building gcc 5.2.0 from source: configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables

Question

I am trying to build gcc 5.2.0 from source in my local $HOME directory and I get the following errors:

gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release> ./configure --prefix=$HOME/usr/local

checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking target system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether ln works... yes
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /usr/bin/sed
checking for gawk... gawk
checking for libatomic support... yes
checking for libcilkrts support... yes
checking for libitm support... yes
checking for libsanitizer support... yes
checking for libvtv support... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name...
configure: error: in `/home/s31941/tmp/gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release':
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.

here is a copy of the config.log

This file contains any messages produced by compilers while
running configure, to aid debugging if configure makes a mistake.

It was created by configure, which was
generated by GNU Autoconf 2.64.  Invocation command line was

  $ ./configure --prefix=/home/username/usr/local

## --------- ##
## Platform. ##
## --------- ##

hostname = fmsserv
uname -m = x86_64
uname -r = 3.0.101-0.46-default
uname -s = Linux
uname -v = #1 SMP Wed Dec 17 11:04:10 UTC 2014 (8356111)

/usr/bin/uname -p = unknown
/bin/uname -X     = unknown

/bin/arch              = x86_64
/usr/bin/arch -k       = unknown
/usr/convex/getsysinfo = unknown
/usr/bin/hostinfo      = unknown
/bin/machine           = unknown
/usr/bin/oslevel       = unknown
/bin/universe          = unknown

PATH: /home/username/usr/local/bin
PATH: /home/username/tools/git/bin
PATH: /home/username/tools/java/jre1.8.0_40/bin
PATH: /home/username/tools/eclipse
PATH: .
PATH: /usr/NX/bin
PATH: /usr/lib64/mpi/gcc/openmpi/bin
PATH: /home/username/bin
PATH: /usr/local/bin
PATH: /usr/bin
PATH: /bin
PATH: /usr/bin/X11
PATH: /usr/X11R6/bin
PATH: /usr/games
PATH: /opt/kde3/bin
PATH: /usr/lib/mit/bin
PATH: /usr/lib/mit/sbin
PATH: /opt/gnome/bin
PATH: /usr/lib/qt3/bin
PATH: /home/fms/bin
PATH: /usr/gnat/bin
PATH: .


## ----------- ##
## Core tests. ##
## ----------- ##

configure:2292: checking build system type
configure:2306: result: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
configure:2353: checking host system type
configure:2366: result: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
configure:2386: checking target system type
configure:2399: result: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
configure:2453: checking for a BSD-compatible install
configure:2521: result: /usr/bin/install -c
configure:2532: checking whether ln works
configure:2554: result: yes
configure:2558: checking whether ln -s works
configure:2562: result: yes
configure:2569: checking for a sed that does not truncate output
configure:2633: result: /usr/bin/sed
configure:2642: checking for gawk
configure:2658: found /usr/bin/gawk
configure:2669: result: gawk
configure:3183: checking for libatomic support
configure:3193: result: yes
configure:3202: checking for libcilkrts support
configure:3212: result: yes
configure:3240: checking for libitm support
configure:3250: result: yes
configure:3259: checking for libsanitizer support
configure:3269: result: yes
configure:3278: checking for libvtv support
configure:3288: result: yes
configure:4074: checking for gcc
configure:4090: found /usr/bin/gcc
configure:4101: result: gcc
configure:4330: checking for C compiler version
configure:4339: gcc --version >&5
gcc (SUSE Linux) 4.3.4 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 152973]
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

configure:4350: $? = 0
configure:4339: gcc -v >&5
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-suse-linux
Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --libdir=/usr/lib64 --libexecdir=/usr/lib64 --enable-languages=c,c++,objc,fortran,obj-c++,java,ada --enable-checking=release --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.3 --enable-ssp --disable-libssp --with-bugurl=http://bugs.opensuse.org/ --with-pkgversion='SUSE Linux' --disable-libgcj --disable-libmudflap --with-slibdir=/lib64 --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-libstdcxx-allocator=new --disable-libstdcxx-pch --enable-version-specific-runtime-libs --program-suffix=-4.3 --enable-linux-futex --without-system-libunwind --with-cpu=generic --build=x86_64-suse-linux
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.3.4 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 152973] (SUSE Linux) 
configure:4350: $? = 0
configure:4339: gcc -V >&5
gcc: '-V' option must have argument
configure:4350: $? = 1
configure:4339: gcc -qversion >&5
gcc: unrecognized option '-qversion'
gcc: no input files
configure:4350: $? = 1
configure:4370: checking for C compiler default output file name
configure:4392: gcc    conftest.c  >&5
gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1': execvp: No such file or directory
configure:4396: $? = 1
configure:4433: result: 
configure: failed program was:
| /* confdefs.h */
| #define PACKAGE_NAME ""
| #define PACKAGE_TARNAME ""
| #define PACKAGE_VERSION ""
| #define PACKAGE_STRING ""
| #define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT ""
| #define PACKAGE_URL ""
| /* end confdefs.h.  */
| 
| int
| main ()
| {
| 
|   ;
|   return 0;
| }
configure:4439: error: in `/home/username/tmp/gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release':
configure:4443: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.

