Help installing GCC compiler

[Ian Lance Taylor]

On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:10 AM, Köplin Nina <nina.koplin@smhi.se> wrote:
> Hej!

Hej!

> I´m totally new to GCC (and pretty new to compiling in general, by the way). I need it to compile a hydrological model that is written in C and the model homepage strongly recommends using the GNU GCC compiler. My questions:
>> Do I really have to install all those packages/tools specified here: http://gcc.gnu.org/install/prerequisites.html ?
>> And then: should I really follow every single step in the installation manual (C:\Program Files\GCC\gcc-4.8.0\INSTALL\index.html) or is there some shortcut if I only want to compile a code in C?
> Any help is appreciated!!

You did not mention which operating system you use.  Most systems have
a prebuilt binary installation of GCC available.  Certainly all
GNU/Linux systems do.  So do Windows, Solaris, and many others.  Based
on your questions I would recommend looking for a prebuilt
installation rather than trying to build it yourself.

To answer your questions: the easiest way to install the prerequisites
is to run the script contrib/download_prerequisites.  That will fetch
the ones you need.

After doing that, yes, you really should follow every single step of
the installation instructions.

Ian