How to output to the console in C++/Windows

Question

When using iostream in C++ on Linux, it displays the program output in the terminal, but in Windows, it just saves the output to a stdout.txt file. How can I, in Windows, make the output appear in the console?

Answer 1

I assume you're using some version of Visual Studio? In windows, std::cout << "something"; should write something to a console window IF your program is setup in the project settings as a console program.

Answer 2

Here's Some Code That Might Help You
#include <iostream> using namespace std; int main() { cout << "Console Output" << endl; }

Hope This Helps ;)

Answer 3

First off, what compiler or dev environment are you using? If Visual Studio, you need to make a console application project to get console output.

Second,

std::cout << "Hello World" << std::endl;

should work in any C++ console application.

Answer 4

If you're using Visual Studio you need to modify the project property: Configuration Properties -> Linker -> System -> SubSystem.

This should be set to: Console (/SUBSYSTEM:CONSOLE)

Also you should change your WinMain to be this signature:

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    //...
    return 0;
}

Answer 5

Since you mentioned stdout.txt I google'd it to see what exactly would create a stdout.txt; normally, even with a Windows app, console output goes to the allocated console, or nowhere if one is not allocated.

So, assuming you are using SDL (which is the only thing that brought up stdout.txt), you should follow the advice here. Either freopen stdout and stderr with "CON", or do the other linker/compile workarounds there.

In case the link gets broken again, here is exactly what was referenced from libSDL:

How do I avoid creating stdout.txt and stderr.txt?

"I believe inside the Visual C++ project that comes with SDL there is a SDL_nostdio target > you can build which does what you want(TM)."

"If you define "NO_STDIO_REDIRECT" and recompile SDL, I think it will fix the problem." > > (Answer courtesy of Bill Kendrick)

Answer 6

Whether to use subsystem:console or subsystem:windows kind of depends on whether how you want to start your application:

• If you use subsystem:console, then you get all of the stdout written to the terminal. The trouble is that if you start the application from the Start Menu/Desktop, you (by default) get a console appearing as well as the application window (which can look pretty ugly).
• If you use subsystem:windows, you won't get stdout/stderr even if you run the application from a DOS window, Cygwin, or other terminal.

If you want the middle way which is to output to the terminal IF the application was started in a terminal, then follow the link that Luke provided in his solution (http://dslweb.nwnexus.com/~ast/dload/guicon.htm)

For reference, I ran into this problem with an application that I want to run in either normal Windows mode or batch mode (that is, as part of a script) depending on command-line switches. The whole differentiation between console and Windows applications is a bit bizarre to Unix folks!