Does a compiler always produce an assembly code?

Question

From Thinking in C++ - Vol 1:

In the second pass, the code generator walks through the parse tree and generates either assembly lan

Answer 1

Gcc does create the assembly code as a temporary file, calls the assembler, and maybe the linker depending on what you do or dont add on the command line. That makes an object and then if enabled the binary, then all the temporary files are cleaned up. Use -save-temps to see what is really going on (there are a number of temporary files).

Running gcc without any options absolutely creates an asm file.

There is no "need" for this, it is simply how they happened to design it. I assume for multiple reasons, you will already want/need an assembler and linker before you start on a compiler (cart before the horse, asm on a processor before some other language). "The unix way" is to not re-invent tools or libraries, but just add a little on top, so that would imply going to asm then letting the assembler and linker do the rest. You dont have to re-invent so much of the assemblers job that way (multiple passes, resolving labels, etc). It is easier for a developer to debug ascii asm than bits. Folks have been doing it this way for generations of compilers. Just in time compilers are the primary exception to this habit, by definition they have to be able to go to machine code, so they do or can. Only recently though did llvm provide a way for the command line tools (llc) to go straight to object without stopping at asm (or at least it appears that way to the user).