CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++clinuxgccinclude-path
Raxvan
Raxvan

Reputation: 6515

What are the GCC default include directories?

When I compile a very simple source file with gcc I don't have to specify the path to standard include files such as stdio or stdlib.

How does GCC know how to find these files?

Does it have the /usr/include path hardwired inside, or it will get the paths from other OS components?

Upvotes: 206

Views: 159107

Answers (5)

Ihor Kaharlichenko
Ihor Kaharlichenko

Reputation: 6270

In order to figure out the default paths used by gcc/g++, as well as their priorities, you need to examine the output of the following commands:

  1. For C:
echo | gcc -xc -E -v -
  1. For C++:
echo | gcc -xc++ -E -v -

The credit goes to Qt Creator team.

Here's a breakdown of the flags:

  • -x selects the language, C or C++ respectively

  • -E makes gcc to run the preprocessor only, so no compilation takes place

  • -v prints all the commands run, which is the key to dumping the standard paths

  • - is the "input file" to preprocess, as a convention - stands for stdin (or stdout, depending on the context);

    echo | feeds an empty string to gcc so effectively we preprocess an empty file generated on the fly

Here's a nice explaining it in more detail: https://explainshell.com/explain?cmd=echo+%7C+gcc+-xc+-E+-v+-

Upvotes: 307

Johan Boulé
Johan Boulé

Reputation: 2089

To summarise the other answers:

For C++:

c++ -xc++ /dev/null -E -Wp,-v 2>&1 | sed -n 's,^ ,,p'

For C:

cc -xc /dev/null -E -Wp,-v 2>&1 | sed -n 's,^ ,,p'

Upvotes: 16

Daniele Testa
Daniele Testa

Reputation: 1667

Just run the following to list the default search paths:

$(gcc -print-prog-name=cc1) -v

Upvotes: 2

hermannk
hermannk

Reputation: 785

Though I agree with Ihor Kaharlichenko’s answer for considering C++ and with abyss.7’s answer for the compactness of its output, they are still incomplete for the multi-arch versions of gcc because input processing depends on the command line parameters and macros.

Example:

echo | /opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-g++ -specs=nano.specs -mcpu=cortex-m4 -march=armv7e-m -mthumb -mfloat-abi=soft -x c++ -E -Wp,-v\ - -fsyntax-only yields

⋮
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../arm-none-eabi/include/newlib-nano                                                                                                              
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include/c++/9.2.1                                                                        
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include/c++/9.2.1/arm-none-eabi/thumb/v7e-m/nofp                                         
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include/c++/9.2.1/backward                                                               
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/include                                                                                                            
 /opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/include-fixed                                                                                                      
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include                                                                                  
⋮

whereas echo | /opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-g++ -x c++ -E -Wp,-v - -fsyntax-only yields

⋮
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include/c++/9.2.1                                                                        
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include/c++/9.2.1/arm-none-eabi                                                          
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include/c++/9.2.1/backward                                                               
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/include                                                                                                            
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/include-fixed                                                                                                      
/opt/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/include                                                                                  
⋮

The former invocation utilizes newlib (see lines 1 and 3 of the output), the latter goes with the standard includes. The common files at the end of the list are an example for the usage of include_next.

Bottom line: Always consider all macros and compiler options when printing the include directories.

Upvotes: 6

abyss.7
abyss.7

Reputation: 14462

There is a command with a shorter output, which allows to automatically cut the include pathes from lines, starting with a single space:

$ echo | gcc -Wp,-v -x c++ - -fsyntax-only
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.8.2/include-fixed"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.8.2/../../../../x86_64-redhat-linux/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.8.2/../../../../include/c++/4.8.2
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.8.2/../../../../include/c++/4.8.2/x86_64-redhat-linux
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.8.2/../../../../include/c++/4.8.2/backward
 /usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-redhat-linux/4.8.2/include
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/include
End of search list.

The credit goes to the libc++ front-page.

Upvotes: 53

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