CPP(1) GNU CPP(1)
NAME
cpp - The C Preprocessor
SYNOPSIS
cpp [-Dmacro[=defn]...] [-Umacro]
[-Idir...] [-iquotedir...]
[-M|-MM] [-MG] [-MF filename]
[-MP] [-MQ target...]
[-MT target...]
infile [[-o] outfile]
Only the most useful options are given above; see below for a more
complete list of preprocessor-specific options. In addition, cpp accepts
most gcc driver options, which are not listed here. Refer to the GCC
documentation for details.
DESCRIPTION
The C preprocessor, often known as cpp, is a macro processor that is used
automatically by the C compiler to transform your program before
compilation. It is called a macro processor because it allows you to
define macros, which are brief abbreviations for longer constructs.
The C preprocessor is intended to be used only with C, C++, and
Objective-C source code. In the past, it has been abused as a general
text processor. It will choke on input which does not obey C's lexical
rules. For example, apostrophes will be interpreted as the beginning of
character constants, and cause errors. Also, you cannot rely on it
preserving characteristics of the input which are not significant to
C-family languages. If a Makefile is preprocessed, all the hard tabs
will be removed, and the Makefile will not work.
Having said that, you can often get away with using cpp on things which
are not C. Other Algol-ish programming languages are often safe (Ada,
etc.) So is assembly, with caution. -traditional-cpp mode preserves more
white space, and is otherwise more permissive. Many of the problems can
be avoided by writing C or C++ style comments instead of native language
comments, and keeping macros simple.
Wherever possible, you should use a preprocessor geared to the language
you are writing in. Modern versions of the GNU assembler have macro
facilities. Most high level programming languages have their own
conditional compilation and inclusion mechanism. If all else fails, try
a true general text processor, such as GNU M4.
C preprocessors vary in some details. This manual discusses the GNU C
preprocessor, which provides a small superset of the features of ISO
Standard C. In its default mode, the GNU C preprocessor does not do a
few things required by the standard. These are features which are
rarely, if ever, used, and may cause surprising changes to the meaning of
a program which does not expect them. To get strict ISO Standard C, you
should use the -std=c90, -std=c99, -std=c11 or -std=c17 options,
depending on which version of the standard you want. To get all the
mandatory diagnostics, you must also use -pedantic.
This manual describes the behavior of the ISO preprocessor. To minimize
gratuitous differences, where the ISO preprocessor's behavior does not
conflict with traditional semantics, the traditional preprocessor should
behave the same way. The various differences that do exist are detailed
in the section Traditional Mode.
For clarity, unless noted otherwise, references to CPP in this manual
refer to GNU CPP.
OPTIONS
The cpp command expects two file names as arguments, infile and outfile.
The preprocessor reads infile together with any other files it specifies
with #include. All the output generated by the combined input files is
written in outfile.
Either infile or outfile may be -, which as infile means to read from
standard input and as outfile means to write to standard output. If
either file is omitted, it means the same as if - had been specified for
that file. You can also use the -o outfile option to specify the output
file.
Unless otherwise noted, or the option ends in =, all options which take
an argument may have that argument appear either immediately after the
option, or with a space between option and argument: -Ifoo and -I foo
have the same effect.
Many options have multi-letter names; therefore multiple single-letter
options may not be grouped: -dM is very different from -d -M.
-D name
Predefine name as a macro, with definition 1.
-D name=definition
The contents of definition are tokenized and processed as if they
appeared during translation phase three in a #define directive. In
particular, the definition is truncated by embedded newline
characters.
If you are invoking the preprocessor from a shell or shell-like
program you may need to use the shell's quoting syntax to protect
characters such as spaces that have a meaning in the shell syntax.
If you wish to define a function-like macro on the command line,
write its argument list with surrounding parentheses before the
equals sign (if any). Parentheses are meaningful to most shells, so
you should quote the option. With sh and csh,
-D'name(args...)=definition' works.
-D and -U options are processed in the order they are given on the
command line. All -imacros file and -include file options are
processed after all -D and -U options.
-U name
Cancel any previous definition of name, either built in or provided
with a -D option.
