gcc, g++ - GNU project C and C++ Compiler (gcc-3.2.1)
gcc [ option | filename ]...
g++ [ option | filename ]...
The information in this man page is an extract from the full documentation
of the GNU C compiler, and is limited to the meaning of the
options.
This man page is not kept up to date except when volunteers want to
maintain it. If you find a discrepancy between the man page and the
software, please check the Info file, which is the authoritative documentation.
If we find that the things in this man page that are out of date cause
significant confusion or complaints, we will stop distributing the man
page. The alternative, updating the man page when we update the Info
file, is impossible because the rest of the work of maintaining GNU CC
leaves us no time for that. The GNU project regards man pages as obsolete
and should not let them take time away from other things.
For complete and current documentation, refer to the Info file `gcc' or
the manual Using and Porting GNU CC (for version 2.0). Both are made
from the Texinfo source file gcc.texinfo.
The C and C++ compilers are integrated. Both process input files
through one or more of four stages: preprocessing, compilation, assembly,
and linking. Source filename suffixes identify the source language,
but which name you use for the compiler governs default assumptions:
gcc assumes preprocessed (.i) files are C and assumes C style linking.
g++ assumes preprocessed (.i) files are C++ and assumes C++ style
linking.
Suffixes of source file names indicate the language and kind of processing
to be done:
.c C source; preprocess, compile, assemble
.C C++ source; preprocess, compile, assemble
.cc C++ source; preprocess, compile, assemble
.cxx C++ source; preprocess, compile, assemble
.m Objective-C source; preprocess, compile, assemble
.i preprocessed C; compile, assemble
.ii preprocessed C++; compile, assemble
.s Assembler source; assemble
.S Assembler source; preprocess, assemble
.h Preprocessor file; not usually named on command line
Files with other suffixes are passed to the linker. Common cases
include:
.o Object file
.a Archive file
Linking is always the last stage unless you use one of the -c, -S, or
-E options to avoid it (or unless compilation errors stop the whole
process). For the link stage, all .o files corresponding to source
files, -l libraries, unrecognized filenames (including named .o object
files and .a archives) are passed to the linker in command-line order.
Options must be separate: `-dr' is quite different from `-d -r '.
Most `-f' and `-W' options have two contrary forms: -fname and
-fno-name (or -Wname and -Wno-name). Only the non-default forms are
shown here.
Here is a summary of all the options, grouped by type. Explanations
are in the following sections.
Overall Options [Toc] [Back]
-c -S -E -o file -pipe -v -x language
Language Options [Toc] [Back]
-ansi -fall-virtual -fcond-mismatch -fdollars-in-identifiers
-fenum-int-equiv -fexternal-templates -fno-asm -fno-builtin
-fhosted -fno-hosted -ffreestanding -fno-freestanding
-fno-strict-prototype -fsigned-bitfields -fsigned-char
-fthis-is-variable -funsigned-bitfields -funsigned-char
-fwritable-strings -traditional -traditional-cpp -trigraphs
Warning Options [Toc] [Back]
-fsyntax-only -pedantic -pedantic-errors -w -W -Wall
-Waggregate-return -Wcast-align -Wcast-qual -Wchar-subscript
-Wcomment -Wconversion -Wenum-clash -Werror -Wformat
-Wid-clash-len -Wimplicit -Wimplicit-int
-Wimplicit-function-declaration -Winline -Wlong-long -Wmain
-Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations -Wnested-externs
-Wno-import -Wparentheses -Wpointer-arith -Wredundant-decls
-Wreturn-type -Wshadow -Wstrict-prototypes -Wswitch
-Wtemplate-debugging -Wtraditional -Wtrigraphs -Wuninitialized
-Wunused -Wwrite-strings
Debugging Options [Toc] [Back]
-a -dletters -fpretend-float -g -glevel -gcoff -gxcoff -gxcoff+
-gdwarf -gdwarf+ -gstabs -gstabs+ -ggdb -p -pg -save-temps
-print-file-name=library -print-libgcc-file-name
-print-prog-name=program
Optimization Options [Toc] [Back]
-fcaller-saves -fcse-follow-jumps -fcse-skip-blocks
-fdelayed-branch -felide-constructors -fexpensive-optimizations
-ffast-math -ffloat-store -fforce-addr -fforce-mem
-finline-functions -fkeep-inline-functions -fmemoize-lookups
-fno-default-inline -fno-defer-pop -fno-function-cse -fno-inline
-fno-peephole -fomit-frame-pointer -frerun-cse-after-loop
-fschedule-insns -fschedule-insns2 -fstrength-reduce
-fthread-jumps -funroll-all-loops -funroll-loops -O -O2 -O3 -O0
-Os
Preprocessor Options [Toc] [Back]
