GCC not working but G++ does

Question

I am trying to run some programs on a BeagleBone Black on the 'out of the box' operating system but I keep getting issues when compiling with gcc. This is best illustrated when trying to compile a simple hello world program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
 printf("Hello World\n");
 return 0;
}

The output from compiling and running this is:

debian@beaglebone:~$ g++ helloworld.c -o test
debian@beaglebone:~$ ./test
Hello World
debian@beaglebone:~$ gcc helloworld.c -o test
debian@beaglebone:~$ ./test
./test: line 27: typedef: command not found
./test: line 36: typedef: command not found
./test: line 37: typedef: command not found
./test: line 38: typedef: command not found
./test: line 39: typedef: command not found
./test: line 42: typedef: command not found
./test: line 43: typedef: command not found
./test: line 44: typedef: command not found
./test: line 45: typedef: command not found
./test: line 46: typedef: command not found
./test: line 47: typedef: command not found
./test: line 52: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 53: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 61: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 62: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 68: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 69: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 70: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 71: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 72: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 73: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 74: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 75: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 76: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 77: __extension__: command not found
./test: line 78: syntax error near unexpected token `}'
./test: line 78: `__extension__ typedef struct { int __val[2]; } __fsid_t;'
debian@beaglebone:~$

My gcc and g++ versions are:

debian@beaglebone:~$ gcc --version
gcc (Debian 4.7.2-5) 4.7.2
Copyright (C) 2012 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.

debian@beaglebone:~$ g++ --version
g++ (Debian 4.7.2-5) 4.7.2
Copyright (C) 2012 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.

Has anyone come across this problem before? I've had a look around but none of the fixes seem applicable. Thanks in Advance.

edit: output of gcc -v helloworld.c -o outputFile

debian@beaglebone:~$ gcc -v helloworld.c -o outputFile
Using built-in specs.
COLLECT_GCC=gcc
Target: arm-linux-gnueabihf
Configured with: ../src/configure -v --with-pkgversion='Debian 4.7.2-5' --with-bugurl=file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.7/README.Bugs --enable-languages=c,c++,go,fortran,objc,obj-c++ --prefix=/usr --program-suffix=-4.7 --enable-shared --enable-linker-build-id --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/include/c++/4.7 --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-nls --with-sysroot=/ --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-unique-object --disable-libitm --enable-plugin --enable-objc-gc --disable-sjlj-exceptions --with-arch=armv7-a --with-fpu=vfpv3-d16 --with-float=hard --with-mode=thumb --enable-checking=release --build=arm-linux-gnueabihf --host=arm-linux-gnueabihf --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.7.2 (Debian 4.7.2-5)
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-E' '-v' '-o' 'outputFile' '-march=armv7-a' '-mfloat-abi=hard' '-mfpu=vfpv3-d16' '-mthumb' '-mtls-dialect=gnu'
 /usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/cc1 -E -quiet -v -imultilib . -imultiarch arm-linux-gnueabihf helloworld.c -o outputFile -march=armv7-a -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=vfpv3-d16 -mthumb -mtls-dialect=gnu
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/local/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf"
ignoring nonexistent directory "/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabihf/include"
#include "..." search starts here:
#include <...> search starts here:
 /usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/include
 /usr/local/include
 /usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/include-fixed
 /usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf
 /usr/include
End of search list.
COMPILER_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/
LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/../../../arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabihf/4.7/../../../:/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/lib/:/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:/usr/lib/
COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-E' '-v' '-o' 'outputFile' '-march=armv7-a' '-mfloat-abi=hard' '-mfpu=vfpv3-d16' '-mthumb' '-mtls-dialect=gnu'

Answer 1

The secret is revealed in the verbose compiler output:

COLLECT_GCC_OPTIONS='-E' [...]

-E provokes GCC just to preprocess the input, so the resulting 'test' file actually is the input file with the single include resolved (recursively).

Since you did not add the -E parameter explicitely, gcc obviously did so implicitely. According to this discussion on gcc.gnu.org, your version of gcc seems to have this compiled in, so I assume you would have to recompile gcc from fixed source code - or get a properly compiled gcc version from whichever source (Debian repositories?).