The purpose of this book is to explain the use of the GNU C and C++ compilers, gcc and g++. After reading this book you should understand how to compile a program, and how to use basic compiler options for optimization and debugging. This book does not attempt to teach the C or C++ languages themselves, since this material can be found in many other places (see [Further reading], page 91). Experienced programmers who are familiar with other systems, but new to the GNU compilers, can skip the early sections of the chapters “Compiling a C program”, “Using the preprocessor”.
