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(cpp-300.info)Invocation
Invocation
**********
Most often when you use the C preprocessor you will not have to
invoke it explicitly: the C compiler will do so automatically.
However, the preprocessor is sometimes useful on its own. All the
options listed here are also acceptable to the C compiler and have the
same meaning, except that the C compiler has different rules for
specifying the output file.
*Note:* Whether you use the preprocessor by way of `gcc' or `cpp',
the "compiler driver" is run first. This program's purpose is to
translate your command into invocations of the programs that do the
actual work. Their command line interfaces are similar but not
identical to the documented interface, and may change without notice.
The C preprocessor expects two file names as arguments, INFILE and
OUTFILE. The preprocessor reads INFILE together with any other files
it specifies with `#include'. All the output generated by the combined
input files is written in OUTFILE.
Either INFILE or OUTFILE may be `-', which as INFILE means to read
from standard input and as OUTFILE means to write to standard output.
Also, if either file is omitted, it means the same as if `-' had been
specified for that file.
Unless otherwise noted, or the option ends in `=', all options which
take an argument may have that argument appear either immediately after
the option, or with a space between option and argument: `-Ifoo' and
`-I foo' have the same effect.
Many options have multi-letter names; therefore multiple
single-letter options may _not_ be grouped: `-dM' is very different from
`-d -M'.
`-D NAME'
Predefine NAME as a macro, with definition `1'.
`-D NAME=DEFINITION'
Predefine NAME as a macro, with definition DEFINITION. There are
no restrictions on the contents of DEFINITION, but if you are
invoking the preprocessor from a shell or shell-like program you
may need to use the shell's quoting syntax to protect characters
such as spaces that have a meaning in the shell syntax. If you
use more than one `-D' for the same NAME, the rightmost definition
takes effect.
If you wish to define a function-like macro on the command line,
write its argument list with surrounding parentheses before the
equals sign (if any). Parentheses are meaningful to most shells,
so you will need to quote the option. With `sh' and `csh',
`-D'NAME(ARGS...)=DEFINITION'' works.
`-U NAME'
Cancel any previous definition of NAME, either built in or
provided with a `-D' option.
All `-imacros FILE' and `-include FILE' options are processed
after all `-D' and `-U' options.
`-undef'
Do not predefine any system-specific macros. The common predefined
macros remain defined.
`-I DIR'
Add the directory DIR to the list of directories to be searched
for header files. Note: Search Path. Directories named by `-I'
are searched before the standard system include directories.
It is dangerous to specify a standard system include directory in
an `-I' option. This defeats the special treatment of system
headers (Note: System Headers). It can also defeat the repairs
to buggy system headers which GCC makes when it is installed.
`-o FILE'
Write output to FILE. This is the same as specifying FILE as the
second non-option argument to `cpp'. `gcc' has a different
interpretation of a second non-option argument, so you must use
`-o' to specify the output file.
`-Wall'
Turns on all optional warnings which are desirable for normal
code. At present this is `-Wcomment' and `-Wtrigraphs'. Note that
many of the preprocessor's warnings are on by default and have no
options to control them.
`-Wcomment'
`-Wcomments'
Warn whenever a comment-start sequence `/*' appears in a `/*'
comment, or whenever a backslash-newline appears in a `//' comment.
(Both forms have the same effect.)
`-Wtrigraphs'
Warn if any trigraphs are encountered. This option used to take
effect only if `-trigraphs' was also specified, but now works
independently. Warnings are not given for trigraphs within
comments, as they do not affect the meaning of the program.
`-Wtraditional'
Warn about certain constructs that behave differently in
traditional and ISO C. Also warn about ISO C constructs that have
no traditional C equivalent, and problematic constructs which
should be avoided. Note: Traditional Mode.
`-Wimport'
Warn the first time `#import' is used.
`-Wundef'
Warn whenever an identifier which is not a macro is encountered in
an `#if' directive, outside of `defined'. Such identifiers are
replaced with zero.
`-Werror'
Make all warnings into hard errors. Source code which triggers
warnings will be rejected.
`-Wsystem-headers'
Issue warnings for code in system headers. These are normally
unhelpful in finding bugs in your own code, therefore suppressed.
If you are responsible for the system library, you may want to see
them.
`-w'
Suppress all warnings, including those which GNU CPP issues by
default.
`-pedantic'
Issue all the mandatory diagnostics listed in the C standard.
Some of them are left out by default, since they trigger
frequently on harmless code.
`-pedantic-errors'
Issue all the mandatory diagnostics, and make all mandatory
diagnostics into errors. This includes mandatory diagnostics that
GCC issues without `-pedantic' but treats as warnings.
`-M'
Instead of outputting the result of preprocessing, output a rule
suitable for `make' describing the dependencies of the main source
file. The preprocessor outputs one `make' rule containing the
object file name for that source file, a colon, and the names of
all the included files, including those coming from `-include' or
`-imacros' command line options.
