.\" Copyright (c) 1991 Free Software Foundation -*-Text-*- .\" See section COPYING for conditions for redistribution .\" FIXME: no info here on predefines. Should there be? extra for C++... .TH G++ 1 "27dec1991" "GNU Tools" "GNU Tools" .de BP .sp .ti \-.2i \(** .. .SH NAME g++ \- GNU project C++ Compiler (v2 preliminary) .SH SYNOPSIS .RB g++ " [" \c .IR option " | " filename " ].\|.\|. .SH DESCRIPTION The C and C++ compilers are integrated; .B g++ is a script to call .B gcc with options to recognize C++. .B gcc processes input files through one or more of four stages: preprocessing, compilation, assembly, and linking. This man page contains full descriptions for .I only C++ specific aspects of the compiler, though it also contains summaries of some general-purpose options. For a fuller explanation of the compiler, see .BR gcc ( 1 ). C++ source files use one of the suffixes `\|\c .B .C\c \&\|', `\|\c .B .cc\c \&\|', or `\|\c .B .cxx\c \&\|'; preprocessed C++ files use the suffix `\|\c .B .ii\c \&\|'. .SH OPTIONS There are many command-line options, including options to control details of optimization, warnings, and code generation, which are common to both .B gcc and .B g++\c \&. For full information on all options, see .BR gcc ( 1 ). Options must be separate: `\|\c .B \-dr\c \&\|' is quite different from `\|\c .B \-d \-r \&\|'. Most `\|\c .B \-f\c \&\|' and `\|\c .B \-W\c \&\|' options have two contrary forms: .BI \-f name and .BI \-fno\- name\c \& (or .BI \-W name and .BI \-Wno\- name\c \&). Only the non-default forms are shown here. .TP .B \-c Compile or assemble the source files, but do not link. The compiler output is an object file corresponding to each source file. .TP .BI \-D macro Define macro \c .I macro\c \& with the string `\|\c .B 1\c \&\|' as its definition. .TP .BI \-D macro = defn Define macro \c .I macro\c \& as \c .I defn\c \&. .TP .B \-E Stop after the preprocessing stage; do not run the compiler proper. The output is preprocessed source code, which is sent to the standard output. .TP .BI +e N control whether virtual function definitions in classes are used to generate code, or only to define interfaces for their callers. These options are provided for compatibility with cfront 1.x usage; the recommended GNU C++ usage is to use .B #pragma interface and .B #pragma implementation\c \&, instead. With `\|\c .B +e0\c \&\|', virtual function definitions in classes are declared extern; the declaration is used only as an interface specification, not to generate code for the virtual functions (in this compilation). With `\|\c .B +e1\c \&\|', .B g++ actually generates the code implementing virtual functions defined in the code, and makes them publicly visible. .TP .B \-fall\-virtual When you use the `\|\c .B \-fall\-virtual\c \&\|', all member functions (except for constructor functions and new/delete member operators) declared in the same class with a ``method-call'' operator method are treated as virtual functions of the given class. In effect, all of these methods become ``implicitly virtual.'' This does \c .I not\c \& mean that all calls to these methods will be made through the internal table of virtual functions. There are some circumstances under which it is obvious that a call to a given virtual function can be made directly, and in these cases the calls still go direct. The effect of making all methods of a class with a declared \&`\|\c .B operator->()()\c \&\|' implicitly virtual using `\|\c .B \-fall\-virtual\c \&\|' extends also to all non-constructor methods of any class derived from such a class. .TP .B \-fdollars\-in\-identifiers Permit the use of `\|\c .B $\c \&\|' in identifiers. Traditional C allowed the character `\|\c .B $\c \&\|' to form part of identifiers; by default, GNU C also allows this. However, ANSI C forbids `\|\c .B $\c \&\|' in identifiers, and GNU C++ also forbids it by default on most platforms (though on some platforms it's enabled by default for GNU C++ as well). .TP .B \-felide\-constructors Use this option to instruct the compiler to be smarter about when it can elide constructors. Without this flag, GNU C++ and cfront both generate effectively the same code for: .sp .br A\ foo\ (); .br A\ x\ (foo\ ());\ \ \ //\ x\ initialized\ by\ `foo\ ()',\ no\ ctor\ called .br A\ y\ =\ foo\ ();\ \ \ //\ call\ to\ `foo\ ()'\ heads\ to\ temporary, .br \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ //\ y\ is\ initialized\ from\ the\ temporary. .br .sp Note the difference! With this flag, GNU C++ initializes `\|\c .B y\c \&\|' directly from the call to .B foo () without going through a temporary. .TP .B \-fenum\-int\-equiv Normally GNU C++ allows conversion of .B enum to .B int\c \&, but not the other way around. Use this option if you want GNU C++ to allow conversion of .B int to .B enum as well. .TP .B \-fgnu\-binutils .TP .B \-fno\-gnu\-binutils `\|\c .B \-fgnu\-binutils \&\|' (the default for most, but not all, platforms) makes GNU C++ emit extra information for static initialization and finalization. This information has to be passed from the assembler to the GNU linker. Some assemblers won't pass this information; you must either use GNU .B as or specify the option `\|\c .B \-fno\-gnu\-binutils\c \&\|'. With `\|\c .B \-fno\-gnu\-binutils\c \&\|', you must use the program .B collect (part of the GCC distribution) for linking. .TP .B \-fmemoize\-lookups .TP .B \-fsave\-memoized These flags are used to get the compiler to compile programs faster using heuristics. They are not on by default since they are only effective about half the time. The other half of the time programs compile more slowly (and take more memory). The first time the compiler must build a call to a member function (or reference to a data member), it must (1) determine whether the class implements member functions of that name; (2) resolve which member function to call (which involves figuring out what sorts of type conversions need to be made); and (3) check the visibility of the member function to the caller. All of this adds up to slower compilation. Normally, the second time a call is made to that member function (or reference to that data member), it must go through the same lengthy process again. This means that code like this .sp .br \ \ cout\ <<\ "This\ "\ <<\ p\ <<\ "\ has\ "\ <<\ n\ <<\ "\ legs.\en"; .br .sp makes six passes through all three steps. By using a software cache, a ``hit'' significantly reduces this cost. Unfortunately, using the cache introduces another layer of mechanisms which must be implemented, and so incurs its own overhead. `\|\c .B \-fmemoize\-lookups\c \&\|' enables the software cache. Because access privileges (visibility) to members and member functions may differ from one function context to the next, .B g++ may need to flush the cache. With the `\|\c .B \-fmemoize\-lookups\c \&\|' flag, the cache is flushed after every function that is compiled. The `\|\c \-fsave\-memoized\c \&\|' flag enables the same software cache, but when the compiler determines that the context of the last function compiled would yield the same access privileges of the next function to compile, it preserves the cache. This is most helpful when defining many member functions for the same class: with the exception of member functions which are friends of other classes, each member function has exactly the same access privileges as every other, and the cache need not be flushed. .TP .B \-fno\-default\-inline If `\|\c .B \-fdefault\-inline\c \&\|' is enabled then member functions defined inside class scope are compiled inline by default; i.e., you don't need to add `\|\c .B inline\c \&\|' in front of the member function name. By popular demand, this option is now the default. To keep GNU C++ from inlining these member functions, specify `\|\c .B \-fno\-default\-inline\c \&\|'. .TP .B \-fno\-strict\-prototype Consider the declaration \c .B int foo ();\c \&. In C++, this means that the function \c .B foo\c \& takes no arguments. In ANSI C, this is declared .B int foo(void);\c \&. With the flag `\|\c .B \-fno\-strict\-prototype\c \&\|', declaring functions with no arguments is equivalent to declaring its argument list to be untyped, i.e., \c .B int foo ();\c \& is equivalent to saying \c .B int foo (...);\c \&. .TP .B \-fnonnull\-objects Normally, GNU C++ makes conservative assumptions about objects reached through references. For example, the compiler must check that `\|\c .B a\c \&\|' is not null in code like the following: .br \ \ \ \ obj\ &a\ =\ g\ (); .br \ \ \ \ a.f\ (2); .br Checking that references of this sort have non-null values requires extra code, however, and it is unnecessary for many programs. You can use `\|\c .B \-fnonnull\-objects\c \&\|' to omit the checks for null, if your program doesn't require the default checking. .TP .B \-fthis\-is\-variable The incorporation of user-defined free store management into C++ has made assignment to \c .B this\c \& an anachronism. Therefore, by default GNU C++ treats the type of \c .B this\c \& in a member function of \c .B class X\c \& to be \c .B X *const\c \&. In other words, it is illegal to assign to \c .B this\c \& within a class member function. However, for backwards compatibility, you can invoke the old behavior by using \&`\|\c .B \-fthis\-is\-variable\c \&\|'. .TP .B \-g Produce debugging information in the operating system's native format (for DBX or SDB or DWARF). GDB also can work with this debugging information. On most systems that use DBX format, `\|\c .B \-g\c \&\|' enables use of extra debugging information that only GDB can use. Unlike most other C compilers, GNU CC allows you to use `\|\c .B \-g\c \&\|' with `\|\c .B \-O\c \&\|'. The shortcuts taken by optimized code may occasionally