-Aassertion -C -dD -dM -dN -Dmacro[=defn] -E -H -idirafter dir
-include file -imacros file -iprefix file -iwithprefix dir -M
-MD -MM -MMD -nostdinc -P -Umacro -undef
Assembler Option [Toc] [Back]
-Wa,option
Linker Options [Toc] [Back]
-llibrary -nostartfiles -nostdlib -static -shared -symbolic
-Xlinker option -Wl,option -u symbol
Directory Options [Toc] [Back]
-Bprefix -Idir -I- -Ldir
Target Options [Toc] [Back]
-b machine -V version
Configuration Dependent Options [Toc] [Back]
M680x0 Options
-m68000 -m68020 -m68020-40 -m68030 -m68040 -m68881 -mbitfield
-mc68000 -mc68020 -mfpa -mnobitfield -mrtd -mshort -msoft-float
VAX Options
-mg -mgnu -munix
SPARC Options
-mepilogue -mfpu -mhard-float -mno-fpu -mno-epilogue
-msoft-float -msparclite -mv8 -msupersparc -mcypress
Convex Options
-margcount -mc1 -mc2 -mnoargcount
AMD29K Options
-m29000 -m29050 -mbw -mdw -mkernel-registers -mlarge -mnbw
-mnodw -msmall -mstack-check -muser-registers
M88K Options
-m88000 -m88100 -m88110 -mbig-pic -mcheck-zero-division
-mhandle-large-shift -midentify-revision
-mno-check-zero-division -mno-ocs-debug-info
-mno-ocs-frame-position -mno-optimize-arg-area
-mno-serialize-volatile -mno-underscores -mocs-debug-info
-mocs-frame-position -moptimize-arg-area -mserialize-volatile
-mshort-data-num -msvr3 -msvr4 -mtrap-large-shift
-muse-div-instruction -mversion-03.00 -mwarn-passed-structs
RS6000 Options
-mfp-in-toc -mno-fop-in-toc
RT Options
-mcall-lib-mul -mfp-arg-in-fpregs -mfp-arg-in-gregs
-mfull-fp-blocks -mhc-struct-return -min-line-mul
-mminimum-fp-blocks -mnohc-struct-return
MIPS Options
-mcpu=cpu type -mips2 -mips3 -mint64 -mlong64 -mlonglong128
-mmips-as -mgas -mrnames -mno-rnames -mgpopt -mno-gpopt -mstats
-mno-stats -mmemcpy -mno-memcpy -mno-mips-tfile -mmips-tfile
-msoft-float -mhard-float -mabicalls -mno-abicalls -mhalf-pic
-mno-half-pic -G num -nocpp
i386 Options
-m386 -m486 -mpentium -mpentiumpro -mno-486 -mcpu=cpu type
-march=cpu type -msoft-float -mrtd -mregparm -msvr3-shlib
-mno-ieee-fp -mno-fp-ret-in-387 -mfancy-math-387
-mno-wide-multiply -mdebug-addr -mno-move -mprofiler-epilogue
-reg-alloc=LIST
HPPA Options
-mpa-risc-1-0 -mpa-risc-1-1 -mkernel -mshared-libs
-mno-shared-libs -mlong-calls -mdisable-fpregs
-mdisable-indexing -mtrailing-colon
i960 Options
-mcpu-type -mnumerics -msoft-float -mleaf-procedures
-mno-leaf-procedures -mtail-call -mno-tail-call -mcomplex-addr
-mno-complex-addr -mcode-align -mno-code-align -mic-compat
-mic2.0-compat -mic3.0-compat -masm-compat -mintel-asm
-mstrict-align -mno-strict-align -mold-align -mno-old-align
DEC Alpha Options
-mfp-regs -mno-fp-regs -mno-soft-float -msoft-float
System V Options
-G -Qy -Qn -YP,paths -Ym,dir
Code Generation Options [Toc] [Back]
-fcall-saved-reg -fcall-used-reg -ffixed-reg
-finhibit-size-directive -fnonnull-objects -fno-common
-fno-ident -fno-gnu-linker -fpcc-struct-return -fpic -fPIC
-freg-struct-return -fshared-data -fshort-enums -fshort-double
-fvolatile -fvolatile-global -fverbose-asm
FreeBSD SPECIFIC OPTIONS [Toc] [Back] -pthread
Link a user-threaded process against libc_r instead of libc.
-x language
Specify explicitly the language for the following input files
(rather than choosing a default based on the file name suffix) .
This option applies to all following input files until the next
`-x' option. Possible values of language are `c', `objec-
tive-c', `c-header', `c++', `cpp-output', `assembler', and `as-
sembler-with-cpp'.
-x none
Turn off any specification of a language, so that subsequent
files are handled according to their file name suffixes (as they
are if `-x' has not been used at all).
If you want only some of the four stages (preprocess, compile, assemble,
link), you can use `-x' (or filename suffixes) to tell gcc where
to start, and one of the options `-c', `-S', or `-E' to say where gcc
is to stop. Note that some combinations (for example, `-x cpp-output
-E') instruct gcc to do nothing at all.
-c Compile or assemble the source files, but do not link. The compiler
output is an object file corresponding to each source
file.
By default, GCC makes the object file name for a source file by
replacing the suffix `.c', `.i', `.s', etc., with `.o'. Use -o
to select another name.
GCC ignores any unrecognized input files (those that do not require
compilation or assembly) with the -c option.
-S Stop after the stage of compilation proper; do not assemble.
The output is an assembler code file for each non-assembler input
file specified.
By default, GCC makes the assembler file name for a source file
by replacing the suffix `.c', `.i', etc., with `.s'. Use -o to
select another name.