Unless specified explicitly (with `-MT' or `-MQ'), the object file
name consists of the basename of the source file with any suffix
replaced with object file suffix. If there are many included
files then the rule is split into several lines using `\'-newline.
The rule has no commands.
`-MM'
Like `-M', but mention only the files included with
`#include "FILE"' or with `-include' or `-imacros' command line
options. System header files included with `#include <FILE>' are
omitted.
`-MF FILE'
When used with `-M' or `-MM', specifies a file to write the
dependencies to. This allows the preprocessor to write the
preprocessed file to stdout normally. If no `-MF' switch is
given, CPP sends the rules to stdout and suppresses normal
preprocessed output.
`-MG'
When used with `-M' or `-MM', `-MG' says to treat missing header
files as generated files and assume they live in the same
directory as the source file. It suppresses preprocessed output,
as a missing header file is ordinarily an error.
This feature is used in automatic updating of makefiles.
`-MP'
This option instructs CPP to add a phony target for each dependency
other than the main file, causing each to depend on nothing. These
dummy rules work around errors `make' gives if you remove header
files without updating the `Makefile' to match.
This is typical output:
test.o: test.c test.h
test.h:
`-MT TARGET'
Change the target of the rule emitted by dependency generation. By
default CPP takes the name of the main input file, including any
path, deletes any file suffix such as `.c', and appends the
platform's usual object suffix. The result is the target.
An `-MT' option will set the target to be exactly the string you
specify. If you want multiple targets, you can specify them as a
single argument to `-MT', or use multiple `-MT' options.
For example, `-MT '$(objpfx)foo.o'' might give
$(objpfx)foo.o: foo.c
`-MQ TARGET'
Same as `-MT', but it quotes any characters which are special to
Make. `-MQ '$(objpfx)foo.o'' gives
$$(objpfx)foo.o: foo.c
The default target is automatically quoted, as if it were given
with `-MQ'.
`-MD FILE'
`-MMD FILE'
`-MD FILE' is equivalent to `-M -MF FILE', and `-MMD FILE' is
equivalent to `-MM -MF FILE'.
Due to limitations in the compiler driver, you must use these
switches when you want to generate a dependency file as a
side-effect of normal compilation.
`-x c'
`-x c++'
`-x objective-c'
`-x assembler-with-cpp'
Specify the source language: C, C++, Objective-C, or assembly.
This has nothing to do with standards conformance or extensions;
it merely selects which base syntax to expect. If you give none
of these options, cpp will deduce the language from the extension
of the source file: `.c', `.cc', `.m', or `.S'. Some other common
extensions for C++ and assembly are also recognized. If cpp does
not recognize the extension, it will treat the file as C; this is
the most generic mode.
*Note:* Previous versions of cpp accepted a `-lang' option which
selected both the language and the standards conformance level.
This option has been removed, because it conflicts with the `-l'
option.
`-std=STANDARD'
`-ansi'
Specify the standard to which the code should conform. Currently
cpp only knows about the standards for C; other language standards
will be added in the future.
STANDARD may be one of:
`iso9899:1990'
`c89'
The ISO C standard from 1990. `c89' is the customary
shorthand for this version of the standard.
The `-ansi' option is equivalent to `-std=c89'.
`iso9899:199409'
The 1990 C standard, as amended in 1994.
`iso9899:1999'
`c99'
`iso9899:199x'
`c9x'
The revised ISO C standard, published in December 1999.
Before publication, this was known as C9X.
`gnu89'
The 1990 C standard plus GNU extensions. This is the default.
`gnu99'
`gnu9x'
The 1999 C standard plus GNU extensions.
`-I-'
Split the include path. Any directories specified with `-I'
options before `-I-' are searched only for headers requested with
`#include "FILE"'; they are not searched for `#include <FILE>'.
If additional directories are specified with `-I' options after
the `-I-', those directories are searched for all `#include'
directives.
In addition, `-I-' inhibits the use of the directory of the current
file directory as the first search directory for
`#include "FILE"'. Note: Search Path.
`-nostdinc'
Do not search the standard system directories for header files.
Only the directories you have specified with `-I' options (and the
directory of the current file, if appropriate) are searched.
`-nostdinc++'
Do not search for header files in the C++-specific standard
directories, but do still search the other standard directories.
(This option is used when building the C++ library.)
`-include FILE'
Process FILE as if `#include "file"' appeared as the first line of
the primary source file. However, the first directory searched
for FILE is the preprocessor's working directory _instead of_ the
directory containing the main source file. If not found there, it
is searched for in the remainder of the `#include "..."' search
chain as normal.
If multiple `-include' options are given, the files are included
in the order they appear on the command line.
`-imacros FILE'
Exactly like `-include', except that any output produced by
scanning FILE is thrown away. Macros it defines remain defined.
This allows you to acquire all the macros from a header without
also processing its declarations.
All files specified by `-imacros' are processed before all files
specified by `-include'.
`-idirafter DIR'
Search DIR for header files, but do it _after_ all directories
specified with `-I' and the standard system directories have been
exhausted. DIR is treated as a system include directory.