produce surprising results: some variables you declared may not exist at all; flow of control may briefly move where you did not expect it; some statements may not be executed because they compute constant results or their values were already at hand; some statements may execute in different places because they were moved out of loops. Nevertheless it proves possible to debug optimized output. This makes it reasonable to use the optimizer for programs that might have bugs. .TP .BI "\-I" "dir"\c \& Append directory \c .I dir\c \& to the list of directories searched for include files. .TP .BI "\-L" "dir"\c \& Add directory \c .I dir\c \& to the list of directories to be searched for `\|\c .B \-l\c \&\|'. .TP .BI \-l library\c \& Use the library named \c .I library\c \& when linking. (C++ programs often require `\|\c \-lg++\c \&\|' for successful linking.) .TP .B \-O Optimize. Optimizing compilation takes somewhat more time, and a lot more memory for a large function. Without `\|\c .B \-O\c \&\|', the compiler's goal is to reduce the cost of compilation and to make debugging produce the expected results. Statements are independent: if you stop the program with a breakpoint between statements, you can then assign a new value to any variable or change the program counter to any other statement in the function and get exactly the results you would expect from the source code. Without `\|\c .B \-O\c \&\|', only variables declared \c .B register\c \& are allocated in registers. The resulting compiled code is a little worse than produced by PCC without `\|\c .B \-O\c \&\|'. With `\|\c .B \-O\c \&\|', the compiler tries to reduce code size and execution time. .TP .BI "\-o " file\c \& Place output in file \c .I file\c \&. .TP .B \-S Stop after the stage of compilation proper; do not assemble. The output is an assembler code file for each non-assembler input file specified. .TP .B \-static On systems that support dynamic linking, this prevents linking with the shared libraries. On other systems, this option has no effect. .TP .B \-traditional Attempt to support some aspects of traditional C compilers. Specifically, for both C and C++ programs: .TP \ \ \ \(bu In the preprocessor, comments convert to nothing at all, rather than to a space. This allows traditional token concatenation. .TP \ \ \ \(bu In the preprocessor, macro arguments are recognized within string constants in a macro definition (and their values are stringified, though without additional quote marks, when they appear in such a context). The preprocessor always considers a string constant to end at a newline. .TP \ \ \ \(bu The preprocessor does not predefine the macro \c .B __STDC__\c \& when you use `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|', but still predefines\c .B __GNUC__\c \& (since the GNU extensions indicated by .B __GNUC__\c \& are not affected by `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|'). If you need to write header files that work differently depending on whether `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|' is in use, by testing both of these predefined macros you can distinguish four situations: GNU C, traditional GNU C, other ANSI C compilers, and other old C compilers. .TP \ \ \ \(bu In the preprocessor, comments convert to nothing at all, rather than to a space. This allows traditional token concatenation. .TP \ \ \ \(bu In the preprocessor, macro arguments are recognized within string constants in a macro definition (and their values are stringified, though without additional quote marks, when they appear in such a context). The preprocessor always considers a string constant to end at a newline. .TP \ \ \ \(bu The preprocessor does not predefine the macro \c .B __STDC__\c \& when you use `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|', but still predefines\c .B __GNUC__\c \& (since the GNU extensions indicated by .B __GNUC__\c \& are not affected by `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|'). If you need to write header files that work differently depending on whether `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|' is in use, by testing both of these predefined macros you can distinguish four situations: GNU C, traditional GNU C, other ANSI C compilers, and other old C compilers. .PP .TP \ \ \ \(bu String ``constants'' are not necessarily constant; they are stored in writable space, and identical looking constants are allocated separately. (This is the same as the effect of `\|\c .B \-fwritable\-strings\c \&\|'.) For C++ programs only (not C), `\|\c .B \-traditional\c \&\|' has one additional effect: assignment to .B this is permitted. This is the same as the effect of `\|\c .B \-fthis\-is\-variable\c \&\|'. .TP .BI \-U macro Undefine macro \c .I macro\c \&. .TP .B \-Wall Issue warnings for conditions which pertain to usage that we