Question

On a linux box

is it compulsory to write a program into a file and compile it

cant this be done from command line

localhost$gcc "include<stdio.h> int main(){printf('hello world'); return o; }"

Answer 1

sure you can, but i doubt that that makes sense….

$ echo '#include <stdio.h>
int main() { printf("hello world\n"); return 0; }' | gcc -x c -
$ ./a.out 
hello world
$

gcc options:

  -o <file>                Place the output into <file>
  -x <language>            Specify the language of the following input files
                           Permissible languages include: c c++ assembler none
                           'none' means revert to the default behavior of
                           guessing the language based on the file's extension