Include binary file with gcc/clang

incbin.c

#include <stdio.h>

#define STR2(x) #x
#define STR(x) STR2(x)

#ifdef _WIN32
#define INCBIN_SECTION ".rdata, \"dr\""
#else
#define INCBIN_SECTION ".rodata"
#endif

// this aligns start address to 16 and terminates byte array with explict 0
// which is not really needed, feel free to change it to whatever you want/need
#define INCBIN(name, file) \
    __asm__(".section " INCBIN_SECTION "\n" \
            ".global incbin_" STR(name) "_start\n" \
            ".balign 16\n" \
            "incbin_" STR(name) "_start:\n" \
            ".incbin \"" file "\"\n" \
            \
            ".global incbin_" STR(name) "_end\n" \
            ".balign 1\n" \
            "incbin_" STR(name) "_end:\n" \
            ".byte 0\n" \
    ); \
    extern __attribute__((aligned(16))) const char incbin_ ## name ## _start[]; \
    extern                              const char incbin_ ## name ## _end[]

INCBIN(foobar, "binary.bin");

int main()
{
    printf("start = %p\n", &incbin_foobar_start);
    printf("end = %p\n", &incbin_foobar_end);
    printf("size = %zu\n", (char*)&incbin_foobar_end - (char*)&incbin_foobar_start);
    printf("first byte = 0x%02hhx\n", incbin_foobar_start[0]);
}

You don't need to switch to C23. Clang supports #embed as extension even in C99 or whatever standard. It'll just be extra warning, but that you can silence it with pragma or just globally.

If you want to figure out how to make .incbin work, then you can enable assembly output with -S for some const uint8_t data[] = { ... } array and then look how variable declaration looks in assembly, then replicate the same thing in inline asm. Or just simply look in godoblt - there you need turn off "Directives" under "Filter".

ohh those are some good tips. I'll try them out