cexpl

Command-line tool to interact with Compiler Explorer.

Installation

Arch Linux

cexpl package from AUR

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/cexpl.git
cd cexpl
makepkg -si

Fedora Linux

cexpl package from Copr

dnf copr enable xfgusta/cexpl
dnf install cexpl

PyPI

cexpl package from PyPI

pip install --user cexpl

Overview

cexpl is able to query all available languages, compilers, build and execute your source code. You can also give some extra arguments, like compiler flags, command-line arguments and STDIN.

The Compiler Explorer API host can be specified with the -H/--host option.

List available languages

The --list-langs option lists all languages and their IDs:

$ cexpl --list-langs
ada - Ada
analysis - Analysis
assembly - Assembly
c - C
c++ - C++
carbon - Carbon
circle - C++ (Circle)
circt - CIRCT
clean - Clean
cpp2_cppfront - Cpp2-cppfront
...

The language ID can be used with the -l/--lang option.

List available compilers

The --list-compilers option lists all compilers and their IDs:

$ cexpl --list-compilers
386_gl114 - 386 gc 1.14
386_gl115 - 386 gc 1.15
386_gl116 - 386 gc 1.16
386_gl117 - 386 gc 1.17
386_gl118 - 386 gc 1.18
386_gl119 - 386 gc 1.19
386_gltip - 386 gc (tip)
6g141 - amd64 gc 1.4.1
aarchg54 - ARM64 gcc 5.4
arduinomega189 - Arduino Mega (1.8.9)
...

It is also possible to list the compilers for a specific language. For example, cexpl --list-compilers python will list all available Python compilers.

The compiler ID can be used with the -c/--compiler option.

Compilation and execution

In order to compile, you need to pass the file containing the source code. cexpl will try to figure out the language and its default compiler based on the file extension. You can specify the language and/or the compiler with --lang and/or --compiler option, as said above.

$ cexpl love.c
.LC0:
        .string "<3"
main:
        push    rbp
        mov     rbp, rsp
        mov     edi, OFFSET FLAT:.LC0
        call    puts
        mov     eax, 0
        pop     rbp
        ret

The source code:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
    printf("<3\n");
    return 0;
}

You can pass options to the compiler with the --cflags option.

Comparing source code and assembly

Use the -C/--compare option to compare the source code with the assembly:

$ cexpl --compare --cflags=-Ofast love.c
.LC0:
        .string "<3"
main:
3 int main() {
        sub     rsp, 8
4 printf("<3\n");
        mov     edi, OFFSET FLAT:.LC0
        call    puts
6 }
        xor     eax, eax
        add     rsp, 8
        ret

Execution

The -e/--exec option executes the code:

$ cexpl --exec --skip-asm love.c
STDOUT:
<3

If you don't want to see the generated assembly, use the -s/--skip-asm option.

Arguments and input

You can pass a list of arguments with the -a/--args option. For example, cexpl --args one two three --exec main.c. The same applies to the --stdin option:

$ cexpl --skip-asm --exec --stdin "Gustavo Costa" 20 -- hi.py
STDOUT:
Gustavo Costa, 20 years old

The source code:

name = input()
age = input()
print(f'{name}, {age} years old')

Saving your results

You can generate a short link for the compilation with the -L/--link option.

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Gustavo Costa. Distributed under the MIT license.