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ac_cv_target=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
acx_cv_prog_LN=ln

## ----------------- ##
## Output variables. ##
## ----------------- ##

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AR_FOR_TARGET=''
AS=''
AS_FOR_BUILD='$(AS)'
AS_FOR_TARGET=''
AWK='gawk'
BISON=''
BUILD_CONFIG=''
CC='gcc'
CC_FOR_BUILD='$(CC)'
CC_FOR_TARGET=''
CFLAGS=''
CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD=''
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EXTRA_CONFIGARGS_LIBJAVA='--disable-static'
FLAGS_FOR_TARGET=''
FLEX=''
GCC_FOR_TARGET=''
GCC_SHLIB_SUBDIR=''
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GDB_TK=''
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GFORTRAN_FOR_TARGET=''
GNATBIND=''
GNATMAKE=''
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INSTALL_GDB_TK=''
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INSTALL_SCRIPT='${INSTALL}'
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LEX=''
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LIPO=''
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LN='ln'
LN_S='ln -s'
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M4=''
MAINT=''
MAINTAINER_MODE_FALSE=''
MAINTAINER_MODE_TRUE=''
MAKEINFO=''
NM=''
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OBJCOPY=''
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PACKAGE_BUGREPORT=''
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build_cpu='x86_64'
build_libsubdir='build-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'
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datadir='${datarootdir}'
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## ----------- ##
## confdefs.h. ##
## ----------- ##

/* confdefs.h */
#define PACKAGE_NAME ""
#define PACKAGE_TARNAME ""
#define PACKAGE_VERSION ""
#define PACKAGE_STRING ""
#define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT ""
#define PACKAGE_URL ""

configure: exit 77

Any help determining whats wrong would be greatly appreciated.

gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release> which ld
/usr/bin/ld

gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release> which gcc
/usr/bin/gcc

gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release> ld --version
GNU ld (GNU Binutils; SUSE Linux Enterprise 11) 2.23.1
Copyright 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License version 3 or (at your option) a later version.
This program has absolutely no warranty.

gcc-gcc_5_2_0_release> gcc --version
gcc (SUSE Linux) 4.3.4 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 152973]
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Answer 1

First, it is documented that GCC should not be built inside its source tree:

First, we highly recommend that GCC be built into a separate directory from the sources which does not reside within the source tree.

Then you need to be sure that the prefix tree exists. I believe that your choice $HOME/usr/local/ is a poor one (it is confusing). I suggest using $HOME/soft/ instead.

If you have a Debian or similar distribution, be sure to aptitude install build-dep gcc g++ before configuring (You might need some deb-src line in your /etc/apt/sources.list file). This will download all the software required to build GCC. Don't forget to aptitude install gcc g++ build-essential in all cases (to have a working gcc & g++ system compilers). On SUSE, try to find the equivalent packages and commands: gcc-c++ package, build service.

So I suggest to start again. Use

mkdir -p -$HOME/tmp/softbuilds
mkdir -p $HOME/soft/
cd $HOME/tmp/
## the following URL is not the best one, choose carefully the server
wget http://open-source-box.org/gcc/gcc-5.2.0/gcc-5.2.0.tar.bz2
cd softbuilds
tar xvf ../gcc-5.2.0.tar.bz2
mkdir _GCC-5.2_Build
cd _GCC-5.2_Build
../gcc-5.2.0/configure --help
## you could add some other configure options here:
../gcc-5.2.0/configure --prefix=$HOME/soft --program-suffix=-mine \
      --enable-plugins --enable-languages=c,c++,jit,lto,go  \
      --enable-check=release --enable-host-shared

If the configuration step succeeded, you compile the thing with

make -j 3

Then (perhaps a few hours later) install it with:

make #to be sure all went ok
make install

Then add $HOME/soft/bin/ to your PATH (e.g. by editing .bashrc ...) and use gcc-mine as your compiler (e.g. make CC=gcc-mine)

If you want to always use your GCC, and if $HOME/bin/ is early in your $PATH, you might make symlinks from $HOME/soft/bin/gcc-mine to $HOME/bin/gcc (and likewise for g++-mine ...).

BTW, you could later install the MELT meta-plugin for your GCC. I have released MELT 1.2.0 for GCC 4.9 & 5.x a few days ago (end of july 2015).

Answer 2

configure:4370: checking for C compiler default output file name
configure:4392: gcc    conftest.c  >&5
gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1': execvp: No such file or directory

This indicates that your host compiler isn't working. Make sure it works before attempting to configure other software.

Whether it's caused by a missing package on your system, some environment variable you set that messes with the way GCC works, or perhaps even some local filesystem corruption, you'll see the same problem just compiling a simple "Hello, world!" program from the command line.

Fix that first, and only then start trying to build larger software packages.