GCC ignores any input files that don't require compilation.
-E Stop after the preprocessing stage; do not run the compiler
proper. The output is preprocessed source code, which is sent
to the standard output.
GCC ignores input files which don't require preprocessing.
-o file
Place output in file file. This applies regardless to whatever
sort of output GCC is producing, whether it be an executable
file, an object file, an assembler file or preprocessed C code.
Since only one output file can be specified, it does not make
sense to use `-o' when compiling more than one input file, unless
you are producing an executable file as output.
If you do not specify `-o', the default is to put an executable
file in `a.out', the object file for `source.suffix' in
`source.o', its assembler file in `source.s', and all preprocessed
C source on standard output.
-v Print (on standard error output) the commands executed to run
the stages of compilation. Also print the version number of the
compiler driver program and of the preprocessor and the compiler
proper.
-pipe Use pipes rather than temporary files for communication between
the various stages of compilation. This fails to work on some
systems where the assembler cannot read from a pipe; but the GNU
assembler has no trouble.
The following options control the dialect of C that the compiler accepts:
-ansi Support all ANSI standard C programs.
This turns off certain features of GNU C that are incompatible
with ANSI C, such as the asm, inline and typeof keywords, and
predefined macros such as unix and vax that identify the type of
system you are using. It also enables the undesirable and
rarely used ANSI trigraph feature, and disallows `$' as part of
identifiers.
The alternate keywords __asm__, __extension__, __inline__ and
__typeof__ continue to work despite `-ansi'. You would not want
to use them in an ANSI C program, of course, but it is useful to
put them in header files that might be included in compilations
done with `-ansi'. Alternate predefined macros such as __unix__
and __vax__ are also available, with or without `-ansi'.
The `-ansi' option does not cause non-ANSI programs to be rejected
gratuitously. For that, `-pedantic' is required in addition
to `-ansi'.
The preprocessor predefines a macro __STRICT_ANSI__ when you use
the `-ansi' option. Some header files may notice this macro and
refrain from declaring certain functions or defining certain
macros that the ANSI standard doesn't call for; this is to avoid
interfering with any programs that might use these names for
other things.
-fno-asm
Do not recognize asm, inline or typeof as a keyword. These
words may then be used as identifiers. You can use __asm__,
__inline__ and __typeof__ instead. `-ansi' implies `-fno-asm'.
-fno-builtin
Don't recognize built-in functions that do not begin with two
leading underscores. Currently, the functions affected include
_exit, abort, abs, alloca, cos, exit, fabs, labs, memcmp, mem-
cpy, sin, sqrt, strcmp, strcpy, and strlen.
The `-ansi' option prevents alloca and _exit from being builtin
functions.
-fhosted
Compile for a hosted environment; this implies the `-fbuiltin'
option, and implies that suspicious declarations of main should
be warned about.
-ffreestanding
Compile for a freestanding environment; this implies the `-fno-
builtin' option, and implies that main has no special requirements.
-fno-strict-prototype
Treat a function declaration with no arguments, such as `int foo
();', as C would treat it--as saying nothing about the number of
arguments or their types (C++ only). Normally, such a declaration
in C++ means that the function foo takes no arguments.
-trigraphs
Support ANSI C trigraphs. The `-ansi' option implies `-tri-
graphs'.
-traditional
Attempt to support some aspects of traditional C compilers. For
details, see the GNU C Manual; the duplicate list here has been
deleted so that we won't get complaints when it is out of date.
But one note about C++ programs only (not C). `-traditional'
has one additional effect for C++: assignment to this is permitted.
This is the same as the effect of `-fthis-is-variable'.
-traditional-cpp
Attempt to support some aspects of traditional C preprocessors.
This includes the items that specifically mention the preprocessor
above, but none of the other effects of `-traditional'.
-fdollars-in-identifiers
Permit the use of `$' in identifiers (C++ only). You can also
use `-fno-dollars-in-identifiers' to explicitly prohibit use of
`$'. (GNU C++ allows `$' by default on some target systems but
not others.)
-fenum-int-equiv
Permit implicit conversion of int to enumeration types (C++ only).
Normally GNU C++ allows conversion of enum to int, but not
the other way around.
-fexternal-templates
Produce smaller code for template declarations, by generating
only a single copy of each template function where it is defined
(C++ only). To use this option successfully, you must also mark
all files that use templates with either `#pragma implementa-
tion' (the definition) or `#pragma interface' (declarations).
When your code is compiled with `-fexternal-templates', all template
instantiations are external. You must arrange for all
necessary instantiations to appear in the implementation file;
you can do this with a typedef that references each instantiation
needed. Conversely, when you compile using the default option
`-fno-external-templates', all template instantiations are
explicitly internal.
-fall-virtual
Treat all possible member functions as virtual, implicitly. All
member functions (except for constructor functions and new or
delete member operators) are treated as virtual functions of the
class where they appear.
This does not mean that all calls to these member functions will
be made through the internal table of virtual functions. Under
some circumstances, the compiler can determine that a call to a
given virtual function can be made directly; in these cases the
calls are direct in any case.
