You can use ld to turn any file into an object file: ld -r -b binary -o foo_txt.o foo.txt foo_txt.o then has these symbols: extern const char _binary_foo

You can use ld to turn any file into an object file: ld -r -b binary -o foo_txt.o foo.txt foo_txt.o then has these symbols: extern const char _binary_foo_txt_start[]; extern const char _binary_foo_txt_end[]; extern const void *_binary_foo_txt_size; So you need to write your own declarations (it doesn't generate a header file). _binary_foo_txt_size is weird and has to be used as: (size_t)&_binary_foo_txt_size Or use (size_t)(_binary_foo_txt_end - _binary_foo_txt_start) instead.