Writing a (valid) C program without main()

This tutorial was created by a community author. Community content is reviewed by the iximiuz Labs team on a best effort basis. Tutorial on Programming , Linux Last updated: Jul 25, 2026 Writing a (valid) C program without main() by Başar Subaşı Walk through the C compilation pipeline: preprocessor, compiler, assembler, and linker. Start with a normal hello world, inspect macros and generated assembly, and end by producing a running binary that has no main() function. Why C? Most programming languages start execution from a main() function. Go has func main() , Java has public static void main() , and C has int main() . So why did I pick C for this tutorial?