-fcond-mismatch
Allow conditional expressions with mismatched types in the second
and third arguments. The value of such an expression is
void.
-fthis-is-variable
Permit assignment to this (C++ only). The incorporation of user-defined
free store management into C++ has made assignment to
`this' an anachronism. Therefore, by default it is invalid to
assign to this within a class member function. However, for
backwards compatibility, you can make it valid with `-fthis-is-
variable'.
-funsigned-char
Let the type char be unsigned, like unsigned char.
Each kind of machine has a default for what char should be. It
is either like unsigned char by default or like signed char by
default.
Ideally, a portable program should always use signed char or un-
signed char when it depends on the signedness of an object. But
many programs have been written to use plain char and expect it
to be signed, or expect it to be unsigned, depending on the machines
they were written for. This option, and its inverse, let
you make such a program work with the opposite default.
The type char is always a distinct type from each of signed char
and unsigned char, even though its behavior is always just like
one of those two.
-fsigned-char
Let the type char be signed, like signed char.
Note that this is equivalent to `-fno-unsigned-char', which is
the negative form of `-funsigned-char'. Likewise,
`-fno-signed-char' is equivalent to `-funsigned-char'.
-fsigned-bitfields
-funsigned-bitfields
-fno-signed-bitfields
-fno-unsigned-bitfields
These options control whether a bitfield is signed or unsigned,
when declared with no explicit `signed' or `unsigned' qualifier.
By default, such a bitfield is signed, because this is consistent:
the basic integer types such as int are signed types.
However, when you specify `-traditional', bitfields are all unsigned
no matter what.
-fwritable-strings
Store string constants in the writable data segment and don't
uniquize them. This is for compatibility with old programs
which assume they can write into string constants. `-tradition-
al' also has this effect.
Writing into string constants is a very bad idea; "constants"
should be constant.
These options control the C preprocessor, which is run on each C source
file before actual compilation.
If you use the `-E' option, GCC does nothing except preprocessing.
Some of these options make sense only together with `-E' because they
cause the preprocessor output to be unsuitable for actual compilation.
-include file
Process file as input before processing the regular input file.
In effect, the contents of file are compiled first. Any `-D'
and `-U' options on the command line are always processed before
`-include file', regardless of the order in which they are written.
All the `-include' and `-imacros' options are processed in
the order in which they are written.
-imacros file
Process file as input, discarding the resulting output, before
processing the regular input file. Because the output generated
from file is discarded, the only effect of `-imacros file' is to
make the macros defined in file available for use in the main
input. The preprocessor evaluates any `-D' and `-U' options on
the command line before processing `-imacrosfile', regardless of
the order in which they are written. All the `-include' and
`-imacros' options are processed in the order in which they are
written.
-idirafter dir
Add the directory dir to the second include path. The directories
on the second include path are searched when a header file
is not found in any of the directories in the main include path
(the one that `-I' adds to).
-iprefix prefix
Specify prefix as the prefix for subsequent `-iwithprefix' options.
-iwithprefix dir
Add a directory to the second include path. The directory's
name is made by concatenating prefix and dir, where prefix was
specified previously with `-iprefix'.
-nostdinc
Do not search the standard system directories for header files.
Only the directories you have specified with `-I' options (and
the current directory, if appropriate) are searched.
By using both `-nostdinc' and `-I-', you can limit the includefile
search file to only those directories you specify explicitly.
-nostdinc++
Do not search for header files in the C++-specific standard directories,
but do still search the other standard directories.
(This option is used when building `libg++'.)
-undef Do not predefine any nonstandard macros. (Including architecture
flags).
-E Run only the C preprocessor. Preprocess all the C source files
specified and output the results to standard output or to the
specified output file.
-C Tell the preprocessor not to discard comments. Used with the
`-E' option.
-P Tell the preprocessor not to generate `#line' commands. Used
with the `-E' option.
-M [ -MG ]
Tell the preprocessor to output a rule suitable for make describing
the dependencies of each object file. For each source
file, the preprocessor outputs one make-rule whose target is the
object file name for that source file and whose dependencies are
all the files `#include'd in it. This rule may be a single line
or may be continued with `\'-newline if it is long. The list of
rules is printed on standard output instead of the preprocessed
C program.
`-M' implies `-E'.
`-MG' says to treat missing header files as generated files and
assume they live in the same directory as the source file. It
must be specified in addition to `-M'.
-MM [ -MG ]
Like `-M' but the output mentions only the user header files included
with `#include "file"'. System header files included
with `#include <file>' are omitted.
-MD Like `-M' but the dependency information is written to files
with names made by replacing `.o' with `.d' at the end of the
output file names. This is in addition to compiling the file as
specified--`-MD' does not inhibit ordinary compilation the way
`-M' does.
The Mach utility `md' can be used to merge the `.d' files into a
single dependency file suitable for using with the `make' command.
-MMD Like `-MD' except mention only user header files, not system
header files.
-H Print the name of each header file used, in addition to other
normal activities.
-Aquestion(answer)
Assert the answer answer for question, in case it is tested with
a preprocessor conditional such as `#if #question(answer)'.
`-A-' disables the standard assertions that normally describe
the target machine.
