How to make gcc generate only machine code that can be loaded directly into memory and executed?

Question

I would like to produce a file that I can load into memory (for example with mmap) and then jump to the start of that memory to run the code.

Ideally, I

Answer 1

You can do this but you will need to go through the object file format. In particular, the objcopy command can transform an executable file to a "flat" binary file (depending on your target platform). Perhaps something like this:

gcc -o test test.c
objcopy -O binary test test.bin

See man objcopy on your platform for more details.