gcc compiled binaries give "cannot execute binary file"

Question

I compile this program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    printf("Hello World!");
    return 0;
}

With this command:

  gcc -c "hello.c" -o hello

And when I try to execute hello, I get

bash: ./hello: Permission denied

Because the permissions are

-rw-r--r-- 1 nathan nathan   856 2010-09-17 23:49 hello

For some reason??

But whatever... after changing the permissions and trying to execute again, I get

bash: ./hello: cannot execute binary file

I'm using gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5) 4.4.3

What am I doing wrong here? It's gotta be obvious... it's just too late for me to keep using my tired eyes to try and figure out this simple problem....

P.S. I do (sometimes) work on programs more sophisticated than Hello World, but gcc is doing this across the board...

Answer 1

Take the -c out. That's for making object files, not executables.

Answer 2

The -c flag tells it not to link, so you have an object file, not a binary executable.

In fact, if you ran this without the -o flag, you would find that the default output file would be hello.o.

For reference (and giggles), the man entry on the -c flag:

-c  Compile or assemble the source files, but do not link.  The linking stage simply is not done.
    The ultimate output is in the form of an object file for each source file.

    By default, the object file name for a source file is made by replacing the suffix .c, .i, .s,
    etc., with .o.

    Unrecognized input files, not requiring compilation or assembly, are ignored.