A highly configurable compiler

You can use a variety of compiler invocation commands and options to tailor the compiler to your unique compilation requirements.

Compiler invocation commands

XL C/C++ provides several commands to invoke the compiler, for example, xlC, xlc++, and xlc. Each invocation command is unique in that it instructs the compiler to tailor compilation output to meet a specific language level specification. Compiler invocation commands are provided to support all standardized C/C++ language levels, and many popular language extensions as well.

The compiler also provides corresponding "_r" versions of most invocation commands, for example, xlc_r and xlC_r. The "_r" invocations instruct the compiler to link and bind object files to thread safe components and libraries, and produce thread safe object code for compiler-created data and procedures.

For more information about XL C/C++ compiler invocation commands, see Invoking the compiler.

Compiler options

You can choose from a large selection of compiler options to control compiler behavior. You can benefit from using different options for the following tasks:

Debugging your applications
Optimizing and tune application performance
Selecting language levels and extensions for compatibility with nonstandard features and behaviors that are supported by other C or C++ compilers
Performing many other common tasks that would otherwise require changing the source code

You can specify compiler options through a combination of environment variables, compiler configuration files, command line options, and compiler directive statements embedded in your program source.

For more information about XL C/C++ compiler options, see Compiler options reference.

Custom compiler configuration files

The installation process creates a default plain text compiler configuration file containing stanzas that define compiler option default settings.

If you frequently specify compiler option settings other than the default settings of XL C/C++, you can use makefiles to define your settings. Alternatively, you can create custom configuration files to define your own frequently used option settings.

For more information about using custom compiler configuration files, see Using custom compiler configuration files.

Utilization tracking configuration file

The utilization and reporting tool can be used to detect whether your organization's use of the compiler exceeds your license entitlements.

The utilization tracking and reporting feature of the compiler has its own configuration file. The main compiler configuration file contains an entry that points to this file. The different installations of the compiler product can use a single utilization tracking configuration file to centrally manage the utilization tracking and reporting feature.

For detailed information about the utilization tracking and reporting feature, see Tracking and reporting compiler usage in the XL C/C++ Compiler Reference.