TCC

TCC (Tiny C Compiler) is a small and fast C compiler, which produces x86, x86_64 or ARM code, and generates PE or ELF executables. TCC is heading toward full ISOC99 compliance, and can compile itself.

Version 0.9.25 (released May 2009) added support for x86_64. Work is being done towards a 0.9.26 release, but progress is comparatively slow. However, TinyCC has a couple of advantages:

• TCC compiles C code about 9 times faster than GCC.
• Under Linux, TCC can be used as a C interpreter (just add '#!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run' at the first line of your C source, and execute it directly from the command line). (This currently works only for 32bit.)
• TCC has few dependencies. Only libc is required for its compilation.
• TCC includes a linker and an assembler (for x86 only).

Disadvantages are:

• only averagely optimized x86 code.
• ISO C99 support is not complete.

The Windows version of TCC doesn't produces ELF executables. If you want those, you have to recompile TCC as a cross-compiler.

TCC takes similar options as GCC:

tcc -c kernel.c

tcc -nostdlib -Wl,-Ttext,0x100000 loader.o kernel.o -o kernel.bin

See Also

• Tiny C Compiler project page