How to compile executable for Windows with GCC with Linux Subsystem?

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 ?

Solution 1:

Linux Subsystem works as a Linux-computer. You can only run Linux executables inside it and default gcc creates Linux executables.

To create Windows executables, you need to install mingw cross-compiler:

sudo apt-get install mingw-w64

Then you can create 32-bit Windows executable with:

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

And 64-bit Windows executable with:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -o main64.exe main.c

Note that these Windows executables will not work inside Linux Subsystem, only outside of it.

If you compile using gcc on linux it will produce an ELF file not a PE (what windows understand) file

To compile a program for windows inside linux you can use mingw.