-Aquestion
(answer) Assert the answer answer for question, in case it is
tested with a preprocessor conditional such as `#if #ques-
tion(answer)'. `-A-' disables the standard assertions that normally
describe the target machine.
-Dmacro
Define macro macro with the string `1' as its definition.
-Dmacro=defn
Define macro macro as defn. All instances of `-D' on the command
line are processed before any `-U' options.
-Umacro
Undefine macro macro. `-U' options are evaluated after all `-D'
options, but before any `-include' and `-imacros' options.
-dM Tell the preprocessor to output only a list of the macro definitions
that are in effect at the end of preprocessing. Used with
the `-E' option.
-dD Tell the preprocessor to pass all macro definitions into the
output, in their proper sequence in the rest of the output.
-dN Like `-dD' except that the macro arguments and contents are
omitted. Only `#define name' is included in the output.
-Wa,option
Pass option as an option to the assembler. If option contains
commas, it is split into multiple options at the commas.
These options come into play when the compiler links object files into
an executable output file. They are meaningless if the compiler is not
doing a link step.
object-file-name
A file name that does not end in a special recognized suffix is
considered to name an object file or library. (Object files are
distinguished from libraries by the linker according to the file
contents.) If GCC does a link step, these object files are used
as input to the linker.
-llibrary
Use the library named library when linking.
The linker searches a standard list of directories for the library,
which is actually a file named `liblibrary.a'. The linker
then uses this file as if it had been specified precisely by
name.
The directories searched include several standard system directories
plus any that you specify with `-L'.
Normally the files found this way are library files--archive
files whose members are object files. The linker handles an archive
file by scanning through it for members which define symbols
that have so far been referenced but not defined. However,
if the linker finds an ordinary object file rather than a library,
the object file is linked in the usual fashion. The only
difference between using an `-l' option and specifying a file
name is that `-l' surrounds library with `lib' and `.a' and
searches several directories.
-lobjc You need this special case of the -l option in order to link an
Objective C program.
-nostartfiles
Do not use the standard system startup files when linking. The
standard libraries are used normally.
-nostdlib
Don't use the standard system libraries and startup files when
linking. Only the files you specify will be passed to the linker.
-static
On systems that support dynamic linking, this prevents linking
with the shared libraries. On other systems, this option has no
effect.
-shared
Produce a shared object which can then be linked with other objects
to form an executable. Only a few systems support this
option.
-symbolic
Bind references to global symbols when building a shared object.
Warn about any unresolved references (unless overridden by the
link editor option `-Xlinker -z -Xlinker defs'). Only a few
systems support this option.
-Xlinker option
Pass option as an option to the linker. You can use this to
supply system-specific linker options which GNU CC does not know
how to recognize.
If you want to pass an option that takes an argument, you must
use `-Xlinker' twice, once for the option and once for the argument.
For example, to pass `-assert definitions', you must
write `-Xlinker -assert -Xlinker definitions'. It does not work
to write `-Xlinker "-assert definitions"', because this passes
the entire string as a single argument, which is not what the
linker expects.
-Wl,option
Pass option as an option to the linker. If option contains commas,
it is split into multiple options at the commas.
-u symbol
Pretend the symbol symbol is undefined, to force linking of library
modules to define it. You can use `-u' multiple times
with different symbols to force loading of additional library
modules.
These options specify directories to search for header files, for libraries
and for parts of the compiler:
-Idir Append directory dir to the list of directories searched for include
files.
-I- Any directories you specify with `-I' options before the `-I-'
option are searched only for the case of `#include "file"'; they
are not searched for `#include <file>'.
If additional directories are specified with `-I' options after
the `-I-', these directories are searched for all `#include' directives.
(Ordinarily all `-I' directories are used this way.)
In addition, the `-I-' option inhibits the use of the current
directory (where the current input file came from) as the first
search directory for `#include "file"'. There is no way to
override this effect of `-I-'. With `-I.' you can specify
searching the directory which was current when the compiler was
invoked. That is not exactly the same as what the preprocessor
does by default, but it is often satisfactory.
`-I-' does not inhibit the use of the standard system directories
for header files. Thus, `-I-' and `-nostdinc' are independent.
-Ldir Add directory dir to the list of directories to be searched for
`-l'.
-Bprefix
This option specifies where to find the executables, libraries
and data files of the compiler itself.
The compiler driver program runs one or more of the subprograms
`cpp', `cc1' (or, for C++, `cc1plus'), `as' and `ld'. It tries
prefix as a prefix for each program it tries to run, both with
and without `machine/version/'.
For each subprogram to be run, the compiler driver first tries
the `-B' prefix, if any. If that name is not found, or if `-B'
was not specified, the driver tries two standard prefixes, which
are `/usr/lib/gcc/' and `/usr/local/lib/gcc-lib/'. If neither
of those results in a file name that is found, the compiler
driver searches for the unmodified program name, using the directories
specified in your `PATH' environment variable.
The run-time support file `libgcc.a' is also searched for using
the `-B' prefix, if needed. If it is not found there, the two
standard prefixes above are tried, and that is all. The file is
left out of the link if it is not found by those means. Most of
the time, on most machines, `libgcc.a' is not actually necessary.
