DraganSr: Data Structures & Algorithms, C++: Udemy courses

Outside of Visual Studio, the C/C++ compiler is available form "Developer Command Prompt"
When VSCode is started from there, the complier is available by "cl" command

> cl hello.cpp

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::cout << "Hello, C++ World!" << std::endl;
}

> cl hello.c

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
    printf("Hello, C World!\n");
}

LLVM: cross-platform, fast, extensive toolchain

llvm/llvm-project: The LLVM Project is a collection of modular and reusable compiler and toolchain technologies.

Releases · llvm/llvm-project

download and install LLVM-20.1.5-win64.exe

it is quite large (2.5 GB), while much smaller than MS VS C++

gets added to PATH system env var, so command becomes available

> clang++ hello.cpp # Compile C++

> clang++ hello.cpp -o hello.exe # Compile with specific output name

MinGW-w64 (the lightweight C++ option):

MSYS2.org

MSYS2 is a collection of tools and libraries providing you with an easy-to-use environment for building, installing and running native Windows software.

Small: ~200-500MB total

Complete: Full C++20/23 support

Fast: Quick compilation

Compatible: Works with most C++ tutorials and books

# Update package database

pacman -Syu
# Install MinGW-w64 GCC
pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc

After installing MSYS2, you should use:

"MSYS2 UCRT64" terminal (not regular MSYS2)
Find it in Start Menu under "MSYS2" folder
Or run: C:\msys64\ucrt64.exe # install path

# In UCRT64 terminal:

gcc --version

g++ --version

which gcc

# For additional tools with UCRT:
pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gdb
mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-make

For Windows Command Prompt/VS Code
Add "C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin" (or selected install folder path) to system PATH (edit environment variables)

then can use
gcc --version
from VSCode terminal

gcc = C compiler, doesn't link C++ standard library

g++ = C++ compiler, automatically links C++ standard library (libstdc++)

to avoid restart of VSCode, when using PowerShell in terminal, use this command to reload path
$env:PATH = [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH","Machine") + ";" + [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH","User")

Simplify usage with Windows PowerShell commands

to simplify compile-run workflow with g++ compiler on windows,

can create a PowerShell script like this: gpp-run.ps1

# compile .c or .cpp program, run exe, and delete temp exe
# Requires g++ compiler to be installed and available in PATH
param(
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
    [string]$File,
    [switch]$Keep
)
$name = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($File)
g++ $File -o "$name.exe"
if ($?) { 
    & ".\$name.exe"
    if (-not $Keep) { Remove-Item "$name.exe" }
} else {
    exit 1
}

then run the script with filename of .cpp of .c file, like this

> .\gpp-run.ps1 hello.cpp

or to keep result hello.exe

> .\gpp-run.ps1 hello.cpp -keep

or to for C

> .\gpp-run.ps1 hello.c

While this PowerShell script works, there is a bit more convenient option available:
to register a "function" to PowerShell, and then use this as any other command, no path required.

gpp-run-function.ps1

function gpp-run($file, [switch]$keep) {
    $name = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($file)
    g++ $file -o "$name.exe"
    if ($?) { 
        & ".\$name.exe"
        if (-not $keep) {
            Remove-Item "$name.exe"
        }
    }
}

then need to "register" this function by using "dot space" powershell command, like this

> . gpp-run-function.ps1 # the . is required

and then can just use this registered function name anywhere, like this

> gpp-run hello.cpp

> gpp-run hello.cpp -keep

> gpp-run hello.c

finally, that "register function" can be made permanent by

# Make it permanent - Add to your PowerShell profile so it's always available:
notepad $PROFILE
# Add: . "C:\path\to\your\gpp-run-function.ps1"

Using Docker containers to compiler and run C/C++

Clearly, the full installation of any of C/C++ compilers on Windows is not simple
and it also requires a lot of space, in some cases more than 10GB

One alternative is to use Linux in WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Install WSL | Microsoft Learn

Another, even better and simpler is to Docker containers.
First, need to install Docker Desktop.
Windows | Docker Docs

Then there are already "ready to use" container images with compilers for most programming languages, including C/C++. So this is applicable to almost any other programming language compiler!

With single command can start Linux bash shell with g++ and gcc commands available
and with current folder and files all visible. One line!
Interactive, or better save as PowerShell script.

docker-gcc-bash.ps1

docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}:/app -w /app gcc:latest bash

then, to compile, run, and delete temp exe file

$ g++ hello.c -o hello
$ ./hello

$ rm hello

or, all in one line

$ g++ hello.c -o hello && ./hello &&

rm ./hello

Now, we can do even better, without even using Linux shell directly.
With this PowerShell script, it is even simpler

docker-gcc-run.ps1

# using gcc docker container to compile .c or .cpp program, run exe, and delete temp exe
param([Parameter(Mandatory)]$File)
$cleanFile = $file -replace '^\.\\', ''
$name = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($cleanFile)
$ext = [System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($file)
$compiler = if ($ext -in @(".cpp", ".cxx", ".cc")) {"g++"} else {"gcc"}
docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/app" -w /app gcc:latest sh -c "$compiler $cleanFile -o $name && ./$name && rm ./$name"

then, to compile, run, and delete temp exe file we can do with this command

> ./docker-gcc-run.ps1 hello.cpp

the same script works with .c programs, too

> ./docker-gcc-run.ps1 hello.c

to avoid need to each time enter path to PowerShell scripts,
we can register PowerShell functions.

docker-gcc-functions.ps1

# interactive terminal
function docker-gcc-bash() {
    docker run --rm -it -v ${PWD}:/app -w /app gcc:latest bash
}

# compile c or cpp file to exe, run exe, delete temp exe
function docker-gcc-run($file) {
    $cleanFile = $file -replace '^\.\\', ''
    $name = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($cleanFile)
    $ext = [System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($file)
    $compiler = if ($ext -in @(".cpp", ".cxx", ".cc")) {"g++"} else {"gcc"}
    docker run --rm -v "${PWD}:/app" -w /app gcc:latest sh -c "$compiler $cleanFile -o $name && ./$name && rm ./$name"
}

then run "register" functions, or add to $PROFILE as described above.
> . docker-gcc-run.ps1

and then

> docker-gcc-run hello.cpp

> docker-gcc-run hello.c

Finally, we can make docker image even much smaller, by creating custom Docker image

Dockerfile

FROM alpine:latest
RUN apk add --no-cache g++ libc-dev
WORKDIR /app

then build image with command like this

docker build -t gcc-alpine .

then we can replace "gcc:latest" with "gcc-alpine" in all scripts above,
and it all works the same, just faster and takes 5x less space, less than 250MB.

Nice improvement, 10-40x smaller than "default" solution!

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Data Structures & Algorithms, C++: Udemy courses

"visual" algorithms & data structures courses

C++ courses

C courses

C++ SDKs / IDEs

Install C and C++ support in Visual Studio | Microsoft Learn (community edition)

LLVM: cross-platform, fast, extensive toolchain

MinGW-w64 (the lightweight C++ option):

Simplify usage with Windows PowerShell commands

Using Docker containers to compiler and run C/C++

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