Gcc and G++

Gcc

Gcc is a GNU compiler collection that is designed for C and C++. It will also support other languages like Objective-C, Ada, Go, and Fortran with the correct flags or configurations.

By default, “gcc” will compile C code.

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compiling C file:

gcc file_name.c -o executable_name

It also compiles C++ code, but you need to explicitly instruct GCC to link the C++ standard library.

gcc file_name.cpp -lstdc++ -o executable_name 

Basic Options:

• -Wall enables compiler warnings
• -g is to build non-stripped binaries. Striped binaries will not contain debug information. non-stripped binaries will contain debug information that can be used by the GDB debugger.
• -I directory to look for the Include or Header files
• -L directory to look for the library file (.so or .dll files)
• -l link the library
• -E only the preprocessing step
• -S convert the output preprocessing in to Assembly file
• -ansi sot support only ANSI standards
• -std=’vesion’ C or C++ language version
• gcc supports optimization options like O2, O3 to make the binary smaller and faster

G++:

Much like GCC, g++ shares many similarities in function. The key difference, though, lies in its design — g++ is primarily tailored for C++, so it naturally supports C++ by default,. You won’t need to prompt it to link C++ libraries; it’s already set to handle them.