Compiling and linking applications

By default, when you call the XL C/C++ compiler, all of the following phases of translation are performed:

• preprocessing of program source
• compiling and assembling into object files
• linking into an executable

These different translation phases are actually performed by separate executables, which are referred to as compiler components. However, you can use compiler options to perform only certain phases, such as preprocessing, or assembling. You can then reinvoke the compiler to resume processing of the intermediate output to a final executable.