Syntax Error near unexpected token `(' command line arguments

Question

SI am a beginner in programming, and I haven't ever used command line arguments before, so I'm just trying to get the hang of them now. In this, program, it compiles fine, but when I try to run it it gives me the error "Syntax Error near unexpected token('`". I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Here's the code...

#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main ( int argc, char *argv[] )
{
    printf("%s\n %s\n", argv[0], argv[1]);
    return 0;
}

All I want this program to do is print the command and the first argument. When I get the error, it says it is on line 5, which is the one that contains "int main...". By the way, I realize I included a lot of libraries but that's because I plan on turning this program into a much bigger one once I fix the bugs.

"By the way, I realize I included a lot of libraries but that's because I plan on turning this program into a much bigger one once i fix the bugs." Good on you though for breaking down your project enough to where you know you have a problem early, while there's still only a little bit of code. This definitely beats grinding out all of the code at once and only finding afterward that there's bugs. — Dennis Meng
– Dennis Meng, Commented Mar 5, 2014 at 6:24

Sadique · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-05 05:44:35Z

5

You have to run the compiled program not the source code. I think you are executing the .c file instead of the created program file.

gcc -o main main.c
./main helloworld

answered Mar 5, 2014 at 5:44

Sadique

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1 Comment

Lee Duhem Over a year ago

Wow, try to run that C source file did give a similar error message.

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