How to install the latest GNU compilers

The GNU compilers consists of compilers for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Ada, and Java. The following steps are those that I used for this installation. If you are only interested in installing a C++ compiler, then follow the steps at the bottom of this page.

Note: These instructions assume that you are familiar with unix/linux commands, that you have the necessary privileges to write to various directories, that you have access to commands, such as bunzip2, tar, and make, and that you already have a C compiler installed. They also assume that you will not encounter installation problems – that is not always a safe assumption. Good luck.

  1. Download the file gcc-4.3.2.tar.bz2
  2. Unzip the file using the command:
    bunzip2 gcc-4.3.2.tar.bz2
    This will change the file to: gcc-4.3.2.tar
  3. Untar this file using the command:
    tar xvf gcc-4.3.2.tar
    This command will create a directory: gcc-4.3.2 and copy the necessary installation files into it.
  4. Change directory to the gcc-4.3.2 directory:
    cd obj
  5. Create an obj directory:
    mkdir obj
  6. Configure the installation files: ../configure
    This command will create a Makefile in the obj directory.

    7. Note: During this installation, I experienced the following error message: 

    configure: error: Building GCC requires GMP 4.1+ and MPFR 2.3.0+.
Try the --with-gmp and/or --with-mpfr options to specify their locations.
Copies of these libraries' source code can be found at their respective
hosting sites as well as at ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/.
See also http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html for additional info.
If you obtained GMP and/or MPFR from a vendor distribution package, make
sure that you have installed both the libraries and the header files.
They may be located in separate packages.

    I, then, installed the mpfr-devel package. That solved the problem.

  7. Build the compiler: make
    This will take a long time (30 minutes to 2 hours) to complete.
  8. Install the compiler (this command may require root privilege):
    su root
    make install
  9. Make sure the installation is OK:
    g++ -v
    This command should identify the version as 4.3.2. This was the response after my installation: 
    /home/joe/download/gcc-4.3.2/obj> g++ -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: i686-pc-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../configure
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.3.2 (GCC)

Installing only the C++ compiler

  1. Download the files gcc-core-4.3.3.tar.bz2 and gcc-c++-4.3.2.tar.bz2
  2. Unzip both files using the commands:
    bunzip2 gcc-core-4.3.3.tar.bz2
    and
    bunzip2 gcc-c++-4.3.3.tar.bz2
    This will change the files to: gcc-core-4.3.3.tar and gcc-c++-4.3.3.tar
  3. Untar these files using the commands:
    tar xvf gcc-core-4.3.3.tar
    and
    tar xvf gcc-c++-4.3.3.tar
    These commands will create a directory: gcc-4.3.3 and copy from both tar files the necessary installation files into it.
  4. Change directory to the gcc-4.3.3 directory:
    cd gcc-4.3.3
  5. Create an obj directory:
    mkdir obj
  6. Change directory to the obj directory:i
    cd obj
  7. Configure the installation files: ../configure
    This command will create a Makefile in the obj directory.
  8. Build the compiler: make
    This will take a long time (30 minutes to 2 hours) to complete.
  9. Install the compiler (this command may require root privilege):
    su root
    make install
  10. Make sure the installation is OK:
    g++ -v
    This command should identify the version as 4.3.3. This was the response after my installation: 
    /home/joe> g++ -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Configured with: ../configure
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.3.3 (GCC)