How to specify the name of an object file

Question

When I intuitively try to run such command

cc -c source.c header.h -o a_name_different_than_source.o

the following error is thrown

cc: cannot specify -o with -c, -S or -E with multiple files

Answer 1

Do not put header.h in your command line:

cc -c source.c -o a_name_different_than_source.o

will work.

Answer 2

A .c file does not require you to mention the headers on the command line, GCC takes care of that.

A simple gcc inputFilename -o outfileName should suffice.