

Use an algorithm for bitfield alignment consistent with MSVC. Default is gcc's algorithm.
Select the float ABI. Possible values: "softfp" and "hard"
Do not use sse registers on x86_64
Pass command line to the i386/x86_64 cross compiler.

Note: GCC options -Ox, -fx and -mx are ignored.

Environment variables that affect how tcc operates.

A colon-separated list of directories searched for include files, directories given with -I are searched first.
A colon-separated list of directories searched for libraries for the -l option, directories given with -L are searched first.

cpp(1), gcc(1)

Fabrice Bellard

2020-08-14 0.9.27