bash: syntax error near unexpected token `"firsttry.c"'

Question

My code---

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("hello, world\n");
}

and I get bash: syntax error near unexpected token `"firsttry.c"'

you are trying to execute C from within a shell script? – joH1 Feb 23 '16 at 16:44 — joH1, Feb 23 '16 at 16:44
What's the actual line you typed in to the shell? – derobert Feb 23 '16 at 16:53 — derobert, Feb 23 '16 at 16:53

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 23 '16 at 16:53

That's a C program, not a shell script. You have to compile it, which gets you an executable you can run.

On a modern Unix/Linux type system, the simplest way to do that is:

$ make firsttry

That only works if your local make(1) installation has rules built into it to make it understand that it can make the firsttry executable from firsttry.c without needing explicit rules in a Makefile.

On systems without that bit of smarts built in, you can do it the old-fashioned way:

$ cc firsttry.c -o firsttry

Either way, then you can run it:

$ ./firsttry
hello, world

Or use TCC to build and run in one go. – Stephen Kitt Feb 23 '16 at 18:04 — Stephen Kitt, Feb 23 '16 at 18:04

bash: syntax error near unexpected token `"firsttry.c"'

1 Answers1