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clang — Compile C, C++, and Objective-C source files. Can be used as a drop-in replacement for GCC. Part of

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the clang command: Compile C, C++, and Objective-C source files. Can be used as a drop-in replacement for GCC. Part of LLVM. More information: <https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangCommandLineReference.html>.

Solution

clang — Compile C, C++, and Objective-C source files. Can be used as a drop-in replacement for GCC. Part of LLVM. More information: <https://clang.llvm.org/docs/ClangCommandLineReference.html>.

Compile multiple source files into an executable:

clang {{path/to/source1.c path/to/source2.c ...}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}}

Activate output of all errors and warnings:

clang {{path/to/source.c}} -Wall {{[-o|--output]}} {{output_executable}}

Show common warnings, debug symbols in output, and optimize without affecting debugging:

clang {{path/to/source.c}} -Wall {{[-g|--debug]}} -Og {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}}

Include libraries from a different path:

clang {{path/to/source.c}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}} -I{{path/to/header}} -L{{path/to/library}} -l{{library_name}}

Compile source code into LLVM Intermediate Representation (IR):

clang {{[-S|--assemble]}} -emit-llvm {{path/to/source.c}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output.ll}}

Compile source code into an object file without linking:

clang {{[-c|--compile]}} {{path/to/source.c}}

Optimize the compiled program for performance:

clang {{path/to/source.c}} -O{{1|2|3|fast}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}}

Display version:

clang --version

Code Snippets

Compile multiple source files into an executable

clang {{path/to/source1.c path/to/source2.c ...}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}}

Activate output of all errors and warnings

clang {{path/to/source.c}} -Wall {{[-o|--output]}} {{output_executable}}

Show common warnings, debug symbols in output, and optimize without affecting debugging

clang {{path/to/source.c}} -Wall {{[-g|--debug]}} -Og {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}}

Include libraries from a different path

clang {{path/to/source.c}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output_executable}} -I{{path/to/header}} -L{{path/to/library}} -l{{library_name}}

Compile source code into LLVM Intermediate Representation (IR)

clang {{[-S|--assemble]}} -emit-llvm {{path/to/source.c}} {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/output.ll}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/clang

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