Compiling a C++ program with gcc

Question

gcc can actually compile c++ code just fine. The errors you received are linker errors, not compiler errors.

Odds are that if you change the compilation line to be this:

gcc info.C -lstdc++

which makes it link to the standard c++ library, then it will work just fine.

However, you should just make your life easier and use g++.

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EDIT:

Rup says it best in his comment to another answer:

[...] gcc will select the correct back-end compiler based on file extension (i.e. will compile a .c as C and a .cc as C++) and links binaries against just the standard C and GCC helper libraries by default regardless of input languages; g++ will also select the correct back-end based on extension except that I think it compiles all C source as C++ instead (i.e. it compiles both .c and .cc as C++) and it includes libstdc++ in its link step regardless of input languages.

If you give the code a .c extension the compiler thinks it is C code, not C++. And the C++ compiler driver is called g++, if you use the gcc driver you will have linker problems, as the standard C++ libraries will not be linked by default. So you want:

g++ myprog.cpp

And do not even consider using an uppercase .C extension, unless you never want to port your code, and are prepared to be hated by those you work with.

use g++ instead of gcc.

By default, gcc selects the language based on the file extension, but you can force gcc to select a different language backend with the -x option thus:

gcc -x c++

More options are detailed in the gcc man page under "Options controlling the kind of output". See e.g. http://linux.die.net/man/1/gcc (search on the page for the text -x language).

This facility is very useful in cases where gcc can't guess the language using a file extension, for example if you're generating code and feeding it to gcc via stdin.

The difference between gcc and g++ are:

     gcc            |        g++
compiles c source   |   compiles c++ source

use g++ instead of gcc to compile you c++ source.

If I recall correctly, gcc determines the filetype from the suffix. So, make it foo.cc and it should work.

And, to answer your other question, that is the difference between "gcc" and "g++". gcc is a frontend that chooses the correct compiler.