-include file
Process file as if "#include "file"" appeared as the first line of
the primary source file. However, the first directory searched for
file is the preprocessor's working directory instead of the directory
containing the main source file. If not found there, it is searched
for in the remainder of the "#include "..."" search chain as normal.
If multiple -include options are given, the files are included in the
order they appear on the command line.
-imacros file
Exactly like -include, except that any output produced by scanning
file is thrown away. Macros it defines remain defined. This allows
you to acquire all the macros from a header without also processing
its declarations.
All files specified by -imacros are processed before all files
specified by -include.
-undef
Do not predefine any system-specific or GCC-specific macros. The
standard predefined macros remain defined.
-pthread
Define additional macros required for using the POSIX threads
library. You should use this option consistently for both
compilation and linking. This option is supported on GNU/Linux
targets, most other Unix derivatives, and also on x86 Cygwin and
MinGW targets.
-M Instead of outputting the result of preprocessing, output a rule
suitable for make describing the dependencies of the main source
file. The preprocessor outputs one make rule containing the object
file name for that source file, a colon, and the names of all the
included files, including those coming from -include or -imacros
command-line options.
Unless specified explicitly (with -MT or -MQ), the object file name
consists of the name of the source file with any suffix replaced with
object file suffix and with any leading directory parts removed. If
there are many included files then the rule is split into several
lines using \-newline. The rule has no commands.
This option does not suppress the preprocessor's debug output, such
as -dM. To avoid mixing such debug output with the dependency rules
you should explicitly specify the dependency output file with -MF, or
use an environment variable like DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT. Debug output
is still sent to the regular output stream as normal.
Passing -M to the driver implies -E, and suppresses warnings with an
implicit -w.
-MM Like -M but do not mention header files that are found in system
header directories, nor header files that are included, directly or
indirectly, from such a header.
This implies that the choice of angle brackets or double quotes in an
#include directive does not in itself determine whether that header
appears in -MM dependency output.
-MF file
When used with -M or -MM, specifies a file to write the dependencies
to. If no -MF switch is given the preprocessor sends the rules to
the same place it would send preprocessed output.
When used with the driver options -MD or -MMD, -MF overrides the
default dependency output file.
If file is -, then the dependencies are written to stdout.
-MG In conjunction with an option such as -M requesting dependency
generation, -MG assumes missing header files are generated files and
adds them to the dependency list without raising an error. The
dependency filename is taken directly from the "#include" directive
without prepending any path. -MG also suppresses preprocessed
output, as a missing header file renders this useless.
This feature is used in automatic updating of makefiles.
-Mno-modules
Disable dependency generation for compiled module interfaces.
-MP This option instructs CPP to add a phony target for each dependency
other than the main file, causing each to depend on nothing. These
dummy rules work around errors make gives if you remove header files
without updating the Makefile to match.
This is typical output:
test.o: test.c test.h
test.h:
-MT target
Change the target of the rule emitted by dependency generation. By
default CPP takes the name of the main input file, deletes any
directory components and any file suffix such as .c, and appends the
platform's usual object suffix. The result is the target.
An -MT option sets the target to be exactly the string you specify.
If you want multiple targets, you can specify them as a single
argument to -MT, or use multiple -MT options.
For example, -MT '$(objpfx)foo.o' might give
$(objpfx)foo.o: foo.c
-MQ target
Same as -MT, but it quotes any characters which are special to Make.
-MQ '$(objpfx)foo.o' gives
$$(objpfx)foo.o: foo.c
The default target is automatically quoted, as if it were given with
-MQ.
-MD -MD is equivalent to -M -MF file, except that -E is not implied. The
driver determines file based on whether an -o option is given. If it
is, the driver uses its argument but with a suffix of .d, otherwise
it takes the name of the input file, removes any directory components
and suffix, and applies a .d suffix.
If -MD is used in conjunction with -E, any -o switch is understood to
specify the dependency output file, but if used without -E, each -o
is understood to specify a target object file.
Since -E is not implied, -MD can be used to generate a dependency
output file as a side effect of the compilation process.
-MMD
Like -MD except mention only user header files, not system header
files.
