*******************************
Compile and Run the Application
*******************************

Now that the application is fully implemented, it’s time to build and run it to verify that everything works as expected.

We’ll create a dedicated ``cmake-build`` directory inside the project root. This is a common and recommended CMake practice: it keeps generated build files separate from your source code and makes the command-line workflow clean and predictable.

Building the Project
====================

#.  Create the build directory and initialize the CMake build system:

    .. code-block:: console

        $ mkdir cmake-build
        $ cmake . -B cmake-build
        ...
        -- Build files have been written to: ~/htmlstats/cmake-build

    CMake configures the project, detects your compiler, and generates all required build files inside ``cmake-build``.

#.  Build the application:

    .. code-block:: console

        $ cmake --build cmake-build
        [  1%] Building CXX object RegEx.cpp.o
        [  3%] Building CXX object Compiler.cpp.o
        ...
        [100%] Linking CXX executable htmlstats
        [100%] Built target htmlstats

    Once this step completes without errors, the executable is ready to run.

#.  Run the application without arguments:

    .. code-block:: console

        $ ./cmake-build/htmlstats/htmlstats
        Usage: ./cmake-build/htmlstats/htmlstats <html-file>

You should see a usage message, confirming that the application starts correctly and expects an HTML file as input.

Retrieving an HTML File
=======================

To test the application, you’ll need an HTML file. You can create a small one yourself, but for a quick test it’s easiest to download an existing page using ``curl`` or ``wget``.

#.  Download an HTML file:

    .. code-block:: console

        $ curl https://erbsland.dev > page.html
        ... or ...
        $ wget https://erbsland.dev -O page.html

Either command will save the downloaded page as ``page.html`` in your current directory.

Run the Application with the HTML File
======================================

Now run the application again, this time passing the HTML file as a command-line argument:

.. code-block:: console

    $ ./cmake-build/htmlstats/htmlstats page.html
    Scanning file
    Tag Statistics:
    59         div
    38         span
    29         a
    15         meta
    (...)
    Attribute Statistics:
    134        class
    17         href
    10         rel
    7          content
    (...)

Success! 🎉
The application scanned the HTML file, counted tags and attributes using the *Erbsland Regular Expression Library*, and printed the statistics to the console.

From here, you can experiment with different HTML files, adjust the regular expressions, or extend the program with additional analysis logic.

.. button-ref:: /reference/api/index
    :ref-type: doc
    :color: success
    :align: center
    :expand:
    :class: sd-fs-5 sd-font-weight-bold sd-p-2 sd-mt-4

    API Reference

.. button-ref:: /usage/index
    :ref-type: doc
    :color: success
    :align: center
    :expand:
    :class: sd-fs-5 sd-font-weight-bold sd-p-2 sd-mb-4

    Usage