What is compiler, linker, loader?-第2页回答

2楼-- · 2019-01-29 15:24

=====> COMPILATION PROCESS <======

                     |
                     |---->  Input is Source file(.c)
                     |
                     V
            +=================+
            |                 |
            | C Preprocessor  |
            |                 |
            +=================+
                     |
                     | ---> Pure C file ( comd:cc -E <file.name> )
                     |
                     V
            +=================+
            |                 |
            | Lexical Analyzer|
            |                 |
            +-----------------+
            |                 |
            | Syntax Analyzer |
            |                 |
            +-----------------+
            |                 |
            | Semantic Analyze|
            |                 |
            +-----------------+
            |                 |
            | Pre Optimization|
            |                 |
            +-----------------+
            |                 |
            | Code generation |
            |                 |
            +-----------------+
            |                 |
            | Post Optimize   |
            |                 |
            +=================+
                     |
                     |--->  Assembly code (comd: cc -S <file.name> )
                     |
                     V
            +=================+
            |                 |
            |   Assembler     |
            |                 |
            +=================+
                     |
                     |--->  Object file (.obj) (comd: cc -c <file.name>)
                     |
                     V
            +=================+
            |     Linker      |
            |      and        |
            |     loader      |
            +=================+
                     |
                     |--->  Executable (.Exe/a.out) (com:cc <file.name> ) 
                     |
                     V
            Executable file(a.out)

C preprocessor :-

C preprocessing is the first step in the compilation. It handles:

#define statements.
#include statements.
Conditional statements.
Macros

The purpose of the unit is to convert the C source file into Pure C code file.

C compilation :

There are Six steps in the unit :

1) Lexical Analyzer:

It combines characters in the source file, to form a "TOKEN". A token is a set of characters that does not have 'space', 'tab' and 'new line'. Therefore this unit of compilation is also called "TOKENIZER". It also removes the comments, generates symbol table and relocation table entries.

2) Syntactic Analyzer:

This unit check for the syntax in the code. For ex:

{
    int a;
    int b;
    int c;
    int d;

    d = a + b - c *   ;
}

The above code will generate the parse error because the equation is not balanced. This unit checks this internally by generating the parser tree as follows:

                            =
                          /   \
                        d       -
                              /     \
                            +           *
                          /   \       /   \
                        a       b   c       ?

Therefore this unit is also called PARSER.

3) Semantic Analyzer:

This unit checks the meaning in the statements. For ex:

{
    int i;
    int *p;

    p = i;
    -----
    -----
    -----
}

The above code generates the error "Assignment of incompatible type".

4) Pre-Optimization:

This unit is independent of the CPU, i.e., there are two types of optimization

Preoptimization (CPU independent)
Postoptimization (CPU dependent)

This unit optimizes the code in following forms:

I) Dead code elimination
II) Sub code elimination
III) Loop optimization

I) Dead code elimination:

For ex:

{
    int a = 10;
    if ( a > 5 ) {
        /*
        ...
        */
    } else {
       /*
       ...
       */
    }
}

Here, the compiler knows the value of 'a' at compile time, therefore it also knows that the if condition is always true. Hence it eliminates the else part in the code.

II) Sub code elimination:

For ex:

{
    int a, b, c;
    int x, y;

    /*
    ...
    */

    x = a + b;
    y = a + b + c;

    /*
    ...
    */
}

can be optimized as follows:

{
    int a, b, c;
    int x, y;

    /*
     ...
    */

    x = a + b;
    y = x + c;      // a + b is replaced by x

    /*
     ...
    */
}

III) Loop optimization:

For ex:

{
    int a;
    for (i = 0; i < 1000; i++ ) {

    /*
     ...
    */

    a = 10;

    /*
     ...
    */
    }
}

In the above code, if 'a' is local and not used in the loop, then it can be optimized as follows:

{
    int a;
    a = 10;
    for (i = 0; i < 1000; i++ ) {
        /*
        ...
        */
    }
}

5) Code generation:

Here, the compiler generates the assembly code so that the more frequently used variables are stored in the registers.

6) Post-Optimization:

Here the optimization is CPU dependent. Suppose if there are more than one jumps in the code then they are converted to one as:

            -----
        jmp:<addr1>
<addr1> jmp:<addr2>
            -----
            -----

The control jumps to the directly.

Then the last phase is Linking (which creates executable or library). When the executable is run, the libraries it requires are Loaded.

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小情绪 Triste *

3楼-- · 2019-01-29 15:25

Compiler : Which convert Human understandable format into machine understandable format
Linker : Which convert machine understandable format into Operating system understandable format
Loader : is entity which actually load and runs the program into RAM

Linker & Interpreter are mutually exclusive Interpreter getting code line by line and execute line by line.

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乱世女痞

4楼-- · 2019-01-29 15:27

A compiler is a software program that compiles program source code files into an executable program. It is included as part of the integrated development environment IDE with most programming software packages. The compiler takes source code files that are written in a high-level language, such as C, BASIC, or Java, and compiles the code into a low-level language, such as machine code or assembly code. This code is created for a specific processor type, such as and Intel Pentium or PowerPC. The program can then be recognized by the processor and run from the operating system.

Loader is An operating system utility that copies programs from a storage device to main memory, where they can be executed. In addition to copying a program into main memory, the loader can also replace virtual addresses with physical addresses. Most loaders are transparent, i.e., you cannot directly execute them, but the operating system uses them when necessary.

Linker Is a program that adjusts two or more machine-language program segments so that they may be simultaneously loaded and executed as a unit Also called link editor and binder, a linker is a program that combines object modules to form an executable program. Many programming languages allow you to write different pieces of code, called modules, separately. This simplifies the programming task because you can break a large program into small, more manageable pieces. Eventually, though, you need to put all the modules together. This is the job of the linker.

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一夜七次

5楼-- · 2019-01-29 15:28

A compiler reads, analyses and translates code into either an object file or a list of error messages.
A linker combines one or more object files and possible some library code into either some executable, some library or a list of error messages.
A loader reads the executable code into memory, does some address translation and tries to run the program resulting in a running program or an error message (or both).

ASCII representation:

[Source Code] ---> Compiler ---> [Object code] --*
                                                 |
[Source Code] ---> Compiler ---> [Object code] --*--> Linker --> [Executable] ---> Loader 
                                                 |                                    |
[Source Code] ---> Compiler ---> [Object code] --*                                    |
                                                 |                                    |
                                 [Library file]--*                                    V
                                                                       [Running Executable in Memory]

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beautiful°

6楼-- · 2019-01-29 15:29

*

explained with respect to, linux/unix based systems, though it's a basic concept for all other computing systems.

*

Linkers and Loaders from LinuxJournal explains this concept with clarity. It also explains how the classic name a.out came. (assembler output)

A quick summary,

c program --> [compiler] --> objectFile --> [linker] --> executable file (say, a.out)

we got the executable, now give this file to your friend or to your customer who is in need of this software :)

when they run this software, say by typing it in command line ./a.out

execute in command line ./a.out --> [Loader] --> [execve] --> program is loaded in memory

Once the program is loaded into the memory, control is transferred to this program by making the PC (program counter) pointing to the first instruction of a.out

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等我变得足够好

7楼-- · 2019-01-29 15:32

Compiler:

It will read source file which may be of type .c or .cpp etc and translates that to .o file called as object file.

Linker:

It combines the several .o files which may be generated for multiple source files into an executable file (ELF format in GCC). There are two type of linking:

static linking
dynamic linking

Loader:

A program which loads the executable file to the primary memory of the machine.

For an in-detail study about the these three stages of program execution in Linux, please read this.

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