You can get a similar result from the environment variable
GCC_EXEC_PREFIX; if it is defined, its value is used as a prefix
in the same way. If both the `-B' option and the GCC_EXEC_PRE-
FIX variable are present, the `-B' option is used first and the
environment variable value second.
Warnings are diagnostic messages that report constructions which are
not inherently erroneous but which are risky or suggest there may have
been an error.
These options control the amount and kinds of warnings produced by GNU
CC:
-fsyntax-only
Check the code for syntax errors, but don't emit any output.
-w Inhibit all warning messages.
-Wno-import
Inhibit warning messages about the use of #import.
-pedantic
Issue all the warnings demanded by strict ANSI standard C; reject
all programs that use forbidden extensions.
Valid ANSI standard C programs should compile properly with or
without this option (though a rare few will require `-ansi').
However, without this option, certain GNU extensions and traditional
C features are supported as well. With this option, they
are rejected. There is no reason to use this option; it exists
only to satisfy pedants.
`-pedantic' does not cause warning messages for use of the alternate
keywords whose names begin and end with `__'. Pedantic
warnings are also disabled in the expression that follows __ex-
tension__. However, only system header files should use these
escape routes; application programs should avoid them.
-pedantic-errors
Like `-pedantic', except that errors are produced rather than
warnings.
-W Print extra warning messages for these events:
o A nonvolatile automatic variable might be changed by a call to
longjmp. These warnings are possible only in optimizing compilation.
The compiler sees only the calls to setjmp. It cannot know
where longjmp will be called; in fact, a signal handler could
call it at any point in the code. As a result, you may get a
warning even when there is in fact no problem because longjmp
cannot in fact be called at the place which would cause a problem.
o A function can return either with or without a value. (Falling
off the end of the function body is considered returning without
a value.) For example, this function would evoke such a warning:
foo (a)
{
if (a > 0)
return a;
}
Spurious warnings can occur because GNU CC does not realize that
certain functions (including abort and longjmp) will never return.
o An expression-statement or the left-hand side of a comma expression
contains no side effects. To suppress the warning, cast
the unused expression to void. For example, an expression such
as `x[i,j]' will cause a warning, but `x[(void)i,j]' will not.
o An unsigned value is compared against zero with `>' or `<='.
-Wimplicit-int
Warn whenever a declaration does not specify a type.
-Wimplicit-function-declaration
Warn whenever a function is used before being declared.
-Wimplicit
Same as -Wimplicit-int and -Wimplicit-function-declaration.
-Wmain Warn if the main function is declared or defined with a suspicious
type. Typically, it is a function with external linkage,
returning int, and taking zero or two arguments.
-Wreturn-type
Warn whenever a function is defined with a return-type that defaults
to int. Also warn about any return statement with no return-value
in a function whose return-type is not void.
-Wunused
Warn whenever a local variable is unused aside from its declaration,
whenever a function is declared static but never defined,
and whenever a statement computes a result that is explicitly
not used.
-Wswitch
Warn whenever a switch statement has an index of enumeral type
and lacks a case for one or more of the named codes of that enumeration.
(The presence of a default label prevents this warning.)
case labels outside the enumeration range also provoke
warnings when this option is used.
-Wcomment
Warn whenever a comment-start sequence `/*' appears in a comment.
-Wtrigraphs
Warn if any trigraphs are encountered (assuming they are enabled).
-Wformat
Check calls to printf and scanf, etc., to make sure that the arguments
supplied have types appropriate to the format string
specified.
-Wchar-subscripts
Warn if an array subscript has type char. This is a common
cause of error, as programmers often forget that this type is
signed on some machines.
-Wuninitialized
An automatic variable is used without first being initialized.
These warnings are possible only in optimizing compilation, because
they require data flow information that is computed only
when optimizing. If you don't specify `-O', you simply won't
get these warnings.
These warnings occur only for variables that are candidates for
register allocation. Therefore, they do not occur for a variable
that is declared volatile, or whose address is taken, or
whose size is other than 1, 2, 4 or 8 bytes. Also, they do not
occur for structures, unions or arrays, even when they are in
registers.
Note that there may be no warning about a variable that is used
only to compute a value that itself is never used, because such
computations may be deleted by data flow analysis before the
warnings are printed.
These warnings are made optional because GNU CC is not smart
enough to see all the reasons why the code might be correct despite
appearing to have an error. Here is one example of how
this can happen:
{
int x;
switch (y)
{
case 1: x = 1;
break;
case 2: x = 4;
break;
case 3: x = 5;
}
foo (x);
}
If the value of y is always 1, 2 or 3, then x is always initialized,
but GNU CC doesn't know this. Here is another common
case:
{
int save_y;
if (change_y) save_y = y, y = new_y;
...
if (change_y) y = save_y;
}
This has no bug because save_y is used only if it is set.
Some spurious warnings can be avoided if you declare as volatile
all the functions you use that never return.
-Wparentheses
Warn if parentheses are omitted in certain contexts.
-Wtemplate-debugging
When using templates in a C++ program, warn if debugging is not
yet fully available (C++ only).
