Thread: Determine the location of gcc (using gcc)

  1. #1
    {Jaxom,Imriel,Liam}'s Dad Kennedy's Avatar
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    Determine the location of gcc (using gcc)

    I was looking through a couple of configure scripts attempting to glean the way "they" do it, but failed. Also, looking through the man pages doesn't help -- there is just too much information to read the whole thing (and I'm VERY lazy). Google -- I must not have the right phrase 'case I get all kinds of strange and wonderfully useless stuff.

    The question: aside from using CC=`which gcc`, is there a way to have gcc report the "real" location of itself. For example, when I build a cross compiler, I often link the files to something less awful to execute -- as the names of the real file get quite lengthy. So, I have a make system (that I wrote) and I want to use the native compiler to cross build one of the programs. That is to say, in the top of the make file I have something like:

    CROSS_COMPILE ?= a_reall_long_path_to_the_gcc_string-

    but I want to fake a cross build by supplying the path to gcc at the make call, like:

    make CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/

    as my gcc sits in /usr/bin. So, configure scripts appear to do this some really nifty way -- and I want to know how too.

  2. #2
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Code:
    gcc -print-search-dirs
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

  3. #3
    {Jaxom,Imriel,Liam}'s Dad Kennedy's Avatar
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    Tried that. No dice. This gives me all the support programs, but not the "real" location of the binary. I guess I'll just have to stick with the approach `which gcc`.

    Thanks anyways.

  4. #4
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    What's wrong with "whereis gcc"?
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  5. #5
    {Jaxom,Imriel,Liam}'s Dad Kennedy's Avatar
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    Code:
    root@Slack:~# whereis gcc
    gcc: /usr/bin/gcc /usr/lib/gcc /usr/X11R6/bin/gcc /usr/bin/X11/gcc /usr/X11/bin/gcc /usr/libexec/gcc /usr/man/man1/gcc.1.gz /usr/share/man/man1/gcc.1.gz /usr/X11/man/man1/gcc.1.gz
    root@Slack:~# which gcc
    /usr/bin/gcc
    That returns too much. In my scripts I muck about with PATH so, these may not work for me. So, if I have a $CC set, I could run $CC with a command line param that would give me the real location of the binary -- the location that the binary was compiled to. This would mean that I would know the real path to the rest of the compile tools (not the gcc support tools, but binutils) as these are _supposed_ to be homed to the same location.

  6. #6
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Well, it's up to you but of those:

    /usr/bin/gcc
    /usr/lib/gcc
    /usr/X11R6/bin/gcc
    /usr/bin/X11/gcc
    /usr/X11/bin/gcc
    /usr/libexec/gcc
    /usr/man/man1/gcc.1.gz
    /usr/share/man/man1/gcc.1.gz
    /usr/X11/man/man1/gcc.1.gz


    Most of them can be eliminated just because they are not in a /bin directory, which going by the Linux Filesystem standard gcc should be in a /bin. In fact, you can eliminate most of those just by using "whereis -b gcc" -- then if you eliminate the ones that are actually directories named "gcc":

    Code:
    for x in `whereis -b gcc`; do if [ -f $x ]; then echo $x; fi; done
    I get only one answer to that question
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  7. #7
    {Jaxom,Imriel,Liam}'s Dad Kennedy's Avatar
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    and I get
    Code:
    root@Slack:~# for x in `whereis -b gcc`; do if [ -f $x ]; then echo $x; fi; done
    /usr/bin/gcc
    /usr/X11R6/bin/gcc
    /usr/bin/X11/gcc
    /usr/X11/bin/gcc
    I also know that some of the projects the folks that _may_ download my scripts are using various native compilers (but I don't understand why -- I think it is a bad idea too).

  8. #8
    Registered User
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    Code:
    $ file /usr/bin/gcc
    If it is a symbolic link, then it tells where the real file is.

  9. #9
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Is it safe to assume those X11 ones are not what you want (what are those anyway?)

    Code:
    for x in `whereis -b gcc`; do if [[ -f $x && $x != *X11* ]]; then echo $x; fi; done
    There should only be ONE gcc in path, otherwise someone has done something silly.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

  10. #10
    {Jaxom,Imriel,Liam}'s Dad Kennedy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MK27 View Post
    There should only be ONE gcc in path, otherwise someone has done something silly.
    In the build that I'm working with, the PATH is changed in order to compile a temporary tool-chain linked against a temporary library that has uber specific includes/optimizations for building a third tool-chain. BUT, I need to know the path to the real gcc so that I can run a non-sysroot-ed program that would be executed in a completely separate thread -- with _that_ PATH being a more normal PATH.

    What I'm attempting to do is do a 6 stage build for an embedded file system, fully configured by the HOST machine, however, there are utilities that are self-installing that need to install before the last stage of the build is complete. This means that I have to build these utilities twice, force the install of the utilities (via the native build), then copy over the binaries with the cross build.

    The scripts are really ugly -- I hope no one ever has to manipulate this suckers or they'll be really ill with me.

    Hmm, now that I've read this something has just sprang to mind. . . I could always rebuild the original PATH via sourcing /etc/profile -- which _SHOULD_ rebuild the path and only effect the current thread (and since I'm the last one in that thread, that's okay).

  11. #11
    spurious conceit MK27's Avatar
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    Ah. I would assume whereis uses the execution PATH, so it's output would also change. My point was that of the files returned, one of them must be gcc, and the others *should not be*.
    C programming resources:
    GNU C Function and Macro Index -- glibc reference manual
    The C Book -- nice online learner guide
    Current ISO draft standard
    CCAN -- new CPAN like open source library repository
    3 (different) GNU debugger tutorials: #1 -- #2 -- #3
    cpwiki -- our wiki on sourceforge

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