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 fills in as a Linux-PC. You can run Linux executables inside it and default gcc makes Linux executables.

To make Windows executables, you want to introduce mingw cross-compiler:

sudo adept get introduce mingw-w64

Then you can make 32-digit Windows executable with:

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