recommend avoiding and that we believe is easy to avoid, even in conjunction with macros. .TP .B \-Wenum\-clash Warn when converting between different enumeration types. .TP .B \-Woverloaded\-virtual In a derived class, the definitions of virtual functions must match the type signature of a virtual function declared in the base class. Use this option to request warnings when a derived class declares a function that may be an erroneous attempt to define a virtual function: that is, warn when a function with the same name as a virtual function in the base class, but with a type signature that doesn't match any virtual functions from the base class. .TP .B \-w Inhibit all warning messages. .PP .SH PRAGMAS Two `\|\c .B #pragma\c \&\|' directives are supported for GNU C++, to permit using the same header file for two purposes: as a definition of interfaces to a given object class, and as the full definition of the contents of that object class. .TP .B #pragma interface Use this directive in header files that define object classes, to save space in most of the object files that use those classes. Normally, local copies of certain information (backup copies of inline member functions, debugging information, and the internal tables that implement virtual functions) must be kept in each object file that includes class definitions. You can use this pragma to avoid such duplication. When a header file containing `\|\c .B #pragma interface\c \&\|' is included in a compilation, this auxiliary information will not be generated (unless the main input source file itself uses `\|\c .B #pragma implementation\c \&\|'). Instead, the object files will contain references to be resolved at link time. .tr !" .TP .B #pragma implementation .TP .BI "#pragma implementation !" objects .h! Use this pragma in a main input file, when you want full output from included header files to be generated (and made globally visible). The included header file, in turn, should use `\|\c .B #pragma interface\c \&\|'. Backup copies of inline member functions, debugging information, and the internal tables used to implement virtual functions are all generated in implementation files. If you use `\|\c .B #pragma implementation\c \&\|' with no argument, it applies to an include file with the same basename as your source file; for example, in `\|\c .B allclass.cc\c \&\|', `\|\c .B #pragma implementation\c \&\|' by itself is equivalent to `\|\c .B #pragma implementation "allclass.h"\c \&\|'. Use the string argument if you want a single implementation file to include code from multiple header files. There is no way to split up the contents of a single header file into multiple implementation files. .SH FILES .ta \w'LIBDIR/g++\-include 'u file.h C header (preprocessor) file .br file.i preprocessed C source file .br file.C C++ source file .br file.cc C++ source file .br file.cxx C++ source file .br file.s assembly language file .br file.o object file .br a.out link edited output .br \fITMPDIR\fR/cc\(** temporary files .br \fILIBDIR\fR/cpp preprocessor .br \fILIBDIR\fR/cc1plus compiler .br \fILIBDIR\fR/collect linker front end needed on some machines .br \fILIBDIR\fR/libgcc.a GCC subroutine library .br /lib/crt[01n].o start-up routine .br \fILIBDIR\fR/ccrt0 additional start-up routine for C++ .br /lib/libc.a standard C library, see .IR intro (3) .br /usr/include standard directory for .B #include files .br \fILIBDIR\fR/include standard gcc directory for .B #include files .br \fILIBDIR\fR/g++\-include additional g++ directory for .B #include .sp .I LIBDIR is usually .B /usr/local/lib/\c .IR machine / version . .br .I TMPDIR comes from the environment variable .B TMPDIR (default .B /usr/tmp if available, else .B /tmp\c \&). .SH "SEE ALSO" gcc(1), cpp(1), as(1), ld(1), gdb(1), adb(1), dbx(1), sdb(1). .br .RB "`\|" gcc "\|', `\|" cpp \|', .RB `\| as \|', `\| ld \|', and .RB `\| gdb \|' entries in .B info\c \&. .br .I Using and Porting GNU CC (for version 2.0)\c , Richard M. Stallman, November 1990; .I The C Preprocessor\c , Richard M. Stallman, July 1990; .I Using GDB: A Guide to the GNU Source-Level Debugger\c , Richard M. Stallman and Roland H. Pesch, December 1991; .I Using as: the GNU Assembler\c , Dean Elsner, Jay Fenlason & friends, March 1991; .I gld: the GNU linker\c , Steve Chamberlain and Roland Pesch, April 1991. .SH BUGS Report bugs to .BR bug\-g++@prep.ai.mit.edu . Bugs tend actually to be fixed if they can be isolated, so it is in your interest to report them in such a way that they can be easily reproduced. .SH COPYING Copyright (c) 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. .PP Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. .PP Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. .PP Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English. .SH AUTHORS See the GNU CC Manual for the contributors to GNU CC.