Question

I have a very small c++ program that consists of two files: main.cpp and something.cpp. I’d like to compile my program using g++ in the OS X Terminal. Here’s what I’ve tried:

> g++ main.cpp something.cpp
> ./a.out

Is this correct? I’ve come across examples that use the -o flag. I’m not sure if that’s necessary.

Answer 1

-o option is not required. If not specified, the default behavior is to put an executable file in “a.out”:

-o file
Place output in file file. This applies regardless to whatever sort of output is being produced, whether it be an executable
file, an object file, an assembler
file or preprocessed C code.

If -o is not specified, the default is to put an executable file in a.out, the object file for source.suffix in source.o, its
assembler file in source.s, a
precompiled header file in source.suffix.gch, and all preprocessed C source on standard output.

So yes, this is correct.