cl /Zi

Source files

An executable is produced from the following three source files, of which one is a header file that is included by the two other c files.

func.c

A simple function is defined in func.c:

#include "func.h"

int func(int arg_one, int arg_two) {
  return arg_one + arg_two;
}

Github repository about-cl, path: /options/Z/i/func.c

main.c

main.c contains the main() function and uses func() to calculate a result.

#include <stdio.h>

#include "func.h"

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {

  if (argc < 2) {
     printf("%s arg-1 arg-2\n", argv[0]);
     return;
  }
  
  int result = func(atoi(argv[1]), atoi(argv[2]));

  printf("%s + %s = %d\n", argv[1], argv[2], result);

}

Github repository about-cl, path: /options/Z/i/main.c

func.h

The headerfile that declares func:

int func(int arg_one, int arg_two);

Github repository about-cl, path: /options/Z/i/func.h

Compiling the sources

On the command line, the sources can be compiled into object files and symbol files like so:

cl /Zi /c main.c /Fd:main.pdb
cl /Zi /c func.c /Fd:func.pdb

After creating the object files, they can be linked like so

link main.obj func.obj /out:prog.exe /DEBUG

Apparently, the /DEBUG option is essential for the linker to produce the symbol files.

The .pdb files that were created in the compilation step don't need to given as arguments to the linker because their name is also found in the object file.

Makefile

Of course, these commands can also be put into a Makefile:

prog.exe: main.obj func.obj
	@link $^ /out:$@ /DEBUG

func.obj: func.c func.h
	@cl -Zi -c $< -Fd:$(basename $@).pdb

main.obj: main.c func.h
	@cl -Zi -c $< -Fd:$(basename $@).pdb

clean:
	@del *.obj *.exe *.pdb *.ilk > nul

Github repository about-cl, path: /options/Z/i/Makefile