kenneth kahn wrote: > What's the difference between gcc and gcc-g++; what is gcc-core and > gcc-testsuite? I want to install the basic gcc/g++ compilers along > with their support libraries. This is touched on in the install docs, but it isn't that clear; better is a snapshot announcement: http://gcc.gnu.org/install/download.html http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2005-07/msg00290.html - gcc is everything; - gcc-core is just the C compiler and backend - gcc-g++ is the extra files you'll need on top of gcc-core for C++ - gcc-testsuite is the optional testsuite you can run on your built compiler as a confidence check The simplest thing to do, provided bandwidth isn't an issue, is to download the full gcc package and mask off the languages you don't need with "--enable-languages=c++" on the configure line. Or build them all and experiment! If bandwidth is an issue, you just need gcc-core and gcc-g++; unpack them together and you'll have enough to build C and C++ compilers. Add gcc-testsuite too and you'll be able to confidence check your compiler too and optionally mail in build test results to the gcc-testresults mailing list. Don't panic if there are some failures in the test-suite; compare your run against a similar system in recent gcc-testresults archives http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-testresults/ rather than expect a completely clean run. If you're adding a compiler to an existing system, I'd suggest 1) you keep it out of the way, e.g. in /usr/local or /usr/local/gcc40 or in your home dir, rather than trying to update the system compiler; C++ you build with the new one won't be compatible with any system-installed C++ libs, for example and I always prefer to leave the system compiler be 2) you should get the system compiler's configure options from "gcc -v" and use that as a starting point for your own configure line, for maximum compatibility with the existing system libs. FWIW, gcc-4.0.1 was just released so you should look for that over 4.0.0. Rup.