Compile C in Microsoft Visual Studio 2017: A Step-by-Step Guide

Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 introduced a new workload called 'Linux Development with C++' which allows developers to compile and debug C code on remote Linux systems. In this article, we will explore the steps involved in compiling C code using MSBuild-based support in Visual Studio 2017.

Before starting, make sure you have Visual Studio 2017 installed on your machine along with the 'Linux Development with C++' workload. You can check if the workload is installed by navigating to Tools > Get Tools and Features from the Visual Studio menu.

Once you have verified that the workload is installed, let's move on to setting up the remote Linux system for compilation. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open Visual Studio 2017 and create a new project or open an existing one.

2. Right-click on the project in Solution Explorer and select 'Properties' from the context menu.

3. In the Project Properties dialog box, navigate to the 'Build Events' tab.

4. Click on the 'Post-build event command line' dropdown menu and select 'New'.

5. Enter the following command: `ssh user@remote-linux-system -l 'make && make test'`

6. Replace 'user' with your username on the remote Linux system and 'remote-linux-system' with the hostname or IP address of the system.

Once you have set up the post-build event, you can compile and debug your C code by clicking on the 'Build' button in Visual Studio. The code will be compiled using MSBuild-based support on the remote Linux system and the output will be displayed in the Output window.

Debugging is also possible with this setup. To debug your code, follow these steps:

1. Set breakpoints in your code as needed.

2. Click on the 'Debug' button to start the debugger.

3. The debugger will connect to the remote Linux system and start executing your code from the first breakpoint.

4. You can step through your code, inspect variables, and set additional breakpoints as needed.

In conclusion, compiling C code using MSBuild-based support in Visual Studio 2017 is a straightforward process that requires some setup on your part. With these steps, you should be able to compile and debug your C code on remote Linux systems with ease.

Compile c in microsoft visual studio 2017