In C programming, the term “command line” usually refers to a method by which users can interact with programs or the operating system via textual commands.
When it comes to C, this could refer to two related but different things:
- Command-Line Arguments:
C programs can accept command-line arguments, which are parameters passed to the program when it is started from the command line. The signature of themain()
function in a C program can be set up to accept these arguments, like so:int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { // ... }
Here,argc
is the argument count, andargv
is an array of argument values. This is a standard way in C to handle command-line arguments. - Command-Line Compilation:
C programs are typically compiled from the command line using a compiler like GCC (GNU Compiler Collection). Here’s an example of how you might compile a C program from the command line:gcc -o my_program my_program.c
In this command:gcc
is the compiler,-o my_program
specifies the output file name for the compiled program,my_program.c
is the source file being compiled.
-Wall
to enable all compiler warnings, or-g
to include debugging information in the output.
These two aspects of “command lines” in C demonstrate the language’s close relationship with the underlying system and its flexibility in being controlled and manipulated via textual commands.