How to install GCC the C compiler on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

Objective

The objective is to install GCC the C compiler on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

Operating System and Software Versions

• Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver

Requirements

Privileged access to your Ubuntu System as root or via sudo command is required.

Conventions

• # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
• $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Other Versions of this Tutorial

This guide is also available for focal fossa at:
Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa)

Instructions

Install GCC

The following linux command will install gcc compiler on on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver. Open up terminal and enter:

$ sudo apt install gcc

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Install build-essential

Another way to install gcc compiler is to install it as part of build-essential package. build-essential package will also install additional libraries as well as g++ compiler. In most cases or if unsure this is exactly what you need:

$ sudo apt install build-essential

Check GCC version

Confirm your installation by checking for GCC version:

$ gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 7.2.0-18ubuntu2) 7.2.0
Copyright (C) 2017 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

C Hello World

Compile a simple C “Hello World” code:

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
   printf("Hello, World!");
   return 0;
}

Save the above code within hello.c file, compile and execute it:

$ gcc -o hello hello.c 
$ ./hello 
Hello, World!