# Prerequisites for GCC

GCC requires that various tools and packages be available for use in the build procedure. Modifying GCC sources requires additional tools described below.

### Tools/packages necessary for building GCC

ISO C90 compiler
  Necessary to bootstrap GCC, although versions of GCC prior to 3.4 also allow bootstrapping with a traditional (K&R) C compiler.

  To build all languages in a cross-compiler or other configuration where 3-stage bootstrap is not performed, you need to start with an existing GCC binary (version 2.95 or later) because source code for language frontends other than C might use GCC extensions.

GNAT
  In order to build the Ada compiler (GNAT) you must already have GNAT installed because portions of the Ada frontend are written in Ada (with GNAT extensions.) Refer to the Ada installation instructions for more specific information.
A “working” POSIX compatible shell, or GNU bash
  Necessary when running `configure` because some `/bin/sh` shells have bugs and may crash when configuring the target libraries. In other cases, `/bin/sh` or `ksh` have disastrous corner-case performance problems. This can cause target `configure` runs to literally take days to complete in some cases.

  So on some platforms `/bin/ksh` is sufficient, on others it isn't. See the host/target specific instructions for your platform, or use `bash` to be sure. Then set `CONFIG_SHELL` in your environment to your “good” shell prior to running `configure`/`make`.

  `zsh` is not a fully compliant POSIX shell and will not work when configuring GCC.

A POSIX or SVR4 awk
  Necessary for creating some of the generated source files for GCC. If in doubt, use a recent GNU awk version, as some of the older ones are broken. GNU awk version 3.1.5 is known to work.
GNU binutils
  Necessary in some circumstances, optional in others. See the host/target specific instructions for your platform for the exact requirements.
gzip version 1.2.4 (or later) or
bzip2 version 1.0.2 (or later)
  Necessary to uncompress GCC `tar` files when source code is obtained via FTP mirror sites.
GNU make version 3.80 (or later)
  You must have GNU make installed to build GCC.
GNU tar version 1.14 (or later)
  Necessary (only on some platforms) to untar the source code. Many systems' `tar` programs will also work, only try GNU `tar` if you have problems.
Perl version 5.6.1 (or later)
  Necessary when targetting Darwin, building ‘`libstdc++`’, and not using `--disable-symvers`. Necessary when targetting Solaris 2 with Sun `ld` and not using `--disable-symvers`. A helper script needs ‘`Glob.pm`’, which is missing from `perl` 5.005 included in Solaris 8. The bundled `perl` in Solaris 9 and up works.

  Necessary when regenerating `Makefile` dependencies in libiberty. Necessary when regenerating `libiberty/functions.texi`. Necessary when generating manpages from Texinfo manuals. Used by various scripts to generate some files included in SVN (mainly Unicode-related and rarely changing) from source tables.

`jar`, or InfoZIP (`zip` and `unzip`)
  Necessary to build libgcj, the GCJ runtime.

Several support libraries are necessary to build GCC, some are required, others optional. While any sufficiently new version of required tools usually work, library requirements are generally stricter. Newer versions may work in some cases, but it's safer to use the exact versions documented. We appreciate bug reports about problems with newer versions, though.

GNU Multiple Precision Library (GMP) version 4.3.2 (or later)
  Necessary to build GCC. If you do not have it installed in your library search path, you will have to configure with the `--with-gmp` configure option. See also `--with-gmp-lib` and `--with-gmp-include`. Alternatively, if a GMP source distribution is found in a subdirectory of your GCC sources named `gmp`, it will be built together with GCC.
MPFR Library version 2.4.2 (or later)
  Necessary to build GCC. It can be downloaded from http://www.mpfr.org/. The `--with-mpfr` configure option should be used if your MPFR Library is not installed in your default library search path. See also `--with-mpfr-lib` and `--with-mpfr-include`. Alternatively, if a MPFR source distribution is found in a subdirectory of your GCC sources named `mpfr`, it will be built together with GCC.
MPC Library version 0.8.1 (or later)
  Necessary to build GCC. It can be downloaded from http://www.multiprecision.org/. The `--with-mpc` configure option should be used if your MPC Library is not installed in your default library search path. See also `--with-mpc-lib` and `--with-mpc-include`. Alternatively, if an MPC source distribution is found in a subdirectory of your GCC sources named `mpc`, it will be built together with GCC.
Parma Polyhedra Library (PPL) version 0.11
  Necessary to build GCC with the Graphite loop optimizations. It can be downloaded from http://www.cs.unipr.it/ppl/Download/.

