compiling from gz archive

[Faded Circle]

I'm realitivly new to Linux. I have Mandrake 9.1 and am having trouble compiling programs i download in a gz archive. After I type ./configure, the process stops with an error.

configure: error: no acceptable cc found in $PATH

I went to find the latest version of GCC, and tried to install that, but it came to this error.

./configure: line 8: cc: command not found
*** The command 'cc -o conftest -g conftest.c' failed.
*** You must set the environment variable CC to a working compiler.

This i have no clue on, can anyone help?

Thanks!

--Ross

[PA]

First, make sure gcc is in your PATH. If it is, typing

which gcc

should show you where it is. As far as I know, its normally in the /bin directory (I'm not at a Linux box right now so I can't verify that) and the /bin directory is almost always in your PATH. Once you know that gcc is in your PATH, try

which cc

If this doesn't give a result, you'll need to make a soft link called 'cc' to your gcc. Assuming gcc is in the /bin directory, do this with

ln -s /bin/gcc /bin/cc

If that still doesn't work, try setting the environment variable mentioned in the output from ./configure by typing

export CC="/bin/cc"

At this stage, it should be working but, in my experience, some source code doesn't like being compiled with the latest version of gcc so you might get a version error. If you do, you'll have to get whatever version of gcc its looking for.

[Dolda2000]

gcc is normally in /usr/bin. /bin is normally reserved for all but the most critical commands.
Anyhow, the probable reason for this is that you simply haven't got GCC installed. Pop in your installation CD and install it.

[PA]

Well, he says he already does have gcc installed. So, fair enough then, its in /usr/bin -- just use that instead of /bin in my previous post...
I'm assuming you already know how to get something into your PATH?

[andutt]

Add /usr/local/bin /usr/bin /usr/sbin /sbin in your PATH-variable...in ~/.bash_profile or /etc/profile

[Dolda2000]

Oh, sorry, I read the whole post this time.
Anyhow, he didn't say that he had GCC installed, he only said that he tried to install it, and if I'm right, he tried to install it from source as well. That naturally won't work since you don't have a C compiler. You need to install the binary distribution of GCC from the CDs before you can compile anything else.

[PA]

How's about some feedback from the man himself (Faded Circle)? Has any of the above helped or did you just start the topic to watch everyone else talk amongst themselves? Dolda, for his sake, I hope the conclusion you drew in your last post isn't right! "Hmmm, I've no compiler, I think I'll install one from source..."