Remember in elementary school how there was always that one topic that the kids in the grade above would warn you about? They’d whisper horror stories about learning multiplication or cursive (am I aging myself here?) at the bus stop, sending a chill into the students in the grades below. …

When working on large projects, it can be frustrating to compile many files together. This is even more of an issue when sharing the files with others. Libraries enable us to organize and use functions without having to copy the source code into each location. If you’ve done any programming…

What happens when you type a command like ls -l into the shell? When you open a terminal on your computer, it will begin to run the shell program. A shell is a program that interprets and executes commands from the standard input or from a file. If you’re using a Linux-type system, your default will be a bash shell. …

You’ve done it: you worked tirelessly on a series of functions to plug into your main file, but now you’re typing a rambling stream of files into your command line to compile them together. There has to be a better way, right? (Enter libraries.) A library is a single file…

Before using any C program, it is essential to first compile it. While a simple gcc main.c will compile your code for you, it’s critical to understand the steps that it takes to make your program executable. Steps of Compilation Preprocessor Compiler Assembler Linker Preprocessor The preprocessor will format your program…

What do you do when you only want to see the c files in your directory? With a simple string, you can filter only the desired files to your list. ls *.c How does this command work? Let’s start at the beginning of the string. ls The ls command lists…

When linking files in a Linux system, it’s important to think about your goal. Are you trying to save an exact copy of the file? Are you trying to make it easier to reach in a different directory? Depending on these goals, you will want to use either a hard…