Compile GCC5.1 from Source Code

Posted on | In

Tested Environment

Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit on Thinkpad T440, 8/2/2016

Installation Guide

  1. Download and unzip the source file

    • Use 7z may be easier, sudo apt install p7zip-full
    • Run 7z x __FILENAME__ to unzip files

  2. Download prerequisites

    • ./contrib/download_prerequisites, a supercharged way to avoid future problems
    • sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib flex, you will run into errors as stated below if you don’t have these installed

  3. Make a folder for the compiled compiler to be placed

    • mkdir __THE_DIR_FOR_COMPILER__, at wherever you want it to be

  4. Configure and run makefile

    • ./configure --prefix=$HOME/Desktop/__THE_DIR_FOR_COMPILER__ --enable-languages=c,c++, I usually put my recent work at Desktop.
      • A handy function for looking up the directory for --prefix is pwd
    • make (This will take a while. To be precise, it took me 145 minutes 51.179 seconds on 8/3/2016)
      • -j: compile on multiple cores
    • make install

    P.S I usually time the process when the compiler is being built :) Just add time in front of the commands aforementioned.

Notes

  • If the re-run is needed (when you need to rebuild after resolving errors), run the following command first:
    make clean && make distclean

Common errors

  • Error message: g++: error: gengtype-lex.c: No such file or directory
    • Solution: sudo apt-get install flex