The Definitive Guide to GCC, Second Edition (Definitive Guide)

The GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) offers a variety of compilers for different programming languages including C, C++, Java, Fortran, and Ada. The Definitive Guide to GCC, Second Edition has been revised to reflect the changes made in the most recent major GCC release, version 4. Providing in-depth information on GCC's enormous array of features and options, and introducing crucial tools such as autoconf, gprof, and libtool, this book functions as both a guide and reference.

This book goes well beyond a general introduction to GCC and covers key programming techniques such as profiling and optimization that, when used in conjunction with GCC's advanced features, can greatly improve application performance. This second edition will prove to be an invaluable resource, whether you're a student seeking familiarity with this crucial tool or an expert who uses GCC on a daily basis.

User review
In depth!
If your looking for in depth knowledge of GCC the compiler this is the book. It covers multiple opperating systems and multiple versions of GCC. Starting with the history of GCC up to current versions of 4.x. A must read for any C or C++ even Objective-C developers (GCC compiles many more languages). Its a great reference to have in your war chest!

User review
Missing Table of Contents
My copy starts at page xvii, it's missing the entire Table of Contents.
I don't know if this is a common problem with this book.

User review
Reasonable, but doesn't add that much that the man page doesn't cover
I'm not a big fan of GCC, and I don't think that opensource is the be all and end all. I'll try to be objective and not let my likes and dislikes colour this review.

The book seems to have a fairly good coverage of the main languages that GCC supports (C, C++, Java, Fortran, Objective C and Objective C++). I liked the coverage on optimisation and building GCC.

Now for some bad points. There is some annoying repetition - we get told far too many times that -pg is not the same as -p -g. The author proseletizes GNU software, and urges us to install GNU sed, awk, tar etc. In particular, I would not recommend GNU tar due to its nonstandard treatment of long filenames. I felt that the chapters on automake, autoconf, libtool and glibc were out of place in a book about a compiler suite. I try to avoid automake, autoconf and libtool (or autohell as they are collectively known as) like the plague as they are slow, unreliable when using platforms/compilers other than Linux/GCC and suffer chronic version dependency problems. I don't see any `amazing beauty` whatsoever (p. 185) in these three tools. I found the occasional digs at platforms such as VMS [which I've never used] somewhat unprofessional.

The glibc coverage adds to an overly Linux centric feel to the book (I learnt almost as much about Linux disaster recovery as I learnt about GCC on reading this book).

Rather than covering libtool, I would have preferred coverage of GNU ld (with a mention that the system link editor may be used on platforms that don't have GNU ld as the link editor).

There is no real comparison of GCC with other compilers. In particular, I think that it should have been mentioned that on platforms where GCC is not the 'native' compiler (Windows, Solaris and HP-UX, for instance), then generally GCC is both much slower at compiling, and compiles object code that runs much slower than the 'native' compiler (much slower being up to a factor of two slower). I've no experience with non-GCC compilers on *BSD and have only used the Intel compiler a few times, so I can't say whether GCC is also poor on home ground.

Last annoyance. Whilst I liked the alphabetical listing of options, there is not always a description of the default if no option is specified.


User review
Good book, needs more content review
This is fine book, it's well written and easy to follow,, My only grip is with inaccuracies in the compile option appendix. The defined effect of certain options is the reverse from there actual effect. This caused me a bit of trouble when I tried to use the options and wasn't getting the results I expected. The online documentation was consistent with my results. My suggestion is double check the options against the gnu online reference. Hopefully in the following editions (if there will be any) this will be cleared up.

User review
A lot of useful information about the gcc compiler
If you want to know more about the gcc compiler this is the right book. Some alreade gcc experienced people could argue that the information could be found by searching the internet but I do not think so.