The CC command
When you issue the cc or gcc command,
- The C preprocessor (known as cpp on our system) processes the C source file. Processing means including the files in #include <. . .>, replacing macro definition by its replacement text, etc.
- C compiler (known as cc1 on our system) compiles the resulting file into object file.
- The loader (known as ld) finally uses the object file to produce executable program.