`-iprefix PREFIX'
Specify PREFIX as the prefix for subsequent `-iwithprefix'
options. If the prefix represents a directory, you should include
the final `/'.
`-iwithprefix DIR'
`-iwithprefixbefore DIR'
Append DIR to the prefix specified previously with `-iprefix', and
add the resulting directory to the include search path.
`-iwithprefixbefore' puts it in the same place `-I' would;
`-iwithprefix' puts it where `-idirafter' would.
Use of these options is discouraged.
`-isystem DIR'
Search DIR for header files, after all directories specified by
`-I' but before the standard system directories. Mark it as a
system directory, so that it gets the same special treatment as is
applied to the standard system directories. Note: System
Headers.
`-fpreprocessed'
Indicate to the preprocessor that the input file has already been
preprocessed. This suppresses things like macro expansion,
trigraph conversion, escaped newline splicing, and processing of
most directives. The preprocessor still recognizes and removes
comments, so that you can pass a file preprocessed with `-C' to
the compiler without problems. In this mode the integrated
preprocessor is little more than a tokenizer for the front ends.
`-fpreprocessed' is implicit if the input file has one of the
extensions `.i', `.ii' or `.mi'. These are the extensions that
GCC uses for preprocessed files created by `-save-temps'.
`-ftabstop=WIDTH'
Set the distance between tab stops. This helps the preprocessor
report correct column numbers in warnings or errors, even if tabs
appear on the line. If the value is less than 1 or greater than
100, the option is ignored. The default is 8.
`-fno-show-column'
Do not print column numbers in diagnostics. This may be necessary
if diagnostics are being scanned by a program that does not
understand the column numbers, such as `dejagnu'.
`-A PREDICATE=ANSWER'
Make an assertion with the predicate PREDICATE and answer ANSWER.
This form is preferred to the older form `-A PREDICATE(ANSWER)',
which is still supported, because it does not use shell special
characters. Note: Assertions.
`-A -PREDICATE=ANSWER'
Cancel an assertion with the predicate PREDICATE and answer ANSWER.
`-A-'
Cancel all predefined assertions and all assertions preceding it on
the command line. Also, undefine all predefined macros and all
macros preceding it on the command line. (This is a historical
wart and may change in the future.)
`-dCHARS'
CHARS is a sequence of one or more of the following characters,
and must not be preceded by a space. Other characters are
interpreted by the compiler proper, or reserved for future
versions of GCC, and so are silently ignored. If you specify
characters whose behavior conflicts, the result is undefined.
`M'
Instead of the normal output, generate a list of `#define'
directives for all the macros defined during the execution of
the preprocessor, including predefined macros. This gives
you a way of finding out what is predefined in your version
of the preprocessor. Assuming you have no file `foo.h', the
command
touch foo.h; cpp -dM foo.h
will show all the predefined macros.
`D'
Like `M' except in two respects: it does _not_ include the
predefined macros, and it outputs _both_ the `#define'
directives and the result of preprocessing. Both kinds of
output go to the standard output file.
`N'
Like `D', but emit only the macro names, not their expansions.
`I'
Output `#include' directives in addition to the result of
preprocessing.
`-P'
Inhibit generation of linemarkers in the output from the
preprocessor. This might be useful when running the preprocessor
on something that is not C code, and will be sent to a program
which might be confused by the linemarkers. Note: Preprocessor
Output.
`-C'
Do not discard comments. All comments are passed through to the
output file, except for comments in processed directives, which
are deleted along with the directive.
You should be prepared for side effects when using `-C'; it causes
the preprocessor to treat comments as tokens in their own right.
For example, comments appearing at the start of what would be a
directive line have the effect of turning that line into an
ordinary source line, since the first token on the line is no
longer a `#'.
`-gcc'
Define the macros __GNUC__, __GNUC_MINOR__ and
__GNUC_PATCHLEVEL__. These are defined automatically when you use
`gcc -E'; you can turn them off in that case with `-no-gcc'.
`-traditional'
Try to imitate the behavior of old-fashioned C, as opposed to ISO
C. Note: Traditional Mode.
`-trigraphs'
Process trigraph sequences. Note: Initial processing.
`-remap'
Enable special code to work around file systems which only permit
very short file names, such as MS-DOS.
`-$'
Forbid the use of `$' in identifiers. The C standard allows
implementations to define extra characters that can appear in
identifiers. By default GNU CPP permits `$', a common extension.
`-h'
`--help'
`--target-help'
Print text describing all the command line options instead of
preprocessing anything.
`-v'
Verbose mode. Print out GNU CPP's version number at the beginning
of execution, and report the final form of the include path.
`-H'
Print the name of each header file used, in addition to other
normal activities. Each name is indented to show how deep in the
`#include' stack it is.
`-version'
`--version'
Print out GNU CPP's version number. With one dash, proceed to
preprocess as normal. With two dashes, exit immediately.
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