gcc compiler in Cygwin output .exe

Question

Just starting in C, and learning the basics. I have created a simple program that when compiled, would expected to compile as a.out however gcc is compiling as a.exe.

Answer 1

GCC on Windows defaults to creating an file named a.exe on Windows, because the .exe extension is important - a file name a.out would not recognized as an executable program on Windows. The default output could be named a.out.exe but it would be different from a.out anyway, so it is just as sensible to produce a file named a.exe instead.

a.exe is less keypresses, too.