-fpreprocessed
Indicate to the preprocessor that the input file has already been
preprocessed. This suppresses things like macro expansion, trigraph
conversion, escaped newline splicing, and processing of most
directives. The preprocessor still recognizes and removes comments,
so that you can pass a file preprocessed with -C to the compiler
without problems. In this mode the integrated preprocessor is little
more than a tokenizer for the front ends.
-fpreprocessed is implicit if the input file has one of the
extensions .i, .ii or .mi. These are the extensions that GCC uses
for preprocessed files created by -save-temps.
-fdirectives-only
When preprocessing, handle directives, but do not expand macros.
The option's behavior depends on the -E and -fpreprocessed options.
With -E, preprocessing is limited to the handling of directives such
as "#define", "#ifdef", and "#error". Other preprocessor operations,
such as macro expansion and trigraph conversion are not performed.
In addition, the -dD option is implicitly enabled.
With -fpreprocessed, predefinition of command line and most builtin
macros is disabled. Macros such as "__LINE__", which are
contextually dependent, are handled normally. This enables
compilation of files previously preprocessed with "-E
-fdirectives-only".
With both -E and -fpreprocessed, the rules for -fpreprocessed take
precedence. This enables full preprocessing of files previously
preprocessed with "-E -fdirectives-only".
-fdollars-in-identifiers
Accept $ in identifiers.
-fextended-identifiers
Accept universal character names and extended characters in
identifiers. This option is enabled by default for C99 (and later C
standard versions) and C++.
-fno-canonical-system-headers
When preprocessing, do not shorten system header paths with
canonicalization.
-fmax-include-depth=depth
Set the maximum depth of the nested #include. The default is 200.
-fsearch-include-path[=kind]
Look for input files on the #include path, not just the current
directory. This is particularly useful with C++20 modules, for which
both header units and module interface units need to be compiled
directly:
g++ -c -std=c++20 -fmodules -fsearch-include-path bits/stdc++.h bits/std.cc
kind defaults to user, which looks on the #include "..." search path;
you can also explicitly specify system for the "#include <...>"
search path.
-ftabstop=width
Set the distance between tab stops. This helps the preprocessor
report correct column numbers in warnings or errors, even if tabs
appear on the line. If the value is less than 1 or greater than 100,
the option is ignored. The default is 8.
-ftrack-macro-expansion[=level]
Track locations of tokens across macro expansions. This allows the
compiler to emit diagnostic about the current macro expansion stack
when a compilation error occurs in a macro expansion. Using this
option makes the preprocessor and the compiler consume more memory.
The level parameter can be used to choose the level of precision of
token location tracking thus decreasing the memory consumption if
necessary. Value 0 of level de-activates this option. Value 1 tracks
tokens locations in a degraded mode for the sake of minimal memory
overhead. In this mode all tokens resulting from the expansion of an
argument of a function-like macro have the same location. Value 2
tracks tokens locations completely. This value is the most memory
hungry. When this option is given no argument, the default parameter
value is 2.
Note that "-ftrack-macro-expansion=2" is activated by default.
-fmacro-prefix-map=old=new
When preprocessing files residing in directory old, expand the
"__FILE__" and "__BASE_FILE__" macros as if the files resided in
directory new instead. This can be used to change an absolute path
to a relative path by using . for new which can result in more
reproducible builds that are location independent. This option also
affects "__builtin_FILE()" during compilation. See also
-ffile-prefix-map and -fcanon-prefix-map.
-fexec-charset=charset
Set the execution character set, used for string and character
constants. The default is UTF-8. charset can be any encoding
supported by the system's "iconv" library routine.
-fwide-exec-charset=charset
Set the wide execution character set, used for wide string and
character constants. The default is one of UTF-32BE, UTF-32LE,
UTF-16BE, or UTF-16LE, whichever corresponds to the width of
"wchar_t" and the big-endian or little-endian byte order being used
for code generation. As with -fexec-charset, charset can be any
encoding supported by the system's "iconv" library routine; however,
you will have problems with encodings that do not fit exactly in
"wchar_t".
