Where is my Linux GNU C or gcc compiler installed?

by nixCraft on November 14, 2006 · 21 comments· last updated at September 27, 2008

Q. Where is my GNU C compiler? Where does the GNU C (gcc) compiler reside in the CentOS Linux installation? How do I install if it is not installed by default?

A. Use which command to locate c compiler binary called gcc. Usually it is installed in /usr/bin directory.

Type following command to see Linux C Compiler location:

$ which gccOutput:

/usr/bin/gcc

Display gcc version:

$ gcc -vOutput:

Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/3.4.6/specs
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --disable-checking --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-java-awt=gtk --host=x86_64-redhat-linux
Thread model: posix
gcc version 3.4.6 20060404 (Red Hat 3.4.6-3)

Use up2date or yum or apt-get command to install gcc and required libs:

If you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, type the command:

# up2date gcc

If you are using CentOS/Fedora Core Linux, type the command:

# yum install gcc

If you are using Debian /Ubuntu Linux , type the command:

$ sudo apt-get install gccOR# apt-get install gcc

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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Jim January 13, 2009 at 7:41 pm

Hi this help is awesome it helps me a lot , i was looking for this commands in pages of my country(peru) but i didn’t find anything . thanks a lot .

2 Ash August 22, 2009 at 8:28 am

You just saved my life! Thank you so much for the info…

3 Roger September 24, 2009 at 11:07 am

Thank you!

4 JAmesBondRobin October 24, 2009 at 11:37 am

Excellent work… Your help is really appreciate………….
it helped me a lot

5 xoerk May 17, 2010 at 11:21 am

Thanks….save me tons of time,, :)

6 sagar sukumar August 30, 2010 at 10:19 am: thank u very much for the help
Reply

7 Mohammad Osman Goni May 3, 2011 at 8:38 am

This tutorial helped me much. Thanks

8 Bob Ebbert December 13, 2011 at 7:41 pm

1000 Thank Yous.

9 Eb Bobbert March 18, 2012 at 12:57 am

thx, i just installed it, much appreciated.

10 nkartik March 23, 2012 at 8:14 am

The smallest question “what is the gcc version” and u had it…Thanx a ton!

11 shimeles May 7, 2012 at 7:55 am

when I install faad2-2.7 in Optiplex 780 in fedora 13 window the compiler display
shime@localhost softwares]$
[shime@localhost softwares]$ cd faad2-2.7
[shime@localhost faad2-2.7]$ su
[root@localhost faad2-2.7]# ./configure
hecking for a BSD-compatible install… /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane… yes
checking for gawk… gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)… yes
checking build system type… i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type… i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for style of include used by make… GNU
checking for gcc… no
checking for cc… no
checking for cl.exe… no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log’ for more details.
please help me how to solve this problem????

12 vidhu July 21, 2012 at 9:25 am

hi, when i type the command ‘ yum install gcc’ , i got a reply as ‘you need to be a root to perform this command…”
what does it mean??

13 Brian November 17, 2012 at 2:05 pm: It means you need to be superuser by using the command:
su
Then it will prompt for a password, then you will be able to install using the same command.
As an alternative log in as the root user.
Reply

14 vidhu July 21, 2012 at 2:03 pm

when i giv the command “yum install gcc”, it says i need to be a root to perform this command… wht shld i do??

15 Ucok July 26, 2012 at 2:10 am

I have centos installed,
ls -l glibc-*
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 4596084 Jul 25 15:31 glibc-2.5-34.i386.rpm
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 5459594 Jul 25 15:31 glibc-2.5-34.i686.rpm
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 17249412 Jul 25 15:31 glibc-common-2.5-34.i386.rpm

error when install rpm packet.
rpm -ivh glibc-2.5-34.i386.rpm
error: glibc-2.5-34.i386.rpm: rpmReadSignature failed: region trailer: BAD, tag 15872 type 2047 offset 28672 count 4238
error: glibc-2.5-34.i386.rpm cannot be installed

error when install tar.gz
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
]# gcc
-bash: gcc: command not found
(gcc not install).

How to install gcc ?
thx a lot

16 cameron August 29, 2012 at 4:17 am

I had the need to be in root to perform this command error so I thought Id share the solution I found (im using centOS). I used the command – sudo yum install gcc-c++

BUT that is for c++ compiling so for C use sudo yum install gcc

It seems that you need to put sudo in front of the command to use root 0.o maybe.

17 Brian November 17, 2012 at 2:08 pm: Sudo will raise the priv level of the currently logged in user to execute the task listed after it (you can also find out more with: man sudo), it is like right clicking in Windows and selecting to run as administrator.
Reply

18 Mir December 6, 2012 at 12:46 pm

I have several error to comiple SPEC2006. can you help
specmake: icc: Command not found
Error with make ‘specmake build’
specmake: *** [spec.o] Error 127
Command returned exit code 2
Error with make!

19 gaurav saini March 24, 2013 at 1:40 pm

how i get my c++ compiler in linux please give me steps n how i will compile my program

20 vidya March 28, 2013 at 8:12 am

hey what should we give for password? it’s not taking any characters

21 babak April 9, 2013 at 9:03 pm

i want to clean gcc4.3 in ubuntu and install gcc2.96 .
i dont know how do .
please help me .
thanks