⁷⁹This C-language code is typed and saved as a plain-text file on the computer, and then a compiler program is run to convert this “source” code into an “executable” file that the computer may then run. The compiler I use on my Linux-based systems is gcc (the GNU C Compiler). If I save my Modbus program source code to a file named tony_modbus.c, then the command-line instruction I will need to issue to my computer instructing GCC to compile this source code will be gcc tony_modbus.c -lmodbus. The argument -lmodbus tells GCC to “link” my code to the code of the pre-installed libmodbus library in order to compile a working executable file. By default, GCC outputs the executable as a file named a.out. If I wish to rename the executable something more meaningful, I may either do so manually after compilation, or invoke the “outfile” option of gcc and specify the desired executable filename: (e.g. gcc -o tony.exe tony_modbus -lmodbus). Once compiled, the executable file many be run and the results of the Modbus query viewed on the computer’s display.