-finput-charset=charset
Set the input character set, used for translation from the character
set of the input file to the source character set used by GCC. If
the locale does not specify, or GCC cannot get this information from
the locale, the default is UTF-8. This can be overridden by either
the locale or this command-line option. Currently the command-line
option takes precedence if there's a conflict. charset can be any
encoding supported by the system's "iconv" library routine.
-fworking-directory
Enable generation of linemarkers in the preprocessor output that let
the compiler know the current working directory at the time of
preprocessing. When this option is enabled, the preprocessor emits,
after the initial linemarker, a second linemarker with the current
working directory followed by two slashes. GCC uses this directory,
when it's present in the preprocessed input, as the directory emitted
as the current working directory in some debugging information
formats. This option is implicitly enabled if debugging information
is enabled, but this can be inhibited with the negated form
-fno-working-directory. If the -P flag is present in the command
line, this option has no effect, since no "#line" directives are
emitted whatsoever.
-A predicate=answer
Make an assertion with the predicate predicate and answer answer.
This form is preferred to the older form -A predicate(answer), which
is still supported, because it does not use shell special characters.
-A -predicate=answer
Cancel an assertion with the predicate predicate and answer answer.
-C Do not discard comments. All comments are passed through to the
output file, except for comments in processed directives, which are
deleted along with the directive.
You should be prepared for side effects when using -C; it causes the
preprocessor to treat comments as tokens in their own right. For
example, comments appearing at the start of what would be a directive
line have the effect of turning that line into an ordinary source
line, since the first token on the line is no longer a #.
-CC Do not discard comments, including during macro expansion. This is
like -C, except that comments contained within macros are also passed
through to the output file where the macro is expanded.
In addition to the side effects of the -C option, the -CC option
causes all C++-style comments inside a macro to be converted to
C-style comments. This is to prevent later use of that macro from
inadvertently commenting out the remainder of the source line.
The -CC option is generally used to support lint comments.
-P Inhibit generation of linemarkers in the output from the
preprocessor. This might be useful when running the preprocessor on
something that is not C code, and will be sent to a program which
might be confused by the linemarkers.
-traditional
-traditional-cpp
Try to imitate the behavior of pre-standard C preprocessors, as
opposed to ISO C preprocessors.
Note that GCC does not otherwise attempt to emulate a pre-standard C
compiler, and these options are only supported with the -E switch, or
when invoking CPP explicitly.
-trigraphs
Support ISO C trigraphs. These are three-character sequences, all
starting with ??, that are defined by ISO C to stand for single
characters. For example, ??/ stands for \, so '??/n' is a character
constant for a newline.
By default, GCC ignores trigraphs, but in standard-conforming modes
it converts them. See the -std and -ansi options.
-remap
Enable special code to work around file systems which only permit
very short file names, such as MS-DOS.
-H Print the name of each header file used, in addition to other normal
activities. Each name is indented to show how deep in the #include
stack it is. Precompiled header files are also printed, even if they
are found to be invalid; an invalid precompiled header file is
printed with ...x and a valid one with ...! .
-dletters
Says to make debugging dumps during compilation as specified by
letters. The flags documented here are those relevant to the
preprocessor. Other letters are interpreted by the compiler proper,
or reserved for future versions of GCC, and so are silently ignored.
If you specify letters whose behavior conflicts, the result is
undefined.
-dM Instead of the normal output, generate a list of #define
directives for all the macros defined during the execution of the
preprocessor, including predefined macros. This gives you a way
of finding out what is predefined in your version of the
preprocessor. Assuming you have no file foo.h, the command
touch foo.h; cpp -dM foo.h
shows all the predefined macros.
-dD Like -dM except that it outputs both the #define directives and
the result of preprocessing. Both kinds of output go to the
standard output file.
-dN Like -dD, but emit only the macro names, not their expansions.
-dI Output #include directives in addition to the result of
preprocessing.
-dU Like -dD except that only macros that are expanded, or whose
definedness is tested in preprocessor directives, are output; the
output is delayed until the use or test of the macro; and #undef
directives are also output for macros tested but undefined at the
time.
-fdebug-cpp
This option is only useful for debugging GCC. When used from CPP or
with -E, it dumps debugging information about location maps. Every
token in the output is preceded by the dump of the map its location
belongs to.
When used from GCC without -E, this option has no effect.
