How to compile executable for Windows with GCC with Linux Subsystem?

Windows 10 Anniversary Update includes the Linux Subsystem for Ubuntu. I installed gcc with `sudo apt-get install gcc`.

I wrote some simple C code for testing purposes:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(void){
printf("Hello\n");
return 0;
}

And compiled it with `gcc -c main.c` but the execute (Linux only) `main.o` is generated. If I run it `./main.o`, it displays `Hello`.

My question is, how can I compile `main.c` so that Windows can run it? Basically, how do you generate a `*.exe` file with GCC in Linux Subsystem ?

If you compile using gcc on linux it will produce an ELF file not a PE (what windows understand) file

To compile a program for windows inside linux you can use mingw.

Linux Subsystem works as a Linux-computer. You can only run Linux executables inside it and default `gcc` creates Linux executables.

To create Windows executables, you need to install mingw cross-compiler:

sudo apt-get install mingw-w64

Then you can create 32-bit Windows executable with:

i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -o main32.exe main.c

And 64-bit Windows executable with:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -o main64.exe main.c

Note that these Windows executables will not work inside Linux Subsystem, only outside of it.