Do I need to compile the header files in a C program?

Question

Sometimes I see someone compile a C program like this:

gcc -o hello hello.c hello.h

As I know, we just need to put the header files into the C p

Answer 1

I think we do need preprocess(maybe NOT call the compile) the head file. Because from my understanding, during the compile stage, the head file should be included in c file. For example, in test.h we have

typedef enum{
    a,
    b,
    c
}test_t

and in test.c we have

void foo()
{
    test_t test;
    ...
}

during the compile, i think the compiler will put the code in head file and c file together and code in head file will be pre-processed and substitute the code in c file. Meanwhile, we'd better to define the include path in makefile.