Can gcc output C code after preprocessing?

I'm using an open source library which seems to have lots of preprocessing directives to support many languages other than C. So that I can study what the library is doing I'd like to see the C code that I'm compiling after preprocessing, more like what I'd write.

Can gcc (or any other tool commonly available in Linux) read this library but output C code that has the preprocessing converted to whatever and is also readable by a human?

Yes. Pass gcc the -E option. This will output preprocessed source code.

cpp is the preprocessor.

Run cpp filename.c to output the preprocessed code, or better, redirect it to a file with cpp filename.c > filename.preprocessed.

I'm using gcc as a preprocessor (for html files.) It does just what you want. It expands "#--" directives, then outputs a readable file. (NONE of the other C/HTML preprocessors I've tried do this- they concatenate lines, choke on special characters, etc.) Asuming you have gcc installed, the command line is:

gcc -E -x c -P -C -traditional-cpp code_before.cpp > code_after.cpp

(Doesn't have to be 'cpp'.) There's an excellent description of this usage at http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/html/cpre.html.

The "-traditional-cpp" preserves whitespace & tabs.

-save-temps

This is another good option to have in mind:

gcc -save-temps -c -o main.o main.c

main.c

#define INC 1

int myfunc(int i) {
    return i + INC;
}

and now, besides the normal output main.o, the current working directory also contains the following files:

• main.i is the desired prepossessed file containing:

  # 1 "main.c"
  # 1 "<built-in>"
  # 1 "<command-line>"
  # 31 "<command-line>"
  # 1 "/usr/include/stdc-predef.h" 1 3 4
  # 32 "<command-line>" 2
  # 1 "main.c"
  
  
  int myfunc(int i) {
      return i + 1;
  }
  

• main.s is a bonus :-) and contains the generated assembly:

  	.file	"main.c"
  	.text
  	.globl	myfunc
  	.type	myfunc, @function
  myfunc:
  .LFB0:
  	.cfi_startproc
  	pushq	%rbp
  	.cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
  	.cfi_offset 6, -16
  	movq	%rsp, %rbp
  	.cfi_def_cfa_register 6
  	movl	%edi, -4(%rbp)
  	movl	-4(%rbp), %eax
  	addl	$1, %eax
  	popq	%rbp
  	.cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
  	ret
  	.cfi_endproc
  .LFE0:
  	.size	myfunc, .-myfunc
  	.ident	"GCC: (Ubuntu 8.3.0-6ubuntu1) 8.3.0"
  	.section	.note.GNU-stack,"",@progbits
  

If you want to do it for a large number of files, consider using instead:

 -save-temps=obj

which saves the intermediate files to the same directory as the -o object output instead of the current working directory, thus avoiding potential basename conflicts.

The advantage of this option over -E is that it is easy to add it to any build script, without interfering much in the build itself.

Another cool thing about this option is if you add -v:

gcc -save-temps -c -o main.o -v main.c

it actually shows the explicit files being used instead of ugly temporaries under /tmp, so it is easy to know exactly what is going on, which includes the preprocessing / compilation / assembly steps:

/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/8/cc1 -E -quiet -v -imultiarch x86_64-linux-gnu main.c -mtune=generic -march=x86-64 -fpch-preprocess -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Wformat-security -o main.i
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/8/cc1 -fpreprocessed main.i -quiet -dumpbase main.c -mtune=generic -march=x86-64 -auxbase-strip main.o -version -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Wformat-security -o main.s
as -v --64 -o main.o main.s

Tested in Ubuntu 19.04 amd64, GCC 8.3.0.

CMake predefined targets

CMake automatically provides a targets for the preprocessed file:

make help

shows us that we can do:

make main.i

and that target runs:

Preprocessing C source to CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.c.i
/usr/bin/cc    -E /home/ciro/bak/hello/main.c > CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.c.i

so the file can be seen at CMakeFiles/main.dir/main.c.i

Tested on cmake 3.16.1.

Run:

gcc -E <file>.c

or

g++ -E <file>.cpp

Suppose we have a file as Message.cpp or a .c file

Steps 1: Preprocessing (Argument -E)

g++ -E .\Message.cpp > P1

P1 file generated has expanded macros and header file contents and comments are stripped off.

Step 2: Translate Preprocessed file to assembly (Argument -S). This task is done by compiler

g++ -S .\Message.cpp

An assembler (ASM) is generated (Message.s). It has all the assembly code.

Step 3: Translate assembly code to Object code. Note: Message.s was generated in Step2.

g++ -c .\Message.s

An Object file with the name Message.o is generated. It is the binary form.

Step 4: Linking the object file. This task is done by linker

g++ .\Message.o -o MessageApp

An exe file MessageApp.exe is generated here.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

//This a sample program
int main()
{
  cout << "Hello" << endl;
  cout << PQR(P,K) ;
  getchar();
  return 0;
}