Question

I’m using Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and compiling C++ files with GCC, but when I compile, gcc makes an a.out file that is the executable. How can I make Linux executables?

Answer 1

That executable is a "Linux executable" – that is, it’s executable on any recent Linux system. You can rename the file to what you want using

rename a.out your-executable-name

or better yet, tell GCC where to put its output file using

gcc -o your-executable-name your-source-file.c

Keep in mind that before Linux systems will let you run the file, you may need to set its "executable bit":

chmod +x your-executable-name

Also remember that on Linux, the extension of the file has very little to do with what it actually is – your executable can be named something, something.out, or even something.exe, and as long as it’s produced by GCC and you do chmod +x on the file, you can run it as a Linux executable.