An Introduction to GCC

for the GNU Compilers gcc and g++

Revised and updated

• Foreword
• 1 Introduction
  • 1.1 A brief history of GCC
  • 1.2 Major features of GCC
  • 1.3 Programming in C and C++
  • 1.4 Conventions used in this manual
• 2 Compiling a C program
  • 2.1 Compiling a simple C program
  • 2.2 Finding errors in a simple program
  • 2.3 Compiling multiple source files
  • 2.4 Compiling files independently
    • 2.4.1 Creating object files from source files
    • 2.4.2 Creating executables from object files
  • 2.5 Recompiling and relinking
  • 2.6 A simple makefile
  • 2.7 Linking with external libraries
    • 2.7.1 Link order of libraries
  • 2.8 Using library header files
• 3 Compilation options
  • 3.1 Setting search paths
    • 3.1.1 Search path example
    • 3.1.2 Environment variables
    • 3.1.3 Extended search paths
  • 3.2 Shared libraries and static libraries
  • 3.3 C language standards
    • 3.3.1 ANSI/ISO
    • 3.3.2 Strict ANSI/ISO
    • 3.3.3 Selecting specific standards
  • 3.4 Warning options in -Wall
  • 3.5 Additional warning options
  • 3.6 Recommended warning options
• 4 Using the preprocessor
  • 4.1 Defining macros
  • 4.2 Macros with values
  • 4.3 Preprocessing source files
• 5 Compiling for debugging
  • 5.1 Examining core files
  • 5.2 Displaying a backtrace
  • 5.3 Setting a breakpoint
  • 5.4 Stepping through the program
  • 5.5 Modifying variables
  • 5.6 Continuing execution
  • 5.7 More information
• 6 Compiling with optimization
  • 6.1 Source-level optimization
    • 6.1.1 Common subexpression elimination
    • 6.1.2 Function inlining
  • 6.2 Speed-space tradeoffs
    • 6.2.1 Loop unrolling
  • 6.3 Scheduling
  • 6.4 Optimization levels
  • 6.5 Examples
  • 6.6 Optimization and debugging
  • 6.7 Optimization and compiler warnings
• 7 Compiling a C++ program
  • 7.1 Compiling a simple C++ program
  • 7.2 C++ compilation options
  • 7.3 Using the C++ standard library
  • 7.4 Templates
    • 7.4.1 Using C++ standard library templates
    • 7.4.2 Providing your own templates
    • 7.4.3 Explicit template instantiation
    • 7.4.4 The export keyword
• 8 Platform-specific options
  • 8.1 Intel and AMD x86 options
    • 8.1.1 x86 extensions
    • 8.1.2 x86 64-bit processors
  • 8.2 DEC Alpha options
  • 8.3 SPARC options
  • 8.4 POWER/PowerPC options
  • 8.5 Multi-architecture support
  • 8.6 Floating-point issues
  • 8.7 Portability of signed and unsigned types
• 9 Troubleshooting
  • 9.1 Help for command-line options
  • 9.2 Version numbers
  • 9.3 Verbose compilation
  • 9.4 Stopping a program in an infinite loop
  • 9.5 Preventing excessive memory usage
• 10 Compiler-related tools
  • 10.1 Creating a library with the GNU archiver
  • 10.2 Using the profiler gprof
  • 10.3 Coverage testing with gcov
• 11 How the compiler works
  • 11.1 An overview of the compilation process
  • 11.2 The preprocessor
  • 11.3 The compiler
  • 11.4 The assembler
  • 11.5 The linker
• 12 Examining compiled files
  • 12.1 Identifying files
  • 12.2 Examining the symbol table
  • 12.3 Finding dynamically linked libraries
• 13 Common error messages
  • 13.1 Preprocessor error messages
  • 13.2 Compiler error messages
  • 13.3 Linker error messages
  • 13.4 Runtime error messages
• 14 Getting help
• Further reading
• Acknowledgements
• Free software organizations
• GNU Free Documentation License
  • ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents