C++ source files conventionally use one of the suffixes .C
,
.cc
, .cpp
, .CPP
, .c++
, .cp
, or
.cxx
; C++ header files often use .hh
or .H
; and
preprocessed C++ files use the suffix .ii
. GCC recognizes
files with these names and compiles them as C++ programs even if you
call the compiler the same way as for compiling C programs (usually
with the name gcc
).
However, C++ programs often require class libraries as well as a
compiler that understands the C++ language--and under some
circumstances, you might want to compile programs or header files from
standard input, or otherwise without a suffix that flags them as C++
programs. You might also like to precompile a C header file with a
.h
extension to be used in C++ compilations. g++
is a
program that calls GCC with the default language set to C++, and
automatically specifies linking against the C++ library. On many
systems, g++
is also installed with the name c++
.
When you compile C++ programs, you may specify many of the same command-line options that you use for compiling programs in any language; or command-line options meaningful for C and related languages; or options that are meaningful only for C++ programs. See Options Controlling C Dialect, for explanations of options for languages related to C. See Options Controlling C++ Dialect, for explanations of options that are meaningful only for C++ programs.