-I dir
-iquote dir
-isystem dir
-idirafter dir
Add the directory dir to the list of directories to be searched for
header files during preprocessing.
If dir begins with = or $SYSROOT, then the = or $SYSROOT is replaced
by the sysroot prefix; see --sysroot and -isysroot.
Directories specified with -iquote apply only to the quote form of
the directive, "#include "file"". Directories specified with -I,
-isystem, or -idirafter apply to lookup for both the
"#include "file"" and "#include <file>" directives.
You can specify any number or combination of these options on the
command line to search for header files in several directories. The
lookup order is as follows:
1. For the quote form of the include directive, the directory of the
current file is searched first.
2. For the quote form of the include directive, the directories
specified by -iquote options are searched in left-to-right order,
as they appear on the command line.
3. Directories specified with -I options are scanned in
left-to-right order.
4. Directories specified with -isystem options are scanned in
left-to-right order.
5. Standard system directories are scanned.
6. Directories specified with -idirafter options are scanned in
left-to-right order.
You can use -I to override a system header file, substituting your
own version, since these directories are searched before the standard
system header file directories. However, you should not use this
option to add directories that contain vendor-supplied system header
files; use -isystem for that.
The -isystem and -idirafter options also mark the directory as a
system directory, so that it gets the same special treatment that is
applied to the standard system directories.
If a standard system include directory, or a directory specified with
-isystem, is also specified with -I, the -I option is ignored. The
directory is still searched but as a system directory at its normal
position in the system include chain. This is to ensure that GCC's
procedure to fix buggy system headers and the ordering for the
"#include_next" directive are not inadvertently changed. If you
really need to change the search order for system directories, use
the -nostdinc and/or -isystem options.
-I- Split the include path. This option has been deprecated. Please use
-iquote instead for -I directories before the -I- and remove the -I-
option.
Any directories specified with -I options before -I- are searched
only for headers requested with "#include "file""; they are not
searched for "#include <file>". If additional directories are
specified with -I options after the -I-, those directories are
searched for all #include directives.
In addition, -I- inhibits the use of the directory of the current
file directory as the first search directory for "#include "file"".
There is no way to override this effect of -I-.
-iprefix prefix
Specify prefix as the prefix for subsequent -iwithprefix options. If
the prefix represents a directory, you should include the final /.
-iwithprefix dir
-iwithprefixbefore dir
Append dir to the prefix specified previously with -iprefix, and add
the resulting directory to the include search path.
-iwithprefixbefore puts it in the same place -I would; -iwithprefix
puts it where -idirafter would.
-isysroot dir
This option is like the --sysroot option, but applies only to header
files (except for Darwin targets, where it applies to both header
files and libraries). See the --sysroot option for more information.
-imultilib dir
Use dir as a subdirectory of the directory containing target-specific
C++ headers.
-nostdinc
Do not search the standard system directories for header files. Only
the directories explicitly specified with -I, -iquote, -isystem,
and/or -idirafter options (and the directory of the current file, if
appropriate) are searched.
-nostdinc++
Do not search for header files in the C++-specific standard
directories, but do still search the other standard directories.
(This option is used when building the C++ library.)
--embed-dir=dir
Append dir directory to the list of searched directories for "#embed"
preprocessing directive or "__has_embed" macro. There are no default
directories for "#embed".
If dir begins with = or $SYSROOT, then the = or $SYSROOT is replaced
by the sysroot prefix; see --sysroot and -isysroot.
-Wcomment
-Wcomments
Warn whenever a comment-start sequence /* appears in a /* comment, or
whenever a backslash-newline appears in a // comment. This warning
is enabled by -Wall.
-Wtrigraphs
Warn if any trigraphs are encountered that might change the meaning
of the program. Trigraphs within comments are not warned about,
except those that would form escaped newlines.
This option is implied by -Wall. If -Wall is not given, this option
is still enabled unless trigraphs are enabled. To get trigraph
conversion without warnings, but get the other -Wall warnings, use
-trigraphs -Wall -Wno-trigraphs.
-Wundef
Warn if an undefined identifier is evaluated in an "#if" directive.
Such identifiers are replaced with zero.
