One of the most common problems I face in compiling programs with many dependancies is that, if a dependency is missing, the resulting error messages almost invariably scroll off the screen instantly, and even apart from the scrolling, the single relevant error ("Cannot open <foo.h>: No such file or directory" or whatever) is buried under hundreds upon hundreds of lines of errors about variables not declared in scope, syntax errors in declarations, and so on.

In general, error cascades are virtually impossible to prevent.

However, it seems clear that, any time an include file is missing, we *know* that the build is doomed to failure.  I think it would be a nice option (and possibly a very good default) for gcc to simply abort immediately after any file-not-found message, on the grounds that, if you are missing a header file, there is simply no point in telling you that, without that header, your program doesn't work.