Linux From Scratch
Prev | Appendix A. Package descriptions | Next

# GCC

## Contents

The GCC package contains compilers, preprocessors and the GNU C++ Library.

## Description

### Compiler

A compiler translates source code in text format to a format that a computer understands. After a source code file is compiled into an object file, a linker will create an executable file from one or more of these compiler generated object files.

### Pre-processor

A pre-processor pre-processes a source file, such as including the contents of header files into the source file. You generally don't do this yourself to save yourself a lot of time. You just insert a line like #include <filename>. The pre-processor file insert the contents of that file into the source file. That's one of the things a pre-processor does.

### C++ Library

The C++ library is used by C++ programs. The C++ library contains functions that are frequently used in C++ programs. This way the programmer doesn't have to write certain functions (such as writing a string of text to the screen) from scratch every time he creates a program.

Prev | Home | Next
Patch | Up | Bison