-Wexpansion-to-defined
Warn whenever defined is encountered in the expansion of a macro
(including the case where the macro is expanded by an #if directive).
Such usage is not portable. This warning is also enabled by
-Wpedantic and -Wextra.
-Wunused-macros
Warn about macros defined in the main file that are unused. A macro
is used if it is expanded or tested for existence at least once. The
preprocessor also warns if the macro has not been used at the time it
is redefined or undefined.
Built-in macros, macros defined on the command line, and macros
defined in include files are not warned about.
Note: If a macro is actually used, but only used in skipped
conditional blocks, then the preprocessor reports it as unused. To
avoid the warning in such a case, you might improve the scope of the
macro's definition by, for example, moving it into the first skipped
block. Alternatively, you could provide a dummy use with something
like:
#if defined the_macro_causing_the_warning
#endif
-Wno-endif-labels
Do not warn whenever an "#else" or an "#endif" are followed by text.
This sometimes happens in older programs with code of the form
#if FOO
...
#else FOO
...
#endif FOO
The second and third "FOO" should be in comments. This warning is on
by default.
ENVIRONMENT
This section describes the environment variables that affect how CPP
operates. You can use them to specify directories or prefixes to use
when searching for include files, or to control dependency output.
Note that you can also specify places to search using options such as -I,
and control dependency output with options like -M. These take
precedence over environment variables, which in turn take precedence over
the configuration of GCC.
CPATH
C_INCLUDE_PATH
CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
OBJC_INCLUDE_PATH
Each variable's value is a list of directories separated by a special
character, much like PATH, in which to look for header files. The
special character, "PATH_SEPARATOR", is target-dependent and
determined at GCC build time. For Microsoft Windows-based targets it
is a semicolon, and for almost all other targets it is a colon.
CPATH specifies a list of directories to be searched as if specified
with -I, but after any paths given with -I options on the command
line. This environment variable is used regardless of which language
is being preprocessed.
The remaining environment variables apply only when preprocessing the
particular language indicated. Each specifies a list of directories
to be searched as if specified with -isystem, but after any paths
given with -isystem options on the command line.
In all these variables, an empty element instructs the compiler to
search its current working directory. Empty elements can appear at
the beginning or end of a path. For instance, if the value of CPATH
is ":/special/include", that has the same effect as
-I. -I/special/include.
DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT
If this variable is set, its value specifies how to output
dependencies for Make based on the non-system header files processed
by the compiler. System header files are ignored in the dependency
output.
The value of DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT can be just a file name, in which
case the Make rules are written to that file, guessing the target
name from the source file name. Or the value can have the form file
target, in which case the rules are written to file file using target
as the target name.
In other words, this environment variable is equivalent to combining
the options -MM and -MF, with an optional -MT switch too.
SUNPRO_DEPENDENCIES
This variable is the same as DEPENDENCIES_OUTPUT (see above), except
that system header files are not ignored, so it implies -M rather
than -MM. However, the dependence on the main input file is omitted.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
If this variable is set, its value specifies a UNIX timestamp to be
used in replacement of the current date and time in the "__DATE__"
and "__TIME__" macros, so that the embedded timestamps become
reproducible.
The value of SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH must be a UNIX timestamp, defined as
the number of seconds (excluding leap seconds) since 01 Jan 1970
00:00:00 represented in ASCII; identical to the output of "date +%s"
on GNU/Linux and other systems that support the %s extension in the
"date" command.
The value should be a known timestamp such as the last modification
time of the source or package and it should be set by the build
process.
SEE ALSO
gpl(7), gfdl(7), fsf-funding(7), gcc(1), and the Info entries for cpp and
gcc.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1987-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any
later version published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of the
license is included in the man page gfdl(7). This manual contains no
Invariant Sections. The Front-Cover Texts are (a) (see below), and the
Back-Cover Texts are (b) (see below).
(a) The FSF's Front-Cover Text is:
A GNU Manual
(b) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is:
You have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU
software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise
funds for GNU development.
gcc-15.3.0 2026-06-12 CPP(1)
gcc15 15.3.0 - Generated Sat Oct 10 07:11:36 CDT 2026