GCC Command Options

When you invoke GCC, it normally does preprocessing, compilation, assembly and linking. The overall options allow you to stop this process at an intermediate stage. For example, the -c option says not to run the linker. Then the output consists of object files output by the assembler.

Other options are passed on to one stage of processing. Some options control the preprocessor and others the compiler itself. Yet other options control the assembler and linker; most of these are not documented here, since you rarely need to use any of them.

Most of the command-line options that you can use with GCC are useful for C programs; when an option is only useful with another language (usually C++), the explanation says so explicitly. If the description for a particular option does not mention a source language, you can use that option with all supported languages.

Invoking G++Compiling C++ Programs, for a summary of special options for compiling C++ programs.

The gcc program accepts options and file names as operands. Many options have multi-letter names; therefore multiple single-letter options may not be grouped: -dv is very different from -d -v.

You can mix options and other arguments. For the most part, the order you use doesnt matter. Order does matter when you use several options of the same kind; for example, if you specify -L more than once, the directories are searched in the order specified. Also, the placement of the -l option is significant.

Many options have long names starting with -f or with -Wfor example, -fmove-loop-invariants, -Wformat and so on. Most of these have both positive and negative forms; the negative form of -ffoo is -fno-foo. This manual documents only one of these two forms, whichever one is not the default.

Option Index, for an index to GCCs options.

• Brief list of all options, without explanations.

:: _option-summary:

• Option Summary
• Options Controlling the Kind of Output
• Compiling C++ Programs
• Options Controlling C Dialect
• Options Controlling C++ Dialect
• Options Controlling Objective-C and Objective-C++ Dialects
• Options to Control Diagnostic Messages Formatting
• Options to Request or Suppress Warnings
• Options for Debugging Your Program or GCC
• Options That Control Optimization
• Options Controlling the Preprocessor
• Passing Options to the Assembler
• Options for Linking
• Options for Directory Search
• Specifying Subprocesses and the Switches to Pass to Them
• Specifying Target Machine and Compiler Version
• Hardware Models and Configurations
  • AArch64 Options
  • Adapteva Epiphany Options
  • ARC Options
  • ARM Options
  • AVR Options
    • AVR Built-in Macros
  • Blackfin Options
  • C6X Options
  • CRIS Options
  • CR16 Options
  • Darwin Options
  • DEC Alpha Options
  • FR30 Options
  • FRV Options
  • GNU/Linux Options
  • H8/300 Options
  • HPPA Options
  • IA-64 Options
  • LM32 Options
  • M32C Options
  • M32R/D Options
  • M680x0 Options
  • MCore Options
  • MeP Options
  • MicroBlaze Options
  • MIPS Options
  • MMIX Options
  • MN10300 Options
  • Moxie Options
  • MSP430 Options
  • NDS32 Options
  • Nios II Options
  • Nvidia PTX Options
  • PDP-11 Options
  • picoChip Options
  • PowerPC Options
  • RL78 Options
  • IBM RS/6000 and PowerPC Options
  • RX Options
  • S/390 and zSeries Options
  • Score Options
  • SH Options
  • Solaris 2 Options
  • SPARC Options
  • SPU Options
  • Options for System V
  • TILE-Gx Options
  • TILEPro Options
  • V850 Options
  • VAX Options
  • Visium Options
  • VMS Options
  • VxWorks Options
  • x86 Options
  • x86 Windows Options
  • Xstormy16 Options
  • Xtensa Options
  • zSeries Options
• Options for Code Generation Conventions
• Environment Variables Affecting GCC
• Using Precompiled Headers

:: _overall-options:

:: _invoking-g++:

:: _c-dialect-options:

:: _c++-dialect-options:

:: _objective-c-and-objective-c++-dialect-options:

:: _language-independent-options:

:: _warning-options:

:: _debugging-options:

:: _optimize-options:

:: _preprocessor-options:

:: _assembler-options:

:: _link-options:

:: _directory-options:

:: _spec-files:

:: _target-options:

:: _submodel-options:

:: _code-gen-options:

:: _environment-variables:

:: _precompiled-headers: