Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: Developer Tools Guide
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Chapter 2. Basic Principles of the Tools

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Tools's C and C++ compilers, macro-assembler, debugger, binary utilities, libraries, and other development tools provide productivity, flexibility, performance, and portability. This chapter begins with a summary of the tools, then describes each tool in more detail.

To use a tool, open your system's terminal shell window and enter the tool's name as a command (gcc, for instance, invokes the compiler. For a summary of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Tools, refer to Section 2.1 Compiler and Development Tools, Section 2.2 Libraries, and Section 2.3 Auxiliary Development Tools.

To learn about working with the tools, refer to Chapter 3 Developing with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Tools.

2.1. Compiler and Development Tools

The following lists the main tools for developing projects with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Developer Tools.

Tool	Description
`cpp`	C preprocessor (refer to Section 2.5 `cpp`, the GNU Preprocessor; and Using cpp, the C Preprocessor)
`diff, diff3, sdiff`	Comparison tools for text files.
`gcc`	ISO-conforming compiler collection (refer to Section 2.4 `gcc`, the GNU Compiler Collection and Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC))
`g++`	A frontend to `gcc` that defaults to interpreting files as being C++ source files even if they look like C source files
`gcov`	Coverage analyzer, for testing code for efficiency and performance, and for use as a profiling tool (refer to Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC))
`gdb -nw`	Debugger for debugging with command line input (refer to Section 2.9 gdb, the Debugging Tool and Debugging with GDB)
`gdb`	Debugger for making applications work better (refer to Debugging with GDB)
`ld`	Linker (refer to Section 2.7 ld, the GNU Linker and Using ld, the Gnu Linker)
`make`	Compilation control program (refer to Section 2.10 make, the GNU Recompiling Tool)
`patch`	Installation tool for source fixes

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