How Compilers actually work?

This overview explains the C++ compilation process using the GCC compiler and x86-64 architecture. GCC acts as an orchestrator, managing specialized tools for each stage of the pipeline: 1. Lexical Analysis The compiler ( cc1plus ) reads the source code and breaks it into tokens . This step removes irrelevant elements like whitespace and comments, detects basic lexical errors, and prepares the code for further analysis 2. Syntax Analysis The compiler ( cc1plus ) checks whether the tokens follow the grammar rules of the programming language and builds an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) . The AST represents the logical structure of the program 3. Compilation The compiler translates the AST into assembly code specific to the target CPU architecture (x86-64). At this stage, the code is still human-readable instructions 4. Assembly The GNU assembler ( as ) converts the assembly code into binary machine code, producing an object file ( .o or .obj ) 5. Linking Since programs often consist of multi