What are the main steps involved in the project build process and how are they implemented?

The process of building a C/C++ project typically includes the following main steps:

1. Preprocessing — handling preprocessor directives (#include, #define, etc.), generating the final source code.
2. Compilation — converting the preprocessed code into an object file (.o or .obj), containing machine code but without linking.
3. Linking — combining all object files and libraries into an executable or library, resolving external references.

These steps are usually automated with build systems (Make, CMake, etc.), which invoke the compiler with the necessary options. For example, the gcc command for building might look like this:

gcc -c file.c -o file.o   # compilation
gcc file.o -o program     # linking

Build systems manage dependencies and the sequence of calls to minimize build time and ensure correctness.