  The `--with-ppl` configure option should be used if PPL is not installed in your default library search path.

CLooG-PPL version 0.15 or CLooG 0.16
  Necessary to build GCC with the Graphite loop optimizations. There are two versions available. CLooG-PPL 0.15 as well as CLooG 0.16. The former is the default right now. It can be downloaded from ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/ as `cloog-ppl-0.15.tar.gz`.

  CLooG 0.16 support is still in testing stage, but will be the default in future GCC releases. It is also available at ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/ as `cloog-0.16.1.tar.gz`. To use it add the additional configure option `--enable-cloog-backend=isl`. Even if CLooG 0.16 does not use PPL, PPL is still required for Graphite.

  In both cases `--with-cloog` configure option should be used if CLooG is not installed in your default library search path.

### Tools/packages necessary for modifying GCC

autoconf version 2.64
GNU m4 version 1.4.6 (or later)
  Necessary when modifying `configure.ac`, `aclocal.m4`, etc. to regenerate `configure` and `config.in` files.
automake version 1.11.1
  Necessary when modifying a `Makefile.am` file to regenerate its associated `Makefile.in`.

  Much of GCC does not use automake, so directly edit the `Makefile.in` file. Specifically this applies to the `gcc`, `intl`, `libcpp`, `libiberty`, `libobjc` directories as well as any of their subdirectories.

  For directories that use automake, GCC requires the latest release in the 1.11 series, which is currently 1.11.1. When regenerating a directory to a newer version, please update all the directories using an older 1.11 to the latest released version.

gettext version 0.14.5 (or later)
  Needed to regenerate `gcc.pot`.
gperf version 2.7.2 (or later)
  Necessary when modifying `gperf` input files, e.g. `gcc/cp/cfns.gperf` to regenerate its associated header file, e.g. `gcc/cp/cfns.h`.
DejaGnu 1.4.4
Expect
Tcl
  Necessary to run the GCC testsuite; see the section on testing for details.
autogen version 5.5.4 (or later) and
guile version 1.4.1 (or later)
  Necessary to regenerate `fixinc/fixincl.x` from `fixinc/inclhack.def` and `fixinc/*.tpl`.

  Necessary to run ‘`make check`’ for `fixinc`.

  Necessary to regenerate the top level `Makefile.in` file from `Makefile.tpl` and `Makefile.def`.

Flex version 2.5.4 (or later)
  Necessary when modifying `*.l` files.

  Necessary to build GCC during development because the generated output files are not included in the SVN repository. They are included in releases.

Texinfo version 4.7 (or later)
  Necessary for running `makeinfo` when modifying `*.texi` files to test your changes.

  Necessary for running `make dvi` or `make pdf` to create printable documentation in DVI or PDF format. Texinfo version 4.8 or later is required for `make pdf`.

  Necessary to build GCC documentation during development because the generated output files are not included in the SVN repository. They are included in releases.

TeX (any working version)
  Necessary for running `texi2dvi` and `texi2pdf`, which are used when running `make dvi` or `make pdf` to create DVI or PDF files, respectively.
SVN (any version)
SSH (any version)
  Necessary to access the SVN repository. Public releases and weekly snapshots of the development sources are also available via FTP.
GNU diffutils version 2.7 (or later)
  Useful when submitting patches for the GCC source code.
patch version 2.5.4 (or later)
  Necessary when applying patches, created with `diff`, to one's own sources.
ecj1
gjavah
  If you wish to modify `.java` files in libjava, you will need to configure with `--enable-java-maintainer-mode`, and you will need to have executables named `ecj1` and `gjavah` in your path. The `ecj1` executable should run the Eclipse Java compiler via the GCC-specific entry point. You can download a suitable jar from ftp://sourceware.org/pub/java/, or by running the script `contrib/download_ecj`.
antlr.jar version 2.7.1 (or later)
antlr binary
  If you wish to build the `gjdoc` binary in libjava, you will need to have an `antlr.jar` library available. The library is searched in system locations but can be configured with `--with-antlr-jar=` instead. When configuring with `--enable-java-maintainer-mode`, you will need to have one of the executables named `cantlr`, `runantlr` or `antlr` in your path.

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