-Wall All of the above `-W' options combined. These are all the options
which pertain to usage that we recommend avoiding and that
we believe is easy to avoid, even in conjunction with macros.
The remaining `-W...' options are not implied by `-Wall' because they
warn about constructions that we consider reasonable to use, on occasion,
in clean programs.
-Wtraditional
Warn about certain constructs that behave differently in traditional
and ANSI C.
o Macro arguments occurring within string constants in the macro
body. These would substitute the argument in traditional C, but
are part of the constant in ANSI C.
o A function declared external in one block and then used after
the end of the block.
o A switch statement has an operand of type long.
-Wshadow
Warn whenever a local variable shadows another local variable.
-Wid-clash-len
Warn whenever two distinct identifiers match in the first len
characters. This may help you prepare a program that will compile
with certain obsolete, brain-damaged compilers.
-Wpointer-arith
Warn about anything that depends on the "size of" a function
type or of void. GNU C assigns these types a size of 1, for
convenience in calculations with void * pointers and pointers to
functions.
-Wcast-qual
Warn whenever a pointer is cast so as to remove a type qualifier
from the target type. For example, warn if a const char * is
cast to an ordinary char *.
-Wcast-align
Warn whenever a pointer is cast such that the required alignment
of the target is increased. For example, warn if a char * is
cast to an int * on machines where integers can only be accessed
at two- or four-byte boundaries.
-Wwrite-strings
Give string constants the type const char[length] so that copying
the address of one into a non-const char * pointer will get
a warning. These warnings will help you find at compile time
code that can try to write into a string constant, but only if
you have been very careful about using const in declarations and
prototypes. Otherwise, it will just be a nuisance; this is why
we did not make `-Wall' request these warnings.
-Wconversion
Warn if a prototype causes a type conversion that is different
from what would happen to the same argument in the absence of a
prototype. This includes conversions of fixed point to floating
and vice versa, and conversions changing the width or signedness
of a fixed point argument except when the same as the default
promotion.
-Waggregate-return
Warn if any functions that return structures or unions are defined
or called. (In languages where you can return an array,
this also elicits a warning.)
-Wstrict-prototypes
Warn if a function is declared or defined without specifying the
argument types. (An old-style function definition is permitted
without a warning if preceded by a declaration which specifies
the argument types.)
-Wmissing-prototypes
Warn if a global function is defined without a previous prototype
declaration. This warning is issued even if the definition
itself provides a prototype. The aim is to detect global functions
that fail to be declared in header files.
-Wmissing-declarations
Warn if a global function is defined without a previous declaration.
Do so even if the definition itself provides a prototype.
Use this option to detect global functions that are not declared
in header files.
-Wredundant-decls
Warn if anything is declared more than once in the same scope,
even in cases where multiple declaration is valid and changes
nothing.
-Wnested-externs
Warn if an extern declaration is encountered within a function.
-Wenum-clash
Warn about conversion between different enumeration types (C++
only).
-Wlong-long
Warn if long long type is used. This is default. To inhibit
the warning messages, use flag `-Wno-long-long'. Flags
`-W-long-long' and `-Wno-long-long' are taken into account only
when flag `-pedantic' is used.
-Woverloaded-virtual
(C++ only.) In a derived class, the definitions of virtual
functions must match the type signature of a virtual function
declared in the base class. Use this option to request warnings
when a derived class declares a function that may be an erroneous
attempt to define a virtual function: that is, warn when a
function with the same name as a virtual function in the base
class, but with a type signature that doesn't match any virtual
functions from the base class.
-Winline
Warn if a function can not be inlined, and either it was declared
as inline, or else the -finline-functions option was given.
-Werror
Treat warnings as errors; abort compilation after any warning.
GNU CC has various special options that are used for debugging either
your program or GCC:
-g Produce debugging information in the operating system's native
format (stabs, COFF, XCOFF, or DWARF). GDB can work with this
debugging information.
On most systems that use stabs format, `-g' enables use of extra
debugging information that only GDB can use; this extra information
makes debugging work better in GDB but will probably make
other debuggers crash or refuse to read the program. If you
want to control for certain whether to generate the extra information,
use `-gstabs+', `-gstabs', `-gxcoff+', `-gxcoff',
`-gdwarf+', or `-gdwarf' (see below).
Unlike most other C compilers, GNU CC allows you to use `-g'
with `-O'. The shortcuts taken by optimized code may occasionally
produce surprising results: some variables you declared may
not exist at all; flow of control may briefly move where you did
not expect it; some statements may not be executed because they
compute constant results or their values were already at hand;
some statements may execute in different places because they
were moved out of loops.
Nevertheless it proves possible to debug optimized output. This
makes it reasonable to use the optimizer for programs that might
have bugs.
The following options are useful when GNU CC is generated with the capability
for more than one debugging format.
-ggdb Produce debugging information in the native format (if that is
supported), including GDB extensions if at all possible.
-gstabs
Produce debugging information in stabs format (if that is supported),
without GDB extensions. This is the format used by DBX
on most BSD systems.
-gstabs+
Produce debugging information in stabs format (if that is supported),
using GNU extensions understood only by the GNU debugger
(GDB). The use of these extensions is likely to make other
debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.
