How to compile executable for Windows with GCC with Linux Subsystem?

Question

Windows 10 Anniversary Update includes the Linux Subsystem for Ubuntu. I installed gcc with sudo apt-get install gcc .

I wrote some simple C code for testing purposes:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
    printf("Hello\n");
    return 0;
}

And compiled it with gcc -c main.c but the execute (Linux only) main.o is generated. If I run it ./main.o , it displays Hello .

My question is, how can I compile main.c so that Windows can run it? Basically, how do you generate a *.exe file with GCC in Linux Subsystem ?

Answer 1

Linux Subsystem works as a Linux-computer. You can only run Linux executables inside it and default gcc creates Linux executables.

To create Windows executables, you need to install mingw cross-compiler:

sudo apt-get install mingw-w64

Then you can create 32-bit Windows executable with:

i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -o main32.exe main.c

And 64-bit Windows executable with:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -o main64.exe main.c

Note that these Windows executables will not work inside Linux Subsystem, only outside of it.

Answer 2

If you compile using gcc on linux it will produce an ELF file not a PE (what windows understand) file

To compile a program for windows inside linux you can use mingw.