7 Compiling a C++ program

This chapter describes how to use GCC to compile programs written in C++, and the command-line options specific to that language.

The GNU C++ compiler provided by GCC is a true C++ compiler--it compiles C++ source code directly into assembly language. Some other C++ "compilers" are translators which convert C++ programs into C, and then compile the resulting C program using an existing C compiler. A true C++ compiler, such as GCC, is able to provide better support for error reporting, debugging and optimization.