-gcoff Produce debugging information in COFF format (if that is supported).
This is the format used by SDB on most System V systems
prior to System V Release 4.
-gxcoff
Produce debugging information in XCOFF format (if that is supported).
This is the format used by the DBX debugger on IBM
RS/6000 systems.
-gxcoff+
Produce debugging information in XCOFF format (if that is supported),
using GNU extensions understood only by the GNU debugger
(GDB). The use of these extensions is likely to make other
debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.
-gdwarf
Produce debugging information in DWARF format (if that is supported).
This is the format used by SDB on most System V Release
4 systems.
-gdwarf+
Produce debugging information in DWARF format (if that is supported),
using GNU extensions understood only by the GNU debugger
(GDB). The use of these extensions is likely to make other
debuggers crash or refuse to read the program.
-glevel
-ggdblevel
-gstabslevel
-gcofflevel -gxcofflevel
-gdwarflevel
Request debugging information and also use level to specify how
much information. The default level is 2.
Level 1 produces minimal information, enough for making backtraces
in parts of the program that you don't plan to debug.
This includes descriptions of functions and external variables,
but no information about local variables and no line numbers.
Level 3 includes extra information, such as all the macro definitions
present in the program. Some debuggers support macro
expansion when you use `-g3'.
-p Generate extra code to write profile information suitable for
the analysis program prof.
-pg Generate extra code to write profile information suitable for
the analysis program gprof.
-a Generate extra code to write profile information for basic
blocks, which will record the number of times each basic block
is executed. This data could be analyzed by a program like
tcov. Note, however, that the format of the data is not what
tcov expects. Eventually GNU gprof should be extended to
process this data.
-ax Generate extra code to read basic block profiling parameters
from file `bb.in' and write profiling results to file `bb.out'.
`bb.in' contains a list of functions. Whenever a function on the
list is entered, profiling is turned on. When the outmost function
is left, profiling is turned off. If a function name is
prefixed with `-' the function is excluded from profiling. If a
function name is not unique it can be disambiguated by writing
`/path/filename.d:functionname'. `bb.out' will list some available
filenames. Four function names have a special meaning:
`__bb_jumps__' will cause jump frequencies to be written to
`bb.out'. `__bb_trace__' will cause the sequence of basic
blocks to be piped into `gzip' and written to file `bbtrace.gz'.
`__bb_hidecall__' will cause call instructions to be excluded
from the trace. `__bb_showret__' will cause return instructions
to be included in the trace.
-dletters
Says to make debugging dumps during compilation at times specified
by letters. This is used for debugging the compiler. The
file names for most of the dumps are made by appending a word to
the source file name (e.g. `foo.c.rtl' or `foo.c.jump').
-dM Dump all macro definitions, at the end of preprocessing, and
write no output.
-dN Dump all macro names, at the end of preprocessing.
-dD Dump all macro definitions, at the end of preprocessing, in addition
to normal output.
-dy Dump debugging information during parsing, to standard error.
-dr Dump after RTL generation, to `file.rtl'.
-dx Just generate RTL for a function instead of compiling it. Usually
used with `r'.
-dj Dump after first jump optimization, to `file.jump'.
-ds Dump after CSE (including the jump optimization that sometimes
follows CSE), to `file.cse'.
-dL Dump after loop optimization, to `file.loop'.
-dt Dump after the second CSE pass (including the jump optimization
that sometimes follows CSE), to `file.cse2'.
-df Dump after flow analysis, to `file.flow'.
-dc Dump after instruction combination, to `file.combine'.
-dS Dump after the first instruction scheduling pass, to
`file.sched'.
-dl Dump after local register allocation, to `file.lreg'.
-dg Dump after global register allocation, to `file.greg'.
-dR Dump after the second instruction scheduling pass, to
`file.sched2'.
-dJ Dump after last jump optimization, to `file.jump2'.
-dd Dump after delayed branch scheduling, to `file.dbr'.
-dk Dump after conversion from registers to stack, to `file.stack'.
-da Produce all the dumps listed above.
-dm Print statistics on memory usage, at the end of the run, to
standard error.
-dp Annotate the assembler output with a comment indicating which
pattern and alternative was used.
-fpretend-float
When running a cross-compiler, pretend that the target machine
uses the same floating point format as the host machine. This
causes incorrect output of the actual floating constants, but
the actual instruction sequence will probably be the same as GNU
CC would make when running on the target machine.
-save-temps
Store the usual "temporary" intermediate files permanently;
place them in the current directory and name them based on the
source file. Thus, compiling `foo.c' with `-c -save-temps'
would produce files `foo.cpp' and `foo.s', as well as `foo.o'.
-print-file-name=library
Print the full absolute name of the library file library that
would be used when linking--and do not do anything else. With
this option, GNU CC does not compile or link anything; it just
prints the file name.
-print-libgcc-file-name
Same as `-print-file-name=libgcc.a'.
-print-prog-name=program
Like `-print-file-name', but searches for a program such as
`cpp'.
These options control various sorts of optimizations:
-O
-O1 Optimize. Optimizing compilation takes somewhat more time, and
a lot more memory for a large function.
Without `-O', the compiler's